Meryl Olson graduated with a degree in humanities and social science from Mercer County College in 2005. While at Mercer Meryl, she was honored by Phi Theta Kappa, USA Today, Governor Christie Whit...view moreMeryl Olson graduated with a degree in humanities and social science from Mercer County College in 2005. While at Mercer Meryl, she was honored by Phi Theta Kappa, USA Today, Governor Christie Whitman, and the NJ State Assembly as a scholar and community leader. From 1993–1995, while studying at MCC Meryl, she was president of the yoga club as well as its hatha yoga and meditation instructor.
Meryl has been a natural health-care practitioner and massage therapist for over thirty years, interested in many fields, especially holistic health, metaphysics, UFOs, and the arts. She was a professional singer and dancer for fourteen years until mental illness and a tragic suicide attempt resulting in partial paralysis derailed her career.
She is a minister of Universal Brotherhood since 1999 and is a student of New Thought. Her interest in Eastern philosophy began with reading Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha in grade school and then Autobiography of a Yogi. She met Muktananda in New York in 1981 and followed his successor, Gurumayi, to an ashram in India, where she chanted and meditated. She continues her practice today.
She is also a volunteer of In Our Own Voice and presenter for the National Alliance of Mental Illness, believing education will reduce the stigma of mental illness in our community. Talking openly about mental illness will hopefully encourage more people with bipolar illness and depression to seek help from pastors, doctors, nurse practitioners, counselors, friends, and family members. Though she has had articles and poetry published in magazines, Heartscapes is Meryl’s first published book. In 2016, she plans to publish The ABCs of Reversing Depression and her memoir, By Grace I Dance.view less