The retreat, which was not an organised event but a self-directed stay in a silent retreat centre, was not demanding, with just a few hours of sitting meditation every day and many hours of sleeping and reading and walking in the countryside. With lots of rest and only very, very whole, whole foods, no alcohol, no coffee etc, it was really as much of a rest and detox cure as a meditation retreat. I left Devon a little less grey-white in the face and flabby in the belly, and feeling healthier than I had for rather a long time, got on the train for a 4 ½ hour journey – crowded train, very hot day, air-conditioning not working properly – and got off in London with all the symptoms of a lousy cold, which has had me rather ill for the past week.
Monday 4 August 2008
Less is more
The retreat, which was not an organised event but a self-directed stay in a silent retreat centre, was not demanding, with just a few hours of sitting meditation every day and many hours of sleeping and reading and walking in the countryside. With lots of rest and only very, very whole, whole foods, no alcohol, no coffee etc, it was really as much of a rest and detox cure as a meditation retreat. I left Devon a little less grey-white in the face and flabby in the belly, and feeling healthier than I had for rather a long time, got on the train for a 4 ½ hour journey – crowded train, very hot day, air-conditioning not working properly – and got off in London with all the symptoms of a lousy cold, which has had me rather ill for the past week.
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7 comments:
I'm glad you are not depressed, Jean, though your cold doesn't sound nice of course. As for your question, I think I can get like that sometimes when my creative juices are their most active while other parts of my life get too hectic at the same time, and I may be sleep-deprived as well. It passes thankfully and usually life is quiet for me. I do need time alone to keep in balance, like your retreat does for you.
That is the trouble with detoxing, it leaves you nice and clean and available for new bugs to settle in! I am not much good for anything other than detective novels when I am ill...I think you must have grey matter to spare.
With bipolar I swing drastically between sleepless overproduction and torpid stagnation.I have to have time alone or I get tangled in knots.
Adrenaline junkie. Maybe you are just bored and under challenged. I do better when I am bery busy and very engaged - physically and mentally.
:-) Yes. I always get much more done when I'm sick.
Yeah, I think our entire society runs on sleep-deprivation and more or less permanent distraction.
I think the illness is actually the cure for what was wrong in the first place. Thus it doesn't surprise me that one gets more done when sick.
FA
I don't know how many people are like that, but I certainly relate. Sometimes being overtired and/or ill works like a drug that blocks the Incessant Critic in the brain. Too bad the side effects are so nasty. Feel better!
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