Jul 19, 2017

Why I Practice TM: Five Professional Women Speak Out

by Linda Egenes

Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to interview dozens of truly inspiring women who have found that the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique helps their careers, their families and their health. Some of these women are new to the TM technique, others have been practicing for many years. What they have in common is their enthusiasm to tell others about the great things that are happening in their lives since they started to practice TM. I thought it would be fun to share a few of their thoughts on how the TM technique has become an integral part of a happy, healthy, and successful life.

Brenda Boozer, opera singer
Brenda Boozer spent fourteen seasons as a soloist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and has performed with the world’s most prestigious opera companies.

Transcendental Meditation practice helps with clarity of mind and a restful alertness which allows a creative intelligence to grow. Meditation heals the very core of your being and allows self-healing. Then you’re coming from a healed, whole place of light. When you meditate twice a day, you start to feel that every area of your life changes in a beautiful way—there’s more kindness, more patience, more love.”

Megan Fairchild, ballet dancer
Megan Fairchild has been a principal dancer of the New York City Ballet since 2002 and starred in the Broadway musical On the Town to great acclaim.

In general, I have more patience with myself. Say I do a bad turn or I don’t feel my best that day, or maybe I don’t feel like always being in a leotard or something. TM helps me to let the little stresses that come with being a ballet dancer just roll off a little easier. I am a lot more resilient. I am not getting obsessed over the difficulties of working with this partner or that.

I used to feel that things would stick to me like Velcro, and now, things just roll off. I recognize moments happening that would normally frustrate me, but they just don’t irritate me as much as they used to. I am more able to deal with the stresses that come with my job.

Ellen Dolgen, author and menopause awareness advocate
Ellen Dolgen has devoted the last ten years of her life to helping thousands of women through the often difficult transition of menopause through her widely popularYouTube channel and Menopause Mondays blog.

I find my 20-minute meditation in the morning and evening so important to my overall well-being. I have to admit, I was reticent at first. How was I ever going to sit and do nothing for 20 minutes? Once you feel the calmness that floods over you, you crave your meditation time. This feeling of calm helps my focus, boosts my creativity, and even helps my sleep.

Suzanne Steinbaum, M.D., DO, Preventative Cardiologist
Dr. Steinbaum is the author of Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum’s Heart Book: Every Woman’s Guide to a Heart-Healthy Life, Director of Women’s Cardiovascular Prevention, Health and Wellness at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She’s done fellowship training in both Preventive Cardiology and Cardiology. She’s been awarded a New York Times Super Doctor, and a Castle and Connelly Top Doctor for Cardiovascular Disease.

Every day I have about 25 million things to do, and before I did TM it sometimes was an overwhelming, daunting task. Now that I do TM, it doesn’t mean I have less to do, it just means that it’s easier and calmer. There’s a lack of chaotic thought, and it’s almost like everything falls into place.

If you can meditate regularly and slow your breathing, slow your heart rate, dilate your arteries and decrease your blood pressure, that is very significant. And that is what happens automatically, with no effort, when you practice TM.

Shel Pink, entrepreneur
Shel Pink is a lifestyle futurist at the forefront of the Slow Beauty movement and founder of SpaRitual, a cutting-edge vegan nail, body, and lifestyle brand

It’s reduced my stress levels. After working all day, you can feel parts of your body hold onto the stress. When I do the TM I literally can feel that part of my body relaxing and stress melting away.

I also have moments during flu season when people around me are getting sick, and I feel I have this extra protection from it. Stress compromises the immune system, but because stress is melting away with TM, I’m less prone to catching people’s colds and flu.

I think it’s increased my focus and stillness. And it’s created more awareness. We go through life being reactive to situations. I feel that meditation practice helps you be more still, so when a curve ball is thrown at you—and every day we have curve balls thrown at us—you’re less reactive. You are more thoughtful about your responses instead of being automatically reactive or emotional about it.

About the Author

Linda Egenes writes about green and healthy living and is the author of six books, including The Ramayana: A New Retelling of Valmiki’s Ancient Epic—Complete and Comprehensive, co-authored with Kumuda Reddy, M.D.

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