Vipassana meditation is my personal practice.  The word Vipassana means “to see things as they really are.”

I did my first 10 day silent retreat in India in 2016. Since then I've sat and served a few retreats a year both in Ireland and abroad.  

My first retreat was hard. Really hard. Hard to face the ways in which I was not being true to myself.  Hard to know what I didn't want to know. Very uncomfortable to hear my wild mind amplified- the negativities, the worries, the imaginings, the existential woes.  

But it was also the most interesting thing I'd ever done in my life:  to know the habit patterns of my mind more deeply and to understand that there's a way to stop being a slave to these habit pattern reactions- the craving for things to be different to how they are right now.  I learned that we can develop our equanimity. 

I'd never heard of equanimity, but it means "not to lose the balance of your mind". It's an acceptance of reality as it is. It's not about being inactive or a walkover because we just accept everything... instead it means that we are not emotionally volatile about what has happened. We are aware and level-headed and that enables us to make choices about what to do from a calm and centred place. 

Vipassana isn't just a daily meditation practice. The practice is part of a broader path. The eightfold path gives guidance on developing our ethical conduct (right speech, action and livelihood), our concentration (right concentration, effort, mindfulness), and our wisdom (right view and intention).  

This path was taught by Gotama the Buddha over 2,500 years ago and has been preserved and passed down over the years by monks and nuns. It started being taught to lay-people in more recent times, predominantly by SN Goenka, a Burmese Indian householder. There are now over 380 Vipassana centres around the world. 

This practice continues to be so beneficial to me in how I live, work, and relate to others. Through this ancient technique, I’ve come to know myself more deeply, respond to life with more equanimity, and step out of patterns that were quietly creating stress and suffering – both for me and those around me.