Transcendental Meditation has become my effortless way of achieving a sense of deep relaxation while my brain is fully alert. Before I dive deep into what it is let me talk about why I am doing it. In life we are born into a certain culture, tradition and families that have their own sense of values and pride. When we grow up even if we conform or don’t conform to these principles we come up with a new value system. A new way of living our life. However most of our life is spent looking outward without giving much thought to the inside. If you are like me sometimes you are too busy, don’t have time or are just scared to look inward. But I think the desire to get to know our selves better never really goes away.
I have considered my self non-religious but spiritual for a long time so it was natural for me to get drawn to meditation. At least for a couple of years now I have tried to meditate. Sit in a quiet room, focus on my breath, keep my back straight and list goes on and on. These are all wonderful things but honestly I don’t think I was ever able to get in a habit or even enjoy it because I spent half of my time trying to not think of my thoughts, the other half straightening my back and still thinking of thoughts. So devoting anytime to it became a challenge. However lately with my crazy lifestyle I had made the commitment that somehow I will make time for meditating and one day as I was doing my research I stumbled upon Transcendental Meditation. It seemed interesting but then I started looking at other options too. I tried the mindful meditation, breathing meditation and several other techniques but nothing seemed to stick. Then finally I along with Sharjeel decided to give Transcendental Meditation a try. We scheduled our time with a TM instructor and started learning about TM and why/how it works.
The major differences are that it doesn’t tell you to focus on breath or how to sit. You are given a word (mantra) that you think of while meditating. You are asked to meditate twice a day for 20 minutes each time. You can do it sitting on a bed, chair or sofa. I usually prefer doing the evening one in my bed and more than anything else it is deeply relaxing. After doing the meditation for a few minutes I feel relaxed but then suddenly I just have energy to do so much more. I suddenly feel the urge to finish all my pending work and even clean up (sounds weird but its true).
In my opinion Transcendental Meditation is perfect for anyone with a busy schedule or hectic lifestyle. It is not tied to any religion or belief system. It is simply a technique for deep relaxation and an inner connection. Many celebrities have endorsed it like Beatles, Oprah, Arianna Huffington, David Lynch, Jerry Seinfield and have done it for several decades.
I do want to add that the meditation does come with a fee because Transcendental Meditation is a non-profit organization that does tremendous public service work. Also the fee includes 4 days of initial TM technique teaching, 10 day follow-up and then a monthly meeting for the first 4 months. The best part is that you get a life time connection with a TM teacher which is extremely helpful. I can already say that we have learned so much more than just a technique.
If you are thinking about meditation then do look into. I promise you will not be disappointed. I am in no way being paid by TM or another organization to write this. Just sharing my own wonderful experience. Here are some other useful videos that talk about Transcendental Meditation.