my 10 days of COMPLETE SILENCE

Vipassana means ‘to see things how they really are’, and is one of the oldest types of meditation. It is taught in 10-day sessions, with two major principles: there’s no contact with the outside world and you can’t talk to anyone. This confinement allows you to reach deep levels of peace and happiness, but it also brings to the surface your darkest fears, as well as anxieties about the world around you and about yourself.

I come from a family of meditators: my mother, aunts and grandmother have all completed Vipassana courses. I have an uncle who has completed more than a hundred of them, including a 30-day one. It seemed it was only a matter of time before I would also go and ‘sit’, as they call it. As it happened I had a two-week break from my studies coming up and everything just lined up.

My family was supportive, of course, but they were also eager to share their experiences. My mother laughed a little too hard when I voiced my concern about being bored. ‘The boredom willbored you could possibly ever be,’ she said. A friend told me the experience was ‘a living hell’. Despite these warnings, I wasn’t really worried. I thought to myself, ‘10 days – how difficult can it be?’ I packed the few things I could bring along (clothes and bedding) and headed off to spend the next 10 days in noble silence.