My journey to mindfulness practice has been a long and circuitous one, with lots of fits and starts. It was born out of a desire to find a way to cope with a chronic illness, Crohn’s Disease, which I had lived with since childhood. As a child, I didn’t have the emotional maturity to understand what was going on or the tools to cope with the unpredictability of the illness. I was depressed, anxious, self-critical of my body image, and looking for some answers on how I could move towards better health and live a fuller life.

While I was born and raised in the New York Metropolitan Area, I left there in my mid-20s for the Bay Area with an intention of exploring alternative healing modalities for my medical condition and looking for some peace of mind. On my first night in Berkeley, CA, I was invited to attend a night of meditation with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Sitting in an auditorium with 500 people, I started focusing on my breath, paying attention to my body, and after a while, feeling a sense of calm, my mind wasn’t racing, and I felt hopeful. (Not a bad beginning to my new life!)

It was from this initial experience that the seed of mindfulness practice was planted. From there I explored mindfulness practice thru both a Jewish and Buddhist lens.