Successfully completed a difficult, emotional, spiritual, rewarding ten day meditation journey. My Vipassana meditation course was phoneless, substanceless, talkingless but an adventure nonetheless. I truly learned a lot. Putting words to it is difficult really but I will try my best to do it justice.

So you can picture my daily routine here was our schedule:
·      4:00 am – wake up bell

·      4:30 – 6:30 am – meditation (in hall or residence)

·      6:30-8:00 am – breakfast and hot water for showers

·      8:00 – 9:00 am – group meditation in dhamma hall 

·      9:00 – 11:00 am – meditation (and meetings with teachers)

·      11:00 am – 1:00 pm – lunch and break

·      1:00 – 2:30 pm – meditation (in hall or residence)

·      2:30 – 3:30 pm – group meditation in dhamma hall 

·      3:30 – 5:00 pm – meditation (and meetings with teachers)

·      5:00 – 6:00 pm – tea break

·      6:00 – 7:00 pm – group meditation in dhamma hall

·      7:00 – 8:30 pm – discourse (guru speech)

·      8:30 – 9:00 pm – meditation

·      9:00 pm – bed time

I followed this schedule (almost) completely. Sometimes not gonna lie but my desire for sleep took over and I took some extra naps. The important sessions though (the ones in bold) I always attended. During this time, we were asked to sit completely still for one full hour (I’m still working on this -_-).

The first three days we focused only on our breath. There are many techniques of meditation but in this one, altering ones breath is a no no. We were asked to simply observe our breath. To Focus only on the area from our upper lip up to the nostrils (this is why I randomly know the word nostril in hindi hehe). Through this process, we make our minds sharper and more in tune with the sensations that are happening on our body all the time even if we aren’t paying attention. After this, we focus on the sensations on the rest of the body (from the top of the head to the tip of the toes). This is the actual practice of Vipassana and We did this for the remaining ten days. Through this process, if practiced properly (and a LOT ) one will learn that sensations are always arising just to pass (this is dhamma/ nature). If one truly learns this, then he/ she will not develop craving or aversion toward sensations (no matter how pleasant or unpleasant) because he/she will always be aware that “this too will pass.” This is a very logical concept but the course goes beyond that. The ten day course taught us that only through experiencing this truth (by feeling the sensations and developing an ability to not react, aka Vipassana meditation) will we be able to remove all craving and aversion and therefore experience true happiness and radiate love. This is how I understand and explain the practice. Of course, every experience is different.

Soooo, the ten day course was peacefully extreme. There are things that I have politely chosen to not accept as my own. But there are many things that I learned and plan to apply to my life:

• Have balance – this technique teaches that through the process, one should not develop any craving to any pleasant sensation experienced. That one should accept the sensation (for example delicious food, great company, etc.) as it is, understand that it too will pass and develop no craving or attachment to it. At least at this time in my life, I like emotions. I think partially life is about pleasure and passion and high highs and even low lows. Through this process however, I realized that my life could use a better balance in this area. I have a very passionate personality. Sometimes I go overboard yall and In the moment, I forget that many times my emotions are so temporary (whether high or low) so giving my self time to observe them is a good thing. Through my personal meditation journey, i hope to improve in this area.

• Quiet my mind– my mind is so loud yall!. Especially those first two days, I spent so much time just realizing how crazy I am haha. I would be sitting there like “okay Hannah, focus on the breath” 2 minutes pass “yeah that was a good banana monkeys like bananas I like monkeys did Obama address the that issue yet Is my mom at work Who burped I can’t believe I’m in India My play set from kindergarten was BA Oh shoot I’m supposed to be meditating.” This was my reality-_- I didn’t realize how loud my mind is and how unfocused I can be. Through this, I realized that I could really use some more focus/ a quiet mind in my life.

• Pay attention – focusing on my breath and other sensations on my body made me realize how much is happening around me that I’m not paying attention to. I’m not kidding – throughout the ten days I became aware of so many things. Particularly in the center. It was gorgeous. I watched butterflies and bees drinking from flowers, kids playin cricket in the mountains, stars become visible in the sky, chipmonks playing, a mouse eating, a lizard climbing (on the wall in my bathroom), birds chirping, a schoolgirl picking veggies from her family’s farm and so many more beautiful scenes imprinted in my heart. It was amazing. I think I could pay attention a little more to life and the little things. I don’t know what I’m missing out on.

• Be aware – my meditation teacher (who I am forever grateful for) brought to my attention that during the daily speeches, I was moving a lot, shaking my leg, rocking back and forth, etc. just like my hyper self to do this junk. I realized that I do a lot of things that I’m not even aware of that I’m doing. I want to be aware of my actions as they do matter. Although shaking my leg may be harmless, what other actions do I do without being aware? This is another thing I plan to consider more.

My ten days in Igatpuri, India studying Vipassana meditation will never be forgotten. Leaving, I felt peaceful, happy and excited to spread love. Of course difficulties came (like leaving my passport at the meditation center -_-) and the real world hit me but my new lessons did shape my view of them.

I could write more and more about my experience butI won’t since I know this might be my least exciting post yet hehe. But really, I learned a lot, feel happy that I completed it and met some amazing people (once we were able to talk.) so I’m excited about it 🙂 I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to discover what this can do for me personally. I would encourage everyone to explore how they too can benefit from such things but of course, we all need to discover things for ourselves something I also became more aware of during my time.

To lighten the mood, let me tell you a few Funny things that happened too like my lizard bathroom friend (who when I discovered yelled happily, “awww habibi welcome to my home!”, talking to myself, dancing to motivate myself to go to meditation, etc.if there was a movie crew following me, it would be entertaining as H. Forreal yall 🙂

Thanks for listening. What do you guys think about it all? Kinda crazy no? Ever had an experience like this?

Much love and many thanks for the support. ❤

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Ps- perdóname por no escribir en español está vez. Es bien difícil encontrar conexión. Voy a traducir todo cuando llegue en los Estados Unidos y tengo aceso a una computadora. Básicamente, me encanto meditación. Aprendí mucho sobre mi propia misma.

Los mando amor ❤