Transcendental Meditation and Emotional Health
In our busy 24 hour online world it is a real challenge to stay clear in the mind, while feeling fresh in the body for extended periods of time. With these ongoing demands there is the ever increasing impact on our resilience and emotional coping. Consequently, personal, professional and relational lives are negatively influenced by stress, tiredness and fatigue. In losing the natural ability to self-regulate amidst overwhelm we can begin to feel that we are do not recognise ourselves. If ‘Emotional Health is a positive state of well-being which enables an individual to be able to function in society and meet the demands of everyday life’, how many of us can say I feel emotionally healthy?
Firstly, let’s start by describing emotions and their functions. Emotions are ways in which the body communicates a response to situations either physically, mentally or both. We feel joy on a clear spring morning, we feel excitement when going to meet an old friend, we feel panic when we think we will be late for an important appointment or sadness at the passing of a beloved pet. Emotions give flavour to our experience, and are never really wrong. Indeed, even anger, grief and fear hold crucial information about what has, is or might be happening to us. Emotions guide, mobilise and protect us. Fear is our early warning system to get away from danger, anger supports us to take a stand in the midst of challenge. There is no hierarchy of emotion. By way of sensations in the body, the texture of our feelings and the colour of our thoughts, emotions inform us of where we are in our lives at any point in time.
While all of these emotions are part of life the challenge arises when we lose our ground through stress and stressful circumstances. Fortunately we can restore and maintain balance in the body and mind through effective and effortless meditation. Transcendental Meditation has shown to regulate emotions, while harmonising thinking, feeling and behaviour. TM is known, because the decades of research, to be the most widely validated natural technique for reducing trait anxiety, hypertension, and high blood pressure. As such, and based on measurable data, there is a direct correlation between the reduction of deep physiological stress with the overall improvement in emotional and psychological wellbeing. The effectiveness of TM for supporting emotional health comes as a result of experiencing profound rest, and in that meditative state the body dissolves deep layers of fatigue, while allow the nervous system to regulate emotions. As such the repeated practice of TM improves our emotional health.
To be emotionally healthy we need to feel we have tools to release us from their tight grip when dysregulated and in overwhelm. Out of context responses and ongoing reactivity inhibit our ability to appreciate life and all that it offers. Naturally everyone wants to enjoy each stage of the life they inhabit, to remain familiar to themselves, not lost or isolated from the world. Indeed, if we cannot regulate our fear we might become overwhelmed and phobic. Undigested anger can result in disease, chronic illness and clinical depression. Without accepting our grief we cannot move forward with hope and enthusiasm. Clearly the bigger picture of life fades from our awareness when we cannot regulate our emotions.
Fortunately, Transcendental Meditation is a proven practical tool for creating a positive state of well-being which supports us to meet the demand of everyday living, as well as growth towards greater success and accomplishment. For instance, research indicates that regular TM practice increases serotonin, the neurochemical which helps support our social engagement system, which supports a natural state of well-being and happiness. Thus TM helps us to stay in contact with our life and the world even in the midst of challenge. Effortless Mediation regulates the production of cortisol, the stress hormone that helps us to manage stressful situations. It does this by regulating the autonomic nervous system and allows for the possibility to have a calmer style of functioning of the body and mind. As well as regulation of stress in the body, TM improves executive functioning of the brain so that we can make better decisions and initiate more effective action towards fulfillment.
When we lose our ability to stay emotionally regulated we can reduced our capacity to tolerate stress. When this happens we are on the edge, perhaps sleep deprived while our mental health suffers. Studies in trauma indicate that the brain functions differently when we are deeply stressed. The emotional processing and fear center of the brain cannot switch off, we become flooded with adrenaline, while the amygdala remains over active. We suffer because of hypervigilance. We cannot sleep, we get sick, we produce inflammation and our long term health is compromised when flooded by flight fight responses. However research shows that PTSD symptoms are significantly reduced through regular practice of TM. When experience deep rest we take our awareness out of the whirlwind of anxiety and dive into a state of deep calmness and profound rest. Every meditation restores balance to the nervous system. Each meditation restructures how we think and how we feel. TM is a natural technique for developing and maintaining , emotional health. We can enjoy more and more of what life has to offer when add daily meditation to our routine.
Transcendental Meditation is a highly effective, tried and tested tool for developing emotional health, as well as improving overall health to the body and as consequence relationships. It’s effortlessness and effectiveness make it enjoyable and worthwhile to practice. Emotional health is essential, and the TM is technique supports that, and indeed improves our ability to meet the demands of life.