Well this is my last post for a couple of weeks… I leave tomorrow for a Vipassana Meditation retreat that is done in total silence.  Meditation has become a very important part of my life.  Growing up I struggled with anxiety and did have periods where I was medicated.  I never liked the side effects and always wanted an option to help deal with my anxiety.

First I discovered running, something about the solitude of running has always brought me peace and a feeling of calm.  Exercise in general is great for calming feelings of anxiousness.

When I first tried meditating it didn’t go that well.  After 20 minutes I had literally no enlightenment and I didn’t know what the meaning of life was and to top it all off my foot fell asleep.  It was a couple of years before I tried again.  This time I went to a course with Becky that was amazing.  It taught the Sudarshan Kriya that was developed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.  It involves very precise breathing techniques to put a person into a very deep meditative state.  This was truly transformative for me.  In fact it was during this program that I had the epiphany about coaching as a profession.  Since taking this course meditation is an (almost) daily practice for me.

Anywho back to the 11 day retreat I’m going to.  It is a meditation practice called Vipassana which is taught worldwide in over 150 centres.  I’ll be taking the program in Merritt BC.  For more on Vipassana check out this site http://www.surabhi.dhamma.org/.

I’m very excited/nervous about this program.  For 10 days there is no talking, no reading, no journaling, no exercise, no iphone, no music and no eye contact with other participants.  I will be sitting in meditation for 12 hours a day.  The daily timetable is below.

I’m thinking about this as a reboot, in the old days you had to defrag your computer all the time to reorganize the systems so they ran efficiently.  Well I’m going to defrag my mind, body and spirit over the next 2 weeks.

I will be sure to let all of my readers (Hi Mom) know how it goes when I get back on June 9th.

Wish me luck and namaste,

jb

THE COURSE TIMETABLE

The following timetable for the course has been designed to maintain the continuity of practice. For best results students are advised to follow it as closely as possible.