About Jill
How I Found Meditation
My story starts like so many others who turn to meditation - I was having trouble sleeping and felt growing anxiety about a number of things. What do people advise you to do? Meditate. Do any of these advice-givers meditate? No. So I went searching and tried lots of techniques:
I listened as a lady’s voice guided me through fields of lavender.
I focused on my breath.
I repeated affirmations.
I downloaded an app.
I sang a japa meditation.
The japa meditation was by far my favorite, but I still kept searching for something better.
Then I heard about Vedic Meditation.
There’s a quote by Thomas Henry Huxley (a contemporary of Darwin; I had to look him up, maybe you would too) that sums up the feeling I had when I first heard about VM:
“Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.”
Or in my parlance: When I have a eureka moment, which could potentially solve all my current problems, I delay. I delayed because of 2 reasons. 1) It seemed too good to be true and 2) it cost something and I was used to Googling meditation techniques and getting them for free.
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So I delayed a year. I held on to my skepticism that it would offer all it pledged to offer, but I kept searching and not finding what I was looking for. Thankfully my curiosity won and I learned.
Soon after learning, I experienced the following:
Sleeping through the night
Less migraines
More patience
Energy after lunch
Overall sense of happiness for no particular reason
Honestly, the list goes on. But there’s a saying, “promise low, deliver high.” So I’ll leave it at that.
Clearly I felt the upside, because several years after learning I trained to become a teacher with Thom Knoles, the world’s foremost teacher of Vedic Meditation.
Thom’s teacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, sums it up so well, “It’s human to share something particularly good if one has it. Something that exhilarates one’s heart - we immediately want to transfer it to those around us whom we love.” And that would be me.
More Things About Me
From the hours of 3-7, Monday through Friday, my calendar is full of things that my car is doing.
Yes, I’m a mom of children who need to use their bikes more.
I live in an amazing city north of downtown LA, where if I didn’t have a car I wouldn’t need one. That said, I am a Los Angeleno so of course I have a car and from time to time I do get in my car to drive 2 blocks away.
Yes, I live in South Pasadena.
I was born and raised in Michigan where I received a BA from U of M. I ventured west to California, earned a MFA from Loyola Marymount and worked in the film industry. After recovering, I moved into personal finance in addition to teaching Vedic Meditation.
I was part of a group effort to be in the Guinness Book of World Records.
BTW - I think they’ve dropped “Book” from their title, which dates me. In defiance, I’m still going to call them that, which dates me further. But I use terms like BTW, which helps me stay hip with the kids.
No, I won’t tell you here what I won. Sign up for an intro talk to find the answer.