COMPLEMENTARY HEALTH } I .. .
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When 100 big businesses in Japan insist their workers practise it, when BUPA charges up to 15 per cent less to practitioners, and when increasing numbers of NHS doctors are not only prescribing it, but practising themselves, it seems reasonable to
say that Transcendental Meditation (or 1
TM) has finally shaken off the flower-power image encouraged by The Beatles in the late 60s. As ‘alternative' health has become known as ‘complementary’ health, so too has it become socially acceptable to admit to spending two twenty-minute periods a day following this simple, natural and effortless technique.
Most people become meditators on the recommendations oi either friends, showing by example, or doctors, trying to help stress-management. But if anecdotal evidence isn't enough, the statistics are overwhelming. Research has repeatedly shown that meditators are considerably less likely than non-meditators to suffer heart-attacks, cancer, high blood-pressure and
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The results of a study oi 2000 meditators compared to non-meditators over a five-year period
meditators notch a higher score on the graph is on childbirth — TM also benefits fertility.
The twenty minutes oi meditation (or something over an hour if you develop to the more advanced Sidhi Technique) allows your mind to settle down to the level at which thoughts arise. If your brain is buzzing with a 1001 things before you start meditating, the effect of the twenty minutes is to sort out the worrisome, mental ball of tangled string into its component strands.
general ill-health. in fact the only time I Where once you felt weighed down with
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different ideas and responsibilities, now each worry, each thought, each plan, is put into perspective and becomes easy to deal with.
The success of the technique lies in its ability to address the root of the problem rather than the problem itself, as Darren McCallum of the Edinburgh TM Centre explains. ‘People usually say, I’ve got an emotional stress, I’ll go to my psychoanalyst and we’ll talk it
out,‘ he says. ‘But with TM we don't
bother getting involved on the level of the problem, because you can't solve it at that level. You go deeper. You allow your awareness to go to a very fulfilling experience and then bring that experience out into your activity.’
In ridding yourself of stress in this way, you are then in a position to live up to your true potential. ‘0ne gains a stability within oneself,’ says McCallum, ‘and you start to bring that out into your daily activity spontaneously. The qualities of harmony, dynamism, pure potentiality, fulfilment and bliss are enlivened and they stick to you. You feel calm, but completely alert.’ (Mark Fisher)
TM Centres: 21 Clouston Street, Glasgow, 041 946 4663. Free introductory presentations by appointment.
4 West Newington Place, Edinburgh, 031 668 1649. Free introductory presentations on Wed 15 Jan and Wed 22 Jan at 7.30pm.
Sidhi course begins in February in both cities.
START THE NEW YEAR WITH A NEW YOU!
TM - a technique for the new year, which relaxes, revitalises and recharges your energy to get more out of life. It leaves you feeling positive, alert and clear with the calmness and inner contentment to tackle life with enthusiasm. It protects
you from stress and future ill-health.
TM - holistic benefits verified by independent scientific research: learned by over 800 doctors in the UK.
TRANSCE
MEDITATION
Founded by Maharishi Mahdi Yogi
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THURSDAY16JANUARY
90 The List 20 December 1991 — 16 January 1992