Transcendental Meditation (Joy of Meditation)
This is the 5th in a series of 8 articles
Transcendental Meditation is one of the well known and widely practiced types of meditation. This is the root of meditation that if you earn the proper ways of meditation, you will gain delight from your meditation practices.
Whenever anyone talks about the joys of meditation, it means that the person is talking about different types of meditation. These are types of meditation because these practices persuade peace, accord and relief from stress in an individual. In this chapter, we will try to understand that how these different meditation techniques are effective in daily life, and how they bring joy in an individual’s life. In this chapter, we will learn the following things.
Introduction to Transcendental Meditation
Difference of Transcendental Meditation and other types of Meditation Benefits of Transcendental Meditation
The Joy of It
Transcendental Meditation is one of the types of Meditation practices. This is actually the type, which has received much attention. Researchers have conducted many researches to settle down the effects of Transcendental Meditation. It has been observed that even 20 to 30 minutes of transcendental meditation can bring relief from stress. Moreover, there are many other benefits of transcendental meditation, which I will discuss later in this post.
Introduction to Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental meditation is the type of meditation that is little bit different from other types of meditation. It can tempt many positive effects in your personality, if you practice it two times in a day. It is considered as less time consuming, and one has to spend 20 minutes for one session of Transcendental Meditation.
This is the technique, which a person performs easily with closed eyes. There are different things about Transcendental Meditation which needs to be considered and which a person must know.
I will discuss these things one by one. Maharishi introduced transcendental meditation 50 years ago. In the way, India is the origin of this technique. After this, Indians are transferring this valuable technique from generation to generation. They have developed proper teaching institutes for transcendental meditation
This is the simplest techniques of all. One has not to put a large amount of energy in it. It has to be practiced with closed eyes.
One can learn Transcendental Meditation with slight effort. Practicing it is quite delightful.
In our earlier posts, we had learned about the hindrances, which block the way to get benefits from meditation. The best thing about Transcendental Meditation technique is that it does not require any belief. Anyone who is practicing it without belief over it can get benefits from it.
Transcendental Meditation helps in increasing the activity of the brain, and several researches have confirmed these findings. This technique helps in enhancing intelligence, creativity, problem solving and decision making. Transcendental Meditation technique is just taken it as a technique for making health better. This does not change your life style.
Transcendental practice helps in controlling stress and blood pressure. This preservation reduces risk for stress, hypertension, high levels of cholesterol and heart attacks.
This technique is only one of its kinds. It plays a considerable role in self development of an individual. This is the thing which is not present in other techniques.
There are expert teachers for teaching transcendental technique. These teachers take follow up of their teachings, as well. In this way, a person can learn and practice it again and again to get maximum benefit out of this technique.
The main concept while teaching transcendental technique is to get access to the inner world of silence. This inner world exists in every individual. In this hustle and bustle of life, reaching this calm world helps individuals to realize their inner energies.
When a person reaches this inner world of calmness, his brain works with greater integrity and produces better results. There is a large population all over the world, who is practicing transcendental meditation to purify their lives. This is why, this technique has becomes one of the widely used technique of meditation.
Difference of Transcendental Meditation and other types of Meditation
There are several differences between transcendental meditation technique and other types of meditation techniques. The first important point is that, all other techniques instruct the individuals to think upon something. All techniques teach development of concentration to achieve certain goals. On the other hand, to some extent the transcendental meditation allows the control of mind with concentration.
The other major difference is that, other techniques of meditation work on surface level like, concentration on thought or breath. Transcendental technique, on the other hand, directs an individual towards the deep inner state of calmness, which enhances overall level of awareness of an individual. By reaching this innermost peaceful state, it eventually brings positive effects in the personality of an individual.
Benefits of Transcendental Meditation
There are several benefits of transcendental meditation. This is the only type of meditation which has received researcher’s attention. According to one rough calculation, six hundred researches have been benefited on the effects of transcendental meditation. Now, I will discuss different benefits of transcendental meditation.
Increased Activity of Brain:
It has been observed that, transcendental meditation helps prefrontal cortex to connect with other parts of the brain. This thing helps to enhance the overall activity level of the brain. Moreover, prefrontal cortex is involved in executive functions of the brain such as, decision making and problem solving. So, higher level of connections from other parts of brain enhances its activity level.
Decrease in Stress:
If someone practices transcendental meditation daily, it declines the activity of Sympathetic nervous System. In turn, sympathetic nervous system expands the blood vessels and reduces the amount of stress hormones such as, adrenaline hormones. In this way, transcendental meditation helps in reducing stress of an individual. Once, a person gets rid of stress, there are a few chances for him to be affected by heart attack, hypertension and stroke.
Workplace Performance:
As we have seen how transcendental meditation affects the major regions of our brain, this enhancement of brain’s performance also enhance performance of an individual at workplace. Better intelligence, decision making and problem solving abilities make people to perform well in their jobs. By using meditation practices, individuals make a habit to remain peaceful and passive even under stressful situations, which enable them to meet challenges during job.
Better Performance at Schools:
It has been observed that meditation practices at school level increases the level of happiness and eagerness in children. Meditation helps students to reduce their studies related concern and hopelessness.
Meditation also helps children with the education of disabilities to improve their performance. Through meditation, they are better able to concentrate on their minds. Moreover, transcendental meditation increases the brain activity and executive functions of brain, as well, which helps to reduce the symptoms of learning disabilities.
Promoting Peace in Society:
Transcendental meditation has got the potential to change the society in a positive way. If people practice this meditation technique in groups, it can produce better results for them. Such as a green forest cannot be green until, every tree in that forest will be green. In this way, a society can never become a peaceful society until; every individual is feeling peace from inside the self.
Maintaining Focus:
It helps in building and maintaining focus of an individual. A person cannot focus or concentrate on anything, when there are several things in his mind. Transcendental meditation helps the individual to reduce his distraction and develop concentration. In this way, people build potential to focus on their goals.
Better Relationships:
Transcendental meditation softens the heart of an individual, as well. It induces patience in an individual and, helps him to treat everyone kindly. This kind of attitude increases the popularity of the individual among his family members, friends and colleagues.
