[i_cant_speel]

My girlfriend went on a 10 day retreat earlier this year. She said that for much of the time there is literally nothing to do other than think. You are forced to acknowledge and confront the thoughts you have as a result of past experiences, which are easy to ignore and let fester when you have the distractions of daily life to keep your brain preoccupied.

During the retreat, there is regularly coaching on how to acknowledge these thoughts and feelings and let them go. So the idea behind these retreats is to give you the tools to deal with these thoughts and feelings and then put you in a situation where you are almost forced to confront them. That's what the parent commenter was referring to by "consuming".

My girlfriend had a fantastic experience and said that she is in a much better mental state than she was before.

Disclaimer: These are my thoughts as I understand it from secondhand experience. Definitely look more into yourself if it's something you want to learn more about.