English
It feels like Transcendental Meditation has been part of my life ‘forever’. I actually had to check my calendar because I could not believe it’s only been a bit over two months since I went to my introduction talk, but yes, it is true.
One of my favourite parts of TM is the ease in practicing and that the routine came easily to me. Also, you don’t need any tools or equipment in order to practice, just a quiet spot and the will to do it. Most days I meditate twice, morning and night – it’s just on those early 4:30 a.m. mornings when I need to catch a plane that I decide NOT to wake up twenty minutes earlier. 🙂
I have a friend who is interested in the concept but struggles to find twenty minutes twice a day to practice. I agree, some days you just can’t fit it in. However, it’s a choice, as with so many other things in life; either you want to meditate or you don’t, and if you want to, you’ll find the time. Meditation gives me a balanced start to my day and later eases me into a good night’s sleep and that makes it worth the time.
Mentioning to friends my blogging project for TM has resulted in many discussions about meditation. It’s the trendy thing to do, “everybody does it,” there are apps for it, etc. Words like “hard” and “difficult” also came up. Googling meditation a bit more, I can say that it’s a jungle out there and as mentioned, it’s the trendy thing to do – and it shows.
My favourite part of TM is it’s effortless, like it says on their website: http://switzerland.tm.org/how-is-tm-different. After experiencing TM it feels strange that meditation should be difficult, I can’t imagine what the benefits of that would be.
During my follow-up meetings we’ve sometimes watched videos of Maharishi Mahesh who brought TM to the world http://switzerland.tm.org/maharishi-mahesh-yogi – explaining TM to an audience. Even if the recordings are quite old, Maharishi’s teachings are still very valid today, especially when he speaks about stress and the help meditation gives. After practicing meditation for only a short time, I can’t really say yet if meditation helps me with my stress, I can only ponder what my stress levels would be like if I hadn’t been meditating.
All in all, I’m sure we all would benefit from meditation. As Maharishi answers question on the benefits of TM: “Scientific experiments with people who practice Transcendental Meditation indicate that it tends to produce normalization in all areas of life. It reduces stress, improves health, enriches mental functioning, enhances personal relationships, and increases job productivity and job satisfaction.”
I would not mind some ‘normalization in all areas of life’.
