Prince Harry: “I need to meditate every single day.”

Prince Harry has highlighted the need for daily meditation as an effective management tool for burnout and stress.  Whilst he didn’t mention Transcendental Meditation specifically, ‘an effective management tool for burnout’ is a familiar way in which people describe the benefits of TM and there have been numerous articles in the press over the past 60 years which cite TM as a simple way of dealing with life’s stresses.

How does this work?  One of the main characteristics of TM is that it provides the body with deep rest.  TM allows the metabolic rate to slow down, breathing to become calmer and muscles to relax.  It was first seen in a study called The Physiological Effects of Transcendental Meditation by Robert Keith Wallace published in the American journal Science in 1970.

What’s interesting is that this experience of rest happens naturally during the meditation process.  People practicing TM do not need to try to relax.  Relaxation is a natural side-effect of the very simple mental technique that we learn when we’re instructed in TM.

Every time we meditate, the body gets rest.  This is certainly a good enough reason to mediate every single day, for both Prince Harry and the rest of us!