Beyond the Uniform

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BTU #150 - Silent Meditation Retreats

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In the last 149 interviews, a common theme that comes up in interviews is the importance of self-knoweldge: of knowing what one is good at, knowing what gets one energized, and knowing what one wants out of a career and life. For today's Skills episode, I wanted to share my experience with a powerful tool: Meditation and Silent Meditation Retreats. While the benefits of Meditation is well documented with respect to concentration and increased productivity, I wanted to share four different ways in which this may help veterans. The episode covers (1) the basics of meditation, (2) why a veteran may be interested in a silent meditation retreat, (3) an overview of silent meditation retreats, and (4) resources in case you would like to learn more.

Selected Resources:

Outline of Episode:

  • Agenda
    • Background on Meditation
    • Why you might consider a meditation retreat
    • My experience with meditation retreats
    • Resources if you’re curious to learn more
    • Part 1: Background on Meditation
      • Dan Libby - episode 123 - veterans yoga projects
        • BTU #123 – The Veterans Yoga Project (Dr. Dan Libby)
        • http://beyondtheuniform.io/btu-123-the-veterans-yoga-project-dr-dan-libby/
        • Not about religion; christian pastor, jewish people, atheists, agnostics
        • Tool
        • Being present and aware of what is happening
        • Being honest of what is going on right now - in this moment
        • Not living in the future - dreaming of what might be, planning about what to do next
        • Not dwelling in the past -  beating ourself up for past mistakes, day dreaming about things that occurred in the past
        • But being present and open to this moment right here
        • And doing it without judgment
        • Being open to whatever the experience is
        • The realization is that this moment is all that we have
        • Even though oftentimes I live on autopilot
        • I drive to the store and don’t even remember how I got there
        • Or my wife is speaking to me at dinner and I’m thinking about a work related email I need to write
        • But instead trying to be fully present in each moment, curious about what is going on right now
        • John Kabatt Zinn - Raisin experiment
        • Many people could explain this more elqounty
        • will have resources at the end
        • but that it my headline, my teaser for the rest of this
        • Part 2: Why you might consider a meditation retreat
          • This actually came up in my recent Reprogramming seminar
          • As a group we talked about how a silent meditation retreat may be an extremely nice activity to do immediately after ones transition to a civilian career
          • So a few reasons I can think of
          • First - decompression
            • We’ll talk about the structure of the retreat, but it is an extreme unplug from our daily life, from the news, from email, from texting, from everything that keeps us distracted
            • And that might be an ideal way for many of you to take a step back from the 3 - 5 - 10 - 15 - 20 years you just spent doing what less than 1% of the population does or understands, serving in the US Military
            • Second - tapping into your intuition
              • My experience has not been a lot of reflection on these retreats
              • Instead it is about calming and settling
              • Being more aware of my mind, body, and intuiton
              • Getting rid of a lot of the cloudiness
              • SO i can actually pay better attention to my gut feel, to what is really going on in me
              • Muddy stream
              • Example post retreat with fundraising
              • Third - empathy
                • Many forms of retreats are great for cultivating empathy
                • This is something many veterans have cited as not being a strong suit for many veterans
                • Fourth - open to new experiences
                  • Comfort zone
                  • Budget for personal development
                  • Part 3: My experience with meditation retreats
                    • I started doing this 4 years ago
                    • My wife took me - kicking and screaming - to my first one
                    • Have found it to be by far the most rejuvenating experience in my life
                    • in a  way that no vacation is
                    • MBSR
                    • Weeklong
                    • Silent
                    • Structure of day
                    • Types
                      • Non judgment
                      • Insight
                      • Metta - cultivating kindness - oneself, those around you
                      • Part 4: Resources if you’re curious to learn more
                        • MBSR
                        • Stanford - Compassion class
                        • 10% Happier
                        • Search Inside yourself
                        • Email me
                        • Yoga