When Jillian Lavender (@jillianlavender) first learned to meditate over 20 years ago, she had no idea that it would lead to her helping thousands of people transform their lives through the ancient practice.

The founder of the London and New York Mediation Centres was working in publishing in Sydney and struggling with corporate burnout, thanks to a busy lifestyle that saw her jetting to different timezones for book launches.

Feeling fed up with the familiar stress cycle, she signed onto a local meditation course and unlocked a suite of tools that allowed her to navigate her high-stress lifestyle with greater mental resilience.

After throwing herself wholly into the practice, she received an invitation to train in India with Vedic meditation master Thom Knoles, and later launched her career in teaching meditation.

While in India in 2005, Jillian met her partner, Michael Miller, and together they went on to establish leading meditation centres on both sides of the Atlantic. This spring, she will release ‘Do Reset: Meditate’, an easy-to-follow pocket guide on finding moments of everyday clarity in times of stress.

Ahead of its launch, we sat down with Jillian to learn more about Vedic meditation – what it is, how it works and why everyone should try it.

What is Vedic meditation?

The word Vedic means ‘of the veda’ – a Sanskrit term meaning ‘truth’ or ‘pure knowledge.’ This is an ancient body of knowledge that has been around for anywhere from about five to ten thousand years. It even predates the Buddhist tradition.

Vedic meditation itself is a simple and effortless way to quieten the mind. It’s typically practiced for 20 minutes, twice a day, usually while you’re sitting comfortably.

During the practice, you’re asked to silently think of a ‘mantra’ – a special sound that’s chosen specifically for you by your teacher.

Having your mantra chosen for you is an essential part of the process, as the sound has a unique quality. When it’s silently repeated in the mind, it naturally becomes fainter and softer, guiding the mind away from its overly active state toward a deeper type of quiet.

What are the physical health benefits of Vedic meditation?

Research has shown that within just a few minutes of practising Vedic meditation, our nervous system rests up to five times deeper than sleep.

When your body experiences that level of phenomenal rest, it begins purifying, rebalancing, healing and restructuring five times more quickly than it usually would. Typically, we emerge feeling energised and less tired, more balanced and with less stress.

Vedic meditation has other key benefits too. During practice, the body becomes less acidic, blood lactate levels drop, cortisol levels decrease and all of our stress chemistry shuts down. In response, the body starts to normalise its endogenous ‘bliss’ chemistry, producing serotonin and balancing dopamine levels.

We know that stress is immunosuppressive and that it can negatively affect the digestive system. We also know that how you’re feeling can affect how you process critical nutrients and trace elements. You can eat the most nutritious food out there, but if you’re stressed when you consume it, it’s essentially consumed as stress.

With up to 90% of patients seeking medical advice for conditions that can be traced back to stress, it’s something we can all benefit from. There’s no condition that improves with more stress and fatigue. That’s why it’s essential to address the root cause.

Are their cognitive benefits too?

Brain scans of Vedic meditators show a distinct pattern compared to people practicing other mindfulness or concentration techniques. In Vedic meditation, we see a holistic brain signature, with a lot of coherence across the brain and increased activity in the prefrontal cortex.

This area is important because it’s our executive processing centre, and it shuts down when we’re stressed out or tired. The prefrontal cortex is slo crucial for making good decisions and processing information effectively, so when it’s engaged, we perform better mentally.

Meditators also show something called ‘hemispheric coherence’, which is when both left and right hemispheres of the brain work in harmony. This orderliness is great for creativity and generating deas. It also leads to improved memory, better learning ability and other markers of mental functioning, all of which increase as a result of this simple practice.

Can Vedic meditation have an impact on our longevity?

When it comes to longevity, we tend to focus on chronological age, but if a person has been living life pretty hard, feeling stressed and not eating well, their biological age will often show them to be many years older.

What we see in research on Vedic meditators is the biological age slowing down and reversing. In a study, long-term mediators (those meditating for more than five years) had a biological age which was, on average, about 12 years less than the match control group.

This is likely because with meditation, we don’t experience chronic levels of anxiety, irritation and reactivity that causes the body to carry stress.

Do you have any other rest rituals that help you switch off and unwind?

Meditation is my baseline and I do it every day. But beyond that, I pay a lot of attention to how I eat. Ayurveda plays a big role in daily routine, and I truly believe that It’s not just what we eat but how we eat it.

I make my main meal the biggest one of the day, ideally at lunchtime, and I take my time while eating, making sure I’m sitting down, eating slowly and being present.

In Ayurveda, they say you should ideally chew each bite around 30 times. That’s might sound like a lot, but even just being mindful of eating, by putting your fork down, focusing on the food, then picking it up again can really help with digestion.

If you were to describe your perfect day off, how would you spend it?

With Michael, my partner, and Louie, our daughter. Just us hanging out, whatever that looks like. Probably starting the day by making chai and pancakes before heading out to visit some friends.

Living in London, I sometimes get the urge to see the sea. Where my parents live in New Zealand, the ocean is just a three-minute walk away, so it’s always been a big part of me. Ideally, a perfect day would involve being somewhere near the water, walking on a beach and just taking it all in.

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