I remember the first time I heard about meditation. It was a joke among some people making fun of those who believed in meditation and the way to inner peace. I got curious. So I started searching and looking for the answer to find out whether those meditators were really shallow, crazy hippies as some call them or there was something real in there.
The First Feeling
By coincidence I came across the book “8 Minute Meditation” written by Victor Davich. 8 minutes? Just sitting there in a secluded place with closed eyes. Is this even possible?
I closed my eyes and went on a trip through my mind, and it was amazing. For a year I was following the 8 minute meditation till someone on the other side of the world was packing bags to visit Egypt, the south of Aswan to do her first meditation retreat called MINA (peace in a local language). It was a complete sweet coincidence to come across the ad about the event “MINA meditation retreat”.
Inspiring Yana
And there I met her – Yana Yaneva, a very strong lady from Bulgaria, who inspires me personally. Yana is a certified meditation trainer and has travelled around the world, quitting the routine life and recovering from life wounds, and sharing her inner light with everyone regardless of their race, colour, genre and religion. Together we went through two days of inner peace time (meditation sessions), yoga and other peaceful activities, such as helping locals in their daily life with cleaning. Different people from different backgrounds could smoothly melt in each other, forming beautiful human reflections while our mobile phones stayed switched off to keep away from the daily hassle that we go through in our lives.
Helping with water
One of the most remarkable experiences happened while visiting a nice island in the Nile River. The island has no water station, and the locals have to hike almost 3 kilometres ascending and descending to get their daily need of water. Some of us cried learning this, and others experienced a new form of humanity, new form of life.
Yana’s inspiring talks and listening to the reflections have helped me continue my inner peace journey, later travelling to Thailand for a meditation training, then becoming a meditation coach to help my family, friends and everyone to know more about meditation and inner peace.
I want to thank everyone from Peace Revolution Community (Mirette Bahgat & Aya AbdelRahim) for hosting the retreat and helping Yana Yaneva deliver the message of peace to the peace seekers.