Stress Less, Accomplish More

In 2008, the author was living her childhood dream. She was the understudy for three leading roles in a Broadway production of A Chorus Line. But instead of feeling accomplished, she was suffering from anxiety, insomnia, and constant illness. At the tender age of 27, she was even beginning to go gray.

Then, one day, she observed a fellow understudy who seemed exceptionally calm despite being under the same pressures. When the author inquired about her secret, the actress simply replied that she meditated. At first, the author was skeptical that meditation could help improve someone’s performance. But soon she found herself on a journey that would change her life forever.

The key message here is: Meditation can transform your life. 

The author’s meditation journey began when she decided to attend a session held by her fellow actress’s meditation teacher. That night, she slept deeply for the first time in over a year. As her days meditating went on, things only got better. Soon, her hair color returned. And with her new confidence and calmness, she stopped worrying about what the audience thought of her – and became a better performer in the process.

The benefits of meditation were so transformative that the author began to wonder why more people weren’t meditating. Her new practice helped her clarify her goals, and she ultimately dropped out of Broadway to become a meditation teacher.

During her three years of study, she realized that many people are put off by meditation because they feel like they’re bad at it or simply don’t have the time. So she developed a technique for busy people from a six-thousand-year-old practice called nishkam karma yoga – Sanskrit for “union attained by action hardly taken.”

Unlike some forms of meditation, nishkam karma doesn’t require focused concentration or even an attempt to clear your mind. But that doesn’t mean the results are any less effective. In fact, they can be downright surprising.

The author would know. Ten years after beginning her meditation journey, she was invited to give a keynote presentation at a biohacking conference in Greece called A-Fest. Public speaking had always left her visibly shaking from anxiety. But this time she simply walked on stage, completely at ease.

As she delivered her presentation, she felt as if she had become a vessel for knowledge to flow through to her audience. And the audience noticed her performance – the presentation received a standing ovation, and the event became a career highlight.