“Just walked today 5 hours Vipassana walking meditation with my monk teacher. Feels amazing to connect to the present moment, connect to the earth and to myself. Just breathe and walk slowly, feel the touch, feel my body, relax. Concentration improved, creativity upgraded, feel so light and grateful for life.. will do it every day from now.. totally recommended!” – Itamar Blumenfeld, Israel
“Today will day 4/4 of walking for 4-5 hours with no other stimuli. I have the concentration span of a small flea and struggle even to watch films or documentaries without getting bored and switching off. I have many pains in my joints and these things combined mean that this practice has been one of the hardest things that I have ever done.
Each day I felt like I could not possibly return the following day. However I felt a definitive shift in my psyche this morning, singing, smiling and laughing to myself from the moment I woke up to when I sat down on my balcony to try and put this experience into words…
TRUST me when I say that I am someone who has worried so deeply about the future that I feel I can barely breathe, and kicked my own ass so hard about my actions in the past that I loathe myself to the very core of my being. If I can begin to overcome this pattern, step by step, so can you.” – Charly, U.K
“Four day (20 hour) Walking Meditation retreat: Day 1 I ‘know’ (I don’t know this except as a story) that pain and even feet are illusions. But my feet sure hurt. Tears of unknown origin appear at the meetings with Pra Orlan, the monk, which bookend the day. Peace and joy are easy in his presence.
Day 2: I experience an exquisite sense of release when at 4:45pm, our finish time yesterday, the monk goes to sweep up leaves in an enormous courtyard. It’s absolute agony as I thought we were about to finish. Then hilarious at the incredible agony part of me was in at a mere 15 minutes more walking. Emotional relativity in action.
Day 3: the soft bathroom mat at one end of the hall is delicious. The delightful variety of stepping on a stray piece of gravel on the marble floor is a joy. Watching the myriad stupid stories I have, intoxicating theories, plans, endless rehashing of events, every sort of bullshit. I experience a part of myself that energetically tells everyone to “keep the fuck away” followed immediately by a part which wants to be picked up and held.
Day 4: The stories drift past so that I’m aware of the thoughts, like background noise but I’m not focussing there. The pain has moved up to my hips. But I’m moving differently now. A deeper rhythm.
I’ve never been as aware of the difference between my life and the stories I make about my life as after this retreat. It feels like a shift from paying attention to whatever window is foremost on my mental screen to sitting back and observing from the other direction, within the Operating System itself. I don’t feel the need to solve the stories as much. Disconnecting from the narrative is enough. I totally recommend this and anything similar such as vipassana, for a fresh perspective.” – Jamie Wrate, U.K