Not long ago, I realized that I appeared to have it all. A long-term marriage, a nice house, a six-figure salary, and private school for my daughter.

But I always had this void that I could not fill. At the time, I thought that maybe it was because my marriage was on the rocks or because I was working 60–70 hours a week.

I felt a lot better after my divorce and moving back to Pittsburgh with my daughter, but the emptiness remained. I thought that a new job or boyfriend would fulfill me. Maybe this time, it would be different and I would feel complete.

It never occurred to me that I was working in the wrong career or picking the wrong men. Changes I made in my life were accompanied by anger, frustration, and exhaustion which were negatively impacting my career and personal life.

I finally decided that it was time to do something different.

I listened to guided meditations and read books about the process. I started to feel lighter and less stressed.

The good news was that people at work noticed that I was handling stress a lot better and I seemed calmer. The bad news was that despite the improvements at work, my romantic life was a train wreck.

I decided to apply meditation and mindfulness to all of the dimensions of my life, including dating and relationships. Using this approach, I made better choices about the men I dated and walked away from romantic scenarios that didn’t align well with me.

Through my continued meditation practice, I finally started to love and accept myself and, in doing so, the void was finally gone.

So, I wrote a book, Meditate to Date: Finding Love through Self-Discovery to help other people who face similar dating and relationship challenges in their lives.