ETR How to Take a Vacation in Your Head

7/27/2019 ETR How to Take a Vacation in Your Head

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How to take a vacation in your head

Take 5 Minutes for Yourself

Hey, you there, the one on your second cup of grande coffee. I want you to s-

l-o-o-o-o-w down for a few minutes. Don't worry, it's just for a few. And I

promise it will be worth your time. Alex Green is back with another essay on

making your life better in just five minutes per day.

Craig Ballantyne

"Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they

become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear,

discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a

rational outlook, which eventually leads to success." - Brian Adams

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How to Take a Vacation Inside Your Head

By Alex Green

On a recent Oxford Club tour of Italy, I got to know Dr. Satinder Swaroop, a

cardiologist based in Fountain Valley, CA. Among the many topics we

discussed during our ten days together was Transcendental Meditation (TM).

Dr. Swaroop is a lifelong meditator. And he has found that his patients who

practice it enjoy better heart health. They are less anxious and sleep better.

Their chest pains are less frequent. They are more able to stay on a diet and

lower their cholesterol levels. They are calmer, too.

He suggested I give it a try.

I don't have any heart issues. I'm not an anxious person. If anything, I lean

toward the overly mellow. Dr. Swaroop just smiled.


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"You should try it and see what happens."

I told him I'd look into it.

A few weeks after I returned home, Dr. Swaroop sent me an email. Had I

visited TM.org as he suggested?

Uh, no.

"You should," he said again. "Just check out a couple of the videos."

And so I did. That's when I stumbled across a five-minute short by filmmaker

David Lynch and became intrigued. I began reading up on TM and listening to

people who practiced it. A week later, I signed up with an instructor.

I would have scoffed at this idea a few years ago. To the extent that I thought

about meditation at all, I considered it a somewhat hippie, vaguely self-

indulgent practice tied to Eastern religions or mystical "woo-woo" of one kind

or another. Meditation seemed too... well... flaky.

But that view changed as I became more familiar with the scientific literature.

There is an astonishing amount of research on meditation's physical and

psychological benefits, including hundreds of peer-reviewed articles.

Researchers have found that TM spreads a wave of calmness across the

brain, organizing the prefrontal region in a way that improves focus and

decision-making. Studies also suggest it enhances physical health and

increases longevity. How? By helping people deal effectively with stress.

In today's hectic and competitive world, stress wears us down and burns us

out. It fuels countless disorders, including anxiety, insomnia and depression.


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In the beginning, I wondered how I would possibly find time to fit two 20-

minute sessions into days already crammed with research, writing, traveling,

speaking, exercising, socializing and raising a family. But since no new skill

can be learned without practice, I made time.

I haven't been at it long enough to report anything world-changing. But I will

pass along a few observations. First off, there's something inherently

pleasurable about taking a break from your daily routine to sit in quiet

contemplation. Meditation helps you sort through all the mental flotsam and

jetsam your mind throws up. The typical meditative session results in greater

relaxation, inner peacefulness and, occasionally, an enjoyable shift in

consciousness.

Insights like these are hardly new, of course. Meditation has been practiced in

both the East and West for thousands of years. In the second century AD, the

Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations:

"Men seek retreats for themselves in country places, on beaches and

mountains, and you yourself are wont to long for such retreats, but that is

altogether unenlightened when it is possible at any hour you please to find a

retreat within yourself. For nowhere can a man withdraw to a more

untroubled quietude than in his own soul."

Psychologists report that in a typical day we process up to 70,000 thoughts

and this continues even as we sleep. (Basically the brain never shuts up.)

Meditation is a pleasant and peaceful retreat, a tool for stilling the mind.

Thoughts or worries will arise during TM too, of course. But meditators arecounseled not to argue with or analyze them, but rather just to acknowledge

them and let them go. Experienced meditators often report a blissful state of

acceptance, serenity and a feeling of being at one with the world.

TM is easy to learn and practice. It is less expensive than analysis, safer than


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prescriptions, and available for a lifetime without special equipment or

facilities. Researchers have discovered that sitting with your eyes closed and

repeating a mantra twice a day can cut your risk of serious disease by half.

And it has no adverse side effects. If TM were a drug, it would be a multi-

billion-dollar blockbuster.

As Rosenthal writes, "I have found most long-time meditators to be physically

relaxed in their posture, alert in their expressions, and open-minded in their

attitudes. It is not surprising that this demeanor and approach to life, played

out day after day over years, would make a huge difference to health,

longevity, and just plain enjoyment of life."

The good news is you don't have to follow a guru, visit an ashram, recite

Sanskrit or get into the lotus position on a hardwood floor. All you need is a

comfortable chair, a quiet space and 20 minutes.

And I invite you to be skeptical. I've learned it works for skeptics too.

ETR How to Take a Vacation in Your Head

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