I know that the word "retreat" sounds good in the ears of the Westerners. Still we should ask ourselves what is this retreat for? What is the benefit of such behavior? If retreat is part of our life, like advancement is, then everything is just fine. If the retreat is not part of our life but a kind of exciting experience, then it must be something unwise and futile with it.
The Taoist (Tao) spiritual journey starts here and now by trying to accommodate the natural trends, as we already said. This means you must start from your actual troubles of living in your present world. The very stuff of your troubles is the matter we work with in our Taoist practice.