My First Silent Retreat Experience.

I’m applying for a mindfulness program at UCLA in which one of the prerequisites is attending two Silent Retreats that are at minimum five days long. I’m fortunate to be located less than an hour away from Spirit Rock Meditation Center just across the Golden Gate Bridge which is where I embarked on my first Five Day Silent Retreat: “ Embodying Awakening: Yoga and Meditation Retreat”.

Upon driving through the gates I was immediately greeted by a different kind of yield sign which is the photo in this post. I parked my car and upon getting out, looked around and took in the beautiful nature scenery surrounding me. There were beautiful rolling mountains (just like on the website), a number of large green trees providing shade and the sound of birds chirping instantly relaxed my mind. I wasn’t sure if “silence” had already begun so was being quiet just in case. I arrived at registration and check-in where I was told that “silence” would begin after dinner. I was then given the opportunity to sign-up for a “work meditation” from a list of over 50 possibilites. Gravitating towards kitchen work since I normally do the cooking at home, I choose a dining hall sweeping and outside bathroom cleaning task instead to stretch outside my comfort zone.

My biggest concern was not the actual silence but rather my caloric intake since I consume 3,000 calories a day to maintain my weight and athletic performance. The kickoff dinner was very comforting in that while it was all vegetarian, it was setup buffet style with plenty of variety including grains in addition to vegetables. I got to enjoy brown rice, oatmeal, eggs, vegan kale caesar salads, tofu veggie curry, beet spreads, glass noodles and more. All of which were prepared lovingly by volunteer kitchen staff and other retreatants who had signed up for kitchen work mediations. My roommate laughed when he saw me unpacking my canned tuna and beef jerky which I did eat one of both each day to fulfill my protein macro. I had imagined that the food was going to be very minimal and that I’d be going hungry every night!

After the kickoff dinner where I had the opportunity to converse with a few people, silence commenced and the schedule for each day was pretty consistent with a rotation of different meditation styles, nourishing meals throughout the day and time to reflect/work:

6:30am: Morning Sitting/Stretching Mediation
7am: Breakfast Eating Mediation
8am: Working Meditation
9am: Sitting Meditation
10am: Walking Meditation
11am: Yoga
12:30pm: Lunch Eating Meditation
1:30pm Working Meditation
2:30pm: Sitting Meditation
3pm: Walking Meditation
3:30pm: Yoga
5:30pm: Dinner Eating Meditation
7:30pm: Evening Lecture
8:30pm: Walking Meditation
9:30pm: Sleep

There was about one opportunity a day to break from silence which occurred during a small group break out check-in and then Q&A during the evening lecture. The silence was not the challenging part for me, it was the lack of feeling human connection. I was told that it’s completely normal for others to look away and avoid eye contact when passing so as to not have their experience disrupted. It was strange for me to walk past people on the retreat grounds and not acknowledge anyone whatsoever. My primary Love Language is Physical Touch so not being able to hug anyone for five days in a row certainly depleted my love tank too.

The positives and highlights I experienced were quite remarkable though. For starters, the colors in my food have never been so vibrant and alive. From the purple in the cabbage to the orange in my curry, everything looked twice as delicious as it normally would. I literally walked away falling in love with a walking meditation practice in which I am performing on Sunday mornings across the street at Golden Gate Park since the retreat. I’m doing them barefoot and feeling every sensation in my foot as I step going absolutely nowhere (just back and forth about ten feet). Checkout my Instagram page with a video showing 15 seconds of this recently (before I decided to go bare). The quiet time provided me with a lot of time to daydream and imagine what could be possible in my life. I ended up getting a number of business ideas during this retreat that I’ll be exploring over the coming months.

I would absolutely go on another Silent Retreat and would recommend this to everyone I know to add this to their life bucket list of experiences to have. I returned feeling peaceful, self-connected and refreshed. I’m grateful that the retreat I found happened to have yoga twice a day and a morning stretch which I was later told is considered to be quite a bit of movement on a Silent Retreat. I can’t imagine moving any less than I had been… After jumping back into CrossFit the following week and seeing my Muscle Activation Guy Brian Hannah, I did learn that the sitting meditation in a kneeling position was not so good for my calves which ended up cramping during exercise so I will be sticking with sitting meditation in a chair the next time I retreat.

Last Updated/Enhanced: November 19th, 2017