57: What's a Silent Meditation Retreat Like? Sweet Sound of Silence (Part 2)

Silent meditation retreats always intimidated me. What would it be like? Would I get bored? Antsy beyond belief? So uncomfortable I can't stand it anymore? Could I handle something like that? Do I even want to try?

At the end of 2016 I released an episode called the Sweet Sound of Silence (Part One)—on the powerful calm and insight that stillness has brought into my life—before heading into a five-day silent meditation retreat for New Year's to ring in 2017. This week on the Pivot Podcast I share what the experience was like.

And here's a haiku that came to me at the start of the retreat that I incorporated as a mantra to help me drop more deeply into meditation—try repeating it while releasing all the tiny muscles around your eyes, and any tension in your jaw, face or body:

Melt, soften, release
your grip. Open hand allows
space for everything.

Topics We Cover

• What goes on at a silent retreat?

• Releasing our grip

• Gratitude and living with our inner truth

• Soul speaks in stillness

• Reentry to the world

Resources Mentioned

• Previous Pivot Podcasts:

  • How Meditation Re-Wired My Brain

  • Post-Launch Pivot Point & Visit From the Furry Rest Monster

  • Post-Election Pivot Point: Find Order in Chaos

  • Sweet Sound of Silence (Part 1)

• After The Ecstasy, The Laundry by Jack Kornfield

• I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj

• The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav

Check out other episodes of the Pivot Podcast here. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen, and if you enjoy the show I would be very grateful for a rating and/or review! Sign-up for my weekly(ish) #PivotList newsletter to receive curated round-ups of what I’m reading, watching, listening to, and new tools I’m geeking out on.