Transcendental Meditation: Your Brain's Secret Weapon

Ready to discover a completely different approach to meditation? One that doesn't require you to empty your mind, focus intensely, or struggle against your thoughts?

David Lines, instructor with the Maharishi Foundation, joins us to demystify Transcendental Meditation (TM)—a practice he describes as "effortless and extremely effective." Unlike conventional meditation techniques that demand concentration and control, TM works through natural processes that allow both mind and body to achieve profound states of rest and renewal.

The science behind TM is compelling. With approximately 400 published studies validating its effects, TM stands as the only meditation practice specifically endorsed by the American Heart Association for blood pressure reduction. But the benefits extend far beyond cardiovascular health. Practitioners report improved sleep, enhanced clarity of thought, increased patience, reduced anxiety, and greater productivity—often within just days of learning the technique.

What makes TM particularly accessible is its simplicity. The technique can be learned by anyone, requires minimal time commitment, and produces noticeable results quickly. This accessibility has attracted practitioners from diverse backgrounds, including celebrities like Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, and Oprah Winfrey, who value its benefits for creativity, decision-making, and stress management.

Could this ancient practice be the antidote to our modern stress epidemic? As David explains, when we dissolve personal stress through TM, we not only improve our individual wellbeing but potentially contribute to greater social harmony by becoming less reactive to differences and disagreements. Ready to experience these benefits yourself? Visit tm.org or search "Transcendental Meditation Orange County" to connect with local resources and learn this transformative practice.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
host, rachel Fyfe.
Welcome to the Good Neighborpodcast.
Now, if you're looking for ameditation practice to dissolve
stress in your nervous systemand improve your brain function,
well, this resource may be muchcloser than you think.
Today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,

(00:23):
david Limes, with TranscendentalMeditation.
David, how's it going?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, hi, rachel, it's doing great thanks.
Thanks for inviting me ontoyour show.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Well, we're happy to have you now and we're also
excited to learn, to learn aboutyour organization and tell us
about the company.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
So Transcendental Meditation is taught through a
non-profit called MauritiusFoundation.
It's a nationwide organizationand we teach Transcendental
Meditation, as the name implies.
And Transcendental Meditationis a very interesting practice.
It can be learned by anyone,it's effortless and it's natural
, and yet it produces veryprofound effects.

(01:04):
So during TM what happens isyour mind and your body achieve
a profound state of relaxation.
As I said, this happens withouteffort.
So this is kind of in contrast,but in many I think almost
everybody out there has beentrying some kind of meditation
and relaxation and you get toldto calm your mind, empty your

(01:24):
mind, stop yourself fromthinking, focus.
Tm is nothing like them.
It is completely effortless andcompletely natural and yet it
brings about this very profoundstate, as I say, because of the
restful alertness.
But there are two veryinteresting implications from
that.
The first thing is that brainfunctioning becomes more
ordinary.
That leads to a lot ofcognitive problems, problems on

(01:49):
clarity of mind, creativity,intelligence, all kinds of
things like that.
Memory includes all kinds ofaspects of cognitive function.
The second thing is becausemind and body are connected.
During TM the body centers downto experience a very profound
state of rest, which is actuallymuch of the time deeper even

(02:09):
than you can see, and that leadsto very important health
benefits.
It's very interesting that justrecently the American Heart
Association and the AmericanCardiology Association they
published a cheat sheet ofthings to do to help maintain
and reduce your blood pressureand they included meditation.
But the only meditation thatthey included was Transcendental

(02:33):
Meditation, because it's theonly one that has decent quality
evidence that it cansignificantly reduce high blood
pressure.
And the reason for that isbecause this very profound state
of physiological arrest andultimately more of the spinal
function of the nervous systemthat brings about these changes.
And it's interesting because TMis not, we're not trying to

(02:57):
reduce our bone pressure.
That's just one aspect of thechanges that come about or the
benefits that come about fromthis profound physiological
event that is amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
How did you get into this business?

Speaker 2 (03:11):
well, I learned transgenicization when I
graduated from university, sothat was a very long time ago.
And, uh, I had many friends whowere doing back then.
But it was tm was very popularwith young people because what
are now called influencers, butthat they were doing it and the

(03:33):
word was out.
You know, I had many friendswho've learned it and always
said it's a good thing.
And then, as I said, I justgraduated from university so I
was just thinking, hey, I've gotto figure out my life if I do
something here.
You know it wasn't a terriblygood place.
So I thought I'll learn fromsome meditation and it's great,
I liked it right away.
So that's one of the thingsabout TM, which is which

(03:55):
motivates you to continue doingit's nice to do.
You feel better when you'redoing it.
You feel better afterwards andso people find they feel more
relaxed, they feel more positive, they're more optimistic, they
feel more stressed.
Their energy, their motivation,improves A wide range of
benefits.
So I felt all of that.
So then I kind of went to lawschool and then I got very

(04:17):
interested in TM because Irealized that it's not just a
relaxation technique.
It's actually very profound.
It's a practice to develop ourconsciousness, to develop that
what makes us up as anindividual, our consciousness,
our awareness.
That's so fundamental to ourlife.
And TM develops consciousnessin a systematic yet effortless

(04:39):
way.
So then I decided to train as aTM teacher, and then, you know,
as always, I took it.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
And here you are Now tell me what was that there's a
center also in North County.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
My wife and I we teach together.
We have a website, tmorg,surprise, surprise, tmorg.
You can go there and you canfind the location here.
It's very nicely set up, so allthe information is very good.
We do info sessions every weekOn Thursday evening.

(05:16):
I do Zoom info sessions.
You can go on and find out allabout it, but you can also go to
the website.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Well, good, you know, we're definitely going to
highlight that again at the end,but I wanted to find out what
are maybe some misconceptions inyour industry, or myths.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Well, I think that's a great question.
I think that there's two levelsto that.
One is that people think that Ican't do it, I can't meditate
because I can't make my mindstill.
Now, tm doesn't require you tomake your mind still.
What happens when you do thistechnique is your mind does
become larger and wider, so thetechnique enables you to do that

(05:57):
, and that's one thing.
And then you know I think wayback then you know, then it
comes from india.
I think we're past all of that.
You know way back when Ilearned people are into that.
But now I don't think that'sthe reason.
I think the other thing is thatpeople try meditation and then
they kind of give up or theycannot do it.
One thing about tm which isvery important is there's a very

(06:17):
solid body of evidence, there'ssomething.
There's something like 400published studies on this and
they've been done all over theworld in independent research
institutes and universities andthey actually document and
verify that these benefits arereal.
See again, it's not that we'resitting down in the UTM trying
to become a better person ortrying to be mindful or

(06:39):
something.
All of the benefits come aboutas a result of these
physiological changes brainfunction, metabolism, and so the
the benefits are real, they'revery solid, because it's not
like we imagine trying to feelbetter, just all those things
come about as a result?

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah, you know, we know that marketing is
definitely the heart of everybusiness.
So how are you guys reachingyour audience or attracting
people to this practice?

Speaker 2 (07:11):
That's a great question Because, you know, when
I was teaching, I was involvedin marketing in the UK.
Back then there were thingscalled newspapers.
Well, the world has changed andso we do, like everybody else.
We use social media.
We are on the Zonon All theways that you know people use it

(07:32):
.
And one of the other thingswith TM which is nice is that
some very well-known, verywell-respected celebrity types
in TM so like Jerry.
Seinfeld, hugh Jackman, andthey're very open and speak
widely.
For example, oprah learned afew years ago and she had all of

(07:54):
her employees level of the PRand celebrity part.
And it's not just Hollywood,also in the financial world.
Anyone who's learned greatvalue the co-founder of the

(08:16):
Skull, of the World's largestbook he learns.
He learned first.
He says it's the simple thingthat's good for you Clarity of
mind, you know good decisions.
I guess the point you do it, itkind of enriches your life, you
add it to your daily routine.
It's the whole person.
It's the whole person.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Have you ever thought of doing a podcast, or has
there ever been?
You know thoughts of doing apodcast, or has there ever been
you know thoughts of doing apodcast regarding this
transcendental meditation in thepractice?

Speaker 2 (08:47):
yeah, absolutely.
Um, when we're invited we don'thave our own podcast channel,
but we've done.
You know we can invite.
But it's interesting nowbecause when people come and
learn they ask well what's goingon with you?
They say well, I was on thispodcast or I heard this person

(09:09):
talking about you.
There's so many out there.
The world of media has becomeso diversified, but I'll tell
you a nice one too.
What's his name?
This is terrible.
Is it Bill Withers?
Is it Bill Withers?
He's the founder of the 12-stepprogram.
Okay, a lot of people inAmerica have been through the

(09:32):
12-step.
He practiced and recommendedTranscendental Meditation.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Well, outside of work and meditation, what do you
like to do for fun?

Speaker 2 (09:47):
You know my main fun I love to swim.
I go down to the ocean.
This guide.
There are some lovely beachesdown here Swimming the ocean.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Lovely Now, david, please tell our listeners one
thing they should remember aboutTranscendental Meditation.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Effortless and very effective, extremely effective.
The world.
Most people, within the firstfew days of learning to hear,
notice some significantimprovement in some aspects of
their life, whether it's bettersleep, more patience, not being

(10:30):
so worried about things, havingmore fun Getting through the
to-do list.
That's another thing we wouldbe saying.
Get more stuff done, more focusand muscle strength, because
your brain is functioning tomove.
So effortless, natural,effective, easily learned.
It's not a long course.
We provide follow-up after that.
We support you in the practice.
You can come back and watch asyou need to, because you're

(10:52):
learning something new.
So you're learning a techniqueand that technique allows you to
gain this deep, you knowexperience that you say that's
going to work.
So we give you tune upswonderful.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Well, how can I know?
You mentioned your websiteearlier, but I'd like to close
with a.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
You know how our listeners can learn more about
transcendental meditation well,I think if you google
transplantationent MeditationOrange County, then you'll get
us directly.
If you go to the TMorg website,then it gives you a map or you
can put in your zip code orthere's a map and you can choose
the location that matters toyou.

(11:30):
So I do those things, probablythe best way to do it Wonderful.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Well, David, I really appreciate you being on the
show and we wish you and thebusiness and organization really
the very best moving forward,Can I you?

Speaker 2 (11:42):
know I'm not complaining at all, reggie Say
business.
We are non-profit and thefoundation Marshall Foundation
was to improve the quality oflife in society by helping
individuals make better life bymaking it.
You know stress is the bywordof time.
You know there's this hugeexplosion of stress in society

(12:06):
and you know that's these allkinds of issues and social
problems.
So if we can dissolve thatstress then people start to come
together more easily.
They don't get triggered somuch by others opinions.
The world is made up of allkinds of different opinions, but
the world carries on.
So the moment we need somethingto kind of calm down the stress

(12:29):
.
Tm is so effective.
We talk a lot of firstresponders like police,
firefighters, people like that.
Their life is very stressful.
But a lot of veterans, yes, butbeyond that we live in a
stressful world and so TMenables us to dissolve the
stress, dissolve the stress thatwe feel.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Well, that is a wonderful closing kind of
thought for us all to keep inmind.
So thank you again for being onthe show, thank, you, Rachel.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
It's been a great pleasure and hopefully we'll
speak to you again another time.
I hope so.
Thanks a lot.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go tognporangecountycom.
Thank you.