What Meditation Did For My Sanity

In 2015, I experienced the most challenging year of my life. As a public school teacher, I was stressed to the max. I loved my students and was giving 110% to support them, but the pace I was going at was unsustainable.

Problems started to pile up. I got into a car accident that caused a neck injury. Then I got strep throat. Soon after, I broke out into a pesky rash from my shoulders to my toes. This itchy, blotchy, dry, red rash that covered me from head to toe persisted for four straight months. Nothing I tried would make it go away, and no doctor could figure out what it was or what to do about it.

Because of my health and stress issues, I developed anxious thoughts. I experienced crippling panic attacks that made me drop to the floor. It felt as if my throat was closing up on me. My life was spiraling, and I believed my body and mind betrayed me.

I Decided Enough Was Enough

I saved up money and booked a summer trip to the jungles of Costa Rica, where I planned to teach yoga and English as a work-trade opportunity. This decision is the radical act that saved me. I spent three months living in Costa Rica and took time to get serious about my physical and mental health. I am confident the sea salt, sand, sun, and stress-free lifestyle allowed my body to heal.

While I was there, I began meditating every single day. Meditation was something I was familiar with as an avid yogi, but it wasn’t a consistent part of my daily routine. The summer of 2015 is when I made meditation my daily prayer.

Every day, I read works by yogis who integrated meditation into their practice, and I began to implement these structures into mine. Little by little, I started to feel like myself again — I could feel and see the shifts in my body, especially on my skin.

By mid-August, I couldn’t believe it: My rash was entirely gone. Not only that but my skin and mind were the clearest they had ever been.

What Meditation Did for Me

I found a new sense of gratitude for life and the beautiful beings surrounding me through clarity. Meditation now helps me live an aligned lifestyle where things can flow more easily, and when they don’t, I know what to do.

Like the Zen proverb says, “If you don’t have time to meditate for one hour, then you should meditate for two hours.”

If I hadn’t taken the plunge to visit Costa Rica, I might have never discovered the life-changing remedy of meditation. I truly believe your body is a vessel that carries your soul, and you’ve got to do what you can to keep it in tip-top shape so that you can get back to being your highest self — serving the world, leading out your life purpose, and inspiring others to do the same.

Try this class, Self-Compassion Meditation to Relax by meditation teacher Lisa Kring, to experience how meditation can prepare your body for relaxation and restoring balance. 

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