I just completed my first month-long silent meditation retreat! 28 days and over 500 hours of deeply practicing being present in a very regulated environment. Each moment, moment to moment, was an opportunity to pay attention to see what’s present in the mind, body and senses. As one of my teacher’s Anushka brilliantly depicted: being on retreat, we get to “put on the wetsuit of silence to dive deep into the depths of our minds and present moment experience and explore.”
One of the guiding questions and prompts of the retreat, that I think is helpful to come back to in daily life, is to simply ask myself: “What wants to be known in this moment?” Can I be interested enough to observe?
For me, this question gets me out of the planning mind, the ruminating thoughts and into the present moment by checking in. What wants to be known in this moment?
For instance, my heart is yearning for connection; my mind is trying to plan and overly-control my day; my body is tired and needs to rest.
Now, can I be interested enough to observe? Can I watch and be with the pleasant, unpleasant or neutral thought without needing to “fix” it or make it right, wrong, good or bad?
I noticed on retreat how good my mind was at “fixing” my present moment experience instead of just letting it pass through me like the weather.
If you were to ask yourself, 'what wants to be known in this moment?', what comes up for you?
Listen to the Centered in the City’s podcast episodes where I recap my experience in more detail: