I immediately said, "Yes" when our publisher, Holly Johnson, offered me the opportunity to get away for a couple of days with her and attend meditation classes at the Kripalu Yoga Retreat in Massachusetts. The idea of a new experience thrilled me. I had never heard of Kripalu and so I went without expectations and with an open mind.

The one thing I did know about the meditation classes is that a local Vermonter, Teal Scott, taught them. Scott teaches young minds at the King Street Youth Center here in Burlington. The program, titled, "Mind the Music" is sponsored by Wind Ridge Publishing and began in October of 2008. It aims to help disadvantaged teens learn how to focus and discover their dreams and aspirations amid life's difficulties and noisy distractions. I attended one of these meditation classes in August of 2009, and thoroughly enjoyed the meditation techniques put to modern music, which included gentle instruction to "relax, sound, feel, and focus on positive."

With this previous experience in mind, I was ready to meditate at the Kripalu retreat from Sunday evening to mid-day Tuesday of last week.

We (Holly, her son, Charlie, his friend Albin, and I) arrived at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday evening for our first session - directly following our four-hour car ride. The Kripalu Retreat is located in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, on the top of a hill overlooking a small lake and the mountains. We arrived in the dark evening hours, which was a bit of a pity because in the morning we discovered breathtaking views just outside our windows.

Our first session began as soon as we entered the retreat. Once we found our way to the appropriate room we began our meditative journey of listening to the talk inside our minds and learning how to pay attention to that talk and acknowledge what it is saying.

At first, this meditation technique was for me hard to focus on, but eventually I learned how to bring the center of my attention consistently back to my thoughts. My mind often buzzes with deliberations about the world around me and this "buzz" constantly interrupts my sleep. This technique allowed me to think about every single tiny thing going on in my life: the wedding, family, work, faith, and then, when I was done thinking about these many things and I realized that everything was going to work out, my mind was at peace. Scott also taught the 12 other participants (three of whom were students from the King Street Youth Center) and me how to focus on the rhythm or "flow" of this talk within us.

My least favorite technique dealt with physical discomfort. Sitting cross-legged on cushions is much more difficult than it looks. Emotionally, one of two things happens during physical discomfort: you talk yourself out of feeling the pain, or you feel the flow of the pain - any vibration, strained muscles, or throbbing that flows through the body.

For 15 minutes I forced myself to sit cross legged on the floor with cushions and some back support. I felt uncomfortable, antsy, and unable to focus. I was happy to share my experience after we were done. Scott always looked for feedback from the group after a technique to see what we each experienced.

"I didn't like that," I stated emphatically. Scott had me explain my feelings, and then went into a discussion about resisting pain, and how this makes the pain worse. He also explained that he had recently been through surgery and had practiced these techniques post surgery and did not have to take pain medication. Believing in what Scott said, I further practiced the physical discomfort technique the next day, and lo and behold, the less I resisted the pain, the more it dissipated. Although my pain did not completely disappear, the meditation lessened it to a great degree.

In between meditation, Holly and I took a gentle yoga class, which was simply wonderful. Stretching our bodies out after sitting for two and a half hour meditation sessions was a great balance and physical relief. About 40 other people joined us in a large open room. The sun was pouring in through the large windows and the teacher had a gentle, soft voice that in itself was soothing and extremely relaxing. As an ending to the class, the teacher did a resting exercise where she slowly spoke to us about relaxing each and every point in our body. She started at the head, ears, and face, and mentioned each part of our bodies down to the tips of our toes.

If I had to pick one thing about the couple of days that I didn't like, I suppose it would have to be the food. Served cafeteria style, the vegetarian and vegan fare was not quite my cup of tea. The one bit of meat I had the entire two days was chicken pot pie that was sorely lacking any kind of herb, flavor, or seasoning. And one morning my French toast had the essence of cardboard. Now don't get me wrong, I like to eat healthy, but I also like my spices and all-around yumminess.

Aside from that, I returned to work Tuesday evening feeling as though my mind was clear and my heart was ready to accept whatever came next in life.

Meditation may not be for everyone, but now, as far as I am concerned, the important thing is to make it your own and personalize it to fit your lifestyle and beliefs. The results are likely the same: a positive outlook on life and a mind more at ease.