Divabetic's Annual Guided Meditation with Rachel Zinman

Mr. Divabetic talks with international yoga teacher, and author Rachel Zinman, living with LADA diabetes, who shares a guided meditation, "Compassion Meditation," focusing on self-love and compassion to help jumpstart your year with a new attitude. 

There have been many bumps in the road on Rachel's journey with LADA diabetes (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults) related to her initial misdiagnosis. She shares how yoga and meditation helped her to overcome years of frustration and confusion about managing her diabetes. 

Rachel's meditation references Tara,  a female deity in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Tara personifies compassion and offers salvation from suffering.  She is thought to have been born of empathy for the suffering world and is regularly invoked for protection, guidance, and deliverance from difficult situations.

In Hinduism, she is the second of the ten Mahavidyas, avatars of the great Mother Goddess Mahadevi. In Buddhism, Tara is a savior deity who liberates souls from suffering. According to origin tales, she emerged from the tear of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara who cried when looking upon the suffering world. She is therefore associated primarily with compassion but can take on many forms to help and protect her devotees.

In her book, Yoga for Diabetes, Rachel Zinman shares her journey and the hard-won wisdom gained from her own experience of yoga and diabetes.