A boy from a humble farm, an adrenaline-leading broker, and now a meditation coach, writer and producer of The Portal — Tom Cronin takes us along the roller coaster of the work of life in this episode. The highs he experienced through his young adult years, working under immense pressure, led him to the biggest decision in his life. That is choosing whether to break down or make a breakthrough.Transpired to be walking in the journey of light, luckily, Tom discovered meditation. He learned to adapt to stress better from then onwards, and he could see significant shifts happening.In this episode, Tom dives deep into the meditation practice, sharing the tremendous amount of benefits it has on our being. He sees how meditation not only improve his own life but of those around him. His aim is to help bring people back to stillness and peace through his current work. He knows meditation is the portal from within that can take us there and he's here to share it all with us. Tune in to the end of this episode to experience a beautiful 2-minute meditation guided by Tom Cronin.If you'd like to learn more about meditation practice, check out The Portal book and film, written and produced by Tom Cronin: https://entertheportal.com/

Be inspired to make that life-changing decision, join Tom in The Stillness Project:https://stillnessproject.com/Show Notes:

2:24 - From growing up in a peaceful environment, what drove you to decide to work under high pressure in the finance industry?The Wolf of Wall Street style career path was something Tom did not plan on doing long-term. He originally wanted to pursue a different path to uphold his values during his early years. 

However, the rewards from working on the trading room floor in Sydney kept on extending his stay, running on adrenaline for 26 years.

6:21 - What are some of the biggest things you learned from your time working in finance that you feel like you have translated or utilise now in your work today?Resilience and the ability to let things go were the big parts of what Tom had learned in that industry. He suggests that adaptability is what we all need to work on, now more than ever, to reduce stress in overwhelming experiences.

7:51 - Did you have strategies in dealing with overwhelmed when you were working in the finance industry?Tom shares that, back then, he was using stress management tools that weren't sustainable, which had caused more damage to his nervous system.

8:40 - What was the delineating moment for you that was telling you to make a change?Tom explains that the accumulation of stress responses in his body led to a severe nervous breakdown at the age of 29. That's when the Universe guided him towards the biggest change in his life through meditation. 

10:43 - How did you get yourself into that mode of being able to practice meditation successfully?Here he explains how he could have a tangible and distinct experience very quickly through the technique that he learned from a qualified meditation program from the beginning of his journey. 

12:54 - Did meditation change your brain chemistry and stress response? How did it alter the relationship within your workspace?Everything drastically changed for Tom. He shares how meditation transformed his biochemicals which moved him out of the sympathetic nervous system. With meditation, he was able to achieve the parasympathetic, which is the peace response. 

15:05 - How do you use meditation to improve sleep?Here Tom explains the two reasons poor sleep is one of our greatest epidemics right now; our biochemistry and mental state.  

Tom elaborates on how using daily meditation to train and discipline the mind can improve sleep quality.

18:28 - How do we use meditation to manage our stress, anxiety and depression? Tom points out the way we have perceived stress, and by understanding what it means, we can deal with it more freely regardless of the situation.

Here Tom and Felicity discuss the values meditation can bring into t