🌅 Overcoming Depression & Rebuilding Life Through Meditation

📖 Introduction

Depression, financial hardship, hopelessness, stress, emotional exhaustion, and relationship conflict can completely overwhelm a person’s life.

Many people silently struggle with failure, debt, anxiety, emotional pain, and the feeling that there is no way forward anymore.

Even while continuing to survive externally, internally they may feel trapped in despair, fear, guilt, resentment, and hopelessness.

This meditation testimonial shares the story of Jae S., a self-employed business owner who experienced business failure, crushing debt, depression, suicidal thoughts, and severe emotional suffering.

As financial problems continued for years, his health deteriorated, his marriage became filled with conflict, and he gradually lost the will to continue living.

Through meditation and honestly reflecting on himself, he gradually discovered the true roots of his suffering and began letting go of fear, resentment, selfishness, inferiority, and emotional burdens he had unknowingly carried for decades.

As he continued emptying his mind, his emotional suffering eased, his relationship with his wife healed, his health recovered, and even his business life gradually began improving again.

This meditation testimonial beautifully shows how inner change can transform depression, hopelessness, relationships, work, and life itself.

💬 Meditation Testimonial: “Overcoming Depression Through Meditation — and Finding Success Again”

By Jae S. | Self-Employed Business Owner

In March 2003, I received a phone call from an acquaintance.

He said:

“I’m heading to do this meditation right now. I think it’s finally time for you to come too.”

Jokingly, I asked him:

“What, are you going off to become some kind of monk?”

And he replied:

“Whatever you want to call it, just come.”

I told him:

“I have too many urgent things going on right now. I’ll go another time.”

But his response shocked me.

He said:

“You’ve been running around desperately all this time — but what have you actually accomplished?”
“Nothing will collapse just because you’re gone for a while, so just come.”

His words hurt my pride and made me emotional.

But at the same time, I realized:

“He’s right.”

And that was how I began practicing this meditation.

🌧️ Looking Honestly at My Own Mind

At the time, my life was in ruins.

After my business failed, I was buried under enormous debt worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I had not even paid my underground apartment rent for over a year, and I intentionally came home late at night just to avoid my landlord.

Reality felt completely hopeless.

Many nights, as dawn approached, I would fall asleep wishing:

“I hope I never wake up again.”

Eventually, I developed severe depression and experienced suicidal thoughts multiple times a day.

Sometimes, while walking outside, I would secretly wish that a luxury car would hit me.

I thought:

“If I die and insurance money comes out, at least my wife and children could escape this damp, miserable room.”

That was the kind of mindset I lived with.

My health rapidly deteriorated.

My face became dark and exhausted-looking.

By afternoon each day, I became so physically drained that I often collapsed.

Even going to the hospital felt impossible.

At the time, buying enough food for a few meals and enough oil to heat the room felt far more urgent.

🌱 Hope Began the First Day I Started Meditation

On the very first day of meditation training, as I listened to the explanation about what the mind truly is and the systematic method of emptying it, hope began rising inside me.

For the first time, I felt deep trust in something.

As I started discarding the countless minds I had accumulated over fifty years of life, one by one, I noticed my head becoming clearer.

The heaviness inside my chest began loosening.

Even my body gradually started recovering.

Until then, I had believed I was a conscientious person who lived honestly and never harmed anyone.

But through meditation, I realized the exact opposite.

Inside me was enormous selfishness.

My inferiority complex and cowardice had been disguised as confidence.

And beneath my outward appearance were hypocrisy, stubbornness, and a harmful self-centeredness that had wounded the world around me.

I burst into tears of repentance.

💞 I Changed — and Even My Wife’s Heart Became Peaceful

I had already gone through one divorce before.

My current wife had also experienced great loss after losing her first husband early in life, and we had lived together for ten years.

Even after our business failed, we tried encouraging each other and holding onto hope.

But as poverty dragged on for years, both of us suffered deeply.

Whenever we were alone together, we blamed each other for our pain and constantly fought.

Eventually, although we never openly said it, both of us were thinking:

“Maybe we should separate.”

Since we had no children together, we thought it would simply end there.

The day before I left for the meditation center, we fought as though we would never see each other again.

But after I completed the first meditation course, my wife came to visit me.

Her face looked strangely peaceful.

And for the first time, I sincerely asked for her forgiveness.

As she quietly looked at me, she appeared unbelievably loving and gentle — almost like an angel.

At that moment, I truly felt as though I had been born again.

Later, my wife told me something remarkable.

She said:

“While you were at the meditation center, my hatred and resentment toward you suddenly disappeared, and my heart became peaceful.
So I became curious about what kind of place this was.
When I came and saw you after only one week, I couldn’t believe a person could change so much in such a short time.”

✨ When the Mind Changes, Life Truly Changes

Soon afterward, my wife also began practicing this meditation.

Discarding the false self I had lived as and searching for my true self became one of the greatest blessings and joys of my life.

And after that, even my business began recovering.

The enormous debts that once crushed me have now almost all been repaid.

There was once a time when I wished a luxury car would hit me so my family could survive on the insurance money.

Now, ironically, I am the owner of one of those luxury cars myself.

Before meditation, I often became so exhausted and stressed by afternoon that I could barely continue working.

Now, even when I work late into the evening, I still have energy left.

Every single day, I meet around 150 customers.

And now, every one of them feels precious to me.

Because they exist, I exist too.

That realization fills me with gratitude.

Many people ask me:

“How were you able to recover your life like this?”

And I always answer:

“I changed my mind.”

Then they usually ask:

“But how do you actually change your mind?”

And that is when I tell them about this meditation.

I simply say:

“There is a way through this meditation.”

🌟 Reflect at Santa Clara Meditation

Many people silently struggle with depression, hopelessness, stress, anxiety, financial pressure, emotional exhaustion, relationship conflict, and overwhelming thoughts.

At Santa Clara Meditation, people learn how to reflect on themselves, let go of painful thoughts and emotional burdens, and discover peace, healing, gratitude, clarity, and renewed hope through meditation.

If you are struggling with depression, emotional suffering, hopelessness, stress, or anxiety, meditation may help you discover lasting healing and meaningful inner change.tion