Panic would set in: how was I going to be able to support him with his journey in life when I still felt like I was behaving like a reactive teenager who was managing a massive “to-do” list that never ended?

The world really looks different. Instead of looking for faults everywhere, such as potholes in the road, traffic jams or grumpy people, I now see the kindness in between.

The envelope arrived in the mail explaining the basic info I needed to know for my surgery. “Surgery?” I thought… I wanted to use this experience to really apply Dharma, to strengthen my refuge practice.

Each day I relentlessly chased the illusion of happiness then self-medicated with alcohol to numb out the pain. Totally exhausting all avenues, I finally hit rock bottom over 9 years ago which resulted in rehabilitation.

The first time I heard a teaching on death, it felt surprisingly like good news, like something I wanted to hear more of. What? Wasn’t the subject of death taboo, something nobody wanted to talk about?

I struggled with anxiety for as long as I can remember. I was so familiar with the feeling that I identified with it: ‘I am an anxious person’. This thought pattern had become a necessary part of how I processed the challenges I faced in my life.

Are you terrified of meditation? Congratulations, you are not alone! I was sure I couldn’t do it. I started by watching the classes online because I was anxious about looking like a complete idiot.

I feel as if I am always running, always late for something and always chasing something that needs doing yesterday. I’m exhausted pretty much all the time…

In 2001 a small newspaper advert caught the attention of a rather angry and exasperated single mother – trying to stay sane in an increasingly difficult situation. It said: ‘Are you angry? Would you like to find some peace in difficult circumstances?’ That was 23 years ago!

I first encountered Kadampa Buddhism when I was 16 years old. I was full of hope and ambition. But I was also midway through a new and crippling challenge that had crept up on me and begun to ruin my life, social anxiety.

I came to meditation when I was in a very dark phase of my life. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I was experiencing high functioning depression and high functioning anxiety.

Two years ago, my husband suddenly told me he wanted to end our marriage. I was shocked, devastated, and lost – although deep in my heart, I also had wished to be free from this unhappy relationship for over half of our 18 year marriage.

In October 2022, my marriage had just ended, and I was regretful, confused, and feeling like I needed a life change. I’d dabbled with Buddhism a little in the past, just enough to know that meditation worked…

Life is not easy for anyone and we are not always taught in schools or by family how to deal with the mental and emotional suffering life can bring us.

There was nothing exceptional or unusual in my ‘hardships’ my dissatisfaction and difficulties seem very trivial compared with what was going on in the rest of the world at this time. But they were dissatisfactions and difficulties, nonetheless.

We talk about “living in the now,” but having cancer gave me this real opportunity — this knowledge that if you truly live in the now, you won’t experience the suffering of things that haven’t happened.

Grief had stolen my life. I first stepped into a Kadampa centre shortly after losing my mom to cancer. I was angry and intensely sad.

Throughout my life, there have been countless occasions where I’d go from being happy to being filled with frustration or anger in an instant. I’d feel horrible for getting angry and losing my cool; I told myself I’d be better next time…

I just couldn’t teach anymore. I thought a change of jobs would help me, and it did for a few months. But I was still the same me, a little stressed, tired and miserable…

No longer trusting my distorted, agitated states of mind (my delusions) to solve my problems and make myself happy, I began to rely on developing inner peace instead.

I started to suffer from insomnia. Worrying about not sleeping soon became a “runaway train” and soon was followed by general anxiety and depression.

Six years after we started with the Dharma (Buddhist meditation practice), Sandy was diagnosed with a rare and incurable autoimmune condition that resulted in periodic and progressive bouts of muscular degeneration.

As I navigate this confusing thirty-something singlehood, I am discovering that some Buddhist principles, learned at my meditation centre, offer profound wisdom and serenity.

Suddenly I could see that that this isn’t necessarily who I am, it’s just a thought I’m having. I could think different thoughts. In any moment, I have flexibility…