Transcendental Meditation—A Successful Investment

Marnie Abramson, Principal and Director of Marketing, Tower Companies said that the Transcendental Meditation technique has given her the performance leadership skills she needs in her business transactions and relationships.

“TM has given me the opportunity to have more free time by sharpening my focus and allowing me to work smarter, Abramson said. “There’s a sense of calm in me that allows me to hear other people better. And I can hear more clearly what is important to somebody else. I think that makes it easier for us to kind of come together. There’s something about the quietness of my mind; it doesn’t stop the energy and enthusiasm. It just allows me to funnel all of my energy and my actions into where I am.

Abramson said that any executive, manager, or business leader can benefit from investing in the time to learn the Transcendental Meditation technique.

“Taking the time to learn Transcendental Meditation is going to pay off in your professional career, in terms of how you relate to people, how productive you are, how efficient and effective,” Abramson said. “ It’s like making an investment that pays dividends, except, over time, the more you do it, the dividends just get larger and larger; the payback increases. I can’t think of another investment that you could make that has so little risk for so high a reward.”

Transcendental Meditation and Competition

Howard Settle, President of Century Explorations International, recently talked about the Transcendental Meditation program and keeping the edge in the oil and gas business.

“The oil and gas business is a very competitive business. It’s a highly regulated, high tech business. People would not think of it in that way, but it requires that you be on the leading edge of technology.”

Mr. Settle found that the Transcendental Meditation technique is the technology he needed to maintain himself in the rush-a-day world market.

“The first reason I practice TM twice a day is that it makes me feel good. It makes me feel clear; and it makes me feel ready for whatever I may face in a given day. But second, and perhaps as important, I see it as a technology that allows me to maintain a competitive advantage in the industry.”

Mr. Settle explained that the simplicity and ease of the Transcendental Meditation technique gives him the required clarity for the decision-making process.

“With TM, the mind rids itself of the clutter. It becomes very quiet and very relaxed, and very comfortable, and so I’m starting fresh, and I’m just taking in the information that I deem to be important,”

Mr. Settle explained that in the fast-paced market place you must make and change decisions quickly to keep your competitive edge.

“With TM you’re going to have the ability that as soon as you realize that the direction is not precisely accomplishing your goals, you can make those crucial mid-course corrections. With the mind working in a very relaxed manner, in a very clear manner, it allows you to feel comfortable that you’re going in the right direction”

Transcendental Meditation for Women in the Workplace

Dr. Nancy Lonsdorf, national health specialist and the author of The Ageless Woman: Natural Health and Beauty after Forty, recently spoke on the benefits of the Transcendental Mediation program for reducing stress in the workplace and at home.

“The Transcendental Meditation program is not simply another stress management technique. It actually changes the way your nervous system processes stress, and makes it process it in a non-harmful way,” said Dr. Lonsdorf. “You know the kind of pressures that women are under on the job every day—deadlines; time pressure; learning new technologies; getting along with co-workers, clients, and the boss. All of these put tremendous pressure on us. In addition, when we go home at the end of the day, we face another set of responsibilities and potential stressors.”

Dr. Lonsdorf emphasized that the stressors in the lives of women do not go away in time. In fact they increase as responsibilities increase and families grow. She also explained the dangers of exposure to constant and chronic stress.

“At times the stress can be overwhelming, and that can result in fatigue, chronic health problems, and burnout. Chronic stress leads to elevations in cortisol, or the stress hormone, and norepenepherine and epinephrine, which are the fight or flight hormones. These neurochemicals can be very deleterious over time. They can cause premature aging, unwanted weight gain, memory problems, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and more serious health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease, or even cancer. Therefore, controlling cortisol is an important factor in our health, and that comes by processing stress differently.”

Dr. Lonsdorf said that with the Transcendental Mediation program, relief from stressors is readily available.

“With just four months of practice of the Transcendental Meditation program, baseline cortisol levels, meaning the amount of cortisol in our blood day by day, drops significantly, compared to a control group who simply learned about health education or how to management stress better. Stress simply becomes less stressful. And that means that we enjoy our work more. And research corroborates that job satisfaction improves with the practice of Transcendental Meditation, as does job productivity, and relationships with co-workers.”

According to Dr. Lonsdorf, the bottom line for women in the workplace is to reduce stress easily and effectively with practice of the Transcendental Meditation program.

“If stress is affecting your life or affecting your health, I strongly encourage you to learn the Transcendental Meditation Program,” said Dr. Lonsdorf. “It’s a gift you can give yourself that will give back to you day by day and will also give to the others in your life, both at work and at home.”

Key Points for Leadership Performance

Bob Brown, with 20 years of marketing and management experience for Fortune 500 companies, serves as Executive Director of the Center for Leadership Performance at Maharishi University of Management. He spoke at a national conference on the Transcendental Meditation program in the workplace where he detailed the value of the Transcendental Meditation program for developing effective leaders in a company or business.

“I want to cover three points,” said Brown. “The first is, what do you mean by leadership, and how can the Transcendental Meditation program claim a mantel for a leadership program when there are so many others out there? The second is, I’m asked all the time: ‘Am I going to lose my competitive ability if I’m doing something passive like meditating?’ And third, what can you expect when you implement TM in your business?”

To address his first point, Brown said that the most effective business leaders work behind the scenes, on the level that underlies a business or company. “That’s similar to the way the Transcendental Meditation program can work in your business,” Brown says. “It’s working with the platform behind the activity that people do in business, and that’s why it’s successful.”

Second, Brown said that the TM technique is not something that makes leaders lose their competitive edge. In fact, the opposite happens when people practice the technique. “TM is designed for people in the active world. It’s very effective that way. When you practice this technique, you’re diving in twice a day for 20 minutes. You get that intense rest, and your nervous system throws off the reasons why negative aspects happen., Suddenly you find that you’re much more able to intensify what it is that you’re doing and be able to do it with more energy and drive.”

To address his third point, Brown said that when implementing the Transcendental Meditation program in your company, you can expect concrete results immediately. “What we find with TM is that when people spend that 20 minutes gaining deep rest, they’re able to gain perspective on problems and challenges. So suddenly their innovation and problem solving levels shoot up. They have that platform for activity that they’re establishing deep within themselves. And this gives that perspective.”

To summarize, Brown said that both the individual and the company benefit from the practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. “You’re not so caught up in the activity; you’re not overshadowed with what’s going on. So, it’s a wonderful practice for the individual, but it’s also collectively wonderful for an organization.”

National Conference on the Transcendental Meditation Program in the Workplace

Leadership Performance experts report that the Transcendental Meditation technique develops CEO capabilities in anyone.

An executive leadership performance program with the Transcendental Meditation technique at its core was launched in Washington D.C. Hosed by John Hagelin Ph.D., superstring physicist and director of the Center for Leadership Performance, the conference featured business and health experts from around the U.S. and announced that the Transcendental Mediation technique, a simple, natural mental technique, is the most effective means for reducing stress in the human nervous system. The byproduct of stress reduction—optimal brain functioning—is essential for effective decision-making and leadership performance development. See http://www.tmbusiness.org/ to view the entire conference.

TM Key to Leadership Performance

Ramani Ayer, Chairman and CEO of Hartford Financial Services and the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, spoke in Washington, D.C. this past spring about leadership performance and the Transcendental Meditation technique.

The Transcendental Meditation technique, a simple natural mental technique, which dissolves stress, enhances development of full mental potential and the growth of leadership qualities is the key for Mr. Ayer to maintaining the level of leadership performance in the world market.

“TM has certainly helped me raise my performance to cope with the stresses and strains of life. It has certainly given me a quality of equanimity through ups and downs,” said Mr. Ayer.

Leadership comes from within strong, powerful leaders who possess some essential attributes. Mr. Ayer explained that “leadership is an important asset, if it’s available to a corporation, leadership is something that could make a difference in high quality performance of the company, and today, investors expect leaders to really make a dramatic impact on the future of their company,”

Mr. Ayer explained “A leader must be capable of seeing the future, looking around the corner; a capacity to embrace bold, positive ideas; set very ambitious goals; a capacity to really understand in very harsh, real terms, what is going on at the ground level; what’s happening to his business; what are its strengths, what are its weaknesses, what are it’s opportunities and challenges.”

Finally, Mr. Ayer explained why it’s important for leaders to sustain the ability to cope with stresses and strains: “CEOs, today’s leaders, are confronted with challenges and opportunities, and challenges can get you down, at times, especially when they’re of a negative quality. As leaders, we have to sustain performance, no matter what the environment. And I believe very strongly that the use and practice of TM has certainly helped me maintain a very steady state of mind no matter what happens.”

Transcendental Meditation--Perfect Business Sense

Jeffrey Abramson, partner of the award-winning Tower Companies, Washington, D.C. practices the Transcendental Meditation technique and offers it as a bonus to all his employees.

“When we first offered Transcendental Meditation here at Tower more than twelve years ago, we found that the results were so immediate, that we decided it makes great business sense to offer TM instruction while they’re here at work,” says Abramson.

With the entire company practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique, both employees and the company enjoyed greater efficiency and employee satisfaction. Abramson says: “I found that it makes perfect business sense to take the time in your business day to allow people to learn something and to practice something that has such profound results.”

Perfect Brain for Leadership Performance

Dr. Alarik Arenander, a UCLA trained neuro-scientist, Director of the Brain Research Institute, and one of the world’s leading researchers on the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique on the brain has conducted groundbreaking research on the effects of TM on brain functioning.

“Our brains determine the level of our leadership performance,” says Arenander. “In the last forty years of brain and cognitive research, there are three important discoveries. The first is that the level of success we find in the business environment is directly related to the level of creative potential we’ve developed in our life.”

How does this relate to the brain? Arenander explains: “The second important finding is that our creative potential is directly related to the level and degree of integration of brain functioning. The more integrated the brain, the higher level of creative potential and, in turn, the greater levels of success.”

And how does the Transcendental Meditation program affect brain functioning? Arenander has the answer. “The third finding is that the Transcendental Meditation program is a very simple and reliable tool to create maximum brain coherence, or integration, and therefore, it is a reliable and practical tool to increase the performance of any executive.”

Arenander further explains the implications of his research: “In forty years of research on the Transcendental Meditation program, this simple reliable tool has been shown to impact every aspect of brain/body functioning, and every area of leadership competencies. “Any leader will feel comfortable and satisfied with the use of this program that is capable of creating total brain coherence, full integration of the human brain, which leads to the development of the higher stages of creative potential, and as a result, the highest levels of executive performance.”

The bottom line for CEOs and management from Arenander: “The recommendation from modern science and brain research, in particular, is that every executive who would like to raise their leadership performance should begin the practice of Transcendental Meditation, develop total brain functioning, and the result, the highest levels of executive performance.”