| I've been on a number of silent retreats that focus on contemplation, usually prayer. Of those the vast majority have been 3-day retreats which begin on a Friday after dinner and end on a Sunday with a lunch. They're a great introduction to silence and meditation and can really allay insecurities people have about taking on a longer retreat. It's where I recommend starting if you're new to retreats. I've also done 8-day retreats and 10-day retreats. These are my favorites. As someone else in the comments said, it takes a few days for silence to break through your barriers. There's a whole bunch of science on the 3-day effect which seems related to my experience. For me it works like this: day one I'm excited and my mind doesn't shut up. I have a million ideas floating through and I try to grasp them all and to remember the "fruits" of this time for later when I can talk. Early on in my retreats I would journal furiously. I filled a moleskine notebook each day, front and back of pages. It was insane, and also counterproductive. I was taking the dialogue away from my tongue and moving it onto the page. Now I don't journal at all, or I'll do so only every few days and briefly. Even so, day one is a wasted day. It's like my mind is flipping out craving contact. I just need to let it run its course. On day 2 I have intermittent moments of calm when I can sense the silence underneath everything. I try to spend this day in solitude if possible. It helps to speed up the transition. Remember, silence in a retreat isn't about sound, it's about communication. Don't make eye contact or gestures at others. You're not being silent. Day 3 for me is when I'm finally at rest. I listen to the little movements of my mind. It's a great time for contemplative prayer, or mindfulness meditation. If you've read anything about Ignatian spirituality, this is where the real enlightening stuff hits. Days 3-7 are a blur of wonder that I never want to end. That being said, I've also done 30 days in silence and it is there that I'd use the term "life changing." How life changing was it for me? It led to me deciding to leave religious life to get married and start a family. It was not in rebellion to the style of life I was living, but as a result of it. It took me 30 days of contemplation in silence to finally find the answer to the questions that had been bouncing around in my head for a decade. Would I go again? Certainly. |