Today I went to a meditation retreat at the East Bay Meditation Center. I don't know if 'retreat' is quite the right word to use, since for me it was a head on confrontation with my anxiety riddled mind and my own compulsive behaviors. Fortunately, I was able to do this in a very supportive environment and with a great guide, Mushim. Rather than coming off as a stern disciplinarian, she was really warm and funny, telling stories of her own experiences and challenges concerning meditation in ways that made the class laugh out loud more than once. The rest of the class were all very friendly and, for a group of beginners (the topic was "Beginning a Meditation Practice"), they got into it pretty deeply. Not much shuffling around or complaining of an inability to focus properly, not even from me! My new year's resolution is to cultivate a meditation practice, and I felt that today was a very important first step towards doing that. Afterwards I definitely felt a reduction both in the amount of anxiety I felt and in the need for external stimulation. Looking forward to more of this soon.
