I heard about Breathworks from a friend who works at their office. This was great as I was looking to help people through a charity role, and Breathworks was looking for a web project manager to overhaul their website.This is my area of expertise and so I started to work for Vidyamala and her team. I'm completely secular and wasn't aware of meditation practice, and I confess that I was a bit skeptical about mindfulness methods and meditation in general. But week after week, I started to be aware of the Breathworks method and its benefits having read testimonials, meeting people who are practicing the method, and moreover learning Vidyamala's life story and how she is using meditation to relieve her chronic pain.

One day, when I was working at the office, Vidyamala proposed that the team have a break and perform a meditation Body Scan, and I decided to try it with all my colleagues so as not to be separate from the team. The result was just stunning! After 20 minutes of a Body Scan, I felt completely relaxed, not stressed anymore and just...well, where I was! I rarely feel this type of state in my life; I'm a a buzzy and lively guy, who needs to do and work a lot, and who is looking all the time for new challenges to achieve. After 20 minutes of meditation, I was in a 'strange' state, no longer waiting for something or needing to do something, I was just fine, physically and mentally.

After this experience, I decided to learn more about Mindfulness, so I discussed this with Sona and started to read Vidyamala's new book "Mindfulness for Health". I better understood how meditation can help people like me, who is always seeking something to achieve to feel well. This keep's me in a stress mode all the time, and when I haven't any new challenges, I feel bad, as if I weren't useful. Meditation helps me to be just fine, in the present moment.

Finally, Breathworks work experience was more than just a job: I met very nice people, and I learnt a lot about meditation and how it can help people. If you're like me, not really aware about all this stuff, you really should try it at least one time in your life, because I think meditation is more than just a relaxation activity as a massage could be, it really can change your life and improve its quality.

Jean-Marie Murget