Meditation Changed My Life

For most of my twenties, I was depressed to one degree or another. I attended therapy and for a time, took anti-depressants. I developed binge eating disorder as an undergrad, and throughout my bachelor and master's programs, procrastinated terribly on my academic work out of anxiety.

So I know what it is to have a habitually sad, stuck, or agitated mind. I have lived it. I also know what it is to search high and low for answers--to be a self-help junkie. Though the desire to heal and improve oneself is a wholesome one, it can create yet another layer of restlessness and discontent, and I'm intimate with that dynamic as well.

When I was 29, I started exploring meditation. I was extremely skeptical, but I had struggled for a decade at that point. Through meditation and other mindfulness practices, I experienced a break from the turmoil of my thoughts and emotions that was unlike anything I had encountered before. Healing finally began, not by exerting myself and doing more, but the opposite--through being, through observation, through rest.

It wasn't long before I knew I had to share this wisdom tradition with others. My first forays into teaching showed me that my own practice is stronger when I'm actively involved in supporting someone else, which motivates me even further as a teacher! I am committed to a lifetime of learning and to continuous service--and I hope our paths cross.