Mindfulness for Kids with Meddy Teddy
“I think [meditation] is a good skill to have in your emotional repertoire.”
There are a lot of terms that we’ve constantly heard thrown around as the world has faced this pandemic: ‘unprecedented’, ‘mindfulness’, ‘meditation’, et al. In a whole new world, meditation has been looked to more than ever (a practice our ancient predecessors took on for their wellness and growth) and teaching the techniques and principles has proved to be difficult for adults already- but imagine how difficult it must be for younger ones?
In the last few years, we’d see these cute little cuddly yogi bears in yoga studios that many would be taking pictures with for social media (and posing with in general). Little did we know that once we investigated more into who “Meddy Teddy” actually is, we learned the idea for the bear was originally conceived for kids to learn about meditation and mindfulness. We loved the concept so much that we reached out to the creators of Meddy Teddy to learn more and how he became a global kids sensation! We hope that sharing the story inspires to spread Meddy’s intentions and more.
Thomas Jordan founded Meddy Teddy with his brothers in 2016. Born and raised in NYC, Tom grew up in an artistic household with a midwestern Father who was a tattoo artist turned attorney and with a Mother as a painter who ran an art company. Oldest of three boys and an eldest sister, Tom went off to study film at Florida State University in Tallahassee but shortly changed his major to International Business. During his time studying abroad in London he discovered his passion for photography when saw French photographer Helmet Newton exhibition. Upon graduating from FSU, Tom moved to Miami where his older sister was working for a modeling agency and he was inspired by what he learned from the agency- Tom went back to NYC to start applying to become a photographer's assistant. Sitting at Cafe Lebowitz he decided to try his luck out by writing to the esteemed Annie Lebovitz, and by luck he landed an internship with her. During this time Tom learned extensively through many renowned artists photography techniques and about the industry. Having wanted to move out West to explore film opportunities in Los Angeles Tom left NYC but quickly realized the chaos of the industry was not what he was looking for. In 2012 he bought a one way ticket to India and never looked back.
From a young age, Tom always knew he had an innate calling for the spiritual path of discovering one's higher self. When he arrived in India he spent months visiting Ashrams and studying meditation. In NYC he was studying with his guide, and he decided to seek his guide’s guide in Pondicherry (the south of India).
In Pondicherry there lies a giant bodhi tree- inside is a meditation chamber and a large crystal ball that was gifted from Germany. Tom fell in love with Pondicherry and decided to stay there, learning, studying and just being fully present absorbing the innerwork he was concentrating on. During this time Seri Pendo taught Tom “Metta Meditation” in which you learn to center your heart and expand it overtime. Tom had an impactful experience re-living and experiencing his whole life from the age of 3 playing in the mud to his present state, an experience that lasted a full 10 days. It was first during these intense meditation practices that the idea of Meddy Teddy came to fruition as a concept. After spending 2 years in India, Tom went back to Topanga, California to try to break into the film industry again.
Back in LA, Tom shared his idea with his brothers at the time but didn’t think too much about it after their conversation. In the following few years he ventured out to South Dakota to live on the reservations for 7 years to learn from medicine men and the Native American ways of living their ‘Lakota ceremonies’, through spirits of the land and their ancestors, the star people.
Tom learned about sun dancing and after some time the medicine men told him that he was spending all his time in the spiritual life that he needed to balance himself out with the physical and material world. He remembered that he once had a vivid dream where he was lying on a stretcher and they were wheeling him into the hospital and there were a lot of bright lights. Just one month after the medicine men informed him that he should be finding balance between the spiritual and material world, Tom got into a car accident. There was an older couple who died in the accident and Tom was left in serious condition- the spirits at the time informed Tom that “the Grandma and Grandpa were completely at ease and they weren’t upset about the accident, it was going to happen no matter what, your whole life is ahead of you” was what they told him. The foreshadowing of his dream a month earlier confirmed the message that Tom received.
During his time in South Dakota, Tom’s younger brother Tim was in the process of setting up Meddy Teddy (registering the trademark for the company and sourcing factories in China that could make prototypes of the bear). Tom took the backseat role but after his accident and after he recovered, Tom’s Mother encouraged him to visit Dongguan, China in 2017 to do quality control inspection with his brother and to get his feet back on the ground- he got a view first hand on how the entire operation of Meddy Teddy ran after years of being an observer. In 2020 Tom’s brothers asked him to oversee Meddy Teddy’s business, and here we are in this new decade with Tom running the business- almost a decade after he initially came up with the idea!
As emphasized, Meddy’s mission is to teach kids meditation and mindfulness- and to spread this idea to more classrooms, organizations, studios and deeper into children’s lives. When asked what are some of the challenges to running a family business, Tom encourages individuals to treat it like you would any relationship. “Amidst differences,” he said, “agree on the overall vision more or less of what you are working on and jump into and just do it! There is no way you are not going to make a mistake. You can avoid making conflicts by being clear. It also depends on what kind of skill sets you have, coming together to create a seamless partnership is important. Starting a business without having business skills, Tom suggests brushing up on your business skills and educating yourself on them. He also said don’t go into things thinking you have everything figured out, because you don’t. Hopefully, someone on the team can see what people are good at so that they can delegate the skill sets to the proper area.
As for how Meddy is entering the mindfulness market at the right time and how this industry is growing, Tom largely credits TIME magazine's cover story on Mindfulness back in 2014. The awareness is definitely growing and Meddy is excited to be a part of this industrious movement. There are many other companies that are encouraging meditation and mindfulness with kids and in the classrooms. Meddy holds a lot of collaboration with other organizations and teachers on their instagram page. Lots of giveaways, Meddy-tation videos and other content to teach kids how to meditate. Tom spends a lot of time speaking to different teachers every week or so about mindfulness programs. There are a lot out there and many modalities- and there is no one correct way to go about it. Tom believes that Meddy is a cute, cuddly way to encourage mindfulness and a nice reminder to meditate for someone with no background in mindfulness, meditation or yoga- Tom encourages you to “just start” any activity that can get you exposed to it. Mindfulness teaching has been around for a long time, so just start. “It’s like going back to our roots- our ancestors are more mindful in so many ways- they lived to be more in tune with the land. When you live in nature and have less distractions you will be more mindful about everything, the wind, trees, animals, the sun's movement. I don’t think that there are people who are innately mindful in the way they live, there are people who were not raised that way that are attracted to it. I think it is a good skill to have in your emotional repertoire.”
“Nature is a great teacher especially when you get into the traditional way that people live with the land. The way they listen to the way things work. You need teachers to teach you the way things work.” Tom was determined at a young age to determine something else. There was a “strong desire and spiritual quest, it was taking conceptual stuff and experiencing it, witnessing nature interact with you, it's beautiful.” Everybody has the ability, nature is always speaking, it is always communicating with us, most of us live in the city and we get so bogged down in life that we don’t notice and are not as observant to the ways of nature. When Tom moved out to the reservation in South Dakota, he finally understood the spiritual aspect of the ways of life. You know when you are centered and aligned when you can go into these traditional type ceremonies.
“Mindfulness teaching has been around for a long time, so just start. It’s like going back to our roots- our ancestors are more mindful in so many ways- they lived to be more in tune with the land. When you live in nature and have less distractions you will be more mindful about everything.”
A mirror is put in front of you to find your true self, embrace that and find the beauty of that and tune yourself in with nature with that perspective you see how you are perfect and who you truly are. That can be an overwhelming experience when you are not used to it, you need to calm your mind- sit and listen to it. Besides nature and his spiritual gurus, Tom gives credit to his business mentor, Rex Lin, Meddy’s manufacturing factory’s owner. Rex taught Tom to really get his mindset to think in a business way. “I did go to business school so I did develop that skill to stick to something to hammer it out and strengthen your focus so I am just kind of channeling that to part of myself now, and Rex really helped me as well.”
Tom’s timing to manage Meddy in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic was coincidental- when asked how Meddy has been received during this time, without a doubt the answer is that Meddy has helped a lot of people. Organically, Meddy started doing free instagram classes and questions like what can I do with my teddy as a tool to teach myself or teach my students, or courses that can get us thinking about what we can do with them are all things that encourage Tom to think more about Meddy’s future. Meddy wants to provide more value for people whether it be meditation programs online and offline to events. The idea is simple; here is your teddy bear, here are some videos, here is how to meditate and here is your gear to do it in! Tom is excited for what this new decade will bring for Meddy, his team and community. There are a lot of fun projects in the pipeline so stay tuned by following Meddy on Instagram. If you are like us and want to collaborate with Meddy in the future feel free to reach out to Tom and his team by emailing them at hello@meddyteddy.com we hope you are inspired like us. Don’t forget to hop over to the Meddy Teddy website to purchase your own Meddy!
First published on April 1, 2021.
