Our Daughters, Our Granddaughters, Ourselves
I don’t know how old you are, but I’m guessing that if you aren’t a female between 13 and 25 years of age, you know one. I certainly know a few and am, in fact, related to one. I’ve noticed a lot of eye rolling—not just from teenagers and young women about their parents—but from their parents. This, of course, is nothing new. What is new are the ways in which today’s young women are vulnerable.
Teen girls and young women have unique hopes and concerns relevant to their stages in life. They are also defined by and help define the world forming around them. These days, they are stretching their wings and daring things that their mothers and grandmothers probably did not attempt. With consistent leaps in technological advancement and the stunning amount of information provided by it, our young women have broader horizons than older women could ever have imagined in their earlier years.
Along with the ever-increasing amount of knowledge and choice available to young women, there is a demand of them for greater performance and achievement. As a result of the extraordinary pressures in the system, there is an epidemic of stress in our schools and universities and among those seeking employment after graduation. In the population of young women today, there is a higher percentage reported than ever before of depression, anxiety, chronic stress—and its physical manifestations such as hypertension, insomnia, and eating disorders—and attempted suicide.
According to the Mayo clinic website, teen depression is a serious problem. Because symptoms and causes of depression may be different between teens and adults, a parent may not be aware of the severity of their child’s state. Issues such as peer pressure, academic expectations and changing bodies can create a lot of emotional ups and downs especially for teens; but for some teens, the lows are not just temporary feelings — they’re symptoms of depression.
The Transcendental Meditation program has been taught for more than five decades and has had the consistent verification of its benefits by scientific research during that time. These benefits include improvements in self-esteem, academic achievement, coherent thinking, energy and physical stamina, normalization of weight and even higher graduation rates. Research shows that TM reduces symptoms of ADHD, depression, anxiety, insomnia, hostility, substance abuse, and unhealthy impulsivity—many of the problems that challenge teens and also women in their early twenties.
The young Emmy award-winning filmmaker, actress and writer Lena Dunham said, Anxiety has always been a constant issue for me and meditation acts as a guard, a sedative, a powerful antidote to darkness, anger and unproductive thinking.
We all want to nourish and uplift ourselves, our daughters and our granddaughters. We want happiness and good health to be features of daily life. One thing you can do to help ensure that is to introduce young women to their local TM teacher. You can start now by reading our page designed especially for them and by sharing it with those you hold dear: Transcendental Meditation for Young Women
About the Author
Janet Hoffman is the executive director of TM for Women Professionals, a division of TM for Women in the USA
