Plenty of people find them valuable, but they're also a pretty extreme way to start out. To me it seems likely to turn people off; after all they're designed to be a kind of boot camp experience.
And then on the internet people are often bringing up how they sit in lotus posture for an hour every day...
People can discuss whatever they want and make whatever suggestions they want, of course, but I think it's all likely to construe meditation as necessarily tedious, painful, and time-consuming.
I'm curious, have you tried maintaining a habit of sitting for something like 10 or 5 minutes per day? In some non-contorted posture, like kneeling on a meditation bench?
Not to imply that "everyone should be able to do that" or whatever, but if all your attempts for years have been ambitious, that could be demotivating... whereas kneeling and breathing for 5 minutes is a great way to get started.
That said, I can't plead ignorance, just overconfidence. Since the retreat, I have lasted no longer than fifteen minutes at a time. I prefer lying down (I'm not tempted to sleep). It actually feels like I'm a worse meditator now than I was before the retreat, though I've been assured that this is a "sign of progress."
Truthfully, after maybe 140 hours of practice, I have doubts about the purported benefits. The ultimate aim, the end of suffering, seems like an impossible and likely undesirable goal. For now, I use it as needed to clear my mind when I need to focus.
The vipassana retreats are built on Buddhism (though the founder prefers to reformulate it in more secular terms) so it's not surprising that they're aimed towards some notion of nirvana.
At the very least, simple breathing exercises can be super obviously relaxing and mind-clearing. Lots of people do them for just ten breaths. Five minutes is quite a lot from that perspective, so I really think we shouldn't dismiss that kind of duration.
Walking meditation can also help prepare the mind for sitting practice: http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articl...
Easier said than believed when there's a sixty-year-old woman within view managing just fine without one ^^.
I actually appreciated the discipline of the retreat, I was just physically unprepared for the sitting (too inflexible). I'm open to other techniques, and when I'm alone I don't force myself into an uncomfortable posture. Thanks for the link.
I find its best to do 12 minutes in the morning, right when I wake up. No food yet or anything; just leave the bedroom, head to the corner of the room, hit my timer and go. 12 minutes is my happy medium, but it took some time to get there; I started at 3 (can't argue with 3 minutes) then doubled it to 6, then doubled it to 12. On the weekends I do 24, and often times more. But the key was building up from that initial 3 minute daily commitment.
I know everyone hears this all the time, but Meditation is the greatest thing. Hard to explain unless you do it every day, but it has such a wonderful transformative power. Its really helped improve my code, too.