Returning to the Quiet: Relearning Who We Are

There are moments in life when the only thing left to do is listen.

I remember the first time I left for my ten-day silent retreat — a Vipassana — back in the wake of 2020. I was carrying a lot. Stress from life, from business, from trying to hold it all together. I had started working with a coach who was helping me prepare for the unknown.

At the time, I had no idea what I was truly stepping into. My coach intentionally left out a few key details about what Vipassana entailed — and I’m so glad he did. Because if I had known, I might not have gone.

No amount of one-hour silent sits at home could have prepared me for what was waiting. The stillness cracked me open.

The pain was indescribable — physical, emotional, spiritual. It felt as if I was lying on a bed of knives, while trains roared through my body. But I stayed. I honored the process. I sat in the grass. I stared at trees. I whispered to bugs. I choreographed dances I would never remember.

And somewhere in the silence, I met myself.

I learned how to truly let go — not out of fear, but out of love. I realized that when we cling too tightly to what we love, we suffocate it. We stop it from becoming what it’s meant to be.

When I emerged from that retreat, I understood that I had been releasing more than just my own pain. I was releasing what wasn’t mine — old family trauma, collective grief, remnants of stories I no longer needed to carry.

When I told my coach about the pain, he said something that changed me:

 “It’s because you are meant to feel deeply — and for so long, you denied your feelings.”

That was the beginning of my understanding of impermanence — that everything, even pain, is temporary. Everything moves, flows, and shifts. The good. The bad. The quiet.

And when we can sit in that truth, we find gratitude for all of it.

Because how lucky am I to feel?
How lucky am I to be here, experiencing life in all its fullness?

Now, years later, I feel the call again — to return to silence. To myself.

So from November 5th through the 16th, I’ll be away — completely offline. No phone. No email. No responsibility. Just me, my body, my mind, and my truth.

As I step away, I invite you to pause too. Maybe not for ten days — but for a few moments. To listen. To feel. To remember who you are beneath the noise.

Journal Prompts to Help You Align with Love + Truth

• What does “truth” feel like in your body right now?

• What parts of you are asking to be heard or held?

• Where are you gripping too tightly? What might happen if you loosen your hold?

• How do you define love — not in concept, but in action?

• What would it mean to live in deeper alignment with both love and truth?

May you find peace in your pauses. May you trust the stillness to show you what’s next.