Interview with Dr. Lisa Papenbrock - Vedic Meditation

I recently talked with my former roommate back in chiropractic school, Dr. Lisa Papenbrock, and she shared more about Vedic Meditation with me. She talked about how her journey started and how it changed her life, so I decided to share it with you, too, so you can look into this type of meditation and gather first-hand information from a person who practices it wholeheartedly.

Dr. Lisa Papenbrock And How She Started With Vedic Meditation  

During our interview, Dr. Papenbrock shared that as far as commitment with time, she was easily the person who would be on her feet doing everything even if it takes 15 hours in a day. She noted that she could not sit still at all.  In a day, she spent ten hours in her car going from one patient to another. However, she found this really stressful because she had no time for herself anymore.

During that time, she was listening to a lot of Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle and they introduced her to meditation. Dr. Lisa had reservations in the beginning because she had trouble even sitting still. She revealed that she always filled her life with different activities to take up space and find some type of joy and happiness. However, she was really stressed out and she knew she needed something different.

That was when she started to meditate, but made sure it was scientifically-based and research-based. She also wanted something that she could do anywhere or anytime.

How To Start Meditating

Dr. Lisa started with vedic meditiation. It is mantra-based, you are given a sound which has no meaning. The sound is there to relax the mind and it is a very charming sound and it essentially makes you less interested in other thoughts. When you have less thoughts and less traffic in your head, you can form a sense of deep relaxation.

When thoughts come back to the mind, you just go back to the mantra. She said that she has been meditating for two years now and she still has days when she has thoughts flooding in while meditating. She assures me that nobody who is meditating will just sit there thoughtless and in bliss without thinking about something. Dr. Lisa added that it is a practice and there will always be things that come up.   It takes the pressure off knowing that you are still meditating even when you are having thoughts or are distracted. The point is that on a daily basis, twice a day, you are sitting down.

How Was It Meditating At The Beginning

Dr. Lisa said that at the beginning, she was not great at being consistent with her meditations. She would sometimes skip a few days or even a week. She was good at meditating in the morning, but at night she was not that consistent because she was tired.  However, even during the times when she only did one meditation a day, she started noticing changes in her life. She became less reactive and she noticed subtle differences.

All of a sudden, because she knew of the benefits that come with meditating, she committed to doing it twice a day. Two years into meditating, she does two meditations in a day even if she is too tired for the second one. This is non-negotiable for her.  

Why Meditate Twice A Day

The reason why she meditates twice a day is because of the amount of stress life involves. Dr. Lisa said that the amount of stress we encounter in a day is cumulative and we hold old stresses in our body. The meditations done twice a day will take care of the stress you felt that day and to get ahead of the stress you may have felt in the past, too. Basically, you are staying ahead and clearing the stress you embodied and have not let go of yet.

Through meditating, you are forming new neural patterns. Our brain is plastic and by forming new neural patterns, we are also forming new healthier and more sustainable ways of being. With this comes a new perspective in life. 

The Science Of Stress

You can still be stressed even if you are not feeling stressed. For example, if you feel excessively tired, get sick or injured a lot, sleep poorly, spontaneously feel intense joy, rage, or sadness without any explanation, forgetting things more frequently, your reaction time is slower, or all of a sudden be puffy – these can all be because of stress. Stress does not always have to be obvious because you can have subtle symptoms of having a stress maladaptation response.

Stress is actually good for us because without stress, we cannot grow. We have to have the appropriate amount of being able to adapt to different stresses. Otherwise, we will have symptoms that are less than desirable and things around us in our everyday life will seem like there are more obstacles and this could add to more stress, eventually. Our bodies have to feel safe enough to be able to release stress and most of our schedules and lifestyles do not actually allow for that quiet place for the body to let go of the things we accumulated throughout our entire lifetime.

The things that allow us to let go of stress are things like laughter, sleeping (specifically the dream state), mindful breath work, spending time in nature, getting sunshine, spending time with loved ones, and other areas where you experience joy. Specific forms of movement also help with stress, but they are slower in allowing you to let go of stress.

People usually do not know or are not aware of the stress in their lives. Who doesn’t have stress in this day and age anyway? No matter what area it is – family, quarantining, exposures, or navigating the minefield of what is right and what is best – I am sure that everyone has a source of stress. I tell my patients this whenever they tell me they are not aware of any stress in their lives as of the moment and explain to them that stress comes in so many forms. In the office, we work with breath work and manipulation to affect the Vagus Nerve, which helps the state of our nervous system and stress level.  We have the ability to re-train our brain and body by doing something new over and over again and the new thing that we introduce will hopefully be something that is beneficial to our health.

Coming Full Circle

Dr. Lisa shared that with Vedic Meditation, or any kind of meditation you are comfortable practicing, it’s learning every day and it is almost like coming full circle. As you let go of the stress, you find that inner joy and sense of peace where you don’t feel like you need to do all these other extra things anymore because we have the sense of fulfillment that comes within us coming full circle.

The inner joy and peace is what Dr. Lisa feels we are all looking for that is why we become so busy. She notes that it’s a beautiful thing to come back to again and know that everything that we need is within ourselves and we do not have to look externally for some kind of satisfaction or validation.

Doing Vedic Meditation  

Vedic Meditation is a type of meditation of the lineage that has been unbroken for 5,000 years. A more general form of mantra-based meditation is transcendental meditation. In both types of meditation, you sit down for 20 minutes twice a day.

Dr. Lisa liked Vedic Meditation because it has a lineage and a tradition. It feels very good to her and it was also offered by her mentor. However, if you do not have a mentor or do not have anyone who does Vedic Meditation around you who can initiate you into it, you can also look into transcendental meditation as it is more accessible.

There is a form of meditation for every single person and it’s just about finding that type of meditation that works for you. Any form of meditation is better than no meditation at all.

If you are too busy to meditate, it just means you are busy in general. When you get into meditation, you sort of become a “time magician” because when you are taking action after meditating, you end up more efficient and productive in a shorter time. Dr. Lisa still works full-time, does her activities that keeps her physically in shape, meets her friends, and does other activities. After meditating for two years, she feels like she has more hours in a day that she did not have before. She believes it is because she is a lot less distracted when she is doing things now because she is meditating.

I see self-care promoted all the time through social media like getting a pedicure or going shopping, but it’s not accessible to everyone. When you do not have the means to do it, it will lead to more stress again. I believe that meditating is something that you can do without costing you anything and it will help your health on so many different levels.

If Vedic Meditation does not work for you, do not get discouraged as there is a certain type of meditation that will work for you. Dr. Lisa wanted to leave with you that meditating is just sitting down and giving yourself some time to do something different than what you are doing all day long. It will change your life, your perspective, and your outlook. You will definitely benefit from it and I hope you try it too!

You can check out Dr. Lisa Papenbrock and her courses here. You can also reach out to her if you have any questions through her website’s contact page.

If you have any questions, you can drop it in the comment section or you send me a message through Facebook or Instagram. I’d be happy to do another podcast about your questions. Also, if you want me to talk about something specific, let me know!

You can also check my TikTok account as I use the platform to educate viewers about movement, chiropractic education, yoga, pregnancy, and more!