Meditation, whether learned in London or anywhere else in the UK or the World, is a process of reducing all the noise and chatter in your mind until you reach a state where you are awake, but just experiencing inner silence. It’s beautifully refreshing and enjoyable.
And after meditation, you feel alert, renewed, creative and ready to take on all the busy tasks of your day in the City, or wherever else you work in Central London. Through regularly practising meditation, you begin to maintain this calm state of mind more and more of the time, and life at work and at home flows more smoothly as a consequence.
There are many meditation techniques. These vary from watching the breath to staring at a candle, to concentrating on a thought (like some buddhism), or gaining yoga mindfulness of inner space in a buddhist community!
Some are easier than others. Many are frustrating to do. Some will even give you a headache. Some can be learned in London, others require a trip to India. However there is one meditation technique which has stood the test of time, is simple and effortless to do, is completely natural, has been subject to considerable scientific evaluation, and is so popular that over 5 million adults and children have learned it. That technique is called Transcendental Meditation (TM). For the average high-pressure lifestyle Londoner it offers a lot.
When you practice TM you just sit in a comfortable chair and, using the sound you are given by your teacher which has a soothing vibrational effect, you soon dive deep within. It’s like turning the volume on a radio down. The radio is still on but it’s making no sound. You enter a state of restful alertness. Your mind is clear and awake and your body is deeply relaxed and at peace. You emerge calm, energised, active and ready to go, your awareness heightened.
TM involves no change in lifestyle. You don’t have to wear funny clothes or change your diet, be more loving, or read special books, follow teachings, go on retreats, or only meditate in the garden! All that’s required is that you add just 20 minutes of profound relaxation to your daily routine twice daily and you soon discover that life is becoming a bit more satisfying, more harmonious, less stressful, even happier. This is what it means to meditate in London.
This level of rest achieved in meditation is consistently shown by scientific research to be even deeper than deep sleep and hence more revitalising.
Case Study City of London:
One senior manager I taught to meditate from an international company in 2009 said that I don’t feel that I’ve changed ? it’s just that our corporate lawyers have got less irritating!
Case Study London SW1:
Another student of transcendental meditation slept so well after years of disrupted sleep following childbirth that her husband thought she had been drugged.
Case Study London E14:
A third said that after learning to meditate (this was 2008) he found himself happily chatting to people in the staff restaurant he’d never spoken to before in many years of working there. This was because he was feeling more free inside, and able to open up and enjoy friendly relationships more.
The first step in learning Transcendental Meditation in London is to come to a free introductory talk, which are held in The City (EC2) and Victoria. There you can meet an approved teacher of TM who will tell you about the benefits, explain how you do TM, explain how it differs from other sorts of techniques, and tell you where it comes from, and answer any questions you may have. You will also have a little time to ask any private questions you may have away from anyone else who may be there if you have come to a public talk.
Once you have decided you would like to learn to meditate, you agree a time and date for your course which is mutually convenient. Course programmes are structured so that you have more time with your teacher in the beginning and then the sessions are less frequent as you get more confident and comfortable with the technique. You will learn the technique in a 1:1 session with your teacher, and then the rest of the course may be run in a small group so you have the benefit of hearing other individuals questions and experiences, and their personal development. The guided sessions for the course usually last for about an hour and a half on four consecutive days e.g, weekend classes on Saturday, Sunday, then Monday and Tuesday evenings, (private courses can be arranged at different times) and then you meet after a week, after two weeks, after a month and again after a month.
The actual teaching is normally held at our meditation centre in London Victoria, but locations and venues within the M25 are also available. If you and a group of your friends are interested in an introductory talk and perhaps learning in your home, or you would like a talk and course in your workplace , whether in west London in Chiswick or north London in Mill Hill, as long as it’s in London, we will be pleased to come to you – just ask. In addition to these sessions, if you need any supportive time with your meditation teacher, you can have as much as you need within this three month period, and you can also come free to the monthly meditators’ groups, events and workshops we run for six months after learning. There is a lot of support and encouragement available to help you to get the most out of your meditation. We include everything you need. And we keep you posted if you want.
You may think at this point, TM works for other people, but will it work for me? Fortunately, you don’t just have to rely on my experience or even the experience and insight of the friend who may have told you about meditation. There is a huge body of independent scientific research which consistently shows the benefits and healing power of Transcendental Meditation.
For example, Transcendental Meditation is more than twice as effective for relieving the mental effects of stress as all other meditation and relaxation techniques. Journal of Clinical Psychology. In 2005, the American Journal of Cardiology reported that among 202 patients with raised blood pressure who were followed for 18 years, those who practised TM had a 23 per cent lower death rate.While of further interest, The National Institutes of Health in the US has found that people practising meditation have lower breathing and heart rate yet “higher EEG coherence” indicating greater concentration and alertness. These are just details from a few of the physiological and medical findings. It’s good news for London.
