What I’ve Learned From Three Years Of Daily Transcendental Meditation

Below is an excerpt from author JB Minton’s article about his journey learning the TM technique. You can read the original article on Medium here. 

I was nearly run off the road and it was my fault. I flipped the guy the finger. I looked at him across the lanes of highway traffic, looked him right in the eye, and mouthed the words my finger was already saying. And it nearly got me killed. Something had to change. I had to find a way to avoid my anger controlling my behavior, my life.

Now, I had been a mindfulness meditator on and off since the end of the last century, but the results were ephemeral at best. After all, I still ended up screaming at strangers in traffic. So, if a new technique was going to work, that was going to be the measure, me not screaming at strangers in traffic.

Long story short, it [the TM technique] has worked better than I could have imagined. Fast forward three years and not only am I not screaming at strangers, my wife and children require me to meditate the difference is so dramatic.

The Expected Benefits of TM

Let’s make a list of the benefits that we would expect from bringing meditation as a practice into our lives?
Inner calm
Inner Peace
Inner clarity
Inner focus
Inner inspiration
Inner happiness
Feel better, more healthy. Energy!

What Happens During TM?

Transcendental Meditation is a simple, natural, effortless technique that allows the active, thinking mind, all of it, to just settle down and experience quieter levels of thought, and eventually experience what can only be referred to as, “The Source Of Thought.” Some scientists call this the Unified Field of Consciousness, but all these descriptions are just metaphors referring to the ending of thought, as far as the mind can reach, the edge and no further.

From my experience, this descending experience every day is enough to start shedding the traumas and stresses I’ve collected over the years and begin tapping into a source of inexhaustible creativity, joy, and kindness.

How Do We Know That TM Works?

There have been hundreds of studies on the effects of TM over a large population since the technique was brought from India to the world in the 1950s. And what the results show is that, during TM, your body gains a state of rest and relaxation in many aspects that are greater than the deepest part of deep sleep. And what that deep rest does is that it allows that anxiety, that fear, that tension, that anger all dissolve like a warm steady rain washing mud off a sidewalk into a ditch.

Why TM Works For Everyone

It’s pre-engineered in our minds that they will gravitate towards stillness and rest. TM is a technique that allows us to let nature take its course within our minds and all the benefits that we’ve discussed flow from this simple, natural, and effortless experience, giving each of us access to the calm, silent level of our mind that is always there but is often overshadowed because of the constant noise and activity on the surface.

Since learning the TM technique

I have repaired relationships with friends and family members.
I am kinder to strangers I meet.
I have been consistently inspired to create.
I have chosen to eat better.
I have adopted physical exercise in a way that makes me feel better without strain.
TM has been a blessing for me in this time of great sorrow and I hope it can be one for you as well.

Learn more and schedule a conversation with a TM instructor at www.tm.org