A local entrepreneur is expanding her Llandaff-based meditation business to reach a wider Welsh audience
Siwan Reynolds set up her own business to help others discover the power of meditation and be more mindful
Mindfulness has become increasingly popular, with several health charities now recommending meditation to alleviate the side effects of both physical and mental health issues.
Siwan Reynolds is no stranger to the power of meditation. Last year the 25-year-old entrepreneur from Llandaff set up her own business, Cardiff Meditation, to illustrate the influential nature of the practice.
Siwan was diagnosed with epilepsy at 14 and tried everything she could to decrease her number of seizures, including cutting out dairy and gluten. It wasn’t until she went to Exeter University in 2013 to study psychology that she found her answer.
“I came across an article in my second year saying how meditation could decrease seizures,” she explains. “I didn’t want to take more medication so I grabbed the bull by its horns and did 20 minutes every day. After four months I was having fewer seizures as well as lots of other benefits.”
“I grabbed the bull by its horns and did 20 minutes every day”
Turning big ideas into business
After realising the advantages of her new-found hobby, Siwan returned to Cardiff in 2016 with a view to setting up her own business. She sought help from Big Ideas Wales, a Welsh Government scheme, to help start her business properly.
“I remember my first few months of trying to market my meditation classes and that was just a fail,” she laughs. “I only had the logo and name, so that’s when Big Ideas Wales came in. They’ve been amazing.”
Siwan’s latest venture is to expand her business to a wider and more Welsh audience.
As a native Welsh speaker, she recently rolled out a series of weekly classes in Welsh called Meddwlgarwch a Chacen (Meditation and Cake).
“Welsh is such an old language and it’s so beautiful. I’ve been delivering Welsh-language classes in primary schools but I’ve only very recently started doing it for adults and it’s so fun.”
Siwan in action delivering a guided meditation at her weekly Meddwlgarwch a Chacen classes in The Bee and Honey, Canton
While focusing on the local, Siwan also has her eyes firmly on the global. March 2019 will see the launch of an online platform called Calm Cloud, aimed at allowing students of all ages to remotely access her guided meditations.
“I’m going to have the freedom to be anywhere I want to be in the world. I might go and live somewhere else for a while,” she smiles gleefully.
Making a life-changing impact
It is clear meditation is at the heart of who Siwan is. When talking about what it means to her, she enters full ‘meditation mode’: smiling, taking deep breaths and closing her eyes.
“Not everyone knows how powerful and life-changing meditation is. It’s almost reminding myself that I am alive and what being alive truly means,” she explains in an almost lyrical fashion.
“During meditation, you really stop and ‘be’. You’re fully yourself and in the moment. It just pulls everything away and you’re standing in the now.”
“Not everyone knows how powerful and life-changing meditation is. It’s almost reminding myself that I am alive and what being alive truly means”
Siwan credits meditation as having changed her life completely in more ways than one.
“I’m on way less medication now. I’m much more much laid-back, happier and grateful than I was before. I see the world differently. Things like my bus running late – I see that from a different perspective now.”
Use Siwan’s three top tips to try meditation yourself: