From a young age, I knew my purpose.
I knew I wanted to leave a positive impact on the world.
I didn’t know what that would look like, or how I would do it but the feeling lived within me.
However, by the time I reached college, that clarity had faded.
I struggled with pressure and direction, lost friends, and struggled to find my sense of self.
After a few challenging years, I switched majors, and began studying business – I loved it.
I graduated with my BS in Business Management, and my Master of Business Administration (MBA), speaking at my commencement ceremony as student representative of my graduating class.
On paper, things were working.
After graduation, I had a corporate job secured.
I backpacked through Europe for five weeks before moving to New York City to start my career in corporate tech at a leading legal institution.
At just 24, I had built the kind of life that looked successful from the outside.
A great job, a beautiful apartment, new friends, a new relationship… momentum.
But internally, I was entirely disconnected.
There was a constant sense that something was missing.
Not achievement – but meaning.
I battled daily with anxiety, body dysmorphia, stress, and worrying about the future.
And while I didn’t have the language for it then, my nervous system was existing entirely in survival mode.
Chasing, worrying, forcing, doubting.
My health, work, and relationships all began to suffer, drastically.
I remember one particular rainy, cold day in March, staring out the window of my Midtown high-rise office…
I felt completely empty inside.
I thought to myself, there has to be more than this.
What I was actually searching for wasn’t a different life, it was a different way of being in the life I already had.
At first, it was personal.
I started exploring meditation and awareness as a way to understand myself and feel more present, and to pour my time into creating something that was meaningful.
In helping others explore these practices, I realized I was helping myself too.
I continued working in corporate, but my focus shifted.
The question was no longer “What should I do?” but –
“How do I show up to my work, my relationships, and my everyday life, with unwavering purpose?”
Over the next few years, I continued to grow in my corporate career, traveled, learned from different cultures, and paid closer attention to how people live and search for meaning in very different environments and stages of life.
And on the side, week by week, I was crafting meditations that supported me, and the growing community.
I was getting my spark back.
What became clear was this…
Presence, happiness, or fulfilment isn’t reserved for perfect conditions.
And you don’t need to step away from life to feel connected to it.
It can exist everywhere.
In conversations with a stranger at the airport.
In the meetings you lead at work.
On the dance floor of your favorite night spot.
When you’re flowing with your passions and hobbies.
In the encounters you least expect.
In building something meaningful.
In ordinary moments that would otherwise pass unnoticed.
A Zen Mind grew from that realization.
Not as an escape from life, but as a way to participate in it more fully.
To create a life that you genuinely are excited to live.
Life isn’t something to rush through, and I believe we all deserve to experience it with depth, appreciation, love, gratitude, presence, and a genuine sense of being here for it.
