Josh Trent: Vipassana Meditation: A Spartan Race For The Mind

"In my life I've done a lot of physical things like marathons, challenge races and weight training, but vipassana was one of the hardest things I've ever done because it was so dependent purely on the mind. When we work out and go through physical pain, you can push through it because there's a stimulus there. When you sit in silence, the hardest part about it is that's there is nothing else to do besides face your thoughts, face your feelings, and face what's going on inside." - Josh Trent   Vipassana Meditation - 10 Days In The Desert of Your Soul Today's show welcomes fitness and wellness celebrity Scott Colby as our guest host interviewing Wellness Force Founder, Josh Trent, on his 10 day Vipassana meditation experience in Joshua Tree, CA at the Dhamma Southern California Vipassana Center . This episode is for you if you've never meditated in your life and it has always been something you've wanted to try, or even if you're a seasoned meditator looking for that next step on how to grow your life's practice. We're also going to discuss Scott Colby's partnership with Pencils of Promise and his incredible service to Guatemalan children schools through the "say it with gratitude stationary sets" fund raiser towards the end of the episode which Wellness Force is honored to support.   Why do hundreds of thousands of people globally complete an annual vipassana? Most students embark on a vipassana with the intention to achieve greater inner peace and harmony through the mental training of "thought purification" which allows one to face life's tensions and problems in a calm, balanced way. Vipassana meditation, essentially, is a practice of what founder Mr. S.N. Goenka calls "The Art of Living" that one can use to get out of their own way to begin making greater positive contributions in society. This may sound empowering and healing, which many studies report to be true, but be warned: this practice is not for everyone, rather it is only for the one who feels called to it at the right time in their life. As Yogi & Best-selling Author Karan Bajaj says: "Just sitting with your spine erect for eleven hours a day can be a challenge, now add complete silence and two sparse meals a day to it, and you’re guaranteed some level of physical and emotional agony."   Why You Get To Do A Vipassana Meditation is a essentially a practice that teaches focusing attention inwards. This could be done with a mantra, breathing techniques, or by using visualizations. There are numerous ways to practice meditation, and all of them center around becoming more self aware. The main difference of vipassana however is found in its technique of "body scanning" that students learn through a process of relaxation without the normal stimuli of instant gratification it has become so accustomed to and even in some cases, addict