You Deserve More

As a woman you are a giver. You nourish your coworkers, support your friends and family and contribute to your community. But, are you giving enough to your life? Sure, you may eat organically, exercise regularly, read uplifting passages and books. But are you short changing yourself? Are your relationships less than totally fulfilling? Year by year are your health concerns building and fatigue and pessimism getting harder and harder to manage? Are you finding it difficult to focus and make important decisions? If so, you need to make a change. You deserve more from life!

For the change you need we have only to look at how nature operates. Every living system has an active phase and a rest phase as it grows and matures. Our bodies are no different. Our hearts have an active phase of contraction followed by a relaxation phase in each heartbeat. As we breathe, the inspiration requires active energy expenditure followed by the passive letting go and expelling of air. The larger cycles you experience include the yearly cycles of seasons, the monthly cycles and the daily cycles. In the daily cycle our bodies stay healthy by pairing the active days with restful nights. To maximize our daily activities it is so very important for us to have a restful sleep every day. If we don’t get enough sleep there are several health consequences, including altered sugar metabolism, increase risk for cardiovascular disease, a weakened immune system, unhealthy mood changes and a shortened life expectancy. Sleeping 5 hours or less a night increases the risk of premature death by an alarming 15%.

There are several theories about why sleep is so important. Is it just to conserve energy? Or does your body need sleep to repair and rejuvenate? We know that muscle growth, protein synthesis, tissue repair and certain hormone releases only occur during sleep. It has been postulated that our brains need the sleep to remove by products of cell metabolism like adenosine. Our brains also make structural and organizational changes during sleep that affect learning and memory.

It turns out that a good night’s sleep may not be enough rest for you to maximize your life of contribution and joy. Studies have proven that there is a deeper state of rest than sleep that is experienced during Transcendental Meditation (TM). People need regular contact with the silence within them for profound rest. This silence is the source of life and happiness. Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a simple natural technique that allows your mind and body to settle down and contact this silent level of life that is basic to existence. Monitoring oxygen consumption and other metabolic parameters research has proven that your body gets more rest during Transcendental Meditation (TM) than during sleep. Regular twice daily practice of this type of meditation has proven that you can experience an increase in your intelligence (a feat that was previously thought to be impossible beyond an early age). Published studies also show you may solve problems more accurately- because of increased orderliness of thinking after regular meditation. Therefore, with Transcendental Meditation you can be more productive. The benefits are not just mental. Carefully conducted and published research has shown that the deep rest from Transcendental Meditation lowers your chances of falling ill from all types of illnesses including infectious diseases, metabolic imbalances and surgical problems. This was dramatically shown in studies that proved fewer doctor visits and hospitalizations for practitioners of TM.

Best of all: long term meditators age more slowly than the rest of the population. Of course TM can’t change your date of birth or your chronological age. But biologically, the numerous changes associated with what we previously considered normal aging were reversed by the regular practice of TM. This deep rest affects every aspect of your life, including cardiovascular health, work satisfaction, health habits, physical function, happiness ratings, self-health rating, intelligence and mental health. Basically by the regular deep rest you get with TM, your longevity is promoted. Your friends will wonder if you’ve had some “work” done as you look and act more vibrant and healthy.
Don’t waste any more of your precious life accepting less than you deserve. Be a giver, to yourself and your world.

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