Shell offers these three talks (recorded live) as a way to help both newcomers and more experienced students make the most of the retreat experience; enjoy! 

WHAT TO EXPECT ON A SILENT RETREAT: Making the decision to experience an extended period of silence with others doing the same—whether it’s for one day, three, or longer—is a powerful commitment to yourself, your practice, and your life.  In order to make the most of this precious time, it can be useful to know what you might find once you’re there, and what to bring along with you—including attitudes and expectations. Shell brings her 30 years of experience in both attending and leading retreats to this unique teaching on how to make the most of what can be a truly transformational experience. (You can also read an article Shell wrote about this, here.)

WALKING MEDITATION – Instructions, Guided Practice, and Q&A: Though it’s considered an integral part of our formal meditation practice (especially while on retreat), walking meditation is something that is often not well-known in the West, or practiced, and can seem odd when we first try it. Yet, it can not only help the body refresh and rejuvenate between meditation periods, but can help us to take our practice “off the cushion” and into every single moment of our lives, so that we can become more and more aware of being fully embodied, experiencing the whole of our lives through all of our wonderful senses. In this audio, Shell “walks us through” this important practice. (*You can also read an article Shell wrote about walking meditation here.)

FALLING AWAKE TO LIFE – How We Can Work With Sleepiness in Our Practice: Especially when attending a meditation retreat, falling into sleep or a kind of dreaminess or even a sense of “nothingness” is a common experience, and it’s helpful to know how we can use our practice to work with these states, and discover more clarity, energy, and wakefulness not only in our practice, but in our daily lives. During this talk, Shell explores the often tricky hindrance of “sloth and torpor,” and give us some tips about how we can use our investigation of this state of body and mind to help us better “fall awake”to the experience of life itself – and enjoy a much better retreat experience, too.