To know how I arrived here, we have to go all the way back to 1992. Every Monday night, eight of us waited for the 100% lovable, yet fierce, 60-something year-old yoga teacher to unlock the elementary school classroom door. We pushed aside tables and art easels to make room for our paper-thin, blue sticky mats. Each of us practiced for different reasons. I wanted to become fit. Maybe meet boys. Yoga worked.

I found my place in my body. I spent many years and thousands of hours on the yoga mat. Except, I never felt like I could meditate.

My mind raced. I made to-do lists in my head during Savasana. I felt like the worst meditator ever. There was no way I was ever going to clear my mind.

Eventually, I came to terms with the idea that I would never learn to meditate, but I could still strive to be an excellent yoga teacher.

On April 26, 2015, everything changed.

I was working as the Senior Manager of Digital Products at the Chopra Center. I had been listening to guided meditations for the last few years without noticing much benefit or gaining the inner stillness I craved.

Then one day, I heard Deepak say, “Thoughts during meditation are not obstacles. They are a sign that stress has been released.”

I received my personal bija (seed) sound, my Primordial Sound mantra: the sound vibration the universe was making at the moment of my birth.

Mantra meditation is the easiest thing I have ever done. Primordial Sound meditation was like coming home to myself. I have meditated every day since then. My life has completely transformed. I experience less anxiety, greater compassion (for both myself and others) and true inner peace.