A year ago I would have guffawed and sworn that Transcendental Meditation was pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo designed to take money from the weak minded, but now I see that it’s more of a millennia year old science (without the assistance of computers) designed to free the strong and healthy mind that we all have. And if you think Shakespeare had it tough documentation-wise hundreds of years ago then spare a thought for the Vedic monks thousands of years ago.
Having done Transcendental Meditation for the first time in the TM centre in the centre of Glasgow, I walked down the stairs through the quiet building and out into the busy main street where people went this way and that at the jostling junction, and before my eyes…everyone was in slow motion. I was stunned and tickled but it didn’t persist, and I forgot about it until a later date, when Angela Landers told me that the world looked slowed down to me because I had slowed down. Already I was more calm, and I suppose, in a sense(s), my perspective on the world and on life had already adjusted for the better.
Has Transcendental Meditation made me HAPPIER? Nowadays I often find myself bursting – “shooby-dooby do” – into snippets of song, and sometimes, when no-one’s around, I start to dance. 😀
Has TM helped me with ANXIETY? I no longer feel like I am perpetually about to start a race – desperate for the toilet. Depression and anger make up the trilogy with anxiety and these have greatly diminished also.
Has TM helped me to be more IN-the-MOMENT? In essence I’d say that depression is living in the past while anxiety is living in ones imagination in the future, but now time tends to fly by in blissful, balanced, composed, and CALM activity, and I am most certainly living much more in-the-moment.
‘Blissful’ sounds like an over-big airy-fairy word but when you’ve lived what seems like your whole life mired in depression and anxiety then it’s the only word that suits. 😀
Am I more PRODUCTIVE? This article isn’t writing itself.
And am I more CREATIVE? The alliterations aren’t accidents, it’s not easy to include a ‘.’ a ‘,’ a ‘;’ and a ‘:’ in a single sentence, and I think I made up the word “self-referenced.”
I’m embarrassed to admit to it but my guilty pleasure is an ADDICTION to an e-cigarette, although strangely, immediately and effortlessly after meditating, I simply don’t feel like it and instead I want to hold on to the calm feeling that TM gives me and that the nicotine robs me of. Similarly I don’t drink alcohol like I used to and I now drink for taste and relaxation rather than escapism (a relative of anxiety). I don’t feel the need to escape from my life so much any more because more and more I like my – increasingly calmer – life.
Is TM as good as MEDICINE? Transcendental Meditation takes a little more effort than swallowing but there are no side effects only subtle upsides. Besides, where is the effort in doing something calming and pleasurable that you enjoy? Speaking of side effects, I have a tremor in my hands and I shake noticeably. Once, early on in my TM training and soon after meditating I had a form that I’d forgotten to sign – my signature was smooth and perfect and looked like the real me again. Nowadays whenever I am to write anything longhand I leave it until after I’ve meditated and that’s especially true for sh-sh-sh-shaving.
[Note: Certainly for the time being (despite numerous side effects) my medicine is working well for me and I have no intention of stopping or tweaking any of my medication and I would certainly never adjust or stop any of my medications except under close medical supervision.]
Does TM help with RELATIONSHIPS? Yes it does! And not just gradually like outward growing concentric circles throughout my friends and family because recently… I have fallen in love, again. But this time I have managed my high well and I haven’t so much fallen as rappelled down a rocky cliff face semi-controlled. 😀😀😀
I hope that I have shown some snapshots of how Transcendental Meditation has helped me. And if you take all of these little steps forward, and try and calculate permutations of how each step synergises with every other step holistically, then you’ll have an idea of how much Transcendental Meditation has helped me.
Obviously TM has had a lot to work with in my case, but couldn’t all of us – self-actualisation-wise or otherwise – do with a tiny amount, if not tonnes, of tweaking?
Thank you TM Glasgow for all of your help and continuing support.
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