I've been a software engineer for 15 years, have meditated with varying degrees of consistency for 10 years, and have taught meditation to peers, friends and the public for the last 3 years.
The conclusions reached in this article about the temporary nature of all states and experiences, as well as connecting with the wisdom of the body, resonate strongly with me. I'd add that the ability I have developed to monitor and redirect my thoughts, as well as enhanced concentration, are other direct benefits.
I believe you can see some benefits from meditation without embracing the full retreat experience. But a retreat is definitely a step-up and solidifies a lot of the lessons. I've done 8-day insight retreats which are a little less austere than Vipassana but seem to bring about similar states and changes.
The conclusions reached in this article about the temporary nature of all states and experiences, as well as connecting with the wisdom of the body, resonate strongly with me. I'd add that the ability I have developed to monitor and redirect my thoughts, as well as enhanced concentration, are other direct benefits.
I believe you can see some benefits from meditation without embracing the full retreat experience. But a retreat is definitely a step-up and solidifies a lot of the lessons. I've done 8-day insight retreats which are a little less austere than Vipassana but seem to bring about similar states and changes.
I wrote the story of how I ended up teaching meditation (I teach 8-week courses with similar content to MBSR). You can read it here if you are interested: http://www.geekmindfitness.com/mindfulness/why-this-software...
There's another write-up I did of how some of this affected my journey through anxiety, specifically impostor syndrome: http://www.geekmindfitness.com/mindfulness/how-mindfulness-m...