My Story

Early years with meditation

I discovered meditation in my early 20s in Argentina, where I am originally from. At that moment, I was going through a highly stressful period while undertaking full-time Engineering school and working at a bank at the same time. Seeking personal development skills, I attended a course where I learnt to meditate using guidance and visualisations. This simple technique sparked my curiosity on the potential of a regular meditation practice in managing stress and living a richer life in the present moment. Around this time, I also started reading about some of Osho’s contemplative techniques which I practised on and off for a while.

Breathing techniques

A few years later, I started a two-year long MBA in Boston (USA) where I experienced even higher levels of stress. The school was dealing with significant mental health issues within the student population, mostly due to academic and career pressure, and offered several alternative programs to support its students’ mind and body health. It was at that school that I did the Art of Living course, which I repeated once more while I was living in New York City (NYC) a couple of years afterwards. The technique’s breathing exercises were fantastic to release stress, and really supported my mental health through business school and when I was burn out of my fast-paced job in NYC. 

Mindfulness

Fast forward a few years and I became a mum of a gorgeous special needs boy and moved to Australia. The grind and worries of trying to manage a job, parenting and medical needs, became overwhelming and I said yes when a dear friend asked me to join her for a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course. I thoroughly enjoyed learning the technique, and practised as much as I could during a period of about two years.

Learning Vedic meditation

All the techniques mentioned above significantly benefited me and helped me to be more present and less stressed. However, I found it difficult to practise them on a regular basis. I found that the exercises were hard for me, often I felt frustrated thinking that I was practising incorrectly, and that I had to depend on an audio file to meditate. No matter how hard I tried, I could not stick to a daily meditation. Unfortunately, no technique helps much if we do not practise them daily.

In 2016 when I was moving back from Melbourne to Auckland, I was under a lot of pressure and not coping very well even while trying to use the tools I had learnt in the past. Fortunately, a dear woman who I am deeply grateful to, introduced me to Vedic meditation. She mentioned that it had changed her life, that was super effective, totally self-sufficient, and easier to practise than anything she had tried before. I was a bit reluctant to try another technique, but I knew that she was an experienced meditator and committed to a twice daily practice, and that she had also tried other techniques before. So, I took the plunge and signed-up for the course. It was one of the best time and money investments I have ever done. 

I found this technique to be much easier than anything I had practised before, and therefore, I was finally able to create and maintain a regular daily meditation habit. Since then, my life became an unfolding journey of increased and sustained wellbeing, less stress, lots more energy, increased focus, more connection with myself and others, extra resilience to adapt to the ups and downs of reality, and overall, a more enjoyable perception and flow of life. 

Becoming a meditation teacher

Meditation for me was a gift and a life-transforming journey. I wanted to share this gift with my friends and family as well as others that could benefit from it. Therefore, when I learnt about the 1 Giant Mind Meditation Teacher’s Academy I decided to become a meditation teacher to help spread the benefits of this practice to those who are seeking to live a more meaningful and joyful life. 1 Giant Mind was founded in 2011 by two dear Vedic meditation teachers, Jonni Pollard (my mentor) and Laura Poole (my teacher) with the aims of making  meditation more accessible and relevant to more people, in a secular and more affordable way.