110 hours of meditation in 10 days… What did I learn?

110 hours of meditation in 10 days… After I’m back, and I must say that a Vipassana course is quite an experience.⁣⁣ You don’t have any access to the technologies, Internet, or even person-to-person communication. All participants maintain silence throughout the course. Wake up at 4 am, go to sleep at 9:30 pm. All day long is dedicated to learning a proper technique of Vipassana meditation.⁣⁣⠀

⁣⁣I wanted to do Vipassana course for quite a long time, and finally this year during our stay in Brazil I had a chance to do so. In following two episodes of the Artist Date show with Pedro we discussed details of my experience (before and after Vipassana):

Also, I’d like to share a couple of additional lessons/reminders that I had during the course, and I feel they also apply to a dance training:⁣⁣⠀

Accept your own timing. Your body and mind need what they need. Things won’t happen sooner or later than they should specifically for you.⁣⁣⠀
Trust the process. Even if you don’t see any results/progress/shifts, it doesn’t mean they are not happening inside.⁣⁣⠀
Focus on learning the tools, rather than obsessing about results. You may not achieve your goal in 10 days/2 week/ 3 months, but if you are attending any event, take advantage of learning new tools for your practice that you can use later.⁣⁣⠀
Follow your teacher’s instructions. If you don’t trust this teacher, simply change a teacher. But if you trust and want results, actually do what your teacher tells you to do.⁣⁣

Do the work diligently. Don’t pretend to practice. Actually practice. Make the best use of every minute you dedicated to the process.⁣⁣⠀
Be kind to yourself. It’s not about not doing mistakes/ not getting distracted/ or not feeling lazy once in a while. It’s about how quickly you can forgive yourself and get back on track.⁣⁣⠀⁣⁣⠀

I hope you enjoyed these little reminders. Do you want me to share more about my Vipassana experience? I’ve recorded additional special episode for the Belly Dance Life podcast addressing many more similarities between Vipassana course and dance training. Check it out, and let me know what you think.

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Author: Iana Komarnytska
Photographer: Pedro Bonatto