Learning TM

Meditation

Meditation. What imagery does that word suggest? Probably not businesspeople meditating around a conference table or children enjoying Quiet Time at their school desks, but these are the new faces of meditation as it becomes more mainstream. In the 2008 CDC National Health Statistics Report, 9.4% of the 23,000 adults interviewed had used meditation in the last year as contrasted to only 7.6% in 2002. A full 1% of the children interviewed had meditated in the previous year. What is meditation and why are so many people turning to it?

With the variety of meditation techniques presented today, it's difficult to give a single definition of meditation. The definition from Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "to engage in mental exercise for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness," begs the question, "What type of mental exercise?" Some meditations need concentration, such as Zen meditation. Others involve contemplation or thoughtful reflection, such as the meditation of Christian mystics. Still others, like the Transcendental Meditation technique, use a empty sound or mantra to go beyond thought and experience silence within.

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years. Most of the world religions developed meditation techniques and historically, the purpose of meditation was to develop spiritual awareness. However, most of the meditation techniques available today do not involve any belief system. The stated goal of meditation can vary from stress diminution to culturing an awareness of the present moment to plain relaxation.

As daily stress levels increase, many people are seeking a way to tune out and at the same time, tune in to their own inner intelligence. An effective meditation technique allows the mind to settle down effortlessly and gives the body deep rest. The relaxation of meditation releases stress and fatigue leading to a feeling of refreshment and rejuvenation after meditation.

Over time, usual daily meditation can lead to improvements in many areas of life. The deep rest gained during meditation starts to dissolve deeper rooted stresses and eventually, creates a physiology that doesn't take on as much stress. This translates to better health and less bad health. With less stress, judgment becomes clearer and more creative. Relationships improve because meditators act more out of a giving nature, rather than reacting from stress. According to the CDC Report mentioned above, people turned to meditation to improve their health by relieving stress, nervousness, depression, pain or insomnia.

Sounds good, but is there any research backing these claims? Most of the research cited on meditation involved one specific form of meditation, the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique. Over 600 studies suggest that this technique has wide-ranging benefits, for example, increased intelligence, reduced high blood pressure, lowered hospitalization rates and decreased anxiety and depression.

If the meditation trend continues to tick upward, could society benefit? Since individuals are the unit of society, it is logical to assume that more peaceful individuals can create a more peaceful world. In fact, quite a lot of studies indicate that when just 1% of a city meditates, social improvements are noted, for example, crime and accident rates fall. If meditation becomes the norm and the percentage increases, who knows what positive social trends will develop as people reduce their stress and increase their happiness.

Learning TM

By: Cory Ellerd

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