Preparing for IMS unification of mind/concentration retreat
I'm planning on taking the IMS unification of mind retreat in July (So 3 months to prepare, basically from 0).
I'm curious how it's different from the usual insight meditation retreat and how best to prepare for it. I've never developed deep concentration, definitely never Jhana.
Background: I've done about a dozen insight/Vipassana weeklongs and one 6 week retreat, but most of that was prior to trauma healing and gender transition, so there was a lot of dissociation & spiritual bypass.
My practice used to be about 30 mins daily for over a year (some skips but not a lot) till last October, and then I fell off completely. I'm trying to reboot now up to 20 3-5x per week. I'm not there yet.
I'd like to be up to at least 30mins daily prior to retreat.
That's the background. I'm curious what the concentration retreat is like for those who have done it (or the Spirit Rock one, which should be very similar).
I'm also not sure if I should focus on loving kindness or Anapana or both in the next few months. Guided or silent? How long should my longest (weekend) sits be? (2 hrs would be about the longest I've done when I had a very steady practice -- that's probably unreasonable for me in the next couple of months).
There are several centers near me including a Goenka center that has daylongs every weekend. I'm guessing I should prioritize attending daylongs when possible?
IDK, I guess I want to take this seriously, and not waste the opportunity. I have trouble taking things as seriously as they merit.