I remember going to my first nine-day silent meditation retreat eight years ago when I was living in Perth, Australia. I was nervous beforehand because I couldn’t imagine being silent for that long. I worried about "imagined" tragedies and events that I would miss out on and wondered if the world would be ok without my voice for nine days. Despite my hesitation, the experience was extremely peaceful, restful and insightful. And the biggest insight I had was that there was a l