All You Need To Know About Transcendental Meditation

The type of meditation during which one consistently repeats a Sanskrit saying or Mantra in their mind, is known as Transcendental meditation. It is a non-religious practice for which a person needs to take classes from an instructor. Transcendental meditation started becoming popular in the United States because of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who is a follower of the Hindu monk known by the name of Swami Brahmanada Saraswati. Studies suggest that transcendental meditation can help reduce anxiety, ease stress, and help with fatigue and low resilience. In this article, we are going to break down all you need to know about transcendental meditation. 

What is Transcendental Meditation?

Typically during meditation, a person sits quietly for a while to relax their spirit, mind, body and everything else. But the purpose and methods of meditation can vary according to the type of meditation that they practice. The purpose of transcendental meditation is to make one’s body and spirit reach the state of peace or in other words “pure consciousness.” During this meditation, one has to repeat a mantra in their head constantly, saying something that is meaningful to them and holds special significance. The language that is usually used for this practice is Sanskrit. Swami Brahmanada Saraswati who is also known by the title of Guru Dev, started to promote transcendental meditation in the mid-20th century.

Prasanth Inturi/Pexels | Maharishi Mahesh Yogi promoted transcendental meditation in the United States as a part of his Spiritual Regeneration Movement

The Benefits of Transcendental Meditation

Most studies only focus on the general benefits of meditation, however, there is only a number that examines the benefits of transcendental meditation. Here are all the potential benefits of meditation;

– Lower blood pressure
– Reduced stress and anxiety
– Helps with the reduction of smoking
– Increases one’s ability to tolerate pain

Oleksandr Pidvalnyi/Pexels | A review in 2019 proved that other potential benefits of transcendental meditation include improvement in memory and increased feelings of pleasure and well-being

Keeping these in mind, there are several key benefits that transcendental meditation provides that give it an upper hand, these include;

– No special equipment
– No mental effort
– No religious philosophy
– Development of a focused, happy, and relaxed mental state.
 – Activation of what’s known as alpha brain waves, which help with relaxation.

Is Transcendental Meditation Dangerous?

It has never been proven that transcendental meditation or any other kind of meditation has been the cause of physical health issues. As long as a person avoids meditating in inappropriate circumstances, for example, while driving, meditation causes no harm. However, for certain people, meditation can potentially aggravate pre-existing mental health problems. A survey was conducted in 2017 which proved that 25.4% people out of 342 who meditated had experienced at least one of the following effects;

• Physical pain
• Anxiety symptoms
• Dizziness
• Derealization
• depersonalization

Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels | Before choosing whichever technique you want for meditation, consulting with a professional would be a wise decision

These effects remained to be temporary in most cases.