Rid Yourself of Stress, High Blood Pressure and Sleep Better

By Pamela D. Wilson CSA, MS, BS/BA, CG

Meditation, but not just any kind, has the potential to lower your blood pressure, increase your ability to learn and clear your mind.  Transcendental meditation, a technique offered in the United States since 1959 has medically and statistically proven benefits to your health.

It is a well- known fact that stress damages our brain and our body by creating chronic disease.  It causes us to take action without thinking, to make poor decisions, to be more emotional, distracted and exhausted.  If you are a caregiver you likely experience stress on a daily basis.   Consider taking a daily vacation from stress by considering the practice of transcendental meditation.

Very simplistically, TM or transcendental meditation strengthens the brain’s communication network.  It returns the ability to think clearly.  It strengthens the immune function of the body so we feel more healthy and optimistic.  It returns our ability to be compassionate and empathetic in caring for others.

TM is not like other meditation where we imagine ourselves to be a bright light or on a certain path.  It “provides the experience of restful alertness”.¹  It is also not something we can learn on our own.  Years ago my husband was working a very stressful job.  His blood pressure at age 30 was sky high.  His doctor told him that he could either choose have a heart attack by doing nothing (he didn’t want to take medication) or choose to learn TM which had the proven ability to lower blood pressure and stress among many other benefits. He chose the latter and learned TM which resolved much of the stress and anxiety he was feeling as the result of a high stress position.

At the time I viewed TM as a secret society because he would come home from his TM classes and couldn’t or wouldn’t talk about what happened.  There were weekends he had to take flowers or fruit to class.  To me this seemed odd, almost cultish.

Admittedly I was a bit jealous that he wouldn’t give the secrets away.  Yet TM did have the desired result, his blood pressure decreased to a normal level and he was able to manage the stress of his job. Because of the work I do and my interest in maintaining my health because of all I have seen and learned through my clients, I too began the practice of TM three years ago.  I will agree that it has benefits that cannot be easily explained, but as long as it works who am I to question.

Source:  http://www.tm.org/benefits-brain

©2010, 2013 Pamela D. Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

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