A Day of Silence

At the meditation retreat a few weeks ago, I thought it would be great to do a self-retreat every so often. Then I remembered this book by Sylvia Boorstein. The book describes how to create a retreat for yourself, including a schedule. So... I will try it tomorrow! I drove out West this evening. Mark will come on Saturday, which means I will have the entire day to myself. I had dinner with Valerie tonight, and she will come up and spend a few hours in silence with me, sitting and walking.

I am very excited about this! I have been feeling overwhelmed with all the planning for the New York show in a few weeks, and double shows in Russia in June. So look forward to a day of silence, completely unplugged. I told Mark that if he really needs to reach me, that he will have to ask a neighbor to come bang on the door as I am turning everything off in a few hours.

Here is the schedule:

7am sit
7:30 breakfast
8:15 sit
9:15 walk
10 sit
11 yoga
12 lunch/rest/studio
2 sit
3 walk
4 sit
5 dinner
6 spiritual reading/interactive dharma talk
7 walk
8 sit
9 done!

Of course art-making is not included at a formal retreat, but I will make that exception. And I'll do the walking outside, probably on snowshoes if I go into the woods.

I can't think of a better way to renew and re-energize for the intense few weeks ahead.