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Sarah McLean calls herself an American Transcendentalist. She’s always been fascinated by the subtle and powerful force at the source of all that is. She’s made it her mission to know more. That’s why she’s dedicated her life to exploring meditation, a practice that allows anyone to have the direct experience of this force field that underlies all of creation.
Sarah was a resident in a Zen Buddhist monastery, lived and worked in a Transcendental Meditation center, and was a resident in a traditional ashram in India. She also headed up the education programs at Deepak Chopra’s center in California as well as at Byron Katie’s School for the Work.
Sarah is a best-selling Hay House author and sought-after presenter who is determined to create more peace on this planet by helping people wake up to the wonder and beauty of creation through the practice of meditation.
Sarah founded the McLean Meditation Institute® and its faculty offers educational programs for those who want to learn how to meditate, live mindfully, or deepen their practice by becoming a meditation teacher. MMI was founded in Sedona, Arizona in 2006 by popular meditation and mindfulness teacher, Sarah McLean. Her center became a local and visitor favorite for learning and practicing powerful meditation techniques through retreats and drop-in sessions. In December 2018 the center closed and is soon relocating to Santa Barbara, California. While the new center is getting up and running, Sarah and her faculty continue to teach meditation virtually and where they are invited.
MMI offers professional meditation and mindfulness teacher training through the Meditation Teacher Academy®. The Academy is dedicated to educating meditation instructors to the highest standards of excellence. It offers a 200-hour curriculum which includes a distance learning portion followed by a week-long, in-person intensive in locations such as Sedona, Arizona, Devon England, Nashville, Tennessee, and County Cork Ireland.
For those who want to bring mindfulness into organizations and into the workplace, MMI offers a 60-hour advanced teacher training. Find out more about it here.
Over the years, Sarah’s students kept returning to her classes and wanted to learn how to teach
meditation as she did. Eventually, in 2012, Sarah developed a vigorous meditation teacher training program based on her personal experiences. It has been attended by hundreds of students and is now one of the most well-respected programs available worldwide.
Sarah has over 30 years of deep, personal meditation practice and in-depth work experience in the field of personal transformation. She is the best-selling Hay House author of Soul-Centered: Transform Your Life in 8 Weeks with Meditation, and The Power of Attention: Awaken to Love and its Unlimited Potential with Meditation and is also a sought-after inspirational speaker who makes meditation easy for anyone.
We recently had the opportunity to chat more with Sarah in our exclusive Featuring You Interview:
How did you get to be where you are today?
By following my inner GPS. Or as some call it, the PGS, personal guidance system.
Have you ever been fired?
Oh yes.
What are your real passions?
Communing with mother nature, mother earth, interspecies connection, and doing what I can to wake people up to the wonder and beauty of nature and protecting all of these aforementioned by speaking up and helping people see their deep relationship with all.
If you won the lottery, what would you do?
Give my money away to people and organizations that serve and protect the voiceless.
What do you do to help others be their best?
I teach them to connect to who they really are —outside of their roles and responsibilities — with mediation and mindfulness, and express who they are in the world through speaking their truth, sharing their gifts, and taking inspired action.
How do you help yourself be the best you can be?
I meditate twice a day and spend time with people I love, doing what I love, and teaching. I always making time to appreciate the natural world.
What do you like to do in your personal life?
Go out into nature, listen to birdsongs, smell flowers, feel the ocean breezes on my face, talk to trees, gaze at the sky, pick up litter, teach meditation.
What do you hope to accomplish in the future?
I want to teach as many meditation teachers as possible to continue to sow the seeds of peace in their communities and the world.
What is a book or two that you recommend?
Loving What Is by Byron Katie, Cave in the Snow by Tenzin Palmo, 40 Rules of Love by Elif Shafak.
Please give us one or two shameless plugs.
I recommend the books I wrote J
Why do you do what you do?
It is my swadharma to teach teachers (swadharma means one’s unique role in life or way of being in the world, which it is their duty to realize and fulfill). I had no plans to do it, nor was it on my vision board, but my students kept asking me to teach them how to teach like I do. I was resistant. I mean, “Who did I think I was?” Well, it happened anyway, I founded the Meditation Teacher Academy and developed a rigorous curriculum to serve that purpose. I knew that more teachers of peace would create a bigger ripple, so
What are a few of your goals?
Peace on Earth, the elimination of needless suffering, helping people to wake up to the wonder and beauty of creation, enlightenment, just to name a few.
What do the words "Best Ever You" mean to you?
I can’t imagine anything else.
Visit: https://mcleanmeditation.com to learn more.