Just before COVID swept the world, I had become so sick with my EDS that I was convinced I'd never be able to work again. I shut down my business.
It's important to note that my year of meditation was also a year when I was able to eat healthier because I had more time to prepare healthy meals without working. It's also important to note that my stress levels during that year were MUCH lower because, even though I wasn't working, we were in a situation where I didn't NEED to work. And I got to rest a LOT more. So, there were more factors worth considering. BUT, I'm now back to my regular meditative practice even though I do need to work. So I'm curious to see if it was the meditation making the biggest difference, after all.
Here's what happened during my year of meditation
My body and mind were both less reactive.
Though I never really got my eczema and mast cell issues to calm entirely, I did find that I had fewer outbreaks and reactions. Most importantly, though, my inner self was less reactive.
I had more patience for the little things that regularly bothered me.
I was able to wait my turn a lot better than usual.
I moved slower through life and was able to take my time which let me remember what really mattered before I spoke up or spoke out.
I had a better overall outlook on life
Things weren't easy, for me, during this year of meditation. In fact, it was one of the toughest years I can remember. Honestly, that's why I dove so hard into meditation in the first place. I was no stranger to it, but I felt called to bring it into my everyday life.
And, even though times were tough and emotions ran high during that year; even though my world was crumbling around me, my outlook was more optimistic than usual. I was able to see that the challenges I faced were stepping stones to better things. Even the painful things were lessons and opportunities for growth. And, in the end - good or bad - I really had no control over anything but my mindset.
This picture is from my year of meditation. I was feeling healthier, more optimistic, and damn my skin was clearing up. I was taking better care of myself all around.
My health improved the more I meditated
The year I spent in meditation was quite a healing one. I have struggled with my EDS symptoms for a long time and they had just gotten so bad that I was forced off work. I closed my marketing business and never looked back.
But as I took that break and sank into my meditation, things began to shift.
It was slow, at first.
I hardly noticed it.
But as I kept at it, I grew stronger.
I was able to start working out regularly. I started to lose some of the weight I put on when my pain was so bad I couldn't move. My digestion began to improve.
I didn't cure my EDS. And there were a lot of other things that helped (like not having the stress of running a business, being blessed with the time to focus on myself, and exercising), but I do attribute a lot of that health success to meditation.
Here's what happened when I stopped meditating
Life took over, as it does.
I got back to work because I was starting to feel better. COVID hit and threw me into major stress mode as I worried that my asthmatic father would catch it and wondered what it would do to a person with EDS. Family members who couldn't find an apartment during the shut down moved into the small house we rented and things were just piling on.
I stopped meditating.
I focused on the few things I felt I could and let go of something very important.
During my time not meditating and overall not taking as good of care of myself. I gained 30lbs, even though I was trying to stay fit, as my health declined and it got harder to exercise. Stress took over.
My health got worse when I stopped meditating
My digestion slowed. My pain flared. My skin erupted. My headaches ramped up. Fatigue took over my days and my hair started falling out.
Was this all because I stopped meditating? Of course not.
A lot of this was the introduction of new stresses, plus the fact that I wasn't resting enough or taking proper care of myself. But, for me, "proper care" also means regular meditation.
It's during my meditation that I actually check in with my body. It's only when I slow down and observe that I am able to realize what my body needs that I'm not providing it (usually rest).
It's important to note that we even moved to a less stressful environment as COVID subsided but that I still saw my health symptoms get worse and worse without that one important thing: meditation.
I'm meditating, again, and I'm seeing huge results
In January 2024 I started having headaches every day.
Not just a dull ache, but a debilitating burning pain on the top of my brain that even had my doctors concerned. It came on every afternoon and robbed me of my evenings. Sometimes it blew itself into a hemiplegic migraine - crackling through my skull, through my eye, leaving my eye and nose running as I crunched myself into the corner of the couch with my head propped in pillows.
At the time of writing this, we still don't know what exactly caused these headaches or why they continued for months. I'm still in the process of teasing out what it was that finally slowed them down - my meditation or my medication or a combination of both.
Going back to meditating helped me remember what's important
I took a month off work to try to get the headaches under control. I told myself I had to do any and everything within my power to heal this. Even if that meant taking medication, which I'm usually very opposed to.
But if I was going to do the medication thing, I had to do the meditation thing, too. I had to try to find ways to heal that weren't pharmaceutical so I wouldn't become dependent on the drugs.
Moreso than the effects on my headaches, though, I noticed a shift in my perspective. The stresses that I had put on myself about work and life began to melt away. The love and excitement for every day began to flourish.
I'm back on track.
Wanna see my favorite meditation tools? CLICK RIGHT HERE!
