Why Businesswomen Need to Learn Transcendental Meditation
Whether you are an Oprah Winfrey fan or not, you’ve got to have high regard for the remarkable success of this businesswoman, entrepreneur, publisher, media star and philanthropist. She’s intuitive, farsighted and practical—and that’s why she learned the Transcendental Meditation technique for her own sake and brought the program to her employees in 2011.
“I brought Transcendental Meditation teachers into Harpo Studios to teach me and my team how to meditate. Seven of us. Seven led to 70… to 270… Now everybody in the company meditates at 9 o’clock in the morning and 4:30 in the afternoon. No matter what’s going on, we stop, we meditate.”
Oprah encouraged all her workers to take time out during the workday to meditate because the TM practice brings very practical results. She was thrilled to report, “You can’t imagine what’s happened in the company. People who used to have migraines, don’t. People are sleeping better. People have better relationships. People react with other people better. It’s fantastic.”
Your life, your career and TM
The TM technique is easy to learn and practice—even ten-year old kids do it. Four hundred published studies have shown a broad range of benefits to one’s mind, body, and behavior. If you’re a businesswoman, here are eight reasons you’ll want to take the TM course right away:
1. Health: Reduce stress, health care costs, sick days
Gallup’s 2018 statistics on the world’s emotional state revealed that Americans were more stressed and worried than they have been during most of the past decade. Stress creates or exacerbates disease, ranging from simple colds and flu to cancer, diabetes, and heart attacks. You can prevent that.
Transcendental Meditation effectively reduces stress and anxiety, according to published studies. This allows us to show up at work more often, feeling more wellbeing, more energetic and able to focus. Learning TM also has the benefit of reducing the need for medical care and reducing health care costs.
For example, women practicing the TM technique have a better chance of averting heart disease. The National Institutes of Health has funded over $26 million in research on Transcendental Meditation for prevention of heart disease.
A study published in Circulation found that TM can lower blood pressure and your risk of heart disease and stroke. It could also cut your risk of Alzheimer’s Disease by strengthening the communication between different parts of your brain.
A five-year study published in Psychosomatic Medicine of health insurance data on 2,000 people practicing the TM technique found that the meditators had used medical care less in every category of disease. This was most pronounced in people over 40 years of age whose utilization was 70% lower than the norm.
2. Enjoy your work more
Lindsey Adelman Studio is a top tier design studio that has been featured in the New York Times. After the 25 employees participated in the TM course, Mary Savel, the company’s Director of Operations and HR, said: “The culture at the studio is just so different than working for any other company. Employees are much more satisfied coming to work, and their retention is really good.”
Job satisfaction is important to a company because employees produce more and are absent less. It’s important to the working woman simply because she’s happier and more engaged at work.
The Academy of Management Journal published a study of 40 employees showing almost 100% more satisfaction in their jobs of those who learned TM compared to the control group. Job performance also increased while desire to change jobs decreased. Anxiety, Stress and Coping: An International Journal as well as the Journal of Business and Psychology published studies showing increased satisfaction in managers and employees.
3. Increase your organizing ability
Coherent function in the brain, especially in the prefrontal cortex, is associated with organizing ability, efficiency and peak performance at work with increases in focus, creativity, broad comprehension, proactivity and effective planning. Rigorous studies have demonstrated that TM, more than any other self-development program, enhances the brain’s orderly integrated function.
During TM, your mind effortlessly experiences its most settled peaceful level. Neuroscientists have found that the brain produces high-power alpha waves, a distinct brain pattern corresponding to this relaxed inner wakefulness. Research published in Cognitive Processing in 2010 found that this experience of “transcending” restores neurological balance, inner silence, and clarity of mind.
Similar research was published in other highly respected publications, including the International Journal of Psychophysiology,Biological Psychology, Consciousness and Cognition, Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, and the International Journal of Neuroscience.
4. Have more energy/less fatigue
A meta-analysis in American Psychologist found that TM produces a profound physiological state of rest which results in significantly reduced fatigue and stress.
Ellen Brush, Publishing Director of Axon Publishing, reports, “Physically and mentally I was run down. I learned TM at the suggestion of a friend, and it was like the difference between night and day. I felt less stress and I became more able to cope. Life became less of a struggle and more enjoyable. I now deal with problems more easily—I have a better perspective and keep things in proportion. I don’t give myself a hard time anymore. TM frees up my energy, and I’ve particularly noticed that more avenues have opened up both at work and in my friendships.”
5. Boost your productivity and creativity
EHS Today reporting on best practices for environment, health, and safety: “Total lost productive time averaged 5.6 hours per week for workers with fatigue, compared to 3.3 hours for their counterparts without fatigue.”
Want to improve your performance, be commended, advance? For businesswomen, the TM technique is a valuable tool that has been proven to help achieve and sustain high levels of performance.
Carol Couture has launched stores, designed products, and held senior management positions including president, CEO, COO and EVP at leading companies including Brooks Brothers and Federated Department Stores. She said that although a business career is hectic, on a daily basis TM has given her a way to recharge her creativity, sharpen her focus, boost her energy, calm her nerves and sustain her.
According to Lindsey Adelman, “Obstacles aren’t really even a topic anymore. People are so about how many different ways can we find to getting to the solution.”
6. Improve relationships with associates
Ilya Brukhman in the Digital Design Department of Lindsey Adelman observed, “I’ve noticed things that would have stressed me out didn’t have the same power. The less stress there is for everyone individually, the less friction there will be within the organization.”
A study, published in 1993 in Anxiety Stress and Coping, of management and employees in the car industry concluded that after three months of regular practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique, employees had better relationships, as compared to control persons in the same workplaces.
7. Experience greater self-esteem so you can lean in
Negative thoughts about one’s self may undermine the ability to be strong, confident and self-assured. The TM technique helps us develop a strong self-concept, perceiving our actual self as significantly closer to our ideal self.
“I still find it amazing that a technique that is as effortless as cutting butter with a hot knife can be so powerful in its effects. Since I started Transcendental Meditation, I feel more connected, more optimistic, more serene, more competent, and more effective. And these beneficial effects continue to grow,” says Dr. Marion Roden, Occupational Physician, Smith Kline Beecham.
8. Be happy
Women in America certainly enjoy more education and career opportunities than ever before, but recent studies reveal that women are becoming increasingly more susceptible to anxiety and depression. In contrast, research on women who practice the TM technique shows they experience increased happiness and fulfillment.
During the TM technique, the mind experiences a field of peace and happiness—its own deepest nature. This carries over into daily life, bringing joyfulness as stress and fatigue fade away.
Lindsey Adelman remarked on the quality of life among her employees when they learned TM. “They feel happier, and it allows people to be themselves.”
Learn more from a TM teacher
About the Author
Janet Hoffman is the executive director of TM for Women Professionals, a division of TM for Women in the USA
