Written by Giada Valenti and originally published on the Huffington Post’s Good News Blog. Giada Valenti is an Italian singer/songwriter based in Venice, Italy.

I’m a dreamer. Being Italian, I’m also a lover of life, food, fashion, family, and friends.

I’m a very driven person, ambitious, always ready to work hard, ready to push myself to the limit to succeed. I’m eager to learn and to improve myself. I have big dreams. I’m a risk taker and a believer that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. But it was learning Transcendental Meditation a year ago that helped me to get the right results.

After only a few months, the changes were visible. I was sleeping better and had so much more energy to do things. I was convinced that to succeed there was no time to lose. Therefore, no time to rest. So I was often skipping the gym because I was too busy working on my projects, and depriving myself of a good night’s sleep because the days were too short to do all the things I needed to do.

I’m sure many of you reading this blog recognize yourself in this description.

I’ve been practicing Transcendental Meditation [TM] for the past year: 20 minutes, twice a day. A year ago I would have thought that this was impossible for a person like me. I’m sure that’s what you are thinking.

All I can say is that I’m grateful I learned it. It completely changed my life and made me realize my biggest dream.

For years I was working on finding funding for a project. My dream was to bring the beauty and mystery of Venice and my message of love to the United States with my romantic music. I wanted to film my show From Venice With Love as a television special for public television. My show was already doing great in small- and medium-size theatres all over the East Coast. But I needed exposure to reach more people.

I was working non-stop. I wanted a chance, and it was not easy at all.

Thanks to TM, life is more balanced now and the successful moments more enjoyable and the challenging ones easy to deal with. Then, suddenly, three years ago, I got the scare of my life. I had been suffering from low sugar for a while. Then I started to faint on a daily basis. I was brought to the emergency room one day after fainting again, and they told me I could not leave or I would die because my sugar was not able to stabilize.

After 10 days of research, they found three rare tumors called insulinoma in my pancreas. I spent one month at the Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC where an incredible team of doctors, major surgery, and probably a miracle gave me my health back.

That experience changed my life. I now had a new perspective on life. I knew I needed to listen to my body and take care of my mind.

That’s when Transcendental Meditation was introduced to me by a Vietnam veteran, Ed Schloeman, who I had met after one of my performances. He told me how TM had helped him overcome his problems with the depression and stress that he had been suffering ever since his return from Vietnam. He said TM had brought him close again to his family and to his wonderful wife.

He invited me to an event organized by the David Lynch Foundation, and among the speakers practicing TM and raving about the greatness of the technique were Arianna Huffington, Ray Dalio, Dr.Oz and Chef Mario Batali. I knew right there I wanted to learn TM.

After only a few months, the changes were visible. I was sleeping better and had so much more energy to do things. Thanks to TM, it felt like I had more control of my brain. …when we come out of meditation, we feel refreshed, filled with energy and enthusiasm for life.

I worked for [this last] year organizing showcases and inviting everyone we knew that could help to fund my project. I started to think outside the box. I was somehow more confident. I was able to find investors… I managed to surround myself with an incredible team of award-winning professionals… And in 7 months, I was able to raise more than the half a million dollars that I needed to film my television special.

I strongly believe that everything happened thanks to TM. I’m always looking forward to doing TM. I get new energy and great ideas, solutions. Time is not lost when you meditate; you get back the time that you otherwise would lose struggling and getting nervous.

Thanks to TM, life is more balanced now and the successful moments more enjoyable and the challenging ones easy to deal with. If you feel better, you look better, and that confidence is maybe the key of success.