Jacqui Lewis: A guide to High Grade Living
Words Emma Vidgen // @emma_vee
Jacqui is a Virgo sun, Gemini moon and Virgo rising
High Grade Living is not your average meditation book, but then its authors – The Broad Place founders Jac and Arran Lewis (pictured below) – are not your average spiritual teachers. “Guru, traditionally translates to teacher. It doesn’t mean you have to have a teacher/disciple relationship where you give up all freewill and handed it over,” says Jacqui. “A teacher is someone that can help point them on the path, they aren’t the path itself.”
From the moment we meet on Zoom, Jacqui’s energy is kinetic. There’s a sense of presence and candour that’s warm; energising; different. “I'd been studying monastic lineages and trying to put a square peg through a round hole, pushing them into my very dynamic, very engaged life as a mum and business owner,” Jacqui says. “When I learned this [mantra-based meditation] technique 13 years ago, it shifted everything for me. I was like, ‘Oh right. So this is a technique that was, is actually designed and created for people that didn't live in monasteries and lived in the world’.”
High Grade Living a dreamy 208-page tome dedicated to living a more intentional, fulfilling life. “The book is an exploration of creativity, of our home as a retreat, our relationships and meditation,” she says. “We use those themes like threads and braid them together through the process of aligning with our highest selves.”
“The book is a distilled hot mess of 20 years of study!” Jacqui laughs. “It was so challenging for us to distil that down into something that was digestible for someone that might've been studying with us, or studying lineages for decades, but also someone that's brand new to this, and getting it to a place where it was really approachable.”
“A teacher is someone that can help point you on the path…but they aren’t the path itself”
“I am really encouraging people to read it from beginning to end and then take it really slowly. Open a page and dive into what feels comfortable,” Jacqui says.
A quick flick through its pages and the first thing you’ll notice is the aesthetic; in High Grade Living spirituality and style are not mutually exclusive. “I think people get really confused. I know I did for a long time, that to be – quote unquote – ‘spiritual’, connected, and to be a loving human, they wonder, does that need to equate to austerity?” Jacqui says. “In all my years of training under different teachers, I kept coming up against this. And every time, it was a flat, “no”. Spiritual means to celebrate. As humans, we have eyes and we're very visually driven.”
The book doesn’t just look beautiful, it’s also amazingly practical (like, move-over-Marie Kondo practical!). Less a meditation manual, and more a guide to how you can start to bring more presence to your everyday life – beyond the meditation cushion – starting with the basics…like your pantry (yes, really!). “We use these three pillars of auditing, editing and refining, and walk through how that philosophy might be applied to all the areas of your life,” Jacqui explains. “There's lots of practical tools and tips, so you can just pick one…You could explore a concept every day or you could dive into it over a week and it will start to transform and shift and alchemize who you are in the world.”
Jacqui and her husband Arran founded The Broad Place in 2013, teaching within the Vedic meditation tradition, before developing their own approach. “Integrated meditation is a mantra-based practice that allows the mind to settle down into those deepest states of consciousness and allows the body to release stress, tension and fatigue in a very particular way so that we can then be more mindful being more present in the day,” Jacqui explains. “It's very much about allowing the nervous system and the mind to shift. So who you are in the world with your eyes open is actually where you get to experience the goodness.”
Now, the Broad Place is dedicated to helping people find a path to meditation, in a user-friendly, supportive way. “I'm always saying to students that the output of your practice is being more compassionate, kinder and more resilient and flexible,” Jacqui says. “You have to also pull that back into your practice. You can't become rigid or driven by your ego, telling yourself you’re a crap meditator you are because you didn’t fit it in that day.”
High Grade Living is available now ($49.95). Published by Thames and Hudson
