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How Meditating for 5 Years Helped Me Use a Painful Breakup for Healing
Eckhart Tolle helped me see relationships as a spiritual practice.
I just had a fiery romance that seemed to end too soon. I felt intense emotional waves. Through five years of daily meditation, I shaped a conscious foundation that held those ups and downs.
Through deep presence, I let the turbulent experience be a huge healing opportunity.
Many teachers, like Eckhart Tolle, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sarah Blondin, and Liza Colpa on Insight Timer, inspired me.
An abusive partnership led me to try meditation in 2017. A friend gave me Tolle’s “Power of Now” book; it helped me separate who I am from my thoughts and emotions. Watching my thoughts, I noticed they seemed more positive when I meditated regularly, so I kept practicing.
“I have learned to allow the present moment to be and to accept the impermanent nature of all things and conditions. Thus I have found peace,” writes Tolle.
I’ve sat with my breathing for at least ten minutes a day ever since. I began noticing a difference when I missed a day, like something felt “off.” Then, I slowly deepened mindfulness practices throughout the day, paying more attention to the “Being” beneath the doing.