July 2026
This month, our focus is the amazing universal appeal, reach, and success of the Transcendental Meditation program: its global application across cultures, institutions and walks of life.
- Last month’s blog written by women for women
- Articles:
- The universal reach of Transcendental Meditation
- Q&A: Is it possible to have a problem-free life?
- What women say: “…my life was like a myth.”
Blog posts
Have you had a few minutes to read our June blog posts? If you haven’t, the links are below. You can also visit our blog homepage to use our search feature for a great range of interesting topics.
Wisdom Keepers: The Role of Grandmothers
Grandmothers have long held a subtle yet powerful role in human society as repositories of wisdom, emotional grounding, and stability within families and communities. Across cultures, older women have traditionally served as moral guides and calming presences during times of stress, conflict, and uncertainty.
This Summer, Let TM for Women be Your Travel Guide to the Ultimate Stay-cation
Why do people go on vacation? To get out of their tiresome daily routine, to experience something new, to relax?
The Transcendental Meditation technique is a way to take a break from our pursuits and passions and responsibilities for 20 minutes twice a day by allowing our attention to travel inward.
Articles
The Universal Reach of Transcendental Meditation
A sign of the universality of the ability to learn and practice the TM technique and the ubiquitous appreciation of its value is illustrated by the diverse and unique locations, cultures and circumstances in which it has been taught. From Maputo to Moscow to Manhattan to Madrid to Medellin to Melbourne to Manila, people in all walks of life have embraced the TM technique. The program has been implemented in schools, hospitals, prisons, government offices, industry,
the military, and private organizations over seven decades. Here are some of the more notable settings:
The Dharmajanee School in Thailand (pictured)
This award-winning school began in 1990 when Buddhist nuns working in an impoverished area in Ratchaburi saw that impoverished boys could receive a safe home, food, and education in a Buddhist temple but similarly disadvantaged girls had little or no opportunities. The nuns constructed dormitory and classroom buildings and began teaching 20 vulnerable girls aged 12 to 15. Since 1990, more than 5,700 girls living in extreme poverty, orphans, or those from broken homes have come to the Dhammajarinee Witthaya School. There are now over 1,000 Buddhist and non-Buddhist students enrolled, from kindergarten to 12th grade. All students at Dhammajarinee receive, without charge, a safe and loving home, food, clothing, and medical care. All receive instruction in the Transcendental Meditation program.
Unified Behavioral Health Center for Military Veterans and Their Families
Located in Bay Shore, the study was conducted before publication in 2022 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress in 2022. Military veterans diagnosed with PTSD participated in a randomized controlled trial comparing TM with prolonged exposure therapy, a standard PTSD treatment. This is often considered one of the strongest military-related TM studies because it was a randomized controlled trial conducted through a clinical center dedicated specifically to military veterans and their families. Improvements were noted in PTSD symptoms, depression, anxiety, sleep quality, emotional well-being, quality of life, and stress resilience.
Central Saanich Police Service
This program for women officers in British Columbia, Canada, began in 2017. A second phase, which was for male officers, began in 2018. Assessments indicated more sustained energy, more calm, greater presence and attentiveness, better listening and engagement abilities, and reduced stress. The success of the Central Saanich project led to a similar TM offering for 11 officers in the Victoria Police Department beginning in November 2019.
Women in Need Program for Homeless Women
Women in Need (WIN) is the largest provider of shelter and housing services for homeless women and children in New York City. Beginning in the 2010s, homeless women, mothers with children living in shelters and women transitioning from homelessness were instructed in the Transcendental Meditation technique. Several women reported that having a simple technique they could practice privately gave them a sense of control and inner stability despite the uncertainty of shelter life. Participants described reduced stress and anxiety, better sleep, greater emotional stability, improved ability to cope, increased self-confidence, and better parenting.
Trinity College Women’s Squash Team
Located in Hartford, Connecticut, this women’s team began practicing TM in 2010, including athletes, coaches and staff. After learning the TM technique, team members and coaches reported reduced competitive stress, greater emotional stability during matches, better focus and concentration, improved team cohesion, increased ability to enter the athletic “zone,” and better handling of setbacks and pressure situations. The coach observed that the team remained calmer when facing challenges that would previously have been disruptive. The team rose to become the No. 1 women’s squash team in the nation in 2013 and 2014. Some participants attributed part of their improved performance to the calmer, more focused mental state fostered by TM.
Coffee Creek Correctional Facility
This project produced one of the most important published studies of Transcendental Meditation with women. It was conducted at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, Oregon’s primary women’s prison, and was published in The Permanente Journal in 2017. In the randomized controlled study, female inmates who learned Transcendental Meditation experienced significant reductions in trauma symptoms after four months
of practice. Research data showed improvements in intrusive memories, hyperarousal, and overall post-traumatic stress symptoms, with approximately 80 percent of participants showing meaningful clinical improvement. Inmates reported reductions in overall trauma symptoms, intrusive memories and thoughts, and being “on guard,” jumpy, unable to relax, or having trouble sleeping. They commented that they felt calmer, had more hope, could step back from anger, and had greater self-awareness.
The Actors Center
Founded in 1996, the Actors Center is a non-profit organization in New York City that serves as a creative sanctuary and professional hub for actors. The Transcendental Meditation program involving actors is especially interesting because the actors’ interest in benefits is not as much about trauma or rehabilitation, but on enhancing creativity, performance, confidence, and emotional resilience in a profession built around public scrutiny and frequent rejection. Starting in the early 2000s, participants included stage, television and film actors. They subjectively reported reduced audition anxiety, greater performance confidence, increased creativity, better concentration and memory, less emotional fatigue, and more resilience during periods of unemployment.
Q and A
Q: Is it possible to have a problem-free life?
The mechanics of gaining a problem-free life are the mechanics of expanding awareness. Fully expanded awareness cognizes itself as unbounded, without division, without lack. Problems belong to localized vision. Broad vision borne of expanded awareness comprehends a harmony of infinite possibilities in life.
When the mind is always directed outward into boundaries, it is cramped. Transcending (going beyond) the field of action and the field of thinking leaves the mind unbounded in inner silence—the source of thought, an infinite reservoir of intelligence, energy and creativity. Repeating this experience regularly allows the mind to retain unboundedness at its basis, even during activity and thinking. Creativity, energy and intelligence are infused into the mind when it is active, giving us power to succeed.
Problems abide in weakness. The Transcendental Meditation technique accomplishes freedom from weakness, establishing life on the level of solutions. It is due to the lack of experience of ones own inner infinite nature that leaves life open to fear, insecurity, problems and suffering. Over time with the routine of twice-daily regular meditation, the TM technique establishes inner peace, increased problem-solving ability, and growing freedom from problems.
What women say
“Before I learned Transcendental Meditation, my life was like a myth. I always made wrong decisions. I was depressed and self-centered. After learning TM, I am now able to think clearer, I am happy, and my children have noted that our relationship is good.”
— Agnes Aloyoni, aged 45,
Namuwango slums, Kampala, Uganda
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
