Illustrated Musings on My Upcoming Silent Retreat

by Martha Brettschneider | September 10, 2019 | Meditation, Mindful Photography, Mindfulness, Photography

In last week’s post, I promised to share some of my photos from our recent trip to Alaska. As I was sifting through the choices, the images got tangled up in thoughts about my upcoming silent meditation retreat.

I’ll soon begin a 5-night residential meditation retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, California (just outside of San Francisco), the theme of which is “Mindfulness and Heartfulness for Insight and Liberation.” As weird as it might sound, I can’t wait to lock my phone and computer away and refrain from reading, writing, and speaking with other participants.

This retreat will be a different flavor than the 10-Day Goenke Vipassana retreat I did last year. Instead of ten hours of sitting meditation a day, Spirit Rock’s style is to weave in mindful walking, mindful eating, and mindful working (chopping vegetables, for example) in between the sitting meditation and teaching sessions.

If you have questions like What’s the point of a silent retreat? or What do you do there?, check out “How Does A Retreat Work” on Spirit Rock’s site.

I’m not gonna lie — last year’s retreat (my first) was super challenging. It took three blog posts to process it: the prep, the hard parts, and the good parts (ie deep lessons learned). Looking back on the difficult parts now with another year of practice under my belt — including the growth I experienced during my Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute teacher training — I’ll be arriving at Spirit Rock with a deeper level of awareness and (I hope) resilience. Wish me luck!

Instead of throwing more words at you (since I’d better start to cut back on my verbiage NOW!), I thought it would be more fun to share some Alaska images along with the thoughts they triggered on the eve of my silent retreat.

Before I do, though, I wanted to remind folks that my next 30-Day Mindfulness Meditation Challenge is coming up soon on Monday, September 23. If you have been planning on signing up, now is the time! Here’s the link to learn more and register. I’m looking forward to sharing what I learn at Spirit Rock!

The path is sometimes clear and straight.

The path is sometimes windy and unmarked. Plan on having some mountains to climb.

Shadows of family and friends show up along the way.

The closer you look, the cooler the discoveries. You can’t be afraid of lying down in the dirt.

Sometimes you feel like you’re chewing on something that just won’t give.

But upon closer observation, you notice one smiling at you.

Sometimes you feel like you’re swimming in deep water, when everyone else is making it look easy.

Sometimes you’re focusing on the small stuff.

Sometimes you’re focusing on the big stuff.

Sometimes you feel like you’re watching yourself watching something else.

Sometimes you have the mirror up close to your face.

You get a clearer view of how you got here.

You get a clearer view of WHO got you here.

Sometimes the skies and waters are bright blue.

Sometimes you travel through grey skies and dark waters.

It’s a head to toe mind-blowing experience.

Bye for now, as I sign off for my silent retreat at Spirit Rock from Tuesday, September 10 – Sunday, September 15. Wishing you wellness, happiness, and peace.