My Story - From Insurance Exec to Meditation Teacher
I was 32, post divorce, post bowel cancer, finally back in the swing of things after a 12 month chemo & surgery hiatus. I’d been headhunted to a great role at German industrial, HDI Gerling after 12 years at AIG specialising in Management Liability & business development. I was struck again with an emergency surgery for a bowel obstruction (a complication from the scar tissue of earlier surgeries).
Organ surgeries are no small deal. I was 35kg (being petite, I didn’t have much to spare) after not eating for 13 days. It was 4 weeks before I could walk further than 10 steps. I was frustrated & very low. After already going through so much, to be back in this state was a blow. Something happens in these times of crisis, a galvanising, a digging deep and then the alchemy of transformation. I needed to do something, I didn’t have much energy, but my inner state needed attention - I started googling meditation.
Without someone to recommend a style/teacher to me, I tried a couple of styles - online apps (which didn’t shift the dial), a Buddhist technique (which I found difficult to do and wasn’t drawn to) and then Vedic Meditation. Within days I felt significantly better - the deep rest this style provides means it’s deeply restorative for the body (which was ideal for the healing I required) & releases fatigue & stress at an accelerated rate - my energy and mood were lifting dramatically. I felt clear in my head (at a level I couldn’t recall ever feeling), I was seeing everything with a broader perspective and it felt like a form of rest my body had been looking for my whole life.
I returned to work and was in the swing of meditating twice a day. I’d meditate first thing in the morning and then again mid-afternoon, often in the shower room at work - not exactly a meditation sanctuary but it had a folding seat I could sit on, the door locked and that’s all I needed. I was burnt out from years of working hard & playing hard, from the treatment & surgeries I’d had and the emotional turmoil. By early afternoon I would be crashing hard - looking for a 2nd/3rd coffee and desperate for a nap. Sitting to meditate gave me a huge energy boost (without the subsequent adrenal crash) and a clear head, I could return to my desk, chase more leads and develop strategies - something that I hadn’t been able to do in the afternoon for a long time. Sometimes I’d meditate at 5/5.30pm before heading to a broker event to top up on the social energy I needed. I was nicer - that stress edge I’d always had was softening away, but my mind was sharper than ever. I was sleeping better - my classic 3am wakeup had fallen away & I was finally waking up feeling rested or could top up with meditation. I travelled a lot for work domestically & internationally and meditating on planes was incredible for offsetting jet lag and travel fatigue, I arrived clear and ready for meetings. Feeling less stressed was enabling me to be more present, to pick up on greater subtleties in meetings & to have better ideas.
It was a game changer to say the least. Why wasn’t everyone doing this? It was so easy, it felt so good and the results were profound. It started to occur to me that what I really needed was some time out give my health some deeper attention and I was being pulled in a new direction, I just wasn’t sure what that was yet. I spent some time in India doing an intensive Ayurvedic healing & detoxification protocol known as Panchakarma, and after a long application process, I embarked upon training to be a teacher of Vedic Meditation.
I wanted to share this technique with others, it felt like the most ideal use of my time and talents, but I was worried - would I ever make money again? Would I change so much that I’d lose all my friends? Would anyone want to learn from me, would I be any good as a teacher? My dad went white when I told him and took 2 days to recover, would everyone react like this? Nonetheless, despite these fears, the direction felt clear - another benefit of my meditation practice.
I spent 8 months completing the prerequisite advanced courses and then spent three months full-time in one of the most intensive and rigorous meditation teacher training programs that exist, in the foothills of the Himalayas. The experiences I had, the knowledge I gained, the consciousness state I left in cannot be done justice here.
I returned first to Australia, then ultimately to my home of NZ for 6 years then back to the Northern Beaches of the city I love, Sydney. Since that time I’ve taught almost 1000 people to meditate self sufficiently & with ease. I’ve taken people on immersive retreats in NZ, Bali, Byron & India. I’ve mentored clients privately through periods of transition & transformation, pain, breakdown & breakthroughs. I’ve run hundreds of group meditations to support people in their ongoing practice. It’s incredibly satisfying work and I’m always grateful that I found this practice and get to share it with others.
Do I regret the move from insurance? Absolutely not, it was and continues to be the right direction for me. Do I wish I’d made that move earlier? No, I value my time in insurance, the people I met and experiences gained. I practised this technique while working a demanding, full time corporate job which helps me to teach others how to integrate it into daily life, with a key understanding of the challenges and pressures of those roles and the benefits meditation can provide. I particularly enjoy returning to teach insurance colleagues to meditate.
To anyone considering exploring meditation I say, forget the stereotypes - it benefits everyone and absolutely anyone can learn.
If you’d like to know more about the style I practice and teach, Vedic Meditation, visit my website here or to join a free Intro talk, book here.
