About The TM Technique

 

What is the Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) Technique?

Our core program is the scientifically verified Transcendental Meditation technique, a highly effective tool for overcoming stress. It is simple to learn and easy to practice. It is not a religion or philosophy, and does not require any belief or change in lifestyle.

The TM technique is practiced for 20 minutes twice daily while sitting comfortably with eyes closed. It is an effortless, systematic technique that takes the active, thinking mind to its silent source, to ‘transcend’, or go beyond, the least excited level of the mind to experience the Self, or pure consciousness. This is the silent source of all thinking, activity, and behavior within us. It is characterized as a field of infinite energy, creativity, intelligence, and peace.

The TM technique allows the mind to effortlessly experience its full range from its most active to its most silent levels, like a wave on the ocean settling down to its silent depths. As a result, this experience of deep inner silence nourishes all aspects of our daily life—mental, physical, emotional, and social.

How the Mind/Body Connection is Improved

As the mind effortlessly settles down to quieter levels of thought—a state of inner peace and calm—the body correspondingly settles down to a state of deep physical rest. This state of inner peace and calm produces profound physical relaxation, and yet the mind remains restfully alert. This deep level of mental and physiological rest dissolves stress and revitalizes life to develop clearer thinking, increase physical energy and vitality, and improve relationships with others.

Benefits of the TM Practice

Benefits Include:

  • Clearer thinking
  • Greater inner calm throughout the day
  • Reduced cortisol (the “stress hormone”)
  • Normalized blood pressure
  • Reduced insomnia
  • Lower risk of heart attack and stroke
  • Reduced anxiety and depression
  • Improved brain function and memory
  • Improved personal relationships

These and the many other benefits of the TM practice have been scientifically verified by over 450 research studies that have been published in peer reviewed journals world-wide.

American Psychologist 42(9): 879-881, 1987

American Psychologist 42(9): 879-881, 1987

The Transcendental Meditation Technique is an Effective Tool for Women

While the TM technique is a universal practice taught to men and women in the same way, a woman finds that the TM technique creates a safe haven within herself while helping to empower her to be her best. Women say it helps them to “regroup within” to bring greater ease and focus to life. This allows a woman to grow in her effectiveness both in her home and work life.

Girls find that the TM technique helps them to deal with the challenges and insecurities of adolescence and peer pressure. For women who may be dealing with a serious illness or depression, the TM technique is an important tool to dissolve stress in a natural way and bring about greater peace and serenity, as well as greater motivation and resilience.

For a mother, a child’s first teacher, she must be balanced within herself in order to be a successful mother and to hold her important position as the center of the family. The TM technique has been found to promote and maintain this balance for mothers, for girls, and for women everywhere around the world. TM is a universal practice, simple and effective, and has proven to be an excellent tool for enriching all aspects of a woman’s life and positively impacting the world around her.

Meditation has healed my soul and my mind. Some years ago I used to be much disturbed by stress due to many circumstances in life that would lead me to deep thoughts with no immediate resolution. The situation would affect me negatively and I’d be in stress for weeks, and there would be no happiness in me. Socializing well was a problem. I used to collide with people for no reason and was always full of fear and anxiety. It was until my boss realized this was a problem. She introduced me to Transcendental Meditation. I was ready and wanted to learn. It is now two years ago since I learned TM and it has really changed my life for the better. I now smile often, I socialize well, I stay positive minded, I solve problems as they come, and I have much less fear and anxiety. I would recommend meditation to anyone who is experiencing similar problems to the ones I used to have.

Mercy Kaari, 24 yrs Student, Nairobi Aviation College

Improved Brain Functioning

We all need orderly brains, whether we are running a business, or remembering our grocery list, or studying for a school exam. When our brain is more coherent and integrated, this is the basis for better performance—better memory, increased creativity, broader comprehension and sharper focus.

Women often feel that due to tiredness and stress they are not as clear, present, or creative as they would like to be. In addition, brain function can be inhibited by certain lifestyle factors, such as drug and alcohol use, poor diet, or crises in our lives—often contributing to depression and anxiety.

 Live EEG demo and interview—the Transcendental Meditation technique (5:13)

During the TM technique it has been found that the brain produces higher-power alpha waves, which correspond to the state of relaxed inner wakefulness and serenity. Additionally, these alpha waves become synchronous, rising and falling together. This coherence often spreads throughout the brain and is strongest in the pre-frontal cortex—the seat of our brain’s executive thinking and decision-making.

No other meditation technique has been found to consistently produce alpha coherence throughout the brain. Researchers have found that the experience of ‘transcending’ resets the brain’s natural ground state—restoring neurological balance, inner silence, and clarity of mind. (Cognitive Processing, 11:1, 2010. Focused attention, open monitoring and automatic self-transcending: Categories of meditations.)

Individuals showed significantly increased EEG coherence during TM practice, in contrast to their own eyes-closed control condition before they learned TM. International Journal of Neuroscience 14: 147–151, 1981.

University students who learned TM showed increased broadband frontal EEG coherence and more efficient preparatory brain responses to stimuli during task performance. International Journal of Psychophysiology 71: 170–176, 2009.

The Transcendental Meditation Technique is Unique

The term meditation has become generic, meaning many different things. With the proliferation of meditation practices it is important to understand the distinctions between them, e.g. mindfulness, concentration, and contemplation, etc. It is becoming well known that all experience changes the brain in some way or another. It is also well-known that different meditation techniques engage the mind in different ways and produce different effects on the mind, body and behavior.

Some meditation techniques involve watching your thoughts or focusing on your breathing or bodily sensations. Others employ concentration, visualization or trying to clear your mind of thoughts.

The Transcendental Meditation technique is unique. It doesn’t involve concentration, focused attention, or control of the mind in any way. In fact, TM is a simple and effortlessness technique for transcending and going beyond thought, which is the key to its effectiveness in bringing about consistent and profound benefits.

 

Forbes magazine made this statement about the TM technique:

 “Perhaps its greatest benefit is that it’s relatively quick to learn and easy to master. No waiting weeks or months of practice before you see results: TM cuts right to the chase, taking only days – or for some, minutes – before one feels reprieve from their painful and overwhelming thoughts.”

A recent report by the American Heart Association on the use of meditation practices to lower blood pressure, found the Transcendental Meditation practice to be the only practice recommended for clinical use to lower blood pressure. The report concluded with the following statement:

“…the Transcendental Meditation technique is the one meditation practice that has been shown to lower blood pressure… all other meditation techniques, including MBSR (Mindfulness Bases Stress Reduction), received a ‘Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C’ recommendation and are not recommended in clinical practice to lower blood pressure at this time.”