How to Begin your Journey

dose of calmness. Every weekday morning, I'll share a meditation story, offer a simple practical tip about how you or a loved one can stay a bit calmer in your life, and then we'll end each episode together with a moment of gratitude. My hope is that I can share what I know to anyone who needs it. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths, and let's begin today's journey.

So I've been talking a lot about meditation in general and specifically transcendental meditation, and a lot of you have written in and said, well, how does it work. One of the things that many people say to me is I believe that meditation would be good for me, but my skepticism is whether I could do it myself. I want to make this point that all meditations are not the same in In a previous podcast, I talked about

the three different types of meditation. Focused attention, which is a concentration technique, open monitoring meditation where we learned to dispassionately observe our thoughts. But transcendental meditation recognizes that there's a vertical dimension to the mind, just as there's a vertical dimension to the ocean, and that while the ocean may be turbulent on the surface by its nature, it's pretty darned silent at its depth. And the mind is

the same way. On the surface, we have a million thoughts, but at the depth of our mind, the hypothesis is quiet, peaceful, naturally calm, and wide awake. So in transcendental meditation, how do we go from that surface, agitated level of the mind to that deep inner quiet. I'm going to give you two examples that have nothing to do with meditation, but I'll tie it back, and this explains how we

go from the surface to that quiet depth. You're sitting in your room or your office doing some really boring paperwork, and all of a sudden, in the other room, some unbelievably beautiful music comes on. Where does your attention go to that music, turn up that music that is so beautiful. Or you have two books to read and one book is so poorly written you can't imagine how it was ever published, and you can't read a word, and the other book is spectacular, and you're absorbed in hours go by.

So what are those two instances? Your attention being drawn to that music, your attention absorbed in the book. What this reveals to us is, by its name chure, the attention of your mind, given the opportunity, will always be drawn to something more satisfying. The natural tendency of the mind is to seek greater happiness, knowledge, satisfaction, pleasure, wisdom, beauty. And where we go to find that happiness is out through the senses, into the environment, this job, relationship, new clothes,

new home. In transcendental meditation, it's a simple process of setting up the conditions so that the attention of your mind, instead of going outward, is drawn inward. How do we do that? In transcendental meditation, we're given a mantra, which is a word or a sound. It's a simple syllable, simple sound that has no meaning, because if it had a meaning, then we're stuck on the surface. And then

we're taught how to use it properly. A certified teacher in personal instruction gives us a mantra and then just us, you alone, not in a crowd, the teacher teaches you how to use the mantra correctly effortlessly, which means no forcing, no strain, automatically easily. It's like teaching a child how to dive. You say, honey, lean over like this, take

the correct angle, and then gravity takes over. So in transcendental meditation, we learned how to give the attention of the mind an inward direction, just like it's drawn to that music. It settles down inwardly, and we know that's happening because our body takes a profound state of rest

and relaxation. The technique has taught over four consecutive days, about an hour each day, practice for twenty minutes twice a day, once in the morning, sitting comfortably in a chair with the eyes closed, and again in the afternoon or early evening. It's not a religion, it's not a philosophy. It's not a change in lifestyle. You can be a hundred percent skeptical and the technique works just fine, and if you're interested you can go to TM dot org

and find out more about it. It's a nonprofit educational organization. Now I'm going to shift gears here for a moment. I'd like to give a little tip for health. It's going to sound like when you're a kid and your mother said, eat your vegetables. Vegetables are a food that are incredibly healthy. Vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and disease fighting phytochemicals. You can't take a pill that will give all of that to you, but you can

eat your vegetables. All right, Let's end this time together doing something that I think should be a feature of our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So let's take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take a break, just take a moment. It turns out when we do that, it's good for our health as well. I'll be right back all right. Thank you for joining. This is Bob Roth.

Keep calm, Thanks for listening today. I hope you heard something that inspires that uplifts you and that you can incorporate into your own life. Until next time, remember, meditate, be kind, and be true to yourself. Hey all, of you out there. I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your stories, your questions, or anything else on your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send me an email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com.

I look forward to hearing from you.