What Happens When You Stop Talking & Turn Inward

Reflections From a 3-day Silent Retreat in Mazunte, Mexico

I’m a talker. I’m an extrovert. I’m a classic over-sharer. I’m a host and a musician. I like to perform, tell jokes, scream into the microphone, and then stay up late talking about it, talking about LIFE!

Taking three days to just shut up is a challenge for anyone, but I knew that for myself, it would be extremely difficult.

As I was getting ready to make the trip down the coast from Puerto Escondido (home) to Mazunte for the retreat, multiple friends said some version of, “Have fun!” Every time, I responded “Thanks, I’ll try,” while thinking There’s no fucking way this will be fun.

Hard. Interesting. Profound. Slow. Memorable. Hard. Did I say hard? Those are the words that came to mind. They are the root experiences I was expecting.

Primarily, I was trying to approach the long weekend with an open mind. I wasn’t expecting to have an epiphany or major breakthrough. I was hoping to survive it. I was hoping to learn something and to have something interesting to write about. (Thanks for reading!)

Then… Why Did I Book It?

I booked the retreat about four months ago after googling “silent retreat…