It’s now been four months since I completed my Vipassana retreat, so how is it going? Am I keeping up my two hours a day? Has it turned my life around?

Well I definitely feel calmer day to day. It works well with the Non-Violent Communication, in that Vipassana gives me the mental space in which to insert the NVC; I hopefully don’t loose my temper immediately at one of the many things that press my buttons and am able to respond calmly before I completely loose my rag.  

I kept up with the two hours a day meditation for the first week, but I was finding it a struggle to get past about 40 minutes. After that I was still meditating but just fitting in when I could, so maybe managing an hour a day. I got back into it a couple of months ago when my I was spending a lot of time on the train and had a lot of time to meditate. And know the mediation is feeling really good and an hour isn’t really a struggle at all. I start by just concentrating on my breathing until I can feel my breath is as slow and calm as it can be, then I let the tingling start from wherever it does and then gently follow it around my body. Until eventually I feel a warm glow in every part of my body, my mind is clear (mostly) and I’m very sensitive to every sensation – noise, warmth, cold. Feels pretty nice really and I look forward to it.