10 day silent retreats
[ DRAFT ]
I've done 2 vipassana "proper" 10 day ones, and several on my own.
I try to do one at least every year, I journal after each and I'm planning to share some of these notes later.
It will take me a while to organize, but what I can say for now is:
Benefits:
Meditation and or staying silent and undistracted for a while is great for switching your mind off a bit and making space for new thoughts.
Or more like switching it on in a different mode.
That's my main take on it.
The rest matters lest.
It's great for creativity, peace and longer sessions are good for cultivating joy and bliss.
Almost too good haha, but more on this later.
Woo-Woo
As a note I do experiment with the woo-woo, but I don't believe it word for word, I try to understand what people are trying to say with their words and actions.
If you are like me, you can ignore the woo-woo part, still do it, and learn valuable lessons about yourself.
Preparation:
before doing the first proper 10 days, I did a few months of headspace, 10-20 minutes a day, around 5-6 times a week, to get used to the basics. I think this helped me a lot and it turned out that was actually more than most people did as preparation.
I don't recommend jumping in with no prep, you might get too caught up in the basics.
What to do for 5-10 days?
There's all sort of controversies and noise, and maybe dogma behind these things, but the basics are still valid, the format maybe matters less:
- go be in nature for a few days
- alone, or get plenty of enjoyable alone time
- don't talk, it will quiet your mind
- pay attention in general, don't react. give yourself permission to chill.
You'll likely come back super refreshed and full of new ideas.
The hardest part
For me at least, was taking the time off. Something always came up.
What will happen if... I made 3 backup plans for everything.
And then nothing happened, life went on like normal.
And went back to normal every time I returned.
... to be continued
