Meditating with Jhourney

I started working for Jhourney at a very interesting time in my life; one of my relationships was ending and I was feeling like you normally do at that tumultuous time - a little shaky, unsure of what’s to come, fearing the unknown and how it will come to pass, wondering if life will be kind to you and catch you - those sort of things. I had done a retreat with Jhourney and they just seemed to like me and they asked me to come work for them; it was such a lovely gift that they gave me - they gave me structure and hope - as well as the gift of realizing how easy meditation could be.

Jhourney is the San Francisco-based meditation company that teaches you how to teach yourself to get into jhana; which, as a teacher I absolutely love that framework because thats how I have always taught - giving people information but allowing them to make sense of it themselves, and then being there as a guide as they work through things. The people that are drawn to Jhourney are these incredibly brilliant minds searching for something to calm the noise that burns inside them. For me it was my ADHD - my thoughts were always so loud I never thought that I could quiet the noise - for other participants it was across the board - they knew they needed something, anxieties, destabilizing life events, ruminating thoughts, not trusting themselves, etc.

The way that Jhourney ‘hacks’ meditation was the exact way I needed to help me understand how to meditate - as you all know I come from a vast biological and spiritual background studying the body, the mind and the heart. Most, if not all, of my friends were meditators and yet, I could not figure it out. The abstract instructions I was always given was just to ‘sit and try to let go of my thoughts….’

…And, my friends, I cannot just ‘sit and try to let go of my thoughts….’

…Or at least I thought I couldn’t…

When I went to my Jhourney Retreat in May of 2024, Jhourney did something that I desperately needed: they flipped the archetype of meditation on its head for me and told me I could break the rules. As a rule-breaker myself, this advice brought me great joy. I had this idea in my head that I needed to sit perfectly still and not have one thought in my head - based on intro talks of TM and Vipassana I had been to years earlier. With the powers of scoliosis and ADHD combined these things are ✨almost✨ impossible!

Jhourney offered easy solutions: if sitting hurts - then lay down. If neither works - then go for a walk - just make it slow and intentional. They helped me reorient my goal - not to try to get rid of my thoughts but to work alongside them. As someone who is very visual I started being able to befriend my thoughts to conjure feelings and then use my thoughts to help me stay in that feeling, and then once everything felt stable I felt more collected rather than scattered and ✨over efforting✨.

What a concept!

Jhourney helps so many people not only find meditation but love it, sincerely. They make it easy to understand and they guide you the whole way. Since my time with Jhourney I have considered myself a proficient meditator and even completed a 12 day Vipassana retreat in May 2025! Younger Jess always had that as an intention for my life, and finally achieving my goal felt so blissful.

After my last in person retreat at the Blue Spirit Resort in Nosara, Costa Rica in July 2025 I knew it was time for a wacky road trip through Nicaragua and Honduras all the way up to surf in El Salvador. Luckily I was blessed with a co-teaching team of amazing individuals and together, Matt, Jack, Owen, Tracey, Hanna and I embarked on our quest. We had the absolute best time piecing together playlists, border crossings, various different buses, a handful of shuttles shuttles and some epic side quests.

I’m so grateful for the time I spent with Jhourney traveling through all throughout California and Costa Rica, teaching alongside people that will remain lifetime friends, and meeting epically cool people as participants - it’s a time I’ll never forget!

Xoxo