First retreat: How long?

[Cocolove]

I'm in school and have winter break coming up, so I am going to do my first meditation retreat. My ideal would be to do 4  (1 hour) strong determination sits a day, and spend the rest in meditation in a comfortable position meditating. I will also journal & continue to do do kriya yoga daily. I'm just gonna do it in my parents basement since that's where I live since I'm a kid.

Background: I've been meditating daily for 4 months. I'm at 30 min per day minimum and it grinds my gears to do one hour sds. My highest is 1:15. I've been doing kriya for about 3 weeks. 

I have blocked out a 5 day period in which I could do this. Doing all 5 sounds daunting. My question is, how many days should I do? I could go with 2 at a minimum and all 5 if I really want to go wild, or maybe I could just go as long as I can? but then without commitment I feel like I would always be debating whether or not to quit.

How long was your first retreat? What were your conditions? What should I do?

@Leo Gura  would appreciate your input.

Thanks y'all

 

[Amanaki]

When you are new to meditation it can be very difficult to sit for a long time in retreat

My journey have now lasted 20 years and the longest retreat i have done is 5 days. What do i do in a retreat? at morning at 04.00 in morning waking up. morning meditation start 04.30 to 08.00 then i eat a small meal and again meditate to 12.00. Then for me it is study of Dharma (buddhist teaching) to 03.00 afternoon, and from 03.00 to 08.00 in afternoon i meditate.  08.30 i sleep to morning 04.00.

But For you i would say 2 hours 3 times a day in a weekend is max the first retreat

Hope this help a little

Edited December 10, 2018 by Amanaki

[purerogue]

Have never taken any retreats, only reason i would consider it is if I need time to deal with something that is causing problem in my development,feeling lost and think that it will help me get back on track.

Lets put it this way, mediation has its own benefits, but you do not need to mediate to do self inquire, experience different states, you can do it at any time of the day.

You are putting roadblocks on yourself when you think that you need specific settings to do any kind of development. 

[Forestluv]

@Cocolove Are you considering joining an organized retreat lead by a teacher? Or, setting up a solo retreat away from home, or at home?

[peanutspathtotruth]

@Serotoninluv

28 minutes ago, Cocolove said:

I'm just gonna do it in my parents basement since that's where I live since I'm a kid.

 

[ajasatya]

41 minutes ago, Cocolove said:

How long was your first retreat? What were your conditions? What should I do?

my first retreat was a small sesshin in a zen center and it lasted 4 days.

what should you do? just sign up, show up 

[Forestluv]

15 minutes ago, peanutspathtotruth said:

@Serotoninluv

 

Whooosh!!! I missed that part. 

@Cocolove I did an at-home "retreat" for a week last summer. I live alone, so there were no distractions. I structured time to include meditation, yoga, contemplative journaling, spiritual reading (e.g. the kriya yoga guidebook), spiritual nonduality video, self massage, breathing exercises, mindful cooking and eating and baths. I did not engage in social media. I checked my phone one time per day and I only responded to "necessary" texts (which turned out to be three texts during the week). It greatly relaxed my mind-body. My mind-body was as relaxed as if I was on a far away vacation in the Carribean. This not only allowed for awareness regarding how stressed and busy my mind-body was, yet the relaxation also allowed for integration of previous learnings/experience as well as for new insights to arise.

I also get a break from school starting this Wednesday. I am planning to do another week long at home retreat.