007 Healing Through Meditation

In this episode of Pain To Power, Jill Ripley dives into the science and soul of meditation — and why this powerful practice has been a cornerstone in her healing journey.Jill shares her personal story of struggling to quiet the mind, the moment it finally clicked (shout out to the Boston Buddha!), and the research behind how meditation rewires the brain, calms the nervous system, and restores emotional clarity — especially after trauma.💭 Whether you’re brand new to meditation or feel like "your mind won’t shut up" — this episode will show you why you’re not doing it wrong… and how even just a few minutes a day can shift everything.✨ You'll learn:

• The Harvard-backed brain science behind meditation
• Why trauma survivors especially benefit from daily stillness
• A simple breath + mantra technique to get started today
• How meditation brings you home to your truest self

Transcript

Hey there, beautiful souls, and welcome to another episode of Empowered You — the podcast where we talk all things healing, growth, and turning pain into power. I’m your host, Jill Ripley, and it’s my intention to use my own personal experience to help you, or someone you love, open to the idea of letting go of past pain and using it as a springboard for personal growth.

Much of what I share here is inspired by my book, Empowered by the Storm: Releasing the Past and Embracing the Light. If anything I say today resonates, you can dive deeper with me at empoweredbythestorm.com or grab a copy of the book on Amazon.

In previous episodes, we’ve talked a lot about self-love, healing, and honoring your needs. Today, I want to share one practice that has helped me deeply in all of these areas — and that is meditation.

Let me start by asking you a question — when was the last time you sat in silence with yourself and just... breathed?

Not scrolling, not planning dinner, not rehashing yesterday or bracing for tomorrow — just sat down and allowed yourself to just be?

That’s what we’re exploring today. Not as some lofty spiritual practice or wellness trend, but as a powerful way to reconnect to your core — your peace, your presence, your true self. Who and what you were before the circumstances of life had their impact on you. 

Because here’s the truth: in a noisy world full of endless input, meditation becomes a radical act of self-love. It’s a way of saying, “My mind doesn’t run me. My thoughts don’t define me. I can choose peace — right here, right now.” And man is that powerful. 

And just to clear something up: meditation isn’t about emptying your mind or levitating in a candlelit cave.

It’s about awareness. Presence. Creating space between your thoughts and your identity.

As Dr. Joe Dispenza puts it, “The moment you become aware that you're not your thoughts — that’s when real change begins.”

There’s plenty of science to back it up. Studies from Harvard Medical School have shown that regular meditation can actually restructure your brain — shrinking the amygdala (your fear center) and strengthening the prefrontal cortex, which governs focus, compassion, and decision-making.

Translation? Meditation literally helps you rewire your brain to respond instead of react. To feel, instead of fight or flee. And to choose your response, instead of reacting to circumstances and  spiraling.

 So what does this mean for your actual life? It means when you get cut off in traffic or someone says something hurtful, your nervous system isn’t immediately hijacked. You have more space. More calm. You can pause, breathe, and choose a loving - or at least a more metered response — not just a reactive one. That’s the power of a practiced mind

If you’ve been through trauma, you know how easy it is to live in a constant state of fight-or-flight. Your nervous system is always scanning for danger, even when none is present.

Meditation helps shift you into the parasympathetic state — that is the rest, restore, recover state. This is where healing happens.

Think of it like this: trauma disconnects us from the present. It yanks us into the past or projects us into a fear-based future. But meditation? It anchors us in the here and now — where safety, breath, and clarity live.

I’ll be honest — I didn’t always love meditation. I used to be like so many people who would say “I would like to meditate, but I just can’t.”  I would try to sit in silence and the myriad of thoughts would just flood in. I would get so frustrated because I couldn’t stop them. What I didn’t realize at the time was I wasn’t supposed to try to stop them. What a relief this was when I finally caught on to this. Instead of trying to dispel thoughts, I learned that focusing on the breath or a mantra would automatically reduce my focus on the thoughts. You literally can’t think of two things at the same time, so if you are thinking about your breath or a mantra, you can’t be thinking thoughts.

I learned this back in 2012 when I was going to Quincy College for exercise science. One of my professors had a Pilates studio and she invited me to an event she was having with a meditation teacher named Andy Kelley - they called him the ‘Boston Buddh’. If you have a chance, you can look him up at thebostonbuddha.com. Needless to say, I was intrigued, so I went. This decision turned out to be live changing for me. For the first time ever, I was actually able to feel as though I was meditating. One of the things Andy had us do was focus on our breathing, and then introduced the mantra “So Hum” breathing in we would think “SO” and breathing out “Hum”. It was so simple, but so effective. I left the meeting that night and I was hooked. I have been practicing ever since. Not that I was perfect after this, but from this session, I took away the idea that you don’t have to control your thoughts, you just need to notice when you are having them and release them and then they no longer control you. 

 Now the thing is, that your mind is so used to thinking thoughts, that it will only allow you to focus on the breath or mantra for a short time in the beginning, but with practice, the time and space between thoughts becomes greater. So, the key here is to just notice when you have let the focus on the breath or mantra go, realize you are in active thought process, and let go of the thought, by refocusing on your breath or mantra. No judgement. Just reengage with the breath. When you realize that the thoughts creeping back in is totally normal, you can be totally ok with it. 

The more you stick with it, the more you will start to feel your own true self. Beneath the noise, the guilt, the shame — there is stillness. Peace. And eventually, power.

There was a time in my healing journey when everything felt loud — my grief, my regrets, the ‘should haves’ and ‘what ifs.’ Meditation helped me start to witness those thoughts instead of becoming them. I didn’t have to believe everything my mind said. That’s liberation.

If you’ve ever said, “I can’t meditate — my mind won’t shut up,” trust me — that means you’re doing it right. Meditation isn’t about stopping thoughts. It’s about observing them. Some people also say, ‘I just don’t have time.’ I get it. Life is busy. But here’s the truth — if you have time to scroll social media, you have time to meditate. Even 2 minutes of stillness is better than none. It’s not about quantity — it’s about consistency. Think of your mind like a snow globe. When it’s shaken, everything feels cloudy. But when you sit still — even for a few breaths — the snow begins to settle. And that clarity? That’s where your intuition lives

Your mind is like a puppy — it wanders. Your job is to gently lead it back with kindness, not punishment.

You don’t need incense, mantras, or 45 minutes of silence (unless you want those things). Meditation can be:

• 3 minutes of focused breathing in the car
• A walk in nature where you listen instead of scrolling on your phone
• Repeating a simple phrase like “I am safe” or “I am here” as you breathe

✨ A Simple Meditation Practice to Start

Here’s a practice I often recommend to people new to meditation:

1. Sit or lie down in a comfortable space.
2. Close your eyes. Bring your attention to your breath.
3. Inhale for a count of 4... hold for 4... exhale for 6.
4. As thoughts come in, just label them “thinking” and return to your breath.
5. Do this for 3–5 minutes. That’s it.

The magic isn’t in doing it perfectly — the magic is in showing up.

Meditation isn’t about escaping life — it’s about fully arriving in it. It’s not about becoming someone else — it’s about remembering who you already are beneath the pain, the programming, and the noise.

And here’s what I want to leave you with:

You are not your past.
 You are not your thoughts.
 You are not broken.

You are a powerful, loving, conscious being — and meditation is one way to come home to that truth, again and again.

If this episode stirred something in you, I’d love to hear about it. You can message me at empoweredbythestorm.com or find me on Instagram @empoweredbythestorm. And hey — if you haven’t subscribed yet, now’s the time. We’re just getting started.

Until next time — stay grounded, stay open, stay loving, and stay empowered. 💛