My Life-Changing Vipassana Retreat (aka silent retreat) Experience
Back in May of 2021, I attended a 10-day silent retreat, also known as a Vipassana retreat, in Washington state. I had been interested in meditation for at least a year at that point, and I wanted to go deeper in my practice.
If you’re interested in learning more about Vipassana retreats, I highly recommend doing a bit of research on the interwebs. This post is meant to tell you about my experience, but I don’t plan on going into detail about Vipassana retreats as a whole.
difficulty level: 12/10
The first thing I’ll say is that if you’re on the fence, just do it. Nothing you read will ever compare to the direct experience of a Vipassana retreat. I think everyone should do at least one in their lifetime. The world would genuinely be a better place if that were the case.
All that to say, there was nothing easy about it. It’s not for the light-hearted, by any means. But if you want a profound healing experience, it won’t disappoint.
Think about it. Just about every last coping mechanism (yes, even healthy coping mechanisms) is stripped right out from under you. For me, that looked like mindless scrolling, exercising, smoking marijuana, drinking wine, binge eating, journalling. All that’s left is… well… meditating and crying, which were two things I did a lot of.
Without going into too much detail, mainly because I want to save the daily breakdown for another post, I went from feeling immense gratitude for just about everything in my life to going through what I thought was full blown psychosis. The spectrum of emotions was like nothing I’ve experienced before. But I’ve always heard that you don’t really know joy until you’ve felt pain.
I’d do it over again in a heartbeat. In fact, I plan on going back next year. Call me crazy!
clarity level: 12/10
The clarity I felt during the retreat was unmatched. It felt like I was receiving messages directly from source. Honestly, I’m certain that I was.
I was getting new ideas left and right. Actually, The Slow Center was born on the second day of my Vipassana retreat. During a meditation, the entire business idea came to me sort of suddenly. I thought to myself, “Ah, that’s a cool idea. Someone should do that!” It wasn’t until day four that I saw myself living out the business idea.
Not only that, but I saw my future husband and our two kids living out a life that I didn’t even know was my dream until that very moment. I had felt quite lost in life going into the retreat, so I didn’t have many concrete goals. After day four, I knew what my life purpose was, and it gave everything meaning again. I can still see the entire vision in my mind’s eye, and it makes me grin from ear to ear knowing that’s what I have to look forward to. It was nothing short of magical.
All in all, I felt incredibly connected after staying silent for ten days – connected to myself, source, and everyone + everything around me. I could no longer deny the fact that we’re all connected.
As I’d breathe in, I could feel my connection with the trees surrounding me. I actually haven’t lost that, and I’m writing this about ~6 months later.
would I recommend it to just anyone?
No, absolutely not. I actually think a Vipassana retreat could be dangerous to some folks. It’s far too easy to re-traumatize yourself in an environment like that. However, if you have any interest in it, I’d wager that you’ve already embarked on your healing journey. I was far enough along to get so much out of it. The benefits, by far, outweighed the bad in my experience.
READ MORE >> How to Slow Down
further learning
Still curious about the topic? Here are some of the resources I’ve learned (and still learn) from:
