You are invited to join Vicki. Beginners welcome – even if you’ve never meditated before feel free to come along.
I am a 57 year old woman who has been married for 30 years, raised two beautiful and successful sons and ran a family business with her husband for 15 years. About 5 years ago we sold the business and I found myself retired at 52 yrs old. This was the first time in 22 years that I had time for myself and I knew that I wanted to do something to give back to people and my community.
About fourteen years ago my oldest son who was eight at the time was facing some health issues. Seeing my child’s life change overnight turned my world upside down.
I found myself being strong in front of my family, but when I was alone I was uncontrollably sobbing, depressed, anxious and became a complete insomniac as I lay awake each night desperately trying to find the best physicians or the latest treatments that would help him and have our lives could go back to normal.
During this time I went to my physician who recommended I see a therapist to deal with the pain, sadness and frustration that I was going through. Needless to say, the doctor put me on anti-depressants. As time went on I discovered I needed to up my dosage to make me feel the same calming effects. The problem was, I wasn’t feeling anything. I became emotionless. I found myself unable to cry at a funeral and I felt like I was living in a fog. It was then that I was introduced to meditation by my dearest friend who was suffering from Stage 4 cancer. She gave me the audio tapes of the ones she liked and we began to discuss on a daily basis how beneficial we thought they were to a good night’s sleep. Little by little I began adapting meditation into my life and the lives of family. We would practice together and discovered that we were at peace again even if it was for a short while.
Weeks turned into months and this new feeling of happiness and a sense of calm was occurring more frequently and was lasting throughout the day. I decided I was going to get off of my medication and try living life again. Since then I have signed up for an eight week Mindful Meditation course offered by a renowned hospital in our area, have taken a six month courses online, and private meditation coaching. For the past two years I have been teaching Mindful Meditation classes for a doctor’s office where I generally have 3-4 students one night a week.