I know that when I’m meditating, I am a nicer, more present, calmer person. Case in point, I was just nearing the end of a meditation session (ie sitting on a chair with my eyes shut for 20 minutes repeating a mantra that Jillian assigned to me all those years ago) when someone came into the room, ignored my closed eyes and started talking to me. I opened my eyes, greeted him with a smile and answered his questions.

Now, I know me. My typical reaction would be sheer annoyance. “Don’t I ever get a moment to myself?!” But no, I was super patient without trying.

Jillian says that meditation should be effortless, not forced.  If a zillion thoughts are entering my head, that’s fine, that’s natural. In this particular meditation session, I could hear my thirty-year-old son on a work zoom upstairs, and I started reminiscing about his childhood and how long I’ve known him, 30 years, he was such a cute baby. Is that a failed meditation? Not at all. According to Jillian, it’s ok if a zillion thoughts come into my head, let them, but try and return to the mantra. Watch those thoughts like clouds in the sky, register them and then let them float away.

But don’t listen to me, listen to Jillian. She founded the London and New York Meditation Centres with her partner in work and life Michael Miller in 2008.

They offer a myriad of courses on-line and in person, as well as retreats in far-flung locales. They have taught thousands of people how to meditate.I love their free on-line group meditations as a way for me to reconnect and listen to Jillian and Michael wisely answer meditators’ questions. They also have tons of forensic scientific evidence supporting the physical and psychological benefits of meditation. Below is an edited, abbreviated version of our chat. You can listen to the entire conversation on my podcast Elena Meets the Author here or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Elena: Hello Jillian and welcome. In your book you debunk some of the popular myths about meditation. Can you tell us briefly what those are?

I think that’s partly why I wrote the book. More and more people know about meditation, which is great, but with that comes confusion. The thing I hear time and time again is ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that. My mind is crazy busy. I couldn’t sit down and stop thinking.’ But that’s not what we want people to do. Or people say, ‘I don’t have time to meditate.” That was an issue for me when I first started meditating. But what I found is that I actually had more time. I was more focused, more productive. I didn’t have to read that sentence five time before it sank in.

There’s also a myth about meditation being a belief system. We teach people from all walks of life, all faiths. And you don’t have to stop drinking wine, or start drinking kale juice, change your diet in any way.

Elena: Can you tell us about some of the positive effects that meditating can have on people’s lives?

 It’s a long list. Meditation affects every aspect of our mental and physical functioning.  You are resting your system so your body can heal, purify and rebalance. That deep rest means that we can release tiredness and stress. We’re going to be more resilient. And meditating has a big impact on the ageing process. Long-term practitioners are aging more slowly. Vedic mediators have improved memory, learning ability, concentration and focus.

Meditating has a big impact on how we can be there for others. If we go into a relationship and we’re tired and needy, cranky, it’s going to affect that exchange. It’s all about me. But if we go into it, present, listening and feeling good inside, not needy, that has an incredibly uplifting effect on that exchange.

Elena: how do you know when you’re doing it correctly?

That’s a good question because there’s a lot of stuff out there that’s not very effective. Ask yourself is this something you look forward to? Do you enjoy it? Do you find that it’s easy when you do it? Do you feel a difference when you do it? How do you feel if you missed your meditation? That’s the acid test.

Elena: You say in your book that there’s no such thing as a stressful situation, there are only stressful responses to a given situation. Can you explain?

 This is a a very challenging world that we live in. We live in a world undergoing, rapid rates of change. It is only accelerating. What is our capacity to deal with change?  What is our capacity to adapt to new information? That’s what life is asking of you. And when you’re tired, stressed, depleted, you don’t have that bank balance, that reservoir of adaptation energy.

In Vedic Meditation we de-excite. We start to lighten the load. Meditation delivers an antidote to stress by delivering a level of rest that is profound. And when you rest the nervous system, it can come into balance to meet the demands of life by not carrying this legacy of stress. Meditation helps us lose stress faster than we are gaining it. And that puts us way ahead of the game.

Elena: And finally, you talk about how meditation can help the creative process? 

 Vedic meditators report having more clarity, more insight, more lightbulb moments where you get that good idea. The universe is sending you good ideas all the time. The question is are you awake? Can you catch them? When we have all that scattered thinking in our head, it’s hard to get clarity.

So much emphasis in our society is placed on intellectual capability. But all the important decisions you’ve made in your life, the consequential decisions didn’t come from working it out in our head. It’s our ability to tune into our intuition. I did an interview once and someone asked me what was the most important thing that I have gained from meditation. And I said, my ability to trust myself, that ability to turn down the volume, go inward and access that feeling, that sixth sense, that intuition about how I’m going to decide what I’m going to do in any aspect of my day.

Thank you so much Jillian. I think a lot of people will find our conversation helpful.

October, 2024

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Ahhh, that will keep me warm, I thought to myself as I looked through the shop window.

Amazon doesn’t need me, she says.

I’m a sucker for a pretty bowl (what Stretch mistakenly calls clutter). These beauties below are made in Beirut, and can be shipped anywhere.

Next comes funky fashion label  I Love Libertine … If you can’t go to Versailles, why not have Versailles come to you?

And finally, for that sun-filled cashmere throw you’ve been dreaming of – Saved NY has got just the one …

Next we go cerebral to my childhood friend Natalie and her puppy Bean…

While Natalie and I have moved around a lot since growing up in San Francisco, we’ve remained firm friends throughout. She is an avid reader, and we have the same taste in books. In short, she’s my go to for all things bookish. Here’s her book list for this special lockdown season.

I loved The Dutch House (Ann Patchett) but that may be too last year… (I only read it this year). Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys was just plain excellent (if gut wrenching). Also from last year but recently in paperback is Sarah Blake’s The Guest Book – her handling of race and anti-semitism within the context of a WASPY Maine summer house was really well done. IMHO

Aside from American Dirt for great listens,  Anne Glenconner’s Lady in Waiting – was just divine – and if anyone feels like “rereading” Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair, Colin Firth’s reading of it is pretty damned fabulous.

For pure blissful trash, Kevin Kwan of Crazy Rich Asian fame delivers again in Sex and Vanity.

Winking at me next is Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman.  I am also kind of excited about Elena Ferrante’s new book The Lying Life of Adults.

From the head we move south to the heart – My friend Lara is angelic without being annoyingly virtuous. She’s intuitive, generous, funny and always finds the best of what’s out there.  Here she is with her healing crystals and a lovely painting by her daughter Natalia

Lara’s top tips:

For those in London, check out the House of Wisdom Studio for its rich array of classes in all things peaceful and nurturing –  Give a gift that restores the soul – Lara recommends the Studio’s classes with crystal singing bowls or a gong bath. Sounds good to me. Or for those at home (ie most of us), Lara suggests giving  that special person a reiki session on zoom from LA-based clairvoyant and spiritual healer Karie Gonia.  Lara’s last idea is my personal fave:  a  post-vaccine stay at Maison Ila, a yogic healing and wellness retreat in the Pyrenees  – it looks heavenly – what a way to usher in 2021.

December, 2020

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