Insights from Meditating for 100 Hours in 10 Days

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Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin:   Today's episode is sponsored by me. Did you know you can now shop my favorite remote work tools, video production equipment, and travel accessories directly from your Amazon account? It's true. Just go to TravelingwithKristin.com/amazon to check out all the products I use and love.  

Kristin:    00:01:21    Hi guys. Welcome back to another episode of Badass Digital Nomad. And this is a solo episode and it is the breakdown of lessons and insights and all the crazy stuff that happened when I meditated for 10 days <laugh>. So get ready, buckle up. But first, in keeping with the trend that we've been following in the past couple episodes, thank you for everyone who's written a review of the podcast. My friend just launched his podcast guys, and granted he has like tens of thousands of followers. He got 130 reviews in like the first week <laugh>, and I was like, oh, <laugh>. Not trying to compare or anything, but we can do better. So thank you to Dave Nichol, will who left a review this week. He says, I love Kristin's podcast, great insights into top digital nomad destinations and super professionally done. Thank you for the awesome work.  

Kristin:    00:02:21    Thank you Dave for taking a moment to leave a review and thank you to everyone who's left a review. If you haven't yet, then get on it if you're an Apple Podcast person. Thank you. Okay, so in today's episode, as you know from the last or a couple weeks ago, I started off January 1st by, well actually New Year's Eve by flying to Canada to sit for a 10 day, what I thought was a silent meditation retreat. However, I have realized that it was actually a course. So here's how this episode is gonna go. First, I'm gonna tell you what it is and who it's for. Then my experience, what I liked and what I didn't like so much, what I learned and how you can attend. And then I'm also gonna go over some Instagram questions that people sent me through my story. So if you want to participate in future episodes and ask your questions, if it's not a live stream, then follow me on Instagram @TravelingwithKristin and let's start the discussion.  

Kristin:    00:03:27    So before I get into this, I wanna say that the first, like my two biggest takeaways of this experience was why didn't I know about this sooner? Why doesn't everybody know about this? And two, or in no particular order, this is the most practical technique that I have ever learned in decades of self-help, reading, research, exploration, meditation, plant medicine, podcasts. Like everything I've ever done in life, I feel like this was like the missing link that kind of makes everything click. And so that's probably the first thing. And then second is, why don't more people know about it? I've only heard about it three times in 10 years, and the first time I heard about Vipassana was 10 years ago in Bali. It planted a seed. I knew I would do it someday. It never felt like the right time. And then I didn't hear about it again until 10 years later to the date.  

Kristin:    00:04:37    Actually, when I heard a girl at my co-living house in Norway say that she had just done one, she's from Portugal, she actually did one with her mom. And then another girl who I met two weeks later in Iceland was talking about it because she sat for four different courses. And so I felt like it was time. So, all right, what the heck is it <laugh>? Because in the last episode I was saying it was Vipassana silent retreat. And what I have found out is that it's not a retreat at all. It's more like a meditation prison. Ha ha. No, it's more like it's a course. Okay. So the technique of Vipassana is basically a way to achieve peace of mind and live a happy life. It is the art of living and the art of dying, which is something that we have heard about through religion and philosophy, especially stoic philosophy.  

Kristin:    00:05:35    I think I'm actually going to write an article on the eerie parallels between the Vipassana technique and the theory behind it, as well as the practice and philosophy of stoicism. They are very similar and the reason why we see different similarities and different techniques is because everyone on the planet is having the same experience. Suffering and pain are universal and therefore the antidote to suffering and pain must be universal. There is no difference in the human experience depending on when you were born in history, whether it was thousands of years ago or today, and which country you were born in or who your parents were. There's one thing that everybody has in common, and that is that we all experience agitation, pain and suffering. And so what Vipassana does is it helps us see things how they really are, but come to this realization from an internal perspective rather than always looking for external guidance.  

Kristin:    00:06:52    So it's a technique to purify the mind, to help unseat deep causes of suffering. It's a very ancient technique that was developed. It was, let's say it was discovered 2,500 years ago or rediscovered by Buddha. When he saw that he basically saw the atomic structure of the human body and he observed the connection between mind, body, and spirit. This of course, was eventually proven by science where we now know that all matter is made up of atomic particles. So Buddha apparently observed this. He was enlightened, um, during his his meditations. And so he also observed this technique, which is a way for people to alleviate suffering by becoming aware of body sensations and then observing those sensations without attachment. So that might sound very, uh, like lofty <laugh> and, and not practical, but I'll break it down a little bit more. So the Vipassana technique addresses the main causes of pain and suffering in the world, which come from craving on one hand and aversion on the other.  

Kristin:    00:08:21    So what does that mean? The root of all human suffering comes from 

two main things. Something unwanted happens or something that you want to happen doesn't happen. So something unwanted happens, you lose an opportunity, you lose money, you get in a car wreck, somebody close to you passes away. You injure yourself like something bad happens and we react with pain and suffering or you want something to happen, you want this person to like you, but they don't. You want this job, you don't get it. Um, you want to make money, but you're in debt. Like whatever it is that you're striving for, you don't get it. It causes suffering. There's this gap between where you are and where you want to be. And in the middle is like no man's land, <laugh>. You can never, you feel like you can never get there. Or when you do get there and you do get what you want, you realize that you want something else.  

Kristin:    00:09:30    You want something more, you want something different. And this is the crazy cycle that human beings have been living in since the beginning of time. And this is the niche, no, not the niche. This is the kind of like crux of what sales and marketing is because in our material world we're seeing visuals of things that we should want or things that we do want. And then we are sold tools, services, products, whatever it is to be able to help us cross that gap between where we are and where we want to be. And that's why sales and marketing has been working in the same way for thousands of years. It's just now that we have technology. So the founder of this specific type of the Vipassana course, S.N. Goenka, um, we were watching his videos from 1991 and he tells a story or he gives an example of how if you're very poor, he's from Burma.  

Kristin:    00:10:43    So let's think of Burma and India in the 1970s, very few people had cars. So let's say you're very poor, you're walking around or you're riding on a horse or taking a bus or something and you really want a car. You finally save up enough money to get a car, but it's a piece of junk. Then your business is successful, you make more money, you upgrade to a better car. Let's say you go from like an old used piece of junk to a moderately new Toyota or something like that. And then after a while you're like, ah, I wanna have a better car. So you upgrade to A BMW and then to a Mercedes and then to a Rolls Royce. And then you're like, you know what? Why not have a fleet of Rolls Royces? And then you get a private plane and then you get a helicopter and then hey, you buy an airline and then well this is like assuming that you become a billionaire, right?  

Kristin:    00:11:38    And then you buy or then you start building rocket ships to take you to the moon. And then why not Mars? And then you know, there's really no limit to what we want. And I just had this major epiphany 'cause I'm like, this man is basically describing Elon Musk and Bezos and it's 1991. And here we have the richest, most powerful men in the world, multi-billionaires who are literally building rocket ships to take them to Mars. Case in point, they're still not happy. And so even though we observe this, we see billionaires who are still searching, building rockets to Mars, still unsatisfied. We think it will be different for us, but it's not. And so the Vipassana technique is a way to stop and find peace and happiness in where we are right now. And that is something that no billionaire can buy. So what are the benefits of Vipassana?  

Kristin:    00:12:46    The point of doing it is to alleviate suffering, as I mentioned, and also to live a happy life that is more peaceful and that is more connected with the world around us and with society and mankind at large. One of the side effects of practicing Vipassana is being able to achieve high levels of achievement in all spheres of life because you're not caught up in your head. Basically. It's also important to point out that this technique is non-denominational. It's not religious, it's non-sectarian. You can be of any religion or no religion, anyone can practice it. And even kids can start out, I think as young as eight years old, learning just the breathing technique, um, before they get into the more advanced, uh, Vipassana technique. So I really liked that about it because I am agnostic basically, and I didn't want to follow any kind of like religion or or dogma or guru.  

Kristin:    00:13:54    And so Ana is all about yourself. And being independent in the world to learn this technique, it is necessary to take a 10 day course whereby you are not allowed to have a cell phone, no internet, no books, no journals, no writing, no talking, no sex, no meat. We ate all vegan and vegetarian food, no contact with members of the opposite sex, no music, no exercise, literally nothing. Your only job at one of these courses is to eat, sleep, and meditate. So let's talk about what my experience was. We've established that it's for any, anybody who experiences suffering and who wants to get out of their head and leave a more peaceful, happy, and productive life. So my experience started out a little bit bumpy because the girl who was supposed to pick me up in our ride share didn't pick me up. <laugh>, we were supposed to meet at a Starbucks, which was an hour away from where I was in Vancouver.  

Kristin:    00:15:07    And she apparently didn't see me, didn't answer her phone, didn't respond to my messages, and I found myself in this tiny town in British Columbia, like a port town where the ferries go to the northern parts of British Columbia and to Vancouver Island at nine or 10:00 AM on New Year's Day with limited bus service. And I had to get to this retreat or this course that was five hours or four hours away. And so I started off with a, with a challenge where I had to scramble to take a bus back to Vancouver and contact the center and get another ride. And fortunately everything worked out and I was able to catch a ride with three other people, including the manager of the center. So I should also remind everyone that a, a Vipassana course is completely free. It's by donation of previous students who have sat for the course.  

Kristin:    00:16:04    So you're not obligated to give at all, but includes all of your food, like room and board. And that's also something that I've never experienced before. <laugh> like usually you have to pay for for this sort of thing. So I think it's the only type of course of its kind like it in the world. So that manager of the center, he is a volunteer <laugh>, so he lives and works there, but I don't think he gets paid. So anyway, in the car on the way there, he gave me some really good advice, which was to take it day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, breath by breath and not try to think about how many hours were left in the day or how many minutes were left in that meditation session or how many more days were left in the course. And I found that to be really helpful and I'm glad that I missed my ride and that I was able to go with him because that served me well during the course itself.  

Kristin:    00:17:05    So once I got there, we had a dinner and we all checked in. I never got to really meet my roommates. I had four roommates, I think I met one of them before the silence started. And then after dinner we did our first meditation session and then we entered into what is called noble silence. And that lasted for 10 days. So we did our first meditation session that night, and then for the next three days, the schedule went a little something like this, wake up at 4:00 AM we had 30 minutes to get out of bed and into the meditation hall, which I was amazed that five girls in my bedroom, we were able to get ready in the morning and get ready for lights out at night within 20 minutes. So that is a record if nothing else because usually it takes girls at least an hour to get ready.  

Kristin:    00:17:58    And five of us, we basically took less than five minutes per person to get ready in the bathroom and take showers. We took like one minute showers. It was, it was amazing. Um, so 30 minutes to get ready in the morning. Then our first meditation session was from 4:30 AM until 6:30 AM which was one of my favorite sessions of the day. 'cause I was basically just still kind of zoned out and asleep, even though I have struggled for years to set up a morning routine where I wake up at 5:00 AM I don't know if any of you guys have struggled with that. It's been an ongoing struggle. And somehow in this environment, I was waking up before the alarm went off, so it would be like 3 55 or 3 58 in the morning and I was just awake. And that is crazy. So it just goes to show how important your environment is.  

Kristin:    00:18:48    And if you put yourself in this environment of doing a Vipassana course, then you too would find yourself being able to sit for 100 hours and 10 days and waking up at 4:00 AM even if you can't even conceive of doing that in your normal life, it's all about your environment. Guys. First session, two hours breakfast from six 30 to seven 15. The food was really, really good, guys, that's one of the biggest questions I've gotten. And it was all vegan and vegetarian food, but it was so good. Um, especially lunch. So my favorite time of day was really the morning, like up until lunchtime, which I found was consistent with my work routine. I'm way more productive in the morning versus in the afternoon I get that afternoon slump where I really wanna have another coffee <laugh> or sugar or something. Um, and then after that, after breakfast, we had a 45 minute break and I would go outside and walk around in the snow.  

Kristin:    00:19:49    So we're like in the, it was snowing almost every day. Beautiful. And the mountains of British Columbia, I would walk through the forest and just watch the sun come up over the mountain and it was amazing. And then we had more meditation the rest of the day. So the, the sessions actually, I found that they were short enough to be doable. So each session was about anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half, but we had enough breaks in between and enough variation, just enough to keep from going crazy. So when I was sitting there and I thought I couldn't sit there for another minute longer, the bell would sound or the gong and it was time for a break. So the average duration was about one hour and usually with one hour, and then you take a bathroom break or a water break or something and you come back in to sit again, you can start over.  

Kristin:    00:20:45    So it's kind of like doing work sprints. And then, um, we didn't have dinner, but we had a five o'clock tea with some fruit and another break. So I would actually go outside and walk around three times per day, which definitely kept me sane being in the fresh air and being in nature and being able to walk a little bit because you're not allowed to exercise, nor do you feel like exercising to be honest. Um, and then at night we would have a couple more sits as they're called, and then we'd have like a one to one and a half hour discourse where we would listen to the theory behind the meditation technique. And that was by a man named Sn Goenka. And he is the one who developed this specific type of course. Um, he's from Burma and he's taught over I think 500 courses.  

Kristin:    00:21:44    And then he died a few years ago, but there are now over a hundred centers worldwide with a hundred thousand people per year attending the retreats. So this is the guy, everything is modeled after. He's basically a, a adapted Buddha's technique, which has been preserved for 2,500 years in Burma, and he is helping more people to be able to access it. So those discourses were very helpful because that is how as humans, we have been taught to learn intellectually, right? We start going to school and we learn things, we write them down, we read, write, listen, you know, but we never feel, we're never taught how to feel things. Everything that we do is in our heads. And that's why I think people can relate so much to like getting stuck in their heads and feeling blocked. And then all of the mental health issues that people are suffering from and headaches and migraines with work and like all human activities, it feels like we're all knowledge workers, right?  

Kristin:    00:22:55    Or most of us are. And we read tons of books, we consume content, we consume podcasts, and then we wonder why things don't, we can't implement things. And the reason for that is explained by the Vipassana technique because until you understand how to feel and observe sensations in the body, everything just stays at a very like visceral mental level. So I liked the discourses because they were funny, they were interesting, they were thought provoking, but it was only one hour of the day versus the other 10 hours of implementing the technique, which is where the real insights and learning came through. I have to admit that at first I was wondering what I signed up for because there's some weird chanting involved. And at times I just thought it was weird to have 60 people sitting in this room meditating for so long and having these kind of ancient Buddhist elements of the technique.  

Kristin:    00:24:08    I was like, is this a cult? Like what is this <laugh>? But over the 10 days, I started to realize that at the end of each meditation session, this chanting would start by the guy by Goenka. And depending on my mood, I would find it either annoying and agitating, irritating or soothing and like, ah, I was grateful to hear it at the end of the, um, the end of the session. And so what I realized is that everything that happens in our life and how we ingest it is just a reflection of how our mood is at that moment. It really is. We really are the creators of our experience in this reality that we live in. And so this technique kind of helps you laugh about things. I felt I really did feel peace. I think it took until the fourth day, maybe it the days all start to blur together, to be honest.  

Kristin:    00:25:12    We did three full days of just breathing and observing the breath in different ways. And then on the fourth day we started learning the actual technique and then we practiced different variations of that more in depth for the next six days. But I really felt for the first time in my life, I kind of felt like a kid, like I felt like this is what life would be like without any worries, without any stresses. I didn't have to think about answering email or answering messages on my phone or brainstorming anything or strategizing or working or paying bills or doing anything or going anywhere. I, I found myself just walking outside and feeling like a kid kicking a can down the road kind of <laugh> like I was like, this is what it feels like to be a kid, but an adult or to be an adult in a state of bliss without anything to worry about, without worrying about what you're going to eat, who's gonna make it <laugh>, what are the ingredients where to get coffee?  

Kristin:    00:26:22    You don't have to make any decisions. It's like living in this state of basically like a monk or a nun, even though I decided I don't want to live that way forever. I think it's something that everybody should experience once in life because at least once, because it gives you this perspective that it's absolutely impossible to achieve in modern day reality. And it's something that works for everyone. Whether you are a housewife in India or whether you're Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter or Tim Ferris, entrepreneur, investor, writer, it is universal and available to everybody and it's free. The silence also plays a really big role as well, because during the first few days, my brain was just replaying things that had happened in the past few days and then the past week and then the past month, and you really get a chance to observe how the brain works and how it fixates on different things that happen during your day and then in the short term and then into the middle term and then into the long term.  

Kristin:    00:27:26    So it took a few days to, for those thoughts to settle down. And then also to get the playlist out of my head, I felt like my brain kept serving up songs that are in my Apple music as if I was listening to my EarPods, like one song would come on and then another song. And it was like listening to a playlist. And that was actually more annoying than having different thoughts come through my head. But my brain really did shut off as far as the incessant thoughts and chattering around halfway through. And I would just have these sustained moments of just calmness, peace, clarity, I don't even know how to put it into words because there were no words there. And the main life lessons that came through for me personally that maybe you guys can identify with is that nothing matters, but in a good way, we create importance around a lot of things.  

Kristin:    00:28:25    We're the ones who create timelines for ourselves. We set goals, we set deadlines, and at the end of the day, it's okay to just slow down. Everything is impermanent, everything is changing. Whether that's through the, the Vipassana technique where you're observing and experiencing sensations in the body, whether it's an itch or a tickle on your nose, or whether it's an numbness in your foot from sitting in the same posture for a while or your back is sore or whatever it is that's going on inside of our body, that is a reflection of what's going on in the universe because, and I'm not a scientist, but atomic particles are vibrating at trillions of times per second or something like that. And that is happening externally in the climate, in the weather, in what's happening in the world, and it's also happening inside of your body. And so I just realized that it's okay to take it slow and whatever physical or emotional or other sensation you're feeling at any moment, this too shall pass Whatever natural disaster or thing that's happening in the external world, whether it's in your household or your community or your bank account or in the the daily breaking news in another country or another continent, this too shall pass.  

Kristin:    00:29:56    And so this technique has helped me to observe what's going on in my head, in my body, and in the world without reacting to it. And that in practice takes away the emotional charge and the power of whatever it is that's happening. Because how much time do we waste when something happens? Our initial instinct is to talk about it. Oh, I have a headache. Oh, I'm hungover. Oh, so and so did this at work. And so first we think about it and we get angry or we get annoyed or we get frustrated, then we wanna find someone to share it with <laugh>. We wanna find someone to complain to. And then depending on how extreme it is, let's say it's a breakup or a divorce or you got fired from your job or something like that, then we wanna talk about it for a really long time.  

Kristin:    00:30:50    We wanna harp on it for months if not years, especially if somebody dies. There's all these different levels of things that happen in life, but we create our own cycle of misery by keeping it going. And so Vipassana is a way to lessen the amount of time we spend in a reaction mode whenever something happens. So after my brain cycled through all the things that happened in the past days, weeks, and months and year, it started dredging up stuff that happened 10 years ago, 20 years ago, just random memories and random thoughts popping up into my subconscious that I hadn't thought about in such a long time. And I started to realize that that is our brain's job to serve things up to you for some sort of assessment of like, this happened. What are you gonna do about it that happened? Oh, remember when that happened?  

Kristin:    00:31:48    Remember when so and so did this or said that? Or even neutral or positive memories. Remember that one day that when you were seven years old and you like saw this pretty flower or something like super benign would come into my head. And it did make me think in a way that all people are were all kind of crazy. I mean, it's crazy to be thinking about one thing and then have a completely different thought come into your head a minute later. And I think that's why people are so afraid to meditate. And we avoid it and procrastinate with it because we're forced to sit in silence with our thoughts. And as they come up one by one, it's annoying and it's crazy and it's uncomfortable. And I guarantee you after 10 days of sitting in silence, you won't be as afraid anymore of your own thoughts and you'll feel more prepared and equipped and stable to address whatever it is that's happening in your life or in the world.  

Kristin:    00:32:52    So I'll get to the questions that people ask me on Instagram next, but to kind of sum up the whole experience and what you get out of it, that I'm actually thinking of getting my first tattoos ever on my wrists. On one hand, awareness on the other equanimity, self-awareness and equanimity in the face of all that is good or bad. That is the theme that comes through when you go to a Vipassana course. Now, I can't teach the technique to you because it wouldn't work. You would only be ingesting it on an intellectual level and not on a a physical level. It's really necessary to be in silence because as soon as we broke silence, it made it 100 times harder to meditate. It's very important to, if you want to learn it, to go to an actual course, um, I'll link to the website in the show notes.  

Kristin:    00:33:57    It's dhamma.org, dhamma.org. In some sense, it's nothing you haven't heard before. When you start the course, you take undertake five moral precepts, which basically reminded me of the golden rule, abstain from killing, abstain from stealing, abstain from telling lies, um, abstain from sexual misconduct, and basically don't get fucked up <laugh>, don't use intoxicants alcohol and drugs. And then there 10, what they call AMI or perfections are generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, effort tolerance, truth, strong determination, selfless love and equanimity. So these are kind of like five or 10 moral or aspirations. I don't know what to call them in English. So you know, maybe we learn the golden rule or the 10 Commandments when we're little kids, but then we still grow up with this kind of pain and suffering without any technique to process it or confront it or release it. And that is what Vipassana gave me.  

Kristin:    00:35:12    And I feel like in a way, every single guru or speaker or author or philosopher or anything that I read or anything that I hear from people who haven't learned this technique, I know that they're missing the missing link. And that's why a lot of times artists and writers and philosophers struggle, if not more than other people because they come so close on their own personal paths to enlightenment, but there's something missing that they can't necessarily put their finger on. Or even though they know or they think they know how to live the good life, they're not able to execute in their daily lives, or they still struggle with jealousy and greed and all of the other things that are just part of the human experience. And so I feel like now I'm equipped to go through life with a way to deal with that.  

Kristin:    00:36:17    And I thought that this 10 day silent meditation course would be a one and done kind of bucket list thing. But now after going through it, I realize it's just the first step and a long path to enlightenment and a happy life. And I'm not saying that I would ever be enlightened <laugh> in this life or any other life, but being on the path to peace and happiness in life, regardless of what happens, you know, having that equanimity and having that self-awareness is huge. And I really wish that I learned it 10 years ago, but hey, better late than never. So without further ado, let's get to some of the Instagram questions. So Aiden asked <laugh>, does Kristin meditate with ayahuasca? And I did, uh, try ayahuasca in 2011, but not during this course. So in this course, you can't do any sort of intoxicants, no medicines.  

Kristin:    00:37:21    Well, you can take like your prescription medicine of course, but like no drugs, no alcohol. And I actually read that Tim Ferris did, uh, a Vipassana course, but he was microdosing on mushrooms during it, which is not recommended. And he had a pretty negative experience. So in order to actually do the Vipassana course, you can't be under the influence of anything, nor would I want to be, to be honest. I barely even drank coffee while I was there. You kind of feel like you don't need any substances or even caffeine, um, to get through the day. It just kind of, you, you get through it in this like, I don't know, for me it was like a very stable, consistent kind of zen-like state where even though I experienced moments of pain and frustration and my body hurt from sitting so long, I don't know, I just let it pass and just kept going.  

Kristin:    00:38:18    And I didn't think too much into the future. I just thought about what was my responsibility for that moment. And when you don't have any external pressures or responsibilities, you lose the need for any kind of crutch. Fly Fisher asked, was it easier or harder than you thought? And what was the coolest thing you learned about yourself doing it? For me, it was easier than I thought, actually. Which, what does that say about my life? That goes into the other question. The main thing I learned during the experience is that I am the one who creates most of the stress in my life. And so even though there's many things we can't control that happen in life, we are in control of our reaction to things. And, uh, we're in control with our to-do list and, and like what we give ourselves to do in life.  

Kristin:    00:39:09    And so I really loved being in this bubble of not having any responsibilities. Like I really can't, it's hard to express in words what that part of it was like, but if you think about it, if you think if, if money wasn't a factor in your life and you didn't have to work and you didn't have to take care of your kids or you didn't have to reply to emails and messages for like, basically 12 days is what it came down to at the end. And that like your only purpose was to just be alive and be observant of your surroundings. It's kind of a selfish thing in a way, but in order to give back to society afterwards and to share what you've learned and to share this technique, um, if it resonates with people, right? So for me, I felt like it was kind of easier than my daily life.  

Kristin:    00:40:03    And I definitely pondered that a little bit. It was like, why? Because I have what looks like on paper to be the best life. I have very few real responsibilities compared to most people. Like I don't have kids, I don't have a partner, I don't have a dog, I don't have a mortgage, I don't have a boss, I don't have full-time employees. Like I really don't have that much to worry about. But then I realized how much I create out of thin air to worry about. So even though I get to travel like a digital nomad and work for myself and have, have never had a normal job, I still suffer <laugh> just as much as everyone else because I'm a human being. Surfing librarian asked, she said, intrigued to know if you focused more on sound meditation or movement or visualizations or something else.  

Kristin:    00:40:54    That's a great question. All we focused on for the first three days was our breath and noticing the, the context of the breath. Is it deep? Is it shallow? Is it coming through one side or the other, or both nostrils or how long or short is it? We were just observing what it was without wishing it were different without trying to change it or without being like, oh, my nose is stuffed up or whatever. And a lot of people were sick by the way. And then we aren't supposed to think of any sort of visual mantra, deity or God. A lot of times in meditation we're taught to visualize colors, sounds, shapes or to repeat a word or to count or to do deep breathing or a certain type of pranayama breath or something like that. And in this case it was harder <laugh> because there is nothing to distract your brain and focus it on one thing.  

Kristin:    00:41:49    The only thing we were focused on was observing the feeling of the breath and then observing the feelings throughout the body. So you basically do like a scan of your body from head to toe, toe to head, um, of each part of the body. And your brain is looking for a sensation, whether it's positive or negative or painful or pleasant or unpleasant or whatever it is. We're supposed to ignore it and be equanimous with it. So I've never done that before and that was so interesting and so helpful. And so I had a lot of questions about what were we focused on exactly. And the only thing we are focused on was sensation in the breath and sensation in the body. And this is kind of hard to explain without doing it, but when you do sit, you come to all of these realizations about how impermanent everything is.  

Kristin:    00:42:43    And there was at one moment where I felt like my whole body was locked up. Like each part of the body that I scanned, it would like freeze up, like kind of like in a vice grip or something. And there's a name for that in Vipassana. It's like a solidified gross sensation. So let's say you're, um, meditating or something and you feel like a bug lands on you, so you swat it away, like that is your unconscious mind. Oh, it feels something, it wants to react to it <laugh>. But in the Vipassana meditation, you feel something, you don't react. So unless you're like, you know, gonna die or something like that, but you're not going to actually hurt yourself sitting there for one hour, even if your foot is asleep. So we had what's called a strong determination sit where three times a day we wouldn't change our meditation posture and actually think it helped my core muscles to be honest.  

Kristin:    00:43:39    'cause I I wasn't sitting against the wall, but if you have a disability or something, there were two pregnant women there who sat in chairs or sat with pillows against the wall. There were people of all ages there. One guy was like 89 years old. Really cool people of all countries and backgrounds and socioeconomic status like anyone can do it. And um, yeah, there's, there's no like dogma and there's no thing to visualize or do, it's just observing yourself and how often do we get a chance to do that? Okay, squirrel, 1983 asked what type of clarification did you get and what kind of indications or clear guidance? Um, I think I talked about this a little bit earlier, but the main clarification I got was that we can handle everything that happens in life and to get out of our heads. Like to get out of this cerebral, intellectual place where everybody lives, where everyone's worrying about stuff, what's happening on a micro scale and what's happening on a macro scale and the economy and in, um, in the world with the violence and like all of this bad stuff.  

Kristin:    00:44:52    And I realized that it did, doesn't matter if you ingest everything that's going on. We live in a reactive state and that causes a lot of suffering <laugh>. And so having this technique, I realized enables me to reduce the time that I spend in reactive mode, whether it's something I read or see or something someone says to me. And so I also realized how much time I spend on social media and answering email and like doing all these things that we think that we have to do. And I feel like now I can never be bored again, <laugh>, because I've been silent for 10 days. I don't have to be distracting myself all the time with music or podcasts or whatever. I just wanna be present. I don't have to watch TV or entertain myself while I'm eating a meal. And that's, uh, that's something that I, I'm looking forward to.  

Kristin:    00:45:55    And I also had a very strong realization about public service and giving back and doing things without expecting anything in return. I think that a big part of suffering is because we're taught to only do things if we get paid for it and only do things if we're getting something in exchange. And I'm a healthy able bodied, relatively young person who was born into a life of privilege because I was born into a first world country at this time of history. And I have a lot to give to people all over the world. And so I'm going to definitely start doing more community service and just helping people for the sake of that is the purpose of being a human on the planet is to live this life experience and help others. And so I'm really glad that I went to this Vipassana Re um, I keep calling it a retreat.  

Kristin:    00:46:59    It's a course, um, that I learned this technique at the end. They tell us that it's recommended to do one hour of a pasta in the morning and one hour at night. I haven't been so consistent with that. It's been about a week since I left. Um, some days I have done it other days I've only done 20 minutes or 30 minutes or one hour in the morning and not at night. So I'm not perfect at it. But when I a a day after I got out of the retreat, I found out that I didn't get the job that I applied for over seven months ago. That out of 5,000 people I was down to the final four and two people got the job and I didn't get it. And I think my reaction to it was so subdued and, and neutralized versus what my reaction would've been prior to doing the Vipassana sit.  

Kristin:    00:47:56    And so these are things that happen in life all the time. Something wanted doesn't happen, something unwanted happen, it happens all day every day. And now I'm just aware of my reaction to it. And I know that if I start to overreact to whatever it is, it's time to s sit <laugh> and it's time to meditate longer. Maybe I shouldn't miss my one hour meditation that day. So would I recommend it to everyone? I don't know. I don't know if everybody's ready for it. I think that it's something that if this resonates with you and this interests you, you should look into it. There were moments where I thought everyone should do it. And then there were moments where I thought, I don't know if everyone can handle this. And then there were times where I thought, is this weird <laugh>? Should I leave? Um, and you know, sometimes people leave during the middle of it.  

Kristin:    00:48:48    I don't know. I think it's something that each person should look into for themselves. Will I do it every year for the rest of my life? Probably not. It's a big commitment to sit for, you know, to basically take two weeks out of your life in silence every year. I don't know if I'm ready for that, but I did meet people who have done it up to nine times. I met a guy who did his first one at 23 and his last, and this one was at 29, so he waited seven years. And it's each person's on their own journey. All I feel like my duty is to share my experience with you guys so you can make your own decision. And for sure, even after meditating for over 900 days before doing the Vipassana course, I will continue with my daily meditation. I was consistent every single day, meditating for like over a year.  

Kristin:    00:49:38    I think it was 400 days or something. And then I stopped for a couple weeks and now I'm back on it. I think I'm on the 80th day in a row of meditating. So I probably won't skip a day of meditating again the rest of my life. I mean, this is something that keeps me centered and it keeps me sane. And it's something that three years ago I struggled to do. And actually on the way to the airport on New Year's Eve, I got a reminder flashback on Instagram that was showing three years ago when I wrote my year in review post for Instagram. I was saying how I tried and failed at establishing a meditation habit, but there's always next year. And I was like, how appropriate that three years later, I've been meditating almost every day and I'm on my way to a 10 day meditation course.  

Kristin:    00:50:32    So a lot can happen in one year. Guys, if this is seed is planted and you come back to it 10 years later like I did, that's totally fine. If it's two years later, if you decide it's not for you, that's great. Like it doesn't matter. You know, that's one of the things I learned. Nothing matters. There's no right or wrong decision. Whatever decision you make, that's what happens. There's no need to like overanalyze it and you just keep going. So if you have any questions, let me know. Uh, hit me up on social media Traveling with Kristin, um, Instagram and Facebook or WheresKristin on Twitter? Um, or on my YouTube channels Traveling with Kristin and youtube.com/DigitalNomad. This is a lot longer episode than I had planned on, but I'll also write about this on medium so it'll have like a different, uh, perspective of it.  

Kristin:    00:51:27    'cause how I talk and how I write. Sometimes different things come out. And I also wanna write an article about the parallels between stoicism and Vipassana because it was mind boggling how similar they are. So I hope this helps you guys out. Um, but either way, any type of meditation is better than nothing. And it's great for mindfulness and, and, and overall sense of peace, whether it's a gratitude practice or whatever it is. So do you do what works for you? And just know that if you feel like you've reached the end of your rope, you need something else, you need something to help you cope with the ups and downs of life, Vipassana will really open your eyes to a whole nother technique that I have never seen before. So look into it and it's free <laugh>. All right guys. See you next week on Badass Digital Nomads. Don't forget to leave a review. Love you. Bye. Thanks so much for listening to help support this podcast and help it grow. Please leave a review in the Apple podcast store and send this or your favorite episode to a friend for weekly travel videos, live streams, and even more interviews. Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channels at youtube.com/digitalnomad and Traveling with Kristin. See you soon.  

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