Pauline McKinnon conquers anxiety with stillness meditation. By Joanne Sim.
Pauline McKinnon was a very different woman 35 years ago to the confident, calm and articulate person she is today. Now a successful author, meditation consultant and psychotherapist, the Kew grandmother of nine enjoyed an extended holiday last year to Morocco, Libya, Jordan, India and China with her husband.
It would be an exciting trip for anyone, but it was much more so for McKinnon, who in her mid-20s struggled to even walk to her front gate. A series of family tragedies and stressful events had triggered McKinnon’s debilitating panic attacks. These led to agoraphobia, which crippled her life for eight years. It wasn’t until McKinnon met eminent psychiatrist Ainslie Meares and his particular brand of Stillness Meditation Therapy that the cloud was finally lifted.
“When I went to Dr Meares the anxiety started to reduce, but it took me nearly two years to feel back on track again,” she says. “For me, it was such a tremendous change from the limited life that I had been living and to be free again to start to rebuild my life and enjoy my life with my family and my kids”.
With Meares’ encouragement, McKinnon first shared her remarkable story in a book, In Stillness Conquer Fear, which was launched on The Mike Walsh Show in 1983. A revised edition of the book was released last year to celebrate the book’s 25 year anniversary.
McKinnon says her progression from patient to practitioner stemmed from a desire to help people like her.
“I always knew that I was here to do something more”, she says. “I had an ambition there to fulfil something that I couldn’t get a handle on, but it just unfolded. I am a great believer in destiny.”
“I wrote from the heart and very genuinely wanted to reach out to other people who were suffering but didn’t have that support”, she says.
“Twenty-five years later, it’s the same story and people are still experiencing their own story in the same way. People are still ringing me up and wanting help for their stress, depression and anxiety, so it just seemed really important to keep the flow going.”
Starting in a small local church hall with a handful of stressed patients, McKinnon’s practice has now grown to the Pauline McKinnon Life Development Centre in Kew, where she teaches her simple method of Stillness Meditation Therapy as taught to her by Meares.
Unlike other forms of meditation, stillness meditation doesn’t use any mantra, breathing technique or ritual to induce the state of deep relaxation. It is simply about learning to experience the natural calm within.
“Meares’ view was that anxiety is the basic cause of all our emotional and physical illness, and if we as a people could reduce and maintain a lower level of anxiety, we wouldn’t get depressed or mentally ill or the chances would be reduced,” McKinnon says. “And it makes an awful lot of sense.”
According to statistics, about 15 percent of Australians suffer from some form of anxiety, although McKinnon says it is a difficult number to confirm, as many people will never register their anxiety or even identify that it is their problem.
“People are emotionally challenged by a lot of things, and the general pace of (modern) life is faster,” she says. “This is good in some ways, but we need to be able to balance it to get that respite so if stress comes along, we can handle it.
“It’s about giving your health priority. If you want to be happy and content, there are certain things that one has to do to make that happen, it doesn’t just occur.”
To her patients, McKinnon likens mental health to oral hygiene: “I say, ‘Come back regularly for visits, do your practice at home with the same dedication as you look after your teeth, and you can keep those anxiety levels down’.”
Although public awareness- and acceptance- of depression and anxiety has increased in the 25 years since McKinnon’s book was first released, she says there are misunderstandings about the seriousness of the afflictions and all the different forms of anxiety.
“We hear a lot about serious physical illness, and rightly so, but at the same time (anxiety and panic attacks) are life threatening in their own way because they are robbing of life, but they don’t get the same support,” she says.
“People don’t want to feel pitied, but just support from government and community support. You are really on your own. Depression comes from anxiety. If people could see that, I think it would make a big difference.”
For more information, visit www.lifedevelopmentcentre.com.au
Pauline McKinnon was a very different woman 35 years ago to the confident, calm and articulate person she is today. Now a successful author, meditation consultant and psychotherapist, the Kew grandmother of nine enjoyed an extended holiday last year to Morocco, Libya, Jordan, India and China with her husband.
It would be an exciting trip for anyone, but it was much more so for McKinnon, who in her mid-20s struggled to even walk to her front gate. A series of family tragedies and stressful events had triggered McKinnon’s debilitating panic attacks. These led to agoraphobia, which crippled her life for eight years. It wasn’t until McKinnon met eminent psychiatrist Ainslie Meares and his particular brand of Stillness Meditation Therapy that the cloud was finally lifted.
“When I went to Dr Meares the anxiety started to reduce, but it took me nearly two years to feel back on track again,” she says. “For me, it was such a tremendous change from the limited life that I had been living and to be free again to start to rebuild my life and enjoy my life with my family and my kids”.
With Meares’ encouragement, McKinnon first shared her remarkable story in a book, In Stillness Conquer Fear, which was launched on The Mike Walsh Show in 1983. A revised edition of the book was released last year to celebrate the book’s 25 year anniversary.
McKinnon says her progression from patient to practitioner stemmed from a desire to help people like her.
“I always knew that I was here to do something more”, she says. “I had an ambition there to fulfil something that I couldn’t get a handle on, but it just unfolded. I am a great believer in destiny.”
“I wrote from the heart and very genuinely wanted to reach out to other people who were suffering but didn’t have that support”, she says.
“Twenty-five years later, it’s the same story and people are still experiencing their own story in the same way. People are still ringing me up and wanting help for their stress, depression and anxiety, so it just seemed really important to keep the flow going.”
Starting in a small local church hall with a handful of stressed patients, McKinnon’s practice has now grown to the Pauline McKinnon Life Development Centre in Kew, where she teaches her simple method of Stillness Meditation Therapy as taught to her by Meares.
Unlike other forms of meditation, stillness meditation doesn’t use any mantra, breathing technique or ritual to induce the state of deep relaxation. It is simply about learning to experience the natural calm within.
“Meares’ view was that anxiety is the basic cause of all our emotional and physical illness, and if we as a people could reduce and maintain a lower level of anxiety, we wouldn’t get depressed or mentally ill or the chances would be reduced,” McKinnon says. “And it makes an awful lot of sense.”
According to statistics, about 15 percent of Australians suffer from some form of anxiety, although McKinnon says it is a difficult number to confirm, as many people will never register their anxiety or even identify that it is their problem.
“People are emotionally challenged by a lot of things, and the general pace of (modern) life is faster,” she says. “This is good in some ways, but we need to be able to balance it to get that respite so if stress comes along, we can handle it.
“It’s about giving your health priority. If you want to be happy and content, there are certain things that one has to do to make that happen, it doesn’t just occur.”
To her patients, McKinnon likens mental health to oral hygiene: “I say, ‘Come back regularly for visits, do your practice at home with the same dedication as you look after your teeth, and you can keep those anxiety levels down’.”
Although public awareness- and acceptance- of depression and anxiety has increased in the 25 years since McKinnon’s book was first released, she says there are misunderstandings about the seriousness of the afflictions and all the different forms of anxiety.
“We hear a lot about serious physical illness, and rightly so, but at the same time (anxiety and panic attacks) are life threatening in their own way because they are robbing of life, but they don’t get the same support,” she says.
“People don’t want to feel pitied, but just support from government and community support. You are really on your own. Depression comes from anxiety. If people could see that, I think it would make a big difference.”
For more information, visit www.lifedevelopmentcentre.com.au
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