Exploring Vedic Meditation: What It Is and How It Can Benefit Your Health
Years ago I was staying with a beautiful friend of mine for a couple of days. Before I arrived she let me know that she’d be out for a couple of hours each night because she was doing a meditation course to help combat the stress of fertility treatment. She explained the kind of meditation she was doing, Vedic Meditation required a mantra and a twice daily 20 minute meditation practice. Now at the time this sounded like too much of a time commitment, especially on top of my daily 90 min yoga classes I was doing at the time (although spending hours scrolling on social media seemed acceptable use of my time go figure) but as a yoga enthusiast I was interested in deepening my practice and wanted to know more.
Turns out I had heard of it before, although I knew it as Transcendental Meditation TM, a branded version of Vedic Meditation. It was the meditation practice The Beatles made famous in the late 60’s (as a huge Beatles fan especially of George Harrison I was sold) and a form of meditation recently made popular by celebrities like Hugh Jackman, Miranda Kerr, Kendall Jenner and Russell Brand.
After her evening course my friend would come home, calm as a cucumber and just a bit different. This particular friend has always been pretty wonderful (I always tell her when I grow up I want to be her) but there was a lightness about her that made me think, ‘oh i want that’. A seed was planted.
Over the next 8 or so years I went to do the course a few times but as a student and then a new mum who was studying and working, it kept sliding down my priority list. The irony is not lost on me. Meditating during those years would have helped me so much especially given the state of my nervous system……but I guess like most things, that’s the beauty of hindsight.
“I just can’t meditate, I’ve tried it and it’s not for me”.
I should probably mention, I have always tried to meditate. As a yoga practitioner and then teacher I was very aware that a true yoga practice is not just yoga asana (the postures you do in class). Meditation is a fundamental component of yoga and the yoga asana part is actually used as a way to prepare the body for meditation (not just to look good in lululemon pants). The idea is that meditation is the goal and asanas are the means of enhancing the capacity of the body and mind so that a person can sit in meditation. But I struggled. I didn’t enjoy it and would put it off which stopped it from becoming a habit. It didn’t help that I had an unrealistic picture in my head of what I wanted my meditation to be. Think a calm and serene woman, sitting cross legged with a mind completely free of thoughts.
“Im hopeless at meditating. I can’t stop my thoughts”.
In my years of meditating I always felt like a bit of a failure. My mind would constantly race, 5 mins would feel like 105 mins and more often than not I would walk away relieved when it was over. My meditation sessions became shorter and shorter and if I’m to be honest, felt like it was doing nothing. Rather than sit to meditate I would often turn to yoga nidra to help guide me into a calm state, which is kind of like a body scan meditation. Very nice of course and beneficial in it’s own way, but not the state of mind I had read about and witnessed in my friend.
Fast forward to the start of 2022. Something in me stirred and in a big way. I can’t exactly remember what prompted me, but I started looking into Vedic Meditation again and felt a VERY strong feeling that I had to learn it and I had to learn it right now. I shared a post about it on instagram, and received a DM from a friend from uni who had recently done a course with an angel of a human called Laura Poole.
I looked Laura up and instantly felt like yes, this is the person who will teach me. I contacted her and signed up on the spot. And then because the universe is hilarious and has a wicked sense of humour, once I had made the commitment to go ahead with the course, I shared it again on social media and that friend of mine, who almost 10 years ago had done the course messaged me - ‘Oh Laura was who taught me vedic meditation, you’re going to love her, she’s amazing’. It was the same teacher. That teacher from Melbourne had recently moved to the Sunshine Coast and in the very moment I felt a strong urge to learn vedic meditation she had opened up her first Brisbane course, which was being held the following week. I bloody love it when the stars align and the universe unravels a plan like this. Feels magical.
I’m going to write a little bit more about what vedic meditation is, what my experience was like doing the course (although I won’t be revealing the specifics because it’s really something you need to do with a teacher) and what I’ve noticed since making vedic meditation a daily practice and a non negotiable in my life. But for now, I hope you enjoyed the backstory.
On Laura’s website (check it out here), she says; “Set yourself up with a lifelong skill and never have to take another meditation course!”. This sums it up perfectly. You are taught a way of meditating that is simple, effective and feels like coming home.
If you would like to learn more, I HIGHLY recommend you connect with Laura. She’s lovely, authentic and really knowledgeable. Laura and the other teachers at Mahasoma also run free intro talks on what Vedic Meditation is, what you can expect, what’s involved etc. It’s a great place to start.