What my students are saying about Meditation for Life and Transcendental Meditation:
“When I meditate regularly, the difference is night and day. Not only does it calm my mind and help me focus, but it seems to have a profound effect on my day. I feel as though I can do more and have better coping skills for everything that comes my way.
In the past, I tried various other forms of meditation and I simply couldn’t keep my mind from wandering. I felt there was no hope to integrate meditation into my life. Transcendental Meditation showed me the way.
I’m so appreciative of what I’ve learned and would recommend that everyone make it a regular part of your life as well. You will see the difference right away and it’s profound. I highly recommend you take this course!”
– Alex C. (practitioner since October 2017)
“I have been meditating for 4 years (as of this past Valentine’s Day). While I meditated twice a day for 20 minutes for the first 2 and a half years, I gradually dropped down to 20 minutes once a day until about 4 or 5 months ago when I started meditating for 30 minutes once a day.
Meditation has become a firm habit that I engage in early every morning. If I have a very early appointment and can’t meditate until a little later in the morning, I really miss it, and don’t feel quite right without it.
I find that meditation has had a calming effect on me. I am better able to weather stressful events, and I am much less impatient with delays, interruptions and other annoyances. In fact, I don’t get nearly as annoyed as I used to before I began meditating.
I’m a happier, more positive person as a result of meditation. My thinking seems clearer, too. Meditation is something I would never want to give up.”
– Barbara H. (practitioner since February 2015)
“I have come to realize that a peaceful mind is not necessarily the default in a world seemingly designed to challenge us at every turn. It is something to be actively cultivated and feeling stress is nothing to be ashamed of.
So much of the time, our minds and bodies are not in the same place. We are unaware of the present moment and of ourselves as we chase after our thoughts in every direction, consumed by them and mindless of any separation between them and us. When I meditate, all the pieces of me return to me and I am with myself.
I used to think that meditation was too boring or difficult for what I considered to be my overactive, untameable mind. I would wrestle against my thoughts and quickly lose interest in focusing on my breath or scanning my body. The thoughts were way more interesting to me than silence and I invariably wanted to follow them.
I was surprised to discover what Transcendental Meditation feels like. Not every one of my meditations feels exactly the same and I sometimes get in my own way by expecting them to, but the sensations remind me at different times of drinking a smooth cup of chai tea, of being rocked by gentle ocean waves, or of listening to the clear tone of a Tibetan gong.
Knowing what that kind of soothing feels like, I can more easily find that feeling outside of meditation now, too, as if my brain had learned a shortcut to it. There is also an afterglow of coming out of a deep meditation as the peace spills out into the rest of our reality, as does the increasing ability to gently let thoughts drift by without becoming embroiled with them. It is not entirely unlike the profound serenity that a religious person might experience after making a sincere prayer and feeling that it has been heard.
And although meditation, like exercise and proper eating, is meant to be a regular practice that keeps us proactively well, as opposed to a first-aid measure to be only used when things have already gone wrong, I confess that I have more than once taken a break to immediately meditate when I feel the onset of a major stress, and it has made the difference between a rapid derailing and a timely realignment.
In such an urgent moment, I have often found it to be easier and more effective to meditate and detach from thoughts entirely than to try to come up with a strong and convincing positive thought for counteracting a strong and convincing negative one. And if changing our thoughts can change our way of feeling, I have certainly found through meditation that changing our way of feeling can also change our thoughts.
Learning to meditate has been an important, exciting, unexpected, and hope-giving addition to my wellness arsenal. I am profoundly interested in seeing myself and my meditation evolve through the years, and in deepening my understanding of both.”
– Jessica E. (practitioner since July 2017)
“I have meditated for quite a number of years now, using a variety of different styles, and am very much convinced that meditation can do wonders for bringing a feeling of calm into one’s life, “stilling the waters” of the ever-active mind, and enhancing one’s focus and creativity. Honestly, all of the meditation forms I’ve tried have had benefits. None of them has been misguided!
However, no style has brought as many benefits, or such dramatic ones, as the form of meditation that Stephen teaches. While I’m no expert, it seems that the essence of meditation is that you move your focus away from the multifarious forms and energies and distractions of the world, and then to turn within and quiet the mind. There are a number of ways of doing that, of course. However, in most forms of meditation, your attention is still pointed toward something – it may be music, or sounds from nature, or the calm voice of a guided meditation telling you to focus on the breath or on some kind of imagery.
Check out bookstores and online book sellers find that page now levitra no prescription for used textbooks.With Transcendental Meditation, however, the mind focuses on something much simpler, more abstract, and more conducive to entering a state of calm and stillness. After your meditation is concluded, you find yourself relaxed, your breathing more regular, your mind at ease, your fears and distractions and anxieties brought under control almost effortlessly. The meditation time itself is a wonderful respite, and in its wake you find yourself refreshed, ready to face the world again.
Chris M. (practitioner since March 2018)
– Kris Kuyper (practitioner for 10 years)
“Meditating with Stephen has been a life-changer for our family. Every relationship is deeper, every moment easier and more enjoyable. I highly recommend introducing your children to TM, and Stephen is an excellent teacher and example. His method of teaching and sharing what TM has to offer has been an incredible gift for which we will always be grateful.”
“Meditation has taught me many things. One of the most important lessons I have learned is how to completely focus on the present. Before I began mediating I was always planning and worrying about the next assignment due, or the next chore, or the next test. Worrying about the future can completely destroy your present. Now, I find that tuning into the world, dedicating yourself to the task at hand, and “taking everything as it comes”, is the way of life that I find most enjoyable.It is easy for anyone to get swept up in the commotion of a normal day. It is incredibly difficult to think about somebody else when your days and nights are packed with things that you have to do. However, meditation has taught me a lot about empathy, because it gives me the time to think and understand how I feel, how others feel, and what would be the most helpful way someone could act towards me if I were in their position. I also learned that connecting with others is very worthwhile. Knowing when to lead and when follow are good skills to have, however I believe that being able to walk alongside somebody is something that gets overlooked and can actually can bring a lot of joy to a lot of people.”
– Nico Kuyper (practitioner for 10 years)