September 2024
Dear Friend,
We hope you enjoy and share our September mini-magazine, which features the theme of the realization of the Self and the exploration of its potential to enhance life.
- Last month’s blog written by women for women
- Articles
- New study published: TM enriches nurses’ ability to care for self and others
- Ties to the Universe online women’s course starts September
- Top research award by the Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Profession
- Q&A: How does one gain spiritual freedom or liberation?
- What women say: Something quite extraordinary happens
If you haven’t read our August blog posts, the links are below. You can also visit our blog homepage at any time to read articles we’ve posted in the past, covering topics as diverse as Women and Addictions from 2017 and Women in Technology from 2024.
Women’s Secret Leadership Skill: Compassionate Strength
What would be the impact if women’s voices drove more of the decision-making processes in all fields of life? How would this impact personal, family, and community? How would it impact government, education, and business?
Not recognizing and utilizing the unique contribution that women in positions of power make naturally, just by virtue of being women, is detrimental to both women and society as a whole.
Relationship of Transcendental Meditation and Yoga: A 1965 Interview with Maharishi
Q: Maharishi, do your teachings or beliefs bear any relation at all to yoga?
Oh yes, of course. Essentially, it is yoga. It is the mind which is brought to the field of being, the union of the outer aspect of life with the inner aspect, which is bliss, consciousness. It is Yoga. But yoga has many, many aspects to it, and that is why I don’t name it as yoga, because yoga is very much misunderstood in the west.
New Research Published on the TM Technique and Nurses
Daily practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique provides nurses with an easy way to grow in self-awareness and to improve their potential for self-care and self-healing. When a nurse takes care of herself, she is more likely and able to care for those around her and under her care, bringing more fulfillment and success to her professional career.
The study, titled Transcendental Meditation Enriches Nurses’ Authentic Presence Through Caring for Self and Others, was published on ePub July 26th and reported in the Journal of Holistic Nursing. (DOI: 10.1177/08980101241262922)
The purpose of the study was to attain and analyze clinical nurses’ written descriptions to enhance understanding of their experiences practicing the TM technique. Fifty-three nurses from three clinical sites in Florida responded to questions associated with their experiences of practicing TM from November 2020-2021, during the COVID19 pandemic.
The researchers, Catherine Aquino-Russell, PhD, RN; Jennifer I Bonamer, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, NPD-BC; Susan Hartranft, PhD, ARNP; Mary Kutash, PhD, APRN; and Ayesha Johnson, PhD, viewed their findings through the lenses of present moment awareness, domains of well-being, and caring authentic presence.
Overall, the study found that nurses described that they were developing greater self-awareness and were more authentically and intentionally present with themselves and with others. The nurses prioritized and carefully created space for their own well-being, strengthening their own physical and emotional well-being. They engaged with others using themselves as healing environments (i.e., creating caring, calm and healing conditions for others) within the clinical setting. They felt that they became better listeners, connecting with others compassionately. Participants also described being more spiritually connected with self and others along with feeling enhanced gratitude within their own lives.
Nurses reported:
Energy:
- TM has given me an outlet to recharge my batteries … more energy.
Sleep:
- TM has helped to improve my sleep and I feel like I can get to sleep easier as well as feel more rested when I wake up.
Self-awareness and relationships:
- TM has brought me a greater awareness of what I need for myself physically and mentally to be able to relax and recharge so that I can improve not only myself but also my relationships with others.
- Instead of “going through the motions” I have been more honest with myself about how I really feel about things, and this has changed my interactions with people around me.
- TM has helped me slow down and pay more thoughtful attention to my patients, what they are saying and feeling. Listening has become more important and ensuring I am understanding what the patients feel they are going through.
Calm, focused mind:
- I also feel like TM has helped me to remain more calm, be more focused, and think clearer in stressful, emergency situations at work. I am able to respond very quickly and focus on exactly what is needed without feeling stressed or anxious.
- Definitely feel a sense of calm more often in everyday life.
Reduction of stress:
- I’m more aware of how daily stress affects me physically and mentally, and how TM is helping relieve that stress … I’ve been able to see a reduction in how I hold on to stress in my mind and body.
Reduction of anxiety:
- TM has helped me with the anxiety I always associated with socializing. Since practicing (TM) the internal chatter has softened and quieted.
Ties to the Universe Women’s Online Course Starting Tuesday September 24th
It’s beautiful and moving to learn how deeply you are connected to the whole universe. There are profound laws of nature that structure and guide life everywhere, from within your own consciousness to your body to the solar system to the ever expanding universe.
These principles are beautifully presented and illustrated in our online Ties to the Universe 16-meeting course. Beginning September 24th, we will meet Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7 PM to 8:15 PM central time each week through November 14th.
A woman who attended Ties to the Universe previously said:
The genius of this course is how the principles are stitched together, each building upon the last, so that when the final one arrives—that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts—it becomes an “ah ha” moment that “yes!”—while I was enamored with each individual principle and how deep and meaningful it was, when tied together and presented in this way, they offer much, much more: a roadmap I will have forever to better comprehend both the vastness of the universe as a whole, and the simplicity and genius of each part.
The prerequisite to taking this course is a free 40-minute introductory meeting which will be offered at 7 PM central time on Thursday evening, September 5th. This prerequisite meeting will help you decide if you wish to enroll in the course. Please register for this meeting by emailing to jhoffman@tm-women.org
If you decide to participate in the course, the fee will be $200.
Note: If you haven’t yet learned the TM technique, you’ll need to do so and complete your TM instruction by September 10th. Contact us to find a certified TM teacher near you.
Excellence in Research Award for TM Study
Dr. Marie Loiselle’s research on “The Effects of Transcendental Meditation on Academic Physician Burnout and Depression: A Mixed Methods Randomized Controlled Trial” was published in 2023 in the Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Profession.
This study rigorously assessed the quantitative and qualitative effects of the TM technique in addressing burnout, depression, insomnia, perceived stress, and resilience in academic physicians.
Conducted with 40 academic physicians representing 15 specialties at a medical school and affiliated VA hospital, the TM technique was taught and then practiced as the active intervention. Burnout is pervasive among physicians and has widespread implications both for individuals and institutions, with direct consequences to the ability of our health care system to deliver quality patient care.
Two hundred and thirty-one original research papers were submitted to that journal in 2023, of which only 18 were chosen for publication. The Journal has now presented Dr. Loiselle with an Award for Excellence in Research for this study, citing:
The magnitude of the problem studied, the underlying conceptual/theoretical framework, the methodological quality of the research, and the importance of the research to the field of health professionals.
Q: Can we attain inner freedom by thinking about it or believing in it?
A: Belief in the ability to attain freedom from suffering is not a means of liberation. Believing in, thinking about, and desiring release from the ever-changing ups and downs of experience cannot extricate us from those boundaries. Entertaining the idea of enlightenment is not the means to achieve it.
Eternal unbounded consciousness is the ultimate nature of our mind. It is hidden during the process of experiencing thoughts and perceptions like a white movie screen is hidden by the images projected on its surface. Trying not to have thoughts is a waste of time; your mind runs in circles like a cat trying to catch its own tail.
The mind, like the ocean, has an active surface and silent powerful depths. Our experience of the ocean is determined by where we are located in it. In the mind, the goal is to establish our experience in the deepest level of our nature in pure silent consciousness, so that thoughts and perceptions can still be experienced on the surface but not overshadow our essential Being.
Thinking about liberation is as binding to the mind as any other thought. Thought, by it’s very nature, is out of oneself. When the mind begins to entertain a thought, it comes into the field of duality, and the thought overshadows the essential silent nature of the mind. Therefore, any thought causes identification with the level of thinking and not with the silent Self, pure consciousness.
In his book Science of Being and Art of Living, Maharishi says:
“Thinking about being is just a thought of Being, not the state of Being. In order that Being may be established in the very nature of the mind so that during the wakeful, dreaming, or deep sleep states—through all experience of activity and inactivity in life—Being is not obstructed and continues to be, it is necessary that the mind be transformed into the nature of Being. This is possible by bringing the conscious mind through the subtle states of experience of thinking to eventually transcend the subtlest thought and arrive at the transcendental state of Being. Coming out into the field of relative existence, the mind emerges familiar with the state of pure Being. Through the regular practice of Transcendental Meditation, the nature of Being becomes steadfast in the very nature of the mind to such an extent that it can never be overshadowed by anything of relative order.”
Infusion of pure consciousness, Being, in the mind transforms our daily experience, as relative experiences are increasingly lived alongside eternal Being—not overwhelming it. This state of freedom cannot be established from the level of thinking.
“Meditation begins as most do. I feel as if I am a small stone sinking into an ocean of filtered light. The light seems to be coming from all directions and I sink deeper into this ocean of consciousness—no real experience of having entered this ocean—just being there and going deeper and deeper. It is beyond peaceful, beyond serene.
Then something quite extraordinary happens. The ocean disappears. I mean it is just gone. And I am in an indescribable place. I am alone with myself, and I have never been so clearly and entirely and fully awake. There is nothing but That—no ocean, no me, no anything, but totality. And I am fully awake to it.”
– TM meditator (source: The Supreme Awaking by Craig Pearson)
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
