By Anne M. Mozingo

PORTSMOUTH Stress used to be the chaotic state of mind that plagued some adults who were juggling multiple responsibilities with very few hours a week to themselves. Today, stress is the norm for practically everyone in the United States, including children.

And its a killer. Daily stress gone unchecked is as important a risk factor as hypertension, diabetes and smoking when it comes to the number one life-threatening disease in the United States cardiovascular disease. And take that rushed, trapped feeling one step further and there are an array of anxiety disorders, a mental health condition that racks the nervous systems of more than 40 million adults in the United States between the ages of 18 and 54, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

But there is a solution that people worldwide are turning to. And its not the latest drug or new-age technique. It is called Transcendental Meditation, an ancient practice that originated in India. Those who commit to two 15-20 minute sessions of TM daily say it calms the mind and offers immense rewards for the body as well.

If anything significant happens in the mind, something significant is going to happen to the body since the mind and body are almost like one, said Joan Rist a TM teacher in New Hampshire and Maine. The mind settles down and the body gets this deep rest, and the rest is what is needed to get rid of this deep-rooted stress in our culture. Stress is the black plague of the 21st century. It impacts our health and our well-being. It impacts everyone. So if we can get rid of these deep rooted stresses we can improve our well-being and live life more with enjoyment of our full potential.

Times have changed since the first surge of Americans learning TM in the 1970s, when people wondered if TM was affiliated with a religion or a cult. Today, with more than 700 scientific studies exploring the impact TM has on those who practice, interest in TM is on the rise as TM is considered a mainstream form of self-care.

What is meditation? Is it a way to relax or a way to promote health, vitality and longevity? Is it a means to develop creativity, increase the meditator's IQ and obtain peak mental performance? Or is it a path to inner peace and enlightenment? Actually, Transcendental Meditation is a way to attain all of these possibilities and much, much more, said Bill Rist, who met his wife, Joan, in the mid-seventies in California, where they both were teaching Transcendental programs. The two have been teaching various advanced programs around the country for the past 40 years.

And with daily stress practically a badge of honor in this culture over the past decade, these teachers are doing their part to offer instruction on the TM technique to help improve the lives of many in a myriad of ways.

We have had an increase in people coming to learn TM to gain peace of mind, get relief from stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD, (post-traumatic stress disorder), attention deficit disorder and some people learn TM because they want to realize more of who they are deep inside, they want to reach their full potential, said Bill Rist. We actually have people come who want to have better personal relationships, and limit the over-reactionary behavior with their bosses and family, but more than anything, it is anxiety that brings people in.

Transcendental Meditation continues to gain popularity because it is commonplace for both doctors and therapists alike to practice TM and recommend it to their patients. The American Medical Association conducted its own research on high blood pressure and the effects of various forms of meditation and concluded that TM is the only technique that works to reduce high blood pressure. Similarly, The American Heart Association in 2013 studied alternative and complimentary medicines impact on hypertension and today recommends TM as part of a treatment plan for those with blood pressure exceeding 120/80.

Unlike some alternative therapies that require a lot of time and effort to gain a cumulative impact, there is no learning curve at all with TM, said Joan Rist.

We are hard-wired for the mind to move from an active state to a less and less active state. In that moving the body settles as well. On the very first day a new meditator will almost always say they feel very relaxed, said Joan Rist. We have people who are not able to relax until they start TM. They start enjoying a relaxed state from the very first meditation, which is why it is so wonderful to teach this because it does not take years to get results.

Researchers conducted brain wave exams (EEG) on new and long-term meditators and found the longer a person practices TM the more cohesive their brain wave patterns become, which means all parts of the brain work together. This global coherence with alpha wave patterns, which are associated with restfulness and creativity, were found in those who had only been practicing TM for two weeks. And over time, these coherent brain wave patterns were found when the meditators were active as well, not just when the person is meditating. This EEG evidence, Bill Rist said, reveals what regular meditators experience as life with more emotional balance, creativity, improved memory, focus and learning capabilities.

I could not imagine starting my day without the focus I get from my morning meditation, said Joan Rist. And who doesnt want to recuperate from stressful situations more quickly? TM is now being taught to the young cadets at Norwich University to see if they are more resilient in active duty rather than waiting until they come home from war with PTSD. A four-year study is under way now. Its brilliant.

Every weekend either in Concord, Portsmouth or Portland, the Rists offer a one-hour Introduction to Transcendental Meditation workshop, which covers the benefits gleaned from the hundreds of studies in the past 40 years. TM settles the mind, Bill Rist told a group attending his workshop last week in Portsmouth, from the active state to a much deeper state of awareness, then transcends any activity at all. Four subsequent classes will offer these students the practical details of sitting down in two 15-20-minute meditations a day, calming the mind from its active state and thereby providing the body a powerful rest and preparing the meditator for the day or the evening. At the first class, the students will receive a mantra, which is a sound chosen by the teacher that comes from the ancient Vedic tradition. It is a pleasant sound that has no meaning and enables the meditator to settle the mind, giving them something to ride inward on, said Joan Rist.

If the sound had meaning it would keep us on the surface. The mantra has a healthy influence on the body and mind, yet it is only a vehicle, it is not an end in itself. It settles the mind, the mind loves to have less and less activity, said Joan Rist.

For four decades Bill and Joan Rist of Concord have been teaching the TM technique first brought to the United States in the 1950s and made popular by the Beatles in the 1960s, when the band traveled to India to learn from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi himself. But today there are many famous meditators in the United States, including Jerry Seinfeld, Oprah, George Stephanopoulos, Candy Crowley, Arianna Huffington, and Hollywood director David Lynch, who has been practicing TM daily for 40 years and started a foundation to raise money to provide inner city children with TM in their schools. The biggest project is in San Francisco, where 14 middle and high schools meditate together twice a day and call it quiet time.

Lynchs goal to get as many children as possible meditating has really kicked off in South America, where the education director in Brazil wants to offer TM to students nationwide, said Joan Rist. TM helps kids learn. Children with ADHD can learn TM. Its easy, effortless and natural and they find their grade-point averages go up. When we practice TM regularly, it impacts our health. It changes everything. Stress is the number one enemy of learning. So when kids, or adults for that matter, learn TM they enjoy this transcending process and the quiet we get from meditating becomes cumulative, we bring a little bit more each day into the active mind, which changes our ability to focus, be creative and reach our potential.

For information on Transcendental Meditation, visit http://www.TM.org.

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