The first half of my life was a rush to do, to create, to achieve.

I jugged deadlines as a prolific magazine writer, speaker and instructor in New York city. Later, in London, I shifted to entrepreneurship, founding and running a successful business and overseeing a creative team.

While these paths were exhilarating, the “always on” mentality was physically and mentally exhausting. Add a familial tendency toward anxiety and depression (as I did) and life was a very precarious balance, indeed.

I was always tired and the joy of work eventually receded, despite financial success and a devoted client base. When I made the decision to step away from my business, I revisited the topics I’d written extensively about as a journalist nearly two decades earlier — meditation, yoga, self-compassion, forgiveness — but which I had rarely practiced in my own life.

In the second half of my life

Along the way, I discovered that, as my preoccupation with work lessened, and I embraced kindness toward myself, I was better able to cope with life’s tumultuous changes — my chest no longer tightened with anxiety, and dips in mood avoided depression. Perhaps most important, I felt more honest and empathetic, better able to empathise with others via our shared humanity and individual imperfections.