Since 2007, I’ve been practicing Vipassana meditation, both formally and on my own, taking part in multiple ten-day meditation retreats. I give the meditation credit for helping pull me from many unproductive and destructive life patterns that I’d developed over the years. We’re taught that bad habits come with three levels of intensity: those equal to a line drawn in the water, which easily disappears; those on par with a line drawn in the sand, which proper winds and waves will cover over; and finally, bad habits so deeply ingrained, that to change them is like smoothing over a line etched in stone.

After completing my first of these meditation retreats, which run exclusively on donations and volunteer work, I felt compelled to take part in the exact same volunteer work from which I’d benefited while a student.

Regarding the origin of the Walk of Inspiration Across America, in the lead up to Thanksgiving of 2008, I had signed up for a series of volunteer work commitments across the winter months, in Latin America. Upon enthusiastically receiving my volunteer work confirmation, I purchased my plane ticket. Once I clicked “purchase,” it was as if some misunderstood clouds of confusion had cleared, and in a moment of the most extreme epiphanic clarity, as sure as the sun rises every morning, I was to embark on an epic Walk of Inspiration Across America in 2009, upon returning home from a voluntouristic semester in Latin America.

“The Walk is about 98% mental. Sure, I need my legs to get from one town to the next, but without faith and devotion, these legs would go nowhere.” Meditation has been my primary tool to keep me mentally strong. Meditation can simply be explained as focus– solid, refined focus– the greater the focus, the more effective the result.

Spending the summer at home, I was privileged to be able to spend a month at Vipassana meditation centers, both as a volunteer worker and a student, placing me in a premier mindset for returning to the road.

Vipassana meditation is a meditation technique open to all people– including all people of all faiths. I strongly believe the technique would be of use to one and all, and scientific evidence now points to tremendous benefits from specific meditation practices.

For some, Vipassana is the only ingredient in their “spiritual soup.” This is definitely not the case for me. While it’s 100% true that I still experiment in the kitchen, it’s just as true that I remain open to all interpretations of faith and spirituality, practices which lead to the greater benefit of one and all, perfectly in line with Jesus’ “love thy neighbor” teachings…