“attend to the vibrancy within…”

- Lorin Roche, The Radiance Sutras

Background

I studied Communication Arts at Allegheny College in PA, not far from my hometown of Erie. I was a striving student and a springboard diver on the Swimming & Diving Team. I was perpetually “on” and active in many school organizations. My grades and accolades reflected that. After college I worked in public relations at Disney and then for a firm in Phoenix.

I came to realize that PR actually wasn’t totally aligned with my nature, and I took a role as the assistant to the CEO at GE Transportation, eventually working for the Vice Chairman and changing companies with him when he decided to run The Nielsen Company in New York. I was successful, but I didn’t feel it.

When I had my first daughter, I slowed down enough to begin dealing with the anxiety and depression that I had been pushing through for years while forcing myself in directions that weren’t quite right for me. I had decided to stay home with her and the transition was jarring. I began yoga and took to it so quickly that my instructors asked me to teach. My yoga training at Saraswati’s Yoga Joint in Connecticut brought about an inner awakening, and the breath-work alone was transformative for my mental health.

My fascination with yoga gave me a method to listen to myself and repair my relationship to my center. My asana practice guided me into a love of meditation through Lorin Roche’s The Radiance Sutras. I became a devoted student of Lorin’s and my meditation practice ignited a deep introspection. This led me to gifted mentors and healers in several related modalities.

Since then, my practice has moved through many dark nights and revelations; some of which have been unspeakably painful and some that have been wildly ecstatic. And I fully expect that meditation will continue to offer me this type of transformation for the rest of my life.

Now, I regularly engage in meditation trainings and collaborations with other teachers, scholars, healers and writers. And then I have long periods when needed where I meditate all day long (until my girls get out of school) for months at a time. I have done fourteen formal meditation trainings, where I am always inspired and find new ways to more closely align with my center. And then, of course, the metabolizing of that knowledge tends to happen through the agitations and delights of life: in the spaces in between.

This practice for me is constantly evolving and teaching me about itself. And the clients with whom I get to collaborate, also continuously teach me about this practice and activate new creativity in my approach.

Ultimately, meditation for me is medicine. It’s the discipline of being a student to my own freedom. And it’s the map I’ve used to come home to myself.