In the last 10 days, I surrendered my mobile, my book, my pen and paper and I spent 10 days in a retreat with a group of 35 people. A silence retreat where we avoid any form of eye contact, and any form of interaction or communication.
Here is my in-the-silence experience for 10 consecutive days.
In the Silence, our problem gets dissolved.
In the silence, I could hear my inner voice chatter louder than ever before. With no interruption
or distraction, the chatter was longer, louder, tedious, and deeper, and reached new explorations.
After these long inner explorations, peace surfaces; a peace that brought more clarity, certainty, serenity, and sobriety to my issues.
In the Silence, our problems get resolved and are dissolved.
In the Silence, stress disappears.
When there is an action to take and we don’t take it, stress or anxiety are indeed caused by lack of action. Stress or anxiety is attributed to that lack of action, that we are either unaware of, avoiding, denying, or not wanting to take. I always knew that anxiety is mended by taking proper action.
What if you have to act and you cannot because you are in a silent retreat?
In the Silence, I experienced the impermanence and ephemerality of these anxieties as they are
surfacing and leaving, appearing and disappearing. I encounter their breakability and their lack
of tenacity.
In the Silence, fear appears and miraculously dissolves and disappears.
In the Silence, we freshly discover ourselves.
The longer you stay in silence, the longer you discover all your judgment about others, yourself, and the world, you also meet your behavioral patterns, like anticipation, impatience, annoyance, and others that will become more discernable. Even though I knew them, they showed up with more clarity and lucidity.
In the Silence, we become more intimate with ourselves.
Silence is the gift of true presence.
During the period of silence, we appear to be present due to a lack of distraction. Our thoughts will multiply but we become more present with them. I sensed my presence in the environment and among this group of people. I experienced my observation, my judgment, my critical self, my appreciative self, my body, my feelings, and my mind more than ever before.
In silence, I witness myself as more perceptible, and noticing this becomes a true presence.
In the Silence, peace rises and leads the way.
I had experienced peace but never like after these 10 days of silence. I experienced a deeper layer of peace. A peace that contains so much calmness. I felt an unshakable inner peace that could not be touched or affected. I was wishing that this inner peace could stay within me forever, I wanted to hold on to it. As much as this deep inner peace was felt inside, it also included all the environment around me.
Silence leads and dives us into a deep layer of peace.
Before heading to the 10-day silence retreat, I had all the reasons in the world not to go there, actually, I was not ready, since I was overwhelmed with challenges and facing many unsettled and serious issues. I felt it was not the right choice at this given time in my life. Although Something bigger than me was pulling over there, I was resisting; but still, I was heading there.
After leaving this retreat I discovered that this is what I needed the most.
What I learned is to trust in the power of silence especially when I have challenging decisions to
make and when I feel overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious.
If conversations are waves in the ocean, silence is the ocean.
Learn to trust in the immensity of the ocean instead of just one passing and changing wave in the ocean.