Five years ago I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a condition that is commonly believed to have no cure. I was given the options of surgery and medication for the rest of my life, still without the potential of a cure. My doctor told me that diet would have no effect and that I would have to learn to live with it.

I recently had the opportunity to be alone. By myself. No family. Just me and the house. Wow. What a treat. And then I went to a bar. Ok, I didn't actually go to a bar, I went to a restaurant when it was crowded and they stuck me in the bar for a few minutes until a table opened. But in that time I met a guy who seemed a little tipsy. Under other circumstances I would have thought he was attractive. We'll call him On-the-make Bob, and even though he didn't make a formal pass at me, I felt uneasy with the way he looked at me. I became conscious that I was wearing a low cut top and suddenly felt a little naked. I flashed my wedding ring but he didn't shut up. Other people were at the bar. One woman even seemed to realize Bob was a little creepy and asked about my husband. I was totally safe. Before long I got my table and got away from the guy. He had done and said nothing wrong, but I felt vulnerable for some reason.

As I explained here, I’m just got back from Harbin Hot Springs in Northern California, where I was on a spiritual pilgrimage of sorts after AstroTwin Ophira Edut told me that the stars had big stuff in store for me. At her suggestion, I decided to go on retreat on April 3, when six planets aligned into my house of endings -- a once-in-a-lifetime astrological event. My mission, should I choose to accept it, was to learn the life lesson I’m supposed to learn so I don’t have to carry into the next 12 years, the baggage from the last 12.

Ophi charged me with viewing the retreat as a sort of rebirth, and when she said that, I knew I had to schedule a session of Watsu (water Shiatsu, a type of bodywork that takes place in a pool of warm water, which was born at Harbin Hot Springs). I’ve had two Watsu sessions before, so I know how profoundly emotional these sessions can be. And I know how maternal, womb-like, and birth-ish it can feel.

My intuition told me it would be just the thing. So I did it. And oh, baby…was my gut spot on.

So many of my Body Image Mastery students tell me how much easier everything would be with another two hours in a day – heck, another 15 minutes would come in handy. Our lives are filled to the brim, and the idea of sacrificing any amount of time to sit and just breathe is unimaginable. And yet this is exactly what I tell them to do. Wouldn’t you if sitting and breathing could make the rest of your life calmer, fuller, more joyful?

That’s where meditation comes in. Now, I know some of you Pinkies may see the “M” word and think, “Oh no, this post is not for me. That’s too out there.” But I implore you not to stop reading! I know that the word “meditation” can set off the woo-woo alarm (to borrow a phrase from the incomparable Lauren Nagel). It certainly did for me when I first heard about meditation.