Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelsey Mathes.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kelsey. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In my mid-twenties, I was living in NYC a working as an actor (aka bartender) and in a very imbalanced lifestyle. I was up all night drinking tequila and eating nachos, while trying to juggle my art by day. My anxiety levels – which were always high – went off the charts and I started having chronic migraines and panic attacks. I knew that something was deeply wrong and I wanted to try and fix the underlying issues, rather than just the symptoms. That summer, I found my Meditation Teacher. After taking her 4-day class, I very quickly began seeing results – my migraines went away, my anxiety levels were way down, I was sleeping better, I was more at peace, I was more connected with myself and others.
This led me to change careers into the health and wellness industry. I got certified in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic Food & Lifestyle techniques, and then in teaching Meditation; primarily Vedic Meditation, however my training encompassed all styles and uses over 15 months of training.
Before leaving NYC, I worked with the two top companies in my fields, NAO Nutrition and Ziva Meditation. Now I’m in Chicago, building the community and awareness for stress-relieving techniques to the Midwest.
Has it been a smooth road?
Is anything a smooth road? Any change requires adaptability, flexibility, and openness. If you’d asked me at 24 where I would be in 10 years, it would have been a completely different answer. For a time I joked that there was a “wrecking ball,” on my back – as soon as I thought an area of my life was settled, I turned around to deal with something else and boom! That thing I just took care of was destroyed again. There were times when I felt totally overwhelmed with the scope of what I was trying to achieve. I felt like I wasn’t enough, or “who was I,” to claim I could help anyone, or that I had to be “happy all the time,” exuding the “perfect,” teacher-vibe.
Newsflash: that doesn’t exist! Meditating doesn’t get rid of our emotions, rather it helps us to deal with them more effectively. Rather than holding onto a stressful situation or reacting before thinking, it helps us to develop a pause between the auto-response and the conscious-response. In this way, we become more adaptable to changing circumstances and trusting of our intuition to guide us to where we need to be.
We’ve all had that experience that we thought was the “end of the world as we know it,” and a few months later we look back and see how that destruction really opened us up into something more beautiful than we could have imagined. I look back on my journey and I can see how everything I have experienced has lead me to where I am today. I continue to grow and develop as new challenges come my way.
The question really is: how do you embrace the bumps in the road? Do you shy away from them? Are you scared of them? Are your nerves so brittle you’re afraid they will break you? OR do you embrace them, take them head on, and celebrate your triumph for working through them?
The woman I am today is the latter of the two. I love a challenge because it teaches me something more that I need to know in order to be even better at what I do.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Kam Meditation & Coaching story. Tell us more about the business.
Kam Meditation & Coaching is focused on helping all those hustlers out there create more happiness in their lives. Kam is a Sanskrit word that translates to “happiness,” and according to the authority of the Urban Dictionary, also means sexy/gorgeous. That’s how I want my clients to feel: happy, sexy & gorgeous inside and out. Happiness is an inside job. I recommend to my clients that they start with my 4-day Meditation Intensive where you will learn the Vedic Meditation technique. This is a silent, mantra based technique that is practiced daily and induces deep states of rest into the body so it can begin healing itself. I could go on and on (and do in my intro talks) about how this is achieved, and the benefits of the technique, but in short: meditation is simply a stress relieving tool. When you have a technique that is easy and you can feel successful with, like Vedic Meditation, you actually want to do it. It therefore becomes like going to the gym for your brain and actually does change your brain’s shape and functioning for the better- just like going to Pilates does for your core. What I love about this technique is that it teaches you self-sufficiency and you can practice anywhere you can sit with your eyes closed. No props or meditation rooms required!
From there, many of my clients choose to do on-going transformational coaching to learn how to step into co-creation in their life and create more balance and therefore happiness. Many of my clients are entrepreneurs, or side-entrepreneurs and we work together on how to build their business while bringing in more healthy habits. Due to my background in Ayurveda and other styles of meditation like Mindfulness, we will use these principles and complementary techniques, and apply them to how we individually work and function at our best in order to grow both personally & professionally.
I also love bringing custom meditation experiences to events like Bridal Showers, Baby Showers, Fundraisers, etc.
What sets Kam apart is that I believe in self-sufficiency. I don’t want my clients working with me for years and years. I want to give you the tools to empower you to feel happy, sexy/gorgeous, powerful & successful.
Another way to experience Kam is to join us for the next Bliss Party, happening on October 14th. The Bliss Party events combine music from a local artist, a group meditation, and an inspiring speaker to create an afternoon of connection and networking without alcohol.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Certainly the Chicago market is different from New York and L.A. in terms of its saturation. When I started integrating into the industry in NYC, my teacher was the first full-time teacher of this practice out there. Now, NYC has many teachers to choose from. I see that happening for Chicago, too. CH/LL opened about a year+ ago down in the loop, which is a drop-in meditation center modeled after The Path in NYC. I am now joined by a colleague here, as well. I think that mediation & holistic lifestyle techniques will become more and more popular as we continue to see how stress is the underlying broken bone of modern society. We need to balance out the constant information-overload with self-care in order to stay sane and on our game. Meditation and working with a Coach can be very transformative in this area and is becoming more acceptable in the main-stream.
Pricing:
- Online Stress Assessment @ KamMeditation.com – Free
- 4-Day Meditation Intensive – Scale
- Ongoing Coaching – Monthly Rate
- The Bliss Party Events (Next is Oct. 14) – $17 earlybird, $25 standard
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kammeditation.com, www.theblissparty.com
- Phone: 224-706-0092
- Email: kelsey@kammeditation.com
- Instagram: @kammeditation
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/itskelseymathes
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/kam-meditation-chicago
Image Credit:
Brissa Del Mar from Breeze Art Creatives (www.breezeartcreatives.com)
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
