Transcendental Meditation

There seems to be invitations to meditate everywhere. At the grocery store on the magazine shelves there are shiny promises of zen and present moment bliss. I tried apps and magazines and books to try to reach the promise of stillness within. Like most people I found the idea intriguing, but I was scratching the surface without really breaking through to this oasis from stress. 

One morning I was reading the IndyStar and in one of the advice columns a reader had written in that Transcendental Meditation(TM) had helped them with their sleeping issues. I must have read it after a particularly sleepless night, because I was googling it in the next breath. 

There was a training center not far from my house and a free introductory class. I signed up without hesitation. In the intro class you learn that
TM is a form of meditation that is taught through mostly one on one instruction over the course of four days. It costs several hundred dollars depending on your income level. I had picked up some extra work earlier in the year and decided to put those earnings towards the class. 

Auspiciously, I started my first TM session on Diwali, the Festival of Lights, and I have practiced twice daily since then. Its a remarkably simple technique that requires 20 minutes in the morning and evening. TM doesn't ask you to stop thinking or empty your mind which is what people mostly associate with meditation. The TM intro course likens it to the mind being like the turbulent surface of the ocean, but once we allow it to settle down it can access the deep, still calm waters of the deep. I would say it is like holding a baby that is fighting against sleep. If you rock and pat the baby for long enough it settles into a blissful, peaceful sleep (you don't actually fall asleep in TM). 

Its funny because as I've experienced more clarity with my mind I am experiencing more clarity in my body as well. I'm eating better, I'm exercising more, I'm not perfect, but I can feel the ripples of my practice through different areas of my life including sleeping better!

This isn't a paid advertisement for TM. Its a post that maybe will turn on a light for someone like that reader who wrote into the IndyStar. If interested I can recommend the teacher I trained with here in Indy. Whatever your journey, - namaste - the light in me bows to the light in you.