blondeaozichick: don't know if I would be able to keep silent for 10hrs and what about lunch and dinner?? if you only get breakfast then it will probably be easy to be silent for 10hrs.. I'll probably be passed out from starvation and the 4.30am starts!! that is just cruel
lunch but no dinner . . only a cup of tea . . . which is why breakfast is so damn good . . second time around (which i'll do early next year) you only get breakfast and nothing after that.
and the silent thing was surprisingly easy (and i'm a talker!!)
it was more difficult to begin talking again after the ten days. somehow it just didnt seem necessary. i found the silence intensified my other senses and i became exquisitely sensitive to everything aorund me. the early starts were almost surreal but weirdy enjoyable (but i wouldnt want to do it in the winter . . brrrr!!!)
what i did find hard was not exercising and even harder was not being able to write . . . so much was happening for me on the inside and i wanted to remember it.
and after the first day or two i began having the most increrdibly vivid dreams . . .
and for a month or two after the retreat i had some amazing experiences . . i felt so very alive . . but thats a whole different story.
and yes theres no denying its hard.