Beginning this month, from June 2-10, I was completely off all digital media, including my phone. I was at a meditation retreat organized by the Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamkot, Himachal Pradesh and here's every way in which it helped me.
1. Life slowed down...
And so did my heart, I think. To not have a to-do to complete. To not be burned out by the end of the day. And then not have any worry about everything that needed to get done the next day....all of this was calming. It did get uncomfortable for some. But to me, it felt like a lot of peace and calm.
And that meant...
2. I began noticing small things
When you are running from pillar to post, you really don't see the things happening around you. I would just flick off a bee that would come settle on my hand. But when time slows down and you don't have a target to chase, you actually see how the eyes of the bee looks (and I felt like it was really looking me in the eye). You listen to the sound of thunder and notice the time gap between a lightening and the thunder. You notice the monkey eyeing your food from way above you on a tree.
In fact, the most noticeable change was that I began tasting my food better. From gobbling down meals in 10 minutes, I ended up taking full 20-25 minutes to eat my meals and relish each morsel.
And then, because you have so much time...
3. You introspect...
Your life decisions. Your choices. Your habits. Your beliefs. Your values.
And because you are spending all that time by yourself, a lot of thoughts that you don't otherwise get to engage with in a busy lifestyle bubble up.
That meant, I got time to prioritize the kind of work I love. I decided not to overwork myself, even for work I loved doing. So on and so forth.
And oh...I forgot to tell you that these 10 days were spent in absolute silence.
4. The power of silence
There were hardly a few words spoken in the entire 10 days because it was a silent retreat.
But despite that the 100+ of us who were a part of it bonded in a very special way. No words and no non-verbal communication.
Yet, a deep sense of sharedness and connection prevailed among us all. That was a great experience in itself.
5. The amount of time you save when there's no internet!
I realized how much of my free time I've been filling up with Instagram, blogs, podcasts and videos. With none of that within reach, I experienced an abundance of time.
As humans, I feel we've gotten so used to filling up our days that when we have free time, we don't know what to do with it.
I think, the art of doing nothing is something everyone should learn. To be able to sit without doing anything in particular can be challenging to a lot of people.
But the joy of just sitting under a tree or sleeping under the sky were blisses you readily embraced during the retreat because you didn't have your usual escapes, like a gadget or YouTube.
6. My clients waited for me!!!!
I onboarded two new clients in January and May of this year. If I had put off this retreat out of fear of losing these clients, I would probably never have gotten around to doing it ever.
But I am sincerely grateful to these amazing folks who were very supportive of my decision to take an off for 10 whole days and with zero accessibility to me.
Business world has these kinds of people too. Yup, I can vouch for it from experience now!
And finally...
7. It will bring no magical difference in your life
Life won't take a dramatic twist after these 10 days for most people. It didn't for me either.
What did happen was that I have tools now to continuing practicing what I learnt there.
And I've a group of people who are interested in meditation who I can rely on to help me continue the practice of mindfulness and meditation.
コメント