I'll write a little here and there, so as not to make these status updates ridiculously long.
In short, my Meditation Retreat was emotional, physically and mentally painful, and easily the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.
So what's involved in a Vipassana Meditation Retreat? A few really strict rules. They're stickler for these rules, so we had to follow them pretty closely:
- No speaking, or any kind communication (including gestures, sign language, etc)
- No looking at other students in the eye (this was really hard for me, I love looking at people's faces and showing my pearly whites. This was tremendously challenging for me)
- No reading or writing
- You must meditate for at least 10 hours every day
- Food is pretty restricted. Breakfast, Lunch, and "dinner" was fruit and tea.
- Clothing: they were real, real sticklers here. If we wore tights, shirts had to be loose and go to mid-thigh, otherwise we were asked to change (or put a scarf to cover the butt to mid-thigh area). No shorts or capris. Pants should be relatively loose to make it easy for meditation.
The schedule was pretty much wake up, meditate, rest (they prefer us not to sleep during this time, but this time can be used for walking or cleaning, which I did both. It was pretty easy to get 15K steps daily) and eat. Woke up at 4am and lights out at 10pm. Breakfast ended at about 7:15am, lunch at about 11:45am, and "dinner" at 4:45pm (this one I remembered lol). This last part had me really, really nervous. Last meal at 4:45pm and lights out at 10pm? HOW WILL I SURVIVE WITH NO FOOD FOR OVER 5 HOURS?!
Day 0 - Registration
Time to give up our phones and any valuables (*gasp*). Some people had their own room, others had roommates. I had a roommate. I found out later that they usually put all the youngins in the dorm, and us older folks got our own room. Not sure why I got lumped in with the youngins, but it was actually pretty nice. It was 8 of us and we shared 3 toilets and 2 showers. We had a sign up sheet and I seemed to be the only person to sign up for a shower at 4am for this one particular shower.
So this would be my view for the next 12 days.
#pictureoftheday #timefordeepreflection #MyTenDayVipassanaMeditationRetreat #desertbeauty #justmemyselfandi
