Month Long Meditation Retreat

[Rick]

https://wildminds.ning.com/profiles/blogs/month-long-meditation-ret...

Well i just finished the retreat and i have to say i do feel better but no cured.  My MD instincts aren't as disruptive as they were before.  EG my common triggers are when i get angered from things like News Talk Radio and technical difficulties w/ technology and these triggers have less sway over me now.  Same with listening to music.  I haven't been pacing back and forth yet but only time will tell i do again.

I don't think there is any other better therapy for MD than practicing being mindful of the present moment 6 hours(give or take) a day for a month.  The average day consisted of roughly 30 min meditation sessions from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm.  After each meditation session we had a walking meditating session for 10 minutes to mix it up , get the blood pumping a little and practice applying meditation to being active.  At 4:30 pm we had tea time with the other 30+ participants.  Sometimes we could socialize by talking but most of the time we had to observe silence(not talking) so we communicated through notes.  Every other day we had individual/group meetings w/ our meditation instructor.  There were a couple hours of talks each day about how the Buddhist philosophy applied to meditation so if your you a theist you might not be comfortable at this retreat.  Food was A+.  

I particularly liked the half hour tea times because socializing is another one of my triggers.   After tea time was over we went straight back to our cushions to meditate right when my MD would kick-in if in the outside world.

I'd highly recommend a Dathun to anyone with MD.  Post a question if you have one.

[Rick]

Wakenight that is a good question.  Yes, i was constantly surrounded by people for approximately 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.  We had 1 day off half way into it.  I had access to intermittent wifi and i did bring my smartphone along w/ BT headset.  So i did have a little bit of access to my technology triggers but they didn't have much affect as i only had about an hour of free time anyway.  I think being surrounded by people(by itself)  has a profound affect on inhibiting DDing.  During meditation we were suppose to feel the present moment by asking ourselves, "how do i feel?" or just focusing on our breathing.  To be frank, everyone contemplates/DDs  away from the present moment  while meditating and that goes for the experienced meditators as well.  But after periodically contemplating, we jump back to the breath which i think conditions the mind away from DDing.  I would say the social aspects, the meditation aspects, and the stress free aspects all combined to be very therapeutic for someone with DD.

[Wakethenight]

Been waiting for your update :) Glad the retreat went well.

So at the retreat, were you constantly surrounded by people? I would think being in a constant social situation would help disaude DDing ( I dd the most when I am alone and can pace my room) and I think the longer one would go without dding from triggers the easier it would be  to keep not DDing. So I guess what I am asking is do you think the retreat helped your DD because you had less access to your triggers which you mentioned were connected to technology and music or do you think it was more due to the meditation?