The meditation practice of Transcendental Stress Management is not simply another stress management technique. It actually changes the way your nervous system processes stress, and makes it process it in a non-harmful way. You know the kind of pressures that men and women are under on the job every-day-deadlines; time pressure; learning new technologies; getting along with co-workers, clients, and the boss. All of these put tremendous pressure on us. In addition, when we go home at the end of the day, we face another set of responsibilities and potential stressors.
The stressors in our lives do not go away in time. In fact they increase as responsibilities increase and families grow. There are dangers of exposure to constant and chronic stress.
At times the stress can be overwhelming, and that can result in fatigue, chronic health problems, and burnout. Medical research shows that chronic stress leads to elevations in cortisol, or the stress hormone, and norepenepherine and epinephrine, which are the fight or flight hormones (Herbert Benson, Mind/Body Medicine, Harvard Medical School). These neurochemicals can be very deleterious over time. They can cause premature aging, unwanted weight gain, memory problems, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and more serious health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease, or even cancer. Therefore, controlling cortisol is an important factor in our health, and that comes by processing stress differently.
With the regular practice of TSM relief from stressors is readily available.
With just four months of practice of meditation, baseline cortisol levels, meaning the amount of cortisol in our blood day by day, drops significantly, compared to a control group who simply learned about health education or how to manage stress better. Stress simply becomes less stressful. And that means that we enjoy our work more. And research corroborates that job satisfaction improves with the practice of meditation, as does job productivity, and relationships with co-workers.
More and more doctors are telling their patients: "If stress is affecting your life or affecting your health, learn meditation."