Getting started with Silence
My first real meditation retreat was doing a 10 day Vipassana mediation in a corner of Wales with a Buddhist monk and his crew of merry followers.
In hindsight, I would never recommend that as an intro to meditation for anyone, no matter how serious they are about coming to their own sense of peace and harmony.
But the power of silence is incredibly, well, powerful.
It’s hard to put into the words the transformation that occurs internally and in the physical body through the breath when one eliminates the use of words to the outside world. Because it’s massive and can indeed be life-changing.
And for myself, I realised how inadequate many of the redundant, recurring thoughts were in my brain that didn’t actually need to be there. Once, they were dismissed, it left loads of room for the beauty of nature all around me, the sounds, the smells, the intensity of the flavours of the foods we were eating, and the sense of community with people I hadn’t exchanged a single word but spent nearly every waking moment with them for 10 days.
Living off the grid here in this beautiful East Coast of Tasmania,unlike the busy Parisian or New York lifestyle I lived in previously, we find people don’t actually need 10 days to find their internal balance.
Do you have to do 10 days to get the maximum benefit?
One or even two days of silence is enough for quick reset to the brain, the body and all of your parasympathetic nerves, to calm that fight or flight impulse we get triggered with on a daily basis.
A lot of people ask me in nearly in panic about what really happens on a day of silence, and how will they possibly survive. And the answer really is quite simple. The more this scares you, the more you probably really need this time to turn off not just the electronics for a while, the whirring and buzzing inside your brain.
The amazing wildlife and birdlife in the area are a very useful distraction which sadd to the enriching sensory experience. You might be surprised to learn that turning off your mouth and the brain that needs to think about what to say next, frees up an enormous amount of energy to focus of what YOU want to focus on, creating an opportunity to enjoy and drink in the moment.
Are you ready to disconnect from your tech for a day and reconnect with your highest self?
My suggestion, try a day of silence.
Check out any upcoming silent meditations we may have planned here
