My 5 Day Meditation Retreat At Home- With Insights

[Sage_Elias]

While meditating a few weeks ago, I had an insight that I should host my own meditation retreat at home...so thats what I did. I certainly did not have enough money to rent a cabin in the woods so this was the next best thing. I will tell you exactly how I did it and all the challenges faced and insights gained. Enjoy!

Background Information:

• I live in a house with my mom and dad. My dad leaves for work each morning and returns in the evening. Mom stays at home and she is mostly quiet. 
• I have been meditating for 9 months now and my parents know that they should keep it down while I'm meditating.
• I don't have cable or internet at home so it was not a concern that I would distract myself with this.
• I am  a student doing exams at school right now. I only go to school these days to do my exams so I have a lot of free time.

Food items bought:

1. Oatmeal
2. Bulgar wheat
3. Almond Milk
4. Bananas
5. Mixed nuts
6. Lettuce and tomatoes

The meditation retreat lasted from Monday to Friday and on Sunday night, I made a big pot of Bulgar and Oats porridge. All I had to do was to heat up a portion of it each morning. Very easy. There is a link of the recipe at the end of this post.

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Each morning I got up at 6am to start my day. This is what the typical day looked like:

• Do-Nothing                   40mins
• Concentration              20, 20 mins
• Mindful Breathing       40mins
• Mindful labelling          40mins
• Mindful Dish washing  30mins
• Do-Nothing                    40mins
• Mindful Breathing        40mins
• Concentration               10mins
• Mindful labelling          40mins
• Do-Nothing                   40mins
• Do-Nothing                   40mins

Total: 7 hours

By 10:00pm I was off to bed.

 Practical Insights gained:

1. Get earplugs!! Your mom might turn on the TV or your neighbor might turn on their stereo.
2. Have some insect repellant with you. Mosquitoes might do what they do best.
3. Take short breaks between each seasion.
4. Drink lost of water during breaks, it helps with your concentration.

Deeper Insights gained:

1. I had the insight that I should have another retreat...this time with Magic Mushrooms
2. Neurotic people cannot be pleased. No matter how hard you try, they will always find faults in you; you could be the Buddha himself, your peacefulness would annoy them.
3. Everything is soooo beautiful. I almost cried while looking at the beauty of a leaf.
4. I could and should be meditating a lot more than I am right now.

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Challenges faced:

The main challenge I faced came on day three. I got some really horrible news that made me angry. I was in full blown rage. This caused my mind to go into a frenzy and the monkey mind was non-stop. Despite this...I did a few sessions of 'Do-Nothing' and I just sat there and became aware of all the anger. After some time I felt the anger slowly fade away and I was now more peaceful than ever. It felt like a purging of my anger. I can tell that I had made a major leap forward in regards to emotional mastery.

The need for stimulation was also a challenge. Many times I was tempted to jerk off...but somehow I resisted.

On the final day I was so tired of meditating that I half-assed it. I slacked off and only did 4 hours of meditation. 

I hope this will be of help to you if you decide to host your own retreat at home

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Bulgar Porridge recipe:

https://youtu.be/N3GGsB6o5hM

[Leo Gura]

Great work!

[Extreme Z7]

3 hours ago, Sage_Elias said:

The main challenge I faced came on day three. I got some really horrible news that made me angry. I was in full blown rage. This caused my mind to go into a frenzy and the monkey mind was non-stop. Despite this...I did a few sessions of 'Do-Nothing' and I just sat there and became aware of all the anger. After some time I felt the anger slowly fade away and I was now more peaceful than ever. It felt like a purging of my anger. I can tell that I had made a major leap forward in regards to emotional mastery.

 

Yeah, falling into a deep pit of negative emotions could instantly be turned into pleasure through pure mindfulness.

[elias]

very helful! Will do it soon, too.

Thanks!

[Sage_Elias]

19 hours ago, elias said:

Will do it soon, too.

Awsome...tell us about the experience when you do