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<\/p>\nIn her early twenties, Josie Overmyer picked up and moved across the country. That influential move was the first time she remembers the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique playing a\u00a0role in mitigating stress in her life, helping to launch her into a particularly creative period of\u00a0songwriting.<\/p>\n
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Today, her creative endeavors are focused in a\u00a0new\u00a0direction: entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n
Josie talks to us about the role that anxiety plays in her life while pursuing a new career, and how she\u00a0maximizes her productivity with the help of TM.<\/p>\n
Josie says, \u201cI know that meditating has a big pay-off for me. Because of that, I can say without a doubt, it\u2019s a priority in my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust knowing I\u2019m going to do it when I get home from work makes me feel better. I\u2019m not turning on the TV, or immediately going out to meet friends \u2013 it\u2019s just this time for myself, free from distractions. \u00a0I need that balance and that grounding; otherwise, I have too much anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a reason \u201canxiety\u201d is a household term. Anxiety disorders are extremely common in the US, affecting over 18% of the adult population<\/a>. That\u2019s 40 million people. They\u2019re also highly treatable, and the TM technique has been shown to help reduce <\/a>the detrimental impact that anxiety has on us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While anxiety comes in a lot of different forms, for Josie, it can make her feel like she wants \u201cto kind of disappear.\u201d She describes getting into a negative self-critical spiral. She says, \u201cI can\u2019t shut my mind off. It can feel really scary and heavy.\u201d \u00a0In those moments she feels a need to escape, perhaps by staying in bed and watching movies. Like others, she finds it hard to be productive when debilitated by anxiety.<\/p>\n But Josie has found positive ways of working with it.<\/p>\n \u201cTM helps me make good decisions for myself. I think I\u2019m in an important part of my life right now, and it\u2019s helping me navigate being 31. I see things moving very slowly in the direction that I want, which is definitely exciting, but it also gives me a lot of anxiety. Meditating is really, really<\/em> important for me to balance that. I can say that without a doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n Meditating regularly, calming anxiety, and connecting with a deeper part of herself has given Josie the clarity to move forward in an exciting new area of her life \u2013 becoming an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n \u201cA few months ago I had the feeling that I was just floating and not moving progressively in one direction. At one point I thought that music was the only direction I wanted to go in.\u201d \u00a0But now that\u2019s shifting. \u201cSomeone asked me this summer, \u2018If you could do anything, what\u2019s the most fun thing that you could think of for a career path?\u2019\u201d For Josie it was opening her own tea shop. \u201cI used to think of it as off-limits, as a pipe-dream, but I realized in that moment that all it takes is going for it.\u201d And so she is.<\/p>\n In this active time of working, starting a new business, and continuing to perform her music, she says, \u201cMeditating has helped me get back to myself.\u201d And with that, Josie is moving forward into the life that she knows she wants.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In her early twenties, Josie Overmyer picked up and moved across the country. That influential move was the first time she remembers the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique playing a\u00a0role in mitigating stress in her life, helping to spark\u00a0her into a particularly creative period of\u00a0songwriting.\u00a0Today, her creative endeavors are focused in a\u00a0new\u00a0direction: entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/199501_10150195191688508_6457590_n.jpg\")
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Now residing in the Midwest, Josie has been steadily working with advisers to become an entrepreneur in the town where she lives. It\u2019s a slow process that takes patience and motivation. She says, \u201cStaying grounded is really important for me right now. Otherwise anxiety can keep me from being productive. I need to sit with myself and stay in a good state of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n