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How different students value their practice of Transcendental Meditation The purpose of the American University research study was to evaluate the effects of the Transcendental Meditation programme on student health and development—intellectual, social, emotional, and academic In video interviews on the Stress-free Schools website, three students explain how Transcendental Meditation helped them in different ways. They all took part in the American University research study on the effects of Transcendental Meditation in student life. Angela MacDougall, a second-year student in international studies and music at America University, spoke about how the Transcendental Meditation Technique has helped her overcome the fear of solo performances. In her interview Angela says that with her music Transcendental Meditation has definitely helped—especially when she’s about to perform a solo piece. ‘What terrifies me the most,’ she says, ‘is being in front of a small group of people that I actually know.’ She used to sing in church in front of 500 people every week, which didn’t scare her at all. ‘But singing in front of ten people who I know really well will terrify me,’ she said. ‘That's when I really need Transcendental Meditation. Just being able to put all that aside and stop my mind from racing—thinking, “What will the people in the audience think?”—just being able to be me,’ Angela says, ‘and turning off everything else for a few minutes, and then coming out of it; just knowing that I should stop worrying, basically; [for this] Transcendental Meditation has helped a lot.’ Josh Goulding, a fourth year student at Georgetown University, who also participated in the study, was helped by Transcendental Meditation in handling the academic and social pressures of college life while functioning in a healthier, more creative way. ‘Studying in high school was my life,’ Josh says. He had friends with whom he went out, and played tennis. He did well in tennis, he says. ‘You have to have that extracurricular activity in order to get into college. ‘In college you're pressured to do well but once you get into a good college, you feel a relief. How are you going to prove yourself now?’ Socially, he says. ‘You're in an environment where everyone's going out—who can be the most popular; who can have the most fun, and you get sucked into that. ‘Part of that game is drinking, which is just crippling,’ Josh continues. ‘After a month of that . . . —being on your "A game"—drinking is part of that game, but it's not helping you stay in your A game. It's hurting you; it's bringing you down. You're not creative, you're not being yourself. You're just the product of a system . . . .’ With Transcendental Meditation, he said, ‘it's like a release from all that. You can see that and you accept it, but you can operate in a totally new and creative way, and it's mind blowing to be able to experience that difference.’ Quintin Jose Pastrana, an Executive MBA student at Georgetown University, tells how Transcendental Meditation helped him integrate all aspects of life—academic, professional, and private. In his interview, Quintin explains that one of his favourite poets said, ‘You have to see the sameness and the difference in all things.' This really struck Quentin when he started Transcendental Meditation, ‘because all these connections started happening. I started to see how one related to the other and I can imagine that was probably happening in my brain—all these connections, left brain right brain, and all these neural pathways that we've learned about during the lectures, I think that was all happening.’ Justin began to experience so much clarity in terms of the different areas in his life, whether it was his fellowship; the rigours of an MBA; his career and transition to a new company—‘and even me as an international student coming into the United States and adjusting to the life here, that was happening all at the same time,’ he said. ‘That was a very intense year and I thought that the two to three months I was taking the Transcendental Meditation studies immediately helped me in terms of being able to see the clarity right away: how these different dimensions actually related to each other and how I could leverage them. ‘I’m using a business term,’ he says, ‘but that's what it feels like. It was very effortless, and I think that was the most important thing—that you could see the connections without even trying to do that.’ . © Copyright 2010 Global Good News®
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