Sometimes beating stress and burnout requires getting totally out of your present surroundings -- and finding peace somewhere far from the concerns of your daily life.
A retreat can be not only relaxing, but also the catalyst for a major life change.
Thomas Bell, client relations director of the Art of Living Retreat Center in Boone, N.C., joined HuffPost Live's Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani to discuss his experience of leaving the corporate world after 20 years, finding inner peace at a retreat in India, and then starting off on a new career path.
"I turned 40 and just decided I wanted to take a little different turn with my life," said Bell. "I had taken some yoga classes and I learned to meditate -- I'd kind of been dabbling in that area -- but I can't really explain it. It's just the notion that I wanted to do something different with my life, I wanted to make a difference. I started to think, 'Well, what's a life worth living?' What did I want to have on my tombstone?"
While digital overload can be a contributing factor in the development of burnout, Bell acknowledged that modern-day connectivity can help us to create a new, functioning model of success.
"With the advent of the digital age and all of the technology we have, we are connecting more," said Bell. "There is some downside to that with how dependent we can become on those technologies and gadgets, but there's also a good side. People are connecting and they're starting to look for more fulfilling, rewarding, enriching experiences, and they're using things like the Internet to find retreat centers or find the dialogues on these topics."
To hear more about Bell's search for inner peace and a higher purpose, watch the full HuffPost Live clip above.