Meditation Finale - 10 days of silence

I had quit drinking and been meditating for 6 months when I decided I wanted to push myself to dig in deeper and see where the meditation practice could take me.

I already felt clearer, more focused, and less anxious - realizing if 20-minutes a day had done that, what could more time do?

Meditation + Therapy

The ability to sit with myself had also opened a desire to better understand myself and the thoughts that kept rattling around during meditation.

Therapy was the most effective way for me to grasp more of an understanding of those thoughts.

It played a huge role in helping me see my own patterns and beliefs that I was living unconsciously.

Combined (with meditation) they had a compounding effect for me, slowing down the world around me and allowing me to better sense what was authentic to me.

With this increased awareness and foundation, I felt like I could explore new ways to grow my meditation practice.

Each day, I try to do 3 things that get me outside my comfort-zone, to push myself. So when I was looking at meditation options, I wanted something hairy - something that intimidated me.

I landed on a 10-day silent meditation retreat (Vipassana) in Northern California.

Vipassana

Vipassana is a Buddhist meditation style that focuses on connecting the mind and body, simply by observing yourself with a body-scanning technique.

Vipassana literally means, "to see things as they really are."

The goal is to bring stronger awareness and objective-assessment to life, by avoiding unhealthy attachment to ideas and things.

The 10-day retreat doesn't allow any forms of technology, reading, writing, exercise, or talking. No distractions and purely inward-focused time.

Each day is the same schedule: 4am wake-up, followed by 10 hours of sitting meditation across the day, and bedtime at 9:30pm.

Here's the timetable and day-zero picture before they lock up my phone (mask is covering up the nervous smile):

Post-Vipassana

I still refer to events or decisions made as "pre" or "post-Vipassana", that's how much of an impact it had on me. It's been over a year since I did the retreat, and I still feel like I'm reflecting on and integrating the experience.

I don't share much on the time during the actual retreat, unless in deeper conversation, to respect the depths it took me to.

But will say, meditation has a way to meet you where you're at and Vipassana showed me where that was.

The experience has shifted my perspective on life and want to share 10 learnings I took away from it:

10 learnings from 10 days of silence

If anyone is curious on the experience or has questions around meditating, always happy to answer any questions!