Stress free life ...try transcendental meditation

However, TM is not just about relaxing but tapping into your intelligence and creativity, and improving efficiency.

National Director of the Maharishi Institute of Science and Technology, Dr David Lee Sheng Tin, explained that TM was the most effective programme for reducing stress and anxiety, increasing creativity, normalising blood pressure, reducing insomnia, and getting deep rest and energy for the day.

“It is not a programme for just sitting down and feeling relaxed. It is one to improve your efficiency in activity but it also helps society.” Lee Sheng Tin believed TM would be extremely beneficial to society for two reasons.

He said research indicated that TM reduced incidents of crime and violence, from school violence and road rage to domestic violence. It also increased productivity.

“There have been over 600 scientific researches done on this programme by institutions in more than 30 countries for over the past 50 years.

So it is the most researched programme for human development.” He went on to say that stress was the main factor that plagued society. He explained when people were stressed, the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is responsible for moral reasoning and practical decisions, shuts off, and the amygdala, which he described as the ‘emotional centre’ of the brain, takes over.

“The person now becomes impulsive, reactive, and over emotional.” Lee Sheng Tin described society as a tree with branches, leaves and fruit.

He said if the branches were braking, the leaves were dry and the fruit stopped bearing, the farmer would look for the source, the nourishment in the soil.

“What nourishes society? The minds of individuals.

When individuals in society are very stressed, and with the kind of economic downturn we have right now people are very stressed, then the brain can not function properly.

They become very reactive and very emotionally unstable.” He said people were trying to fix individual problems instead of dealing with the root cause, which was stress. He added that when people were tired, did not eat a proper diet, lacked exercise, and had financial problems, it contributed to stress.

Lee Sheng Tin said research on people like psychopaths and serial killers found that their prefrontal cortex was shut down so they did not see anything wrong with their actions, which was why rehabilitation is difficult.

“If you don’t have a way of putting the prefrontal cortex back online then prisons are just universities of crime. That is why the rate of recidivism is so high.” According to Lee Sheng Tin, when someone practises TM, the mind and body relaxes and goes into a deep rest within the first ten minutes.

This ten minutes equals five to six hours of normal sleep.

He added that normal sleep was usually not enough to get rid of deep-rooted tensions which could overload the nervous system and cause a burn out, which was why seemingly healthy people suffered heart attacks and strokes.

The various areas of the brain also becomes orderly and energy levels in the brain becomes balanced.

“It is this increased orderliness and rest of the brain that allows the system to settle down and puts the prefrontal cortex back online.” “Within every human being is a source of infinite energy, creativity, intelligence, and happiness, and that source is what we call our inner intelligence. When the connection between our inner intelligence and our thinking process is broken.

It is like you no longer have access to the reservoir of intelligence and creativity within and then everything gets scattered.” “Once you learn how to go within, then nothing stops you because transcendental meditation gives you the key to access the storehouse of power within yourself. The great thing is it’s very simple and effortless to do. You don’t have to change your lifestyle, your religion, your beliefs or your diet. Once you have been trained how to go within, it’s very easy.” Lee Sheng Tin told Sunday Newsday over 7,000 people in TT practice TM and many cardiologists send their patients to the Maharishi Institute to learn the technique.

He said well-being was not just mental and physical health but a person’s emotional state as well.

He said the emotional state could be measured by how quickly a person bounced back from setbacks and disappointment; their financial well-being and how they handle their money; interpersonal relationships on and off the job; and career and purpose in life.

He said in 2006, the programme was introduced at the Swaha Hindu College. The director at the time, Prakash Persad, said it resulted in a “marked decrease” in student misbehaviour, as well as improved academic performance.

It is also a good idea for teachers who often have to deal with challenging students.

In 2015, TM was introduced to Holy Trinity High School in Jamaica. Principal Margaret Brissett-Bolt said it helped the children gain a sense of self, and the number of fights and suspensions decreased significantly. In addition, the lowest performing class was instructed in TM and over a few months, it became the highest performing class.

Lee Sheng Tin said he had been speaking to governments and institutions about the benefits of TM for over 20 years. He said while they agreed TM would be beneficial, the officials were afraid the public would think it was a religious practice and would protest against the programme.

He hoped that one school try it as a pilot project. He suggested the school take one class and run the programme for six months and reap the benefits of well-being.