July 2022
Dear Friends,
We hope you enjoy our July mini magazine. Feel free to share these articles. In this issue of our series, you’ll find the following:
- Links to last month’s blog written by women for women
- Good news for a school for girls at-risk in Thailand
- Spotlight on a young meditating filmmaker
- How the TM technique is offered to Armenian victims of war
- What women say: Message from Ukraine
In case you missed them, here are links to articles that were published on our blog in April and May. Feel free to share them with your friends. To see previous posts, please visit our archives at tm-women.org/blog/
Ukraine Women At-Risk Learn Transcendental Meditation
“I have been meditating since 2009. In these most difficult moments of life, with war in Ukraine, the accumulated internal reserve of peace and the purity of my nervous system have helped me to make the right decisions enabling me to save my family.“
Tired and Burned Out? Transcendental Meditation Can Help: An Interview with Dr. Nancy Lonsdorf, MD
Nancy Lonsdorf, MD, is a popular speaker, author, and teacher specializing in women’s health. Dr. Lonsdorf currently has a private practice in integrative and holistic medicine in Fairfield, IA, and teaches medical doctors and health practitioners at The Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine in La Jolla, CA.
1% for the Planet meets the Dhammarjarinee Whittaya School
Dhammarjarinee Whittaya School in Thailand provides a safe home and quality education, including school-wide instruction in the Transcendental Meditation program, to thousands of girls in need: www.thaischool.org
Recently, the school was accepted into a program called 1% for the Planet, which connects organizations, individuals and businesses that donate at least one percent of their annual sales to support global coherence, improve girls’ education, and create a positive environmental impact. Its mission is to “build, support, and activate an alliance of businesses financially committed to creating a healthy planet.”
How does the Dhammarjarinee Whittaya School impact these goals? With the TM technique, students in the Dhammarjarinee school unfold the full potential of their minds, assuring greater academic success and integrated development. Researchers around the world agree that increasing girls’ access to quality education is one of the most powerful—and underused—strategies to tackle climate problems. Project Drawdown, a leading resource for climate solutions, ranks the most impactful initiatives in the fight against global warming. Their position is that advancing girls’ education ranks among the 10 most effective strategies for combating the climate crisis.
Education for girls serves society’s interests: With every year of schooling, a girl’s income will increase by 20%. A child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to survive past the age of 5. Educated women are 50% more likely to educate their own families. Educated women invest 90% of their income back into their families.
Spotlight on a Filmmaker
Alana Waksman, who learned Transcendental Meditation as a child, attended the Maharishi School in Fairfield, Iowa where all students, staff and faculty practice the TM technique. As a student, Alana once led the school’s speech team, which consistently won awards in state competition. She is now a writer, producer, and director, and just last year debuted her first film. The movie has been shown at film festivals across the country in places including Santa Barbara, California, where it made its debut, and internationally at events including the Deauville American Film Festival in France.
In total, her film has screened at 25 film festivals and has received seven awards, including one to Alana Waksman for Best Director at the Phoenix Film Festival.
Alana’s film is the culmination of her nearly three decades in theater, beginning in second grade when she performed in her first play. Waksman realized that theater was the thing she loved most of all, and that’s what she majored in when she attended Connecticut College. The Transcendental Meditation technique has been verified by published research studies to increase creativity and has helped many young girls like Alana develop the skills and expertise they need to accomplish their dreams.
Ending the War Within: TM for Armenians
Since the spring of 2021, Rouzanna Vardanyan has been working to bring relief to Armenians who were affected by the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. As part of the ArmeniaRecoveryNow team, the Transcendental Meditation program is offered to children, displaced persons, healthcare workers, veterans, and others.
Rouzanna appears in the documentary Ending the War Within, which discusses how the TM program is reducing trauma in Armenia.
From Ukraine: “Balance and Peace Anywhere”
Never knowing where life and circumstances may lead, one can start now (why wait?) to secure within oneself true peace, happiness, and adaptability. Such was the case for Natalia Basanskaya, a hotel business manager in Kyiv Ukraine, who wrote this beautiful description of her experience:
“My instruction in TM meditation in 2013 became the starting point of the journey to the true self.
And from that moment, somewhere at a deep level, the internal processes of the spiritual growth of my personality were launched—the connection of the Spirit, Soul, body, consciousness, mind. Life is divided into before and after.
And this process, fortunately, is irreversible, and everything external that hindered this growth fell away by itself. Conscious perception of life and the world as a whole is switched on. Nervousness over trifles goes away and what used to cling to me ceases to affect me, and most importantly, all this happens gradually, easily, and naturally.
With TM, you enter your ideal natural state. And as you change internally, the world around you changes. I have changed: almost all my toxic relationships have gone. And quite naturally my life is filled with bright, juicy, absolutely happy colors.
With the help of this very simple and effective tool, I can quickly bring myself into a state of balance and peace anywhere. After several years of everyday meditation, TM is—and will continue to be—a strong foundation for my spiritual development.”
Please click this link to donate toward TM course scholarships for Ukrainian women and girls.
Editor’s note: We’d love to hear your comments on the benefits you’ve received from the TM practice. And, with your permission, we’ll publish them here for other women to enjoy. Send your comment to info@tm-women.org
