Tamara Klien

This week, sound meditation teacher, Tamara Klien spoke to us about how lockdown gave her the courage to make the jump into a new career path and the importance of looking after your own wellbeing.
Saturday 10th October marks World Mental Health Day, an initiative dedicated to providing global mental health education and advocacy against social stigma.
Read and listen to find out how Tamara is utilising her own platform to raise awareness, tackle misconceptions and unfair bias against mental health.

Lockdown gave me the opportunity to go into deep internal dialogues with my own thoughts, desires and needs. Which finally led me to take the (very scary) leap to fully focus on a completely new career path as a Sound Meditation Teacher. My background lies within the fashion, luxury & lifestyle sector, working as a PR. It’s been my profession for 13+ years since I moved from my native Germany in 2007. 

Being mixed nationality, German on my father’s side and Ecuadorean on my mother’s side, I never felt I truly belonged in Germany. So, I packed my things and moved to London to pursue my dream to work in fashion. A passion which was very much influenced by my mother’s bold, colourful and playful dress style.

Prior to that I was working in advertising for some of the leading creative agencies in Hamburg with clients such as Google and YouTube. I’ve basically moved from one hectic job to an even more hectic one. I loved the thrill! The busier, the better.

However, after a few years it took its toll on me and I started to look and feel unhealthy including physical symptoms such as dermatitis and eczema. I think I came to the realisation very early on in my career that stress was having negative effects on me. However, I may not have quite understood how I used substances to suppress unwanted emotions. Be it cigarettes, alcohol, food or even excessive exercising. I was using all of them to distract me from my own natural mechanisms trying to tell me to take care of myself…

Until I stumbled upon an article about a then newly launched meditation app. This is how it all began for me. Despite its initial challenges to get into a daily habit, I was hooked. There was just something about it. Eventually I developed this into my own practice, which keeps evolving and has finally landed me where I am now.

Sound / Gong Baths are based on ancient healing techniques. I believe it to be more accessible than other meditation techniques, as all that participants have to do is lie down and be ‘bathed’ in sound wave frequencies. This process leads to deep meditative states and as a result, activates the parasympathetic nervous system. The benefits are wide ranging and include reduction of stress levels, sleeping issues and feelings of anxiety.

My aim is to make a meditation practice easy and available to anyone needing help to manage the modern challenges of the 21st century. The fact that I have been there myself has given me a deeper insight into how hard it can be to break the cycle.

I hope to be able to raise awareness and eradicate the stigma that surrounds mental health. It’s not a weakness, it’s a symptom. We need to applaud those who have the courage to set boundaries, say no and take the time off they need when their bodies are asking for it! 

For the whole of October all proceeds from Tamara’s Virtual Sound Bath Sessions are going to be non-profit and in support of the Mind Charity. 

Follow @_thisistam and sign up to Tamara’s newsletter to stay up to date with her sound bath sessions and upcoming workshops.

Image credit @manongraphy