Earlier this year I applied to be on the speaker list of The Women’s Institute for Somerset and was invited to ‘audition’ at their WI speaker preview last week.
My talk was on the health and well-being benefits of meditation. I studied this in detail during my teacher training, but threw myself into the research again, tracking down recent studies on how meditation is scientifically proven to reduce our stress levels, increase focus, help to manage anxiety, lower blood pressure and boost our immunity.
I did a huge amount of work given there was only a 15-minute timeslot – I created a comprehensive slide deck with a little help from my husband who assured me before he stepped in to help that the content was good but my slides were the worst he had ever seen!
I initially thought the hardest part would be the speaking and presenting, however, I decided as part of the presentation to share a little of my journey and what led me to meditate. This involved writing about some significant emotional and challenging times as I talked about losses and grief that I have experienced and continue to live with. Part of me felt petrified about sharing this but another part of me felt liberated. The audition day came about and I felt calm and centered until I arrived at the venue and realised there wasn’t a small panel that I would be presenting to, there were 60 people in the room.
It didn’t help that I also had to multi-task which involved holding a microphone, my prompt cards, and scrolling through the presentation all whilst speaking, oh, and I had left my glasses in the car. At the start of my presentation, my nervous system was heightened, my hands were shaking, and my breath was shallow. Once I was a few minutes into my speech everything started to settle, I remembered how to breathe slowly and part of my presentation demonstrated diaphragmatic or belly breathing as a way to reduce stress, which also helped soothe my jangling nerves.
I received a round of applause and drove home really very proud of myself, not only had I presented a well-rounded and informative speech on how meditation can help provide more balance and reduce stress, but on a personal level had allowed myself to lean into some difficult stuff that left me feeling more resilient and more determined, and the icing on top is I have received my first booking this week.