10 day silent retreats

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I've done 2 vipassana "proper" 10 day ones, and several on my own.

(left on the second one on day 9 to see what would happen - had to test how easy it is to "unsubscribe", but more on that later)

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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:

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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.

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You switch into a completely different mode.

That's my main take on it.

The rest matters less.

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It's great for creativity, peace and longer sessions are good for cultivating joy and bliss.

Almost too good haha, as with anything good, people get addicted to it, but more on this later.

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Woo-Woo

As a note I do like to experiment with the woo-woo, to try to understand what people are trying to say with their words and actions, practices, beliefs.

I think it makes sense to do this even if - or especially if - you don't share the same beliefs.

It's good to remain open and curious.

If you are like me, you can ignore the woo-woo part, still do it, and learn valuable lessons about yourself, life, and others.

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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.

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I don't recommend jumping in with no prep, you might get too caught up in the basics and might struggle with the obvious things.

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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.

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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.

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And then nothing happened, life went on like normal.

And went back to normal every time I returned.

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... to be continued

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