Transformation in 9 Minutes a Day

I learned the hard way that life doesn’t have to be full of struggle and pain – life’s actually meant to be fun, joyful and deeply fulfilling. For me, it took hitting rock-bottom to break open into a profoundly different way of living and brand-new perspective on life.

Just over four years ago I was at my lowest point. I’d spent my 20s in and out of depression, believing that if I could just find it – that perfect man, career, number on the scale – that I would finally be happy. I spent years in and out of therapy, on and off depression medications, switching jobs constantly, buying new cars, moving to new cities and upgrading my boyfriends, in a hopeless effort to fill that deep void inside. My desperation increased as each change I made failed to satisfy the deep wanting within myself. After countless failed attempts, I felt that if life was never going to get any better I just wanted out. Thoughts of suicide and prayers that I wouldn’t wake up in the morning became more and more frequent. I also found myself at a point where alcohol had gradually become the only thing that soothed me, and I was caught up in a nasty cycle of heavy addiction.

Hitting rock bottom, with a date planned for my suicide, was the catalyst that had me reach out for help. I ended up spending a year in an addiction recovery program where a woman I came to deeply respect coached me day by day. The first thing she told me to start doing was to meditate; to sit still for twenty minutes every morning and focus on my breathing. I remember thinking she was crazy – what on earth could sitting still do for me? But she was such a calm, peaceful person, and I wanted that calm for myself. Besides, I felt like I’d tried everything else and that didn’t get me anywhere so I committed to giving it a try.

For the first few weeks – because of my horrifically negative thoughts and my body’s state of withdrawal and detox – I physically couldn’t sit still for twenty minutes. But I figured out that I could sit relatively still for about three minutes. So I sat to meditate for three minutes several times a day to try and make her twenty-minute quota. After a couple of months, I began having experiences of profound bliss, deep centeredness, and freedom from mind chatter during my little three-minute meditations. I knew that slowly but surely I was onto something.

These three-minute meditations eventually evolved into the practice I now call “3×3 Meditation” (three minutes, three times a day). Over the past four years as my practice has evolved and deepened I’ve used my 3×3 to release addictive cravings, lose weight effortlessly, lower my cholesterol, transform my relationships, and to discover dreams for my life I didn’t even know I had! I’ve found that as I relax into the voice of my intuition, following its guidance as I quiet my mind’s chatter a few times every day, I’m able to access deep states of peace and wisdom, finding the power and confidence, centeredness and peace, to live my life from an entirely new perspective.

3×3 Meditation is the simplest, most effective method I know of to start on a path of transformation. Though I had to hit rock bottom before I realized all of this, I don’t believe it’s necessary to hit bottom before you start climbing up. Peace, joy and fulfillment are our most natural state, and are available to anyone and everyone committed to finding it.