A MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER
I feel like my personal practice and embodiment of mindfulness has been the most impactful on my teachings of mindfulness to others. I came across mindfulness during my search for an intervention. Having just had my second son, trying to balance teaching and being a wife and mother had become an almost impossible task. I became combative, resentful, and a constant swirl of chaos, and it started to show up everywhere and at any time. I was desperate for effective, sustainable, and positive change, and the signs were all over that mindfulness was a good start. It’s funny what is presented in front of you when you are ready for it!
My first sitting meditation was a guided practice using the app Headspace. There was an invitation to focus on my breath, and when I attempted to do so, I panicked. I quickly had to open my eyes and shift my attention away from my breath in order to stop what I felt like was a panic attack when I wanted to be feeling some peace. I saw this as information. The information was that I was so wrapped up in anxiety and frustration, that I couldn’t even be still and comfortably focus on one thing. It took persistence and patience to be able to focus on my breath as a tool for feeling focused and quiet. Once that happened, I was more open to all that having a mindfulness practice can offer.
Fast forward to now. I am a dedicated mindfulness meditator, and I try every day to sit in stillness, whether it’s for two minutes or an hour. Because of my dedication to the practice and embedding mindfulness into my everyday life, I can, with integrity, embody these skills and show up with the truth that mindfulness changed my life for the better. I show up in this way for all the children and adults I work with. There is still a tornado of life quite often, but now, the tornado is outside of me and not inside. I have become an observer of it more often now than getting caught up in it, and I have the tools to be with what is and the resilience to get through all of life’s ups and downs.
I write this with much gratitude and love for every person, experience, and emotion that has come along with this journey of mine.
Whatever this journey can be for you, I want to give you all the tools you want and need to be enough as you are AND more.