A few weeks ago, I attended a ten day Vipassana meditation course. Ten days of no phone, no email, no talking. Since returning I’ve had lots of questions from clients and friends about it, so I thought I’d put aside my usual article this month and share a little about the experience.
🙋♀️ What is Vipassana?
Vipassana is a meditation technique first taught by Gotama Buddha more than 2,500 years ago.
The aim is surprisingly practical. Rather than focusing on changing the world around you, it teaches you to observe what is happening inside you. Most of us spend our lives believing that people, events and circumstances make us happy, angry, anxious or sad. Vipassana teaches that while those events may trigger our emotions, much of our suffering comes from how we react to them internally.
The practice is about learning to observe those reactions without immediately responding to them.
It sounds simple…
It isn’t 😬
🌱The experience
Before I went, I knew only the basics. I understood there would be a lot of meditation involved (more than ten hours a day), that I would need to remain silent, wake up at 4am, and eat only two meals a day.
How does one prepare for that kind of change? The short answer is, I decided to take it as it came and see what happens 😄.
The biggest surprise for me was the silence. Many people imagine ten days without conversation would be unbearable. I found the opposite. For the first time in a very long time, I didn’t need to listen, respond, contribute or think about what to say next. I found it deeply restful 😌. As someone who is neurodivergent, that may have played a part. What many expect will be one of the hardest aspects of the course became one of the greatest gifts for me.
There were a few other surprises too.
Not eating after 11am (apart from some fruit in the evening) turned out to be much easier than I expected. Once I adjusted, I found that having a lighter stomach significantly improved my concentration.
I was also surprised by how much mental energy is normally spent on everyday decisions.
When your schedule, meals, work responsibilities and life administration are all removed, you begin to realise how busy your mind usually is. With nothing left to organise, solve or plan, there is finally space to focus. Convincing your brain of that though, is harder than it sounds.
😶🌫️The lesson I didn’t expect
While I learned a meditation technique, the biggest lesson wasn’t actually the meditation itself. It was the principle of impermanence.
Everything changes. Good experiences come and go. Difficult experiences come and go. Even the things we desperately want to hold onto eventually pass.
The teaching of Vipassana is not that life should be free of joy, sadness, frustration or grief. Rather, it encourages us to experience those moments fully without becoming attached to them.
The word used is equanimity. Recognising what is happening, without being swept away by it. That idea has stayed with me far more than any meditation instruction.
🏡What did I bring home?
Leaving the course was both a relief and a challenge.
For quite some time afterwards, I struggled to explain what I had experienced. In many ways, it felt like something that needed to be lived rather than described.
What I can say is that it has changed me. Since returning, I meditate each morning and evening. More importantly, I try to remember the principle of equanimity throughout the day.
The changes I’ve noticed are subtle but meaningful.
I spend less time worrying about the past or the future. When something frustrates or upsets me, I recover more quickly. I find myself smiling more often, and I sleep well almost every night.
💭 A final thought
One thing I misunderstood before attending was that Vipassana was a Buddhist practice. While its origins are in the teachings of the Buddha, the course itself is not about religion. People from many different faiths, cultures and backgrounds attend.
My experience won’t be everyone’s experience. But for me, those ten days gave me something I wasn’t expecting.
What I found was the calm that comes with stillness. And a greater ability to appreciate what is here now, rather than focusing on what has happened or what might happen next.
Life hasn’t changed since I returned. I still have the same work, responsibilities and challenges. What has changed is how I experience them.
For that reason alone, those ten days were worth every minute 💜.