My First 10 Day Silent Meditation Retreat
The last couple of weeks were very busy: 2 major client offsites to facilitate, 2 bar mitzvahs to attend, my father-in-law’s 89th birthday, the World Series, a couple of charity events, a friend’s birthday party….and I missed all of this activity. Instead, I spent 10 days silently meditating at the Vipassana Meditation Center in Massachusetts. Yes, 10 days with no speaking, no contact (and that means zero access to electronic devices), no reading and no writing, and 10 hours of meditation daily. (To put this in perspective, my regular practice is 20 minutes a day!)
To say it was challenging is an understatement. The teacher referred to it as hard work, and he was right. But I made it through and I will be processing it for quite a while. What I know with certainty is that my brain had an opportunity to rest and I feel so clear-headed and calm, and resilient… but can it last?
I sense this experience is going to have an impact on my coaching. I commit to chronicling those results here. Additionally, each evening we attended a lengthy discourse from the teacher about the Vipassana meditation technique, some of the philosophy behind it, and how this meditation can help people to lead more meaningful and compassionate lives. So much of what he talked about were concepts and principles that I focus on greatly in my coaching work. I was quite moved by that realization and want to write about those connections. Saying it here will hold me accountable.
While I’m pondering how this experience will impact my life in an ongoing way, some funny moments did arise. I literally was so desperate for reading material at first that I read the labels of all my toiletries. And since we only had two meals a day (just fruit and tea in the evening), I spent a ridiculous amount of time at first thinking about what I’d eat at each meal, and put much mental effort into deliberating how I could manage to get food at night (a mashed banana in rice milk is a little like pudding, right?). The only rule I broke was the one about not writing. I had a couple of ideas that I thought I’d forget, so I jotted them down on a napkin with my eyeliner pencil! Actually, this blog journal about the retreat’s impacts is one of those ideas!
P.S. Did I mention we are now supposed to meditate for 2 hours PER DAY …and that’s in NYC!!! I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that one.