A new start after 60: meditation cured my insomnia. Now I help others cope

Ken Lunn was having a ‘hellish’ time juggling work and childcare after his wife died. Then he found a way to catch his breath

Throughout his 30-year career as a tech professional, Ken Lunn regularly gave talks to rooms packed with experts and leaders in their fields. Yet it wasn’t until he taught his first meditation class to a dozen novices in 2016 that he felt nervous. “Guiding a meditation to a silent room was the most nerve-racking thing I’d done,” he says. “Trying to get people to explore their own psychology and leading as an example is a terrifying experience.”

At 60 years old, Lunn had recently retired from his data and IT management role in the NHS and decided to pursue an entirely different passion – one that had become central to his wellbeing in middle age. In 1989, when he was in his mid-30s with three young children, Lunn’s wife Susan was diagnosed with skin cancer. She died in 1993. Suddenly finding himself a single parent juggling work and childcare, Lunn began to suffer from depression and insomnia. “It was a hellish few years as a sole carer,” he says. “I didn’t know how to cope but one day a friend recommended that I try meditation to see if it could at least help me sleep.”

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