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M15 Ep044: Retreat! Use your vacation to deepen your practice
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Vacation time is a perfect time to deepen your mindfulness practice. When you’re moving at a slower pace and perhaps have a little more time on your hands, you might choose to add a second meditation session, sit a bit longer, or add walking meditation to your regular sitting practice. There are a lot of options. One of my favourites is to go on retreat.
On retreat, you simply let yourself be. You do very little other than meditative practices and, whatever you do, you do it slowly and mindfully. This gives you a chance to relax, live at a leisurely pace, and focus on bringing mindfulness to all of your activities, not just sitting meditation.
You can participate in a directed retreat, that is an event organized by someone else. These are what I’ll talk about today. You can also create your own self-hosted retreat. I’ll talk more about those in a couple of weeks.
It’s possible to go on retreat for long periods of time, months or even years, but we’ll focus on shorter retreats, which can range from a half-day to 10 full days or so. These activities are called meditation retreats, mindfulness retreats, or days of mindfulness. They can be residential (where you eat and sleep on-site) or non-residential (where you go home every evening).
How to find retreats
Retreats hosted by local groups
Depending on where you live, you may be able to find local organizations that host retreats. Conduct a Google search or use www.meetup.com to find local meditation groups and centres in your area and contact them to see what they offer. You may find a wide variety of groups, some of which suit you while others don’t. Take the time read their websites, or give them a call to discuss their practices. You may want to attend a one of their local meditation meetings prior to going on retreat with them.
Some of the groups will be secular, and others are likely to be Buddhist monasteries and practice centers. One of my local Buddhist monasteries, for example, offers a day of mindfulness every month plus a two-day residential retreat once a year.
Buddhist meditation retreats
Let me just take a minute to talk more about Buddhist retreats before I go on. At Mindful15, we focus on secular meditation practices suitable for everyone. So, why would I recommend Buddhist meditation retreats? Because they usually are suitable for everyone. Again, I suggest asking questions before signing up, but my experience with Buddhist groups is that they are welcoming of everyone, regardless of religious beliefs or lack thereof, and their meditation practices are basically the same as what you experience here on Mindful15. The only time you’re likely to directly hear about Buddhist beliefs is during Dharma talks. These are talks about Buddhist philosophy given by monks, nuns, or meditation teachers, often held daily. On retreats that are open to the general public, the talks tend to focus on the kinds of topics we cover in this podcast, and I’ve personally found them to be enjoyable and educational even though I’m not Buddhist. You can, however, skip the Dharma talks, if you’re not interested.
Retreats located far from home
You can also go on retreat far from home. Again, meetup.com is a great resource for finding meditation groups in any location. You can also try a search on www.retreatsonline.com. What you’ll find is a wide variety of retreats, not all of which are focused on meditation.
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Listen:
Watch:
Read:
Vacation time is a perfect time to deepen your mindfulness practice. When you’re moving at a slower pace and perhaps have a little more time on your hands, you might choose to add a second meditation session, sit a bit longer, or add walking meditation to your regular sitting practice. There are a lot of options. One of my favourites is to go on retreat.
On retreat, you simply let yourself be. You do very little other than meditative practices and, whatever you do, you do it slowly and mindfully. This gives you a chance to relax, live at a leisurely pace, and focus on bringing mindfulness to all of your activities, not just sitting meditation.
You can participate in a directed retreat, that is an event organized by someone else. These are what I’ll talk about today. You can also create your own self-hosted retreat. I’ll talk more about those in a couple of weeks.
It’s possible to go on retreat for long periods of time, months or even years, but we’ll focus on shorter retreats, which can range from a half-day to 10 full days or so. These activities are called meditation retreats, mindfulness retreats, or days of mindfulness. They can be residential (where you eat and sleep on-site) or non-residential (where you go home every evening).
How to find retreats
Retreats hosted by local groups
Depending on where you live, you may be able to find local organizations that host retreats. Conduct a Google search or use www.meetup.com to find local meditation groups and centres in your area and contact them to see what they offer. You may find a wide variety of groups, some of which suit you while others don’t. Take the time read their websites, or give them a call to discuss their practices. You may want to attend a one of their local meditation meetings prior to going on retreat with them.
Some of the groups will be secular, and others are likely to be Buddhist monasteries and practice centers. One of my local Buddhist monasteries, for example, offers a day of mindfulness every month plus a two-day residential retreat once a year.
Buddhist meditation retreats
Let me just take a minute to talk more about Buddhist retreats before I go on. At Mindful15, we focus on secular meditation practices suitable for everyone. So, why would I recommend Buddhist meditation retreats? Because they usually are suitable for everyone. Again, I suggest asking questions before signing up, but my experience with Buddhist groups is that they are welcoming of everyone, regardless of religious beliefs or lack thereof, and their meditation practices are basically the same as what you experience here on Mindful15. The only time you’re likely to directly hear about Buddhist beliefs is during Dharma talks. These are talks about Buddhist philosophy given by monks, nuns, or meditation teachers, often held daily. On retreats that are open to the general public, the talks tend to focus on the kinds of topics we cover in this podcast, and I’ve personally found them to be enjoyable and educational even though I’m not Buddhist. You can, however, skip the Dharma talks, if you’re not interested.
Retreats located far from home
You can also go on retreat far from home. Again, meetup.com is a great resource for finding meditation groups in any location. You can also try a search on www.retreatsonline.com. What you’ll find is a wide variety of retreats, not all of which are focused on meditation.