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Some Transcendental Meditation Comments From 2023

* “The meditation has been great and the online groups are an added bonus too.”  Ian ~ Dunoon, Scotland

* “As ever TM continues to provide moments of sanity and even calm in this crazy, wonderful world!”  Claire ~ York

* “The meditation has been really good, generally doing once a day, late afternoon.” Brian ~ Manchester

* “TM is really powerful and different from all the other methods I have experienced so far.  I already loved meditating, but now I just can’t wait to sit down?  I am doing great and enjoying my meditations.”  Sonja, Lugano, Switzerland

* I wanted to let you know I’ve been using your guided meditation audio file to help keep me on track and its been super helpful.” Ed ~ Los Angeles, US

* “TM is going great, I’m really enjoying it and the online meditations are an added bonus too. I’m in a good routine of 7am and 5pm.”  Sharon ~ Newcastle upon Tyne

* “I really enjoyed tonight, first time I’ve had some peace in ages.” Lawrence ~ Gateshead, Tyne & Wear

* “I just wanted to say a very big thankyou for the TM course.  I have managed to practice twice daily and it has been of enormous benefit.”  Julie ~ Allendale, Northumberland

 

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Transcendental Meditation Testimonial from Glasgow

“At the beginning of Covid I was going through a difficult time and a friend suggested I do Chris’s Transcendental Meditation course. I’d tried various sorts of meditation before and had had no success so I was sceptical. I was even more sceptical when I learned the course would be via Zoom. How could one possibly learn TM via Zoom? Well, very easily, as it turns out.

Chris created a safe and friendly athmosphere in which to learn, individual issues and preferences were respected. Chris’s teaching was clear, straight forward, jargon-free, fascinating and fun. The learning was effortless and enjoyable. I never had any sense of confusion, never was made to feel that I was somehow “doing it wrong.” Any questions and concerns I had, Chris responded to clearly and thoughfully. To him there is no such thing as “a silly question.”

TM has made a huge difference to my life. I no longer wake up every morning feeling anxious. My outlook on life is happier, more positive. Of course TM does’nt make all the difficulties of life disappear, but it does sort of shrink them. I am now able to deal with problems and stress in a balanced, optimistic way. They no longer dominate my thoughts. Their negative effect is minimised. I no longer worry about what may never happen. And. the great thing is, I can do TM anywhere, all I need is myself, my mantra and somewhere to sit.

And the extra bonus for me is those 20 or 40 minutes a day of TM, purely and simply are my-not-so guilty pleasure.”

Irene ~ Glasgow (Learnt TM online June 2020)

 

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A perfect description of why meditation becomes such a precious thing for so many people

“All of humanity’s problems stem from mans inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Blaise Pascal ~ 1623 – 1662

What a brilliant way of describing the value of meditation by someone born 400 years ago.  Never more pertinent then in todays world.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/19/change-your-life-sit-down-and-think?fbclid=IwAR2S4uusX_13nyh7Z5sGdTGKVFaluroDNeqmd9ir1BiPoqhgSfn3JXnEQho

 

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Interesting article on how short regular rests help maintain a better quality of life

This will come as no surprise to anyone who meditates and is nicely summed up by maharishi who introduced Transcendental Meditation to the world  in the late 1950’s :

“Meditation is a bit like being asleep, but being awake to enjoy it.”

Short daytime naps may keep brain healthy as it ages, study says

Brief doze may delay brain shrinkage, which occurs faster in people with neurodegenerative diseases

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jun/20/short-daytime-naps-may-keep-brain-healthy-as-it-ages-study-says?fbclid=IwAR3_W6966_Ju-2YTZcYYAKPiUDICBjPhZz3oME2LFuE593qqzzRVerLg4bg

 

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Transcendental Meditation testimonial from Dorset

“I first learned TM (Transcendental Meditation) nearly 40 years ago when I was in a very dark place after losing my mother. It really helped me a lot, but I did not keep my regular practise up as the years went by. I tried many different meditations, but always came back to TM. It was like an old friend and saw me through many difficult times in my life. It helped me with insomnia too. Several years ago I took a refresher course with Chris Greathead and have been practising regularly ever since. Now there are daily zoom TM meditations online which really help with keeping up with the practise. There is so much free ongoing support and I feel that the zoom sessions are quite powerful and as good as in person sessions.

If I cannot make the zoom calls there is a recorded sesion from Chris that can be downloaded which is very useful.

My only regret is that I did not keep up my practise from the start as its certainly the best.”

Rosalind ~ Dorset

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Transcendental Meditation Reduces Burnout And Depression In Physicians Study

Miniscule study as usual, but 1000’s of medics (in the UK alone) who practice Transcendental Meditation will recognise these findings.

BTW ignore the posture shown in pic, comfort is number one when meditating

Transcendental Meditation may decrease depression and burnout in academic physicians, according to a randomized controlled study.

https://medicaldialogues.in/psychiatry/news/transcendental-meditation-reduces-burnout-and-depression-in-physicians-study-106288?fbclid=IwAR31Pg6RdfJlBDYPKWxUCdD3xTGKyuC7p2xKPX9YXrWE6SGzfVeTzpusU6Y

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Tim Burgess from the Charlatans on his experience of learning Transcendental Meditation

: One Recommendation

I’m going to recommend something that I think is huge, and its Transcendental Meditation. Although the technique is super easy, the effects are huge, and all you do is kind of get given a mantra, you repeat the mantra and you sit down for 20 minutes and its just life changing.

How long have you been doing it?

Since 2008.

Did you find it hard to get into? Because for me and meditation, I always find it difficult to stay in focus. You said 20 minutes, but after 2 minutes my mind is wondering all over, I have trouble locking in. Did it take you awhile to get to that point?

Well actually no. Because I had all that kind of trepidation beforehand, I gave up drinking and I gave up taking drugs. For a year or two I was just kind of like, wondering around, wondering how to fill this void, because your kind of empty. You’ve lived your whole life drinking and doing all this and all of the sudden you’ve got this awakening – a rude awakening – where you just have to learn how to live without drinking.

So, I was in my apartment trying to remain friends with all my friends that still liked to get drunk. Playing records, playing records, playing records and I just sat on the opposite side of the room drinking a Diet Coke. [laughs] And a friend of mine came up to me and she said, “Have you ever tried meditation? Ever thought about Transcendental Meditation?” And I hadn’t. We started talking about the Maharishi, because I was always a huge fan of The Beatles and my favorite period is the Magical Mystery Tour and in any Beatles documentary is the time they go to Bangor [Wales] and then to India and they write The White Album and all that and it’s just mind-blowing. And I’m just like, “Oh yeah, yeah – I’m into that.”
I went to the Isle of Wight and I learned how to meditate – I went within a week of my friend telling me. I was thinking, “How can you do 20 minutes?” That’s just so long! And how can you fit it in twice a day? It takes up so much time. But the 20 minutes that you put into it almost gives you about four hours extra in the day. It’s just mad. It’s like time, I don’t know, it’s like a time shift or something like that. The 20 minutes you put in, you get so much energy and you do so much more in the day. It’s just really helped me to be able to do everything I do.

https://vanyaland.com/2023/01/30/617-qa-tim-burgess-on-the-charlatans-hanging-out-between-10th-and-11th/

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Tiny study & not TM, but of interest given many peoples beneficial experiences with regard to practising Transcendental Meditation and digestive disorders like IBS. (Irritable Bowl Syndromme)

Have to say personally I’ve always found chairs better for meditation then stools.

Below one persons experience

“In early 2001 I was a frequent visitor to the doctors, I was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer and IBS, but finally decided something had to change when I was prescribed Tamazapan for insomnia.

Although I did not feel particularly stressed, all my conditions appeared to be stress related, so I decided to look at reducing stress in my life. From a work colleague, Rick, I found out about T.M North East and went to a talk by Chris Greathead about Transcendental Meditation. I have to admit that although T.M seemed to offer many benefits it seemed a bit far fetched and hippy-ish, but after a further chat with Rick I enrolled on the T.M course with Chris.

The course was excellent, initially one to one and then three, two hour group sessions. In the group sessions I soon discovered other people were having the same T.M experiences as myself, which was very reassuring. In less then a week after starting T.M my IBS had improved drastically and I was sleeping much better. As the weeks went by I just got better and better eventually coming off all medication. These medical benefits have proved to be only the tip of the iceberg, I have become far more relaxed, positive, energetic and simply just happier since taking up T.M.

T.M is quite simply the most beneficial thing, outside relationships, that you can do in your life – it just makes life better.”

Mark ~ Stockton on Tees, UK

“As both stress hormones and inflammation can affect gut bacteria, practicing meditation can help to balance these hormones and decrease inflammatory markers, potentially protecting the gut microbiome.”

https://www.inferse.com/410978/might-deep-meditation-act-on-the-gut-and-improve-health-medical-news-today/?fbclid=IwAR0zv76iNkxu36eqHQViThKSiQzGs6DXI3Vgl-yrdWDZkZwHoV86BbL-SR0

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Billionaire Ray Dalio went broke in 1982. ‘Mantra’ meditation helped in his comeback

All kinds of people meditate.

I do like Ray Dalio’s description of his experience during TM :
“You’re peaceful. You’re quiet,” he said. “You’re not awake, but you’re not asleep.”

The crazy thing about Transcendental Meditation (TM) is that because it is so simple, it is actually surprisingly difficult to describe accurately.  For example when the article say :

“Transcendental Meditation is a form of mantra meditation that eschews chanting and focusing on breathing in favour of repeating a mantra in silence.”

The word “repeating” gives the impression that effort, concentration, ie : getting rid of thoughts is involved.  Wrong, that’s what make Transcendental Meditation different, even unique.  It is so easy, that it becomes effortless to practice.  Hence another favourite quote of mine from someone whom I taught on a TM course in York a few years ago :

“I really enjoyed the course, after years of struggling with thought control meditation techniques, TM feels like a breath of fresh air – it almost feels like cheating! I’m managing to practice twice a day and I’m getting a lot out of it already.”

Zara ~ Leeds

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/billionaire-ray-dalio-went-broke-in-1982-mantra-meditation-helped-in-his-comeback-8582381.html

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