<p>The practice involves ten days of complete silence, ten hours of meditation per day, no phone or reading material, and a strict code of conduct including no eye contact between participants. It sounds extreme. The science suggests it works.</p><p>A 2018 study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that a ten-day Vipassana retreat produced significant reductions in anxiety, stress, and depression, alongside increases in mindfulness and equanimity, that persisted at six-month follow-up.</p><p>More striking is what practitioners report qualitatively: a fundamental shift in the relationship to sensation, emotion, and reactivity. Not a suppression of feeling, but a different relationship to it.</p><p>The retreats are conducted at purpose-built centres worldwide, following a standardised curriculum developed by S.N. Goenka. They are offered entirely by donation. The one thing required is commitment to complete the ten days.</p>
Tell AIVANA how you feel. The AI finds the exact programme.