Entries by mike

On Transcending

I learnt to meditate because I was searching for something beyond the mundane, beyond the everyday.  The word ’transcendental’ in Transcendental Meditation intrigued me because ‘transcend’ means ‘to go beyond.’  I wanted to see if it was possible for the mind to go beyond its everyday chatter.  I’d read about the inner self and intuitively […]

TM Improves Learning

Studies show that when learning a new skill, for example, a musical instrument, learning is consolidated and improved by taking breaks between practice times. During breaks, recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) demonstrates that there is a compressed neural replay at a rate of approximately 20-times the acquired skill for consolidation.  And a recently published study in Cell […]

Why meditate?

People meditate for a variety of reasons, but some of the most common include: To reduce stress and anxiety. Transcendental Meditation is a specific meditation technique that allows the body and mind to settle into a natural state of rest, which can be very helpful for people who are feeling stressed or anxious. To improve focus […]

Deep Rest

Rest survey In 2016, a survey by the Wellcome Trust revealed that over two thirds (68%) of the British public would like more rest. Many people feel that they don’t get enough sleep or that the quality of their sleep isn’t as good as they would like.  Stress can affect our sleep giving rise to […]

Meditation and Stress

Why is Transcendental Meditation so good at reducing stress?  We could say that the 20 minutes we spend meditating is 20 minutes ‘off’, a great way of taking a break from the daily routine.  But there’s more. It’s what happens to the body during TM which really enables us to manage stress so effectively.  One […]

Transcendence

It’s sometimes said that transcendence is the goal of all spiritual practices.  To transcend means to go beyond.  We might think of transcendence as going beyond the ordinary, the everyday, the prosaic.  Often, transcendence is a peak experience and, if we’re lucky, we each have a few of these over the course of our lives.  […]