Sometimes when you’re going through an emotional crisis, you need to retreat.

That’s what Ruth-Anne Outerbridge found when her youngest son went off to boarding school.

She was 44, and suddenly her house was empty of children.

“All of a sudden I was looking in the mirror going, ‘Who is that person?’” she said. “I thought I was having a breakdown, but it turned out I was having a breakthrough.”

She found peace through self-discovery retreats and workshops.

“They helped me get a better grip on who I wanted to be and where I wanted to go for the next part of my life,” she said.

She started seeing therapist Sarah White, and eventually began helping her organise events so that others could also find peace.

“The trouble was that there was no particular venue for them in Bermuda and sometimes things would be cancelled at the last minute,” she said. “Sometimes I kicked my husband, Douglas, out of the house and hosted them at my home on Middle Road in Devonshire.”

It was Ms White who mentioned that a quiet corner of the Outerbridge property would make a great place for a retreat centre.

“A light bulb went off in my head,” said Mrs Outerbridge.

She told her newly retired husband to get cracking on building a retreat centre in their backyard. He put together a team of masons and contractors and Spirit House Bermuda was born.

The facility is a stone’s throw from the Outerbridge house. It has meeting space for small groups, sleeps 12 and has a lovely garden.

The Outerbridges are hoping that it will become a haven for visitors as well as locals.

“It was a whole new world and there was no turning back,” she said. “I had such an awakening of myself that I wanted to create a space so that other people could come and have similar experiences. They could have a place to come and get in touch with themselves.”

Over the years, Spirit House has hosted all kinds of events — from Native American sweat lodges to musical performances and countless yoga classes.

Asked what she was most proud of, Mrs Outerbridge said “everything”.

She is pleased that Spirit House has become a spiritual community centre that embraces people of all religions, socio-economic backgrounds and ages.

“It doesn’t matter who or what you are, everyone is family here,” she said. “Some people are scared of the ‘G’ word. It is a place where all faiths, or those with none, can come and connect.”

Next month, the centre celebrates its tenth anniversary with Om Fest a two-day event filled with yoga, healthy food, spiritual music and new age items for sale.

Om Fest was organised by a group that meets at Spirit House weekly to practise kirtan, an ancient Indian form of chanting.

Debbie Jackson, a three-time breast cancer survivor, is one of the members.

“I was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 when I was just 36 years old,” she said. “At that time, I looked at my lifestyle and thought about what I needed to change to live a healthier life.”

She gave up red meat and quit cigarettes, and thought that would be the end of her health crisis.

“I went along for the next ten years thinking I was living a healthier life.”

When the breast cancer returned in 2003, she knew she had to look further than her diet.

“I again looked at my lifestyle and thought about how I lived and what I was doing that might create that kind of disease in my life,” she said. “I started to examine my inner life.”

She reconnected with Mrs Outerbridge, an old school chum. “We had been in and out of each other’s lives,” Ms Jackson said. “Somehow, in that period of time, we reconnected more closely. She pointed out that perhaps I had some issues in my life that I needed to address. She suggested her therapist. I became very involved with self-healing and dealing with childhood issues and insecurities. That led me into a life that looks at how to connect with something outside of myself.”

When Ms Jackson developed breast cancer for the third time in 2006, she deepened her practice of yoga at Spirit House.

“Yoga means body, mind and spirit and I started to take that on and focus and connect with yoga as a lifestyle, not as a class I went to two or three times a week,” she said. “That introduced me to kirtan which is part of a type of yoga called bhakti yoga, yoga of the heart. It is about opening the heart to being a more loving individual.”

Most kirtan words are in Sanskrit, a 5,000-year-old language.

“It is a healing modality,” she said. “Even if we don’t understand the words, the tones, such as om, still have an impact on the body.”

For the last eight years she has been more healthy than ever before. She credits kirtan and yoga and Spirit House.

She said the Bermuda kirtan community wanted to hold Om Fest, to thank Spirit House for their support.

“It is a family-friendly event meant to be reflective of activities that people can use to raise their spirits and create a healthier lifestyle.”

Om Fest runs May 1 to 3. Tickets are available at www.ptix.bm. For details see spirithousebermuda.com or e-mail spirithouse@northrock.bm.