Abigail Somma

When Abigail Somma’s twins were one and a half, she needed a break from her daily duties — so she decided to take a meditation teacher training once a week. When her kids were 3, she took another class. By that point, she figured it was time to start teaching, and a local business owner asked her to teach about mindfulness in parenting. She worried she was the wrong person for the job — she struggled with the sleep deprivation and endless demands of being a parent. “You’re exactly the person who should be teaching this class,” her sister told her. “You didn’t enjoy it, but you found the beauty in it anyway.” Abigail’s path to meditation began with a desire to live more meaningfully. “Of all the things I’ve tried, and I’ve tried many, it was meditation that helped me to understand that while our brains may have been wired a certain way, the power to rewire them — toward more fulfillment, resilience, and purpose — is in our hands,” she says. She currently teaches a number of classes related to mindfulness and formerly worked as a speechwriter for United Nations figureheads, celebrities, and business personalities. She has worked for a range of other organizations, including the World Bank, UNICEF, think tanks, and NGOs.