Dr.Sneh Desai’s Mind Power Seminar Part 1

Finding balance – TMC’s trancendental Meditation workshops

In today’s frenetic lifestyle with the everyday chaos that surrounds us, finding harmony of any sort seems to be a distant dream. Harmony between the mind and body is essential for physical and emotional wellbeing. However, the stress of modern lifestyles tends to interfere with the harmony of the mind.  Modern medicine now recognizes that an anxious, stressed out mind can wreak havoc on the delicate balance between different internal systems in the body. The ancient systems of complementary medicine – these include Yoga, Ayurveda and Naturopathy, on the other hand, seek to harmonize by balancing both the mind and the body.

Physicians are therefore exploring the possibility of achieving a confluence between allopathic and complementary medicine. Efforts are being made to achieve a balance between the biochemical approach (allopathy) and the traditional medicine approach (Ayurveda, Naturopathy , Yoga etc) .

As a practical manifestation of this philosophy, Texas Medical Concierge (TMC) recently organized a workshop on ‘Transcendental Meditation’(TM) between 26thMay to 2nd June at ITC Maurya, New Delhi. TMC is a Delhi based medical concierge company that provides priority medical access and advisory services to its distinguished member clients.Their customized services integrate modern medicine with evidence-based complimentary medicine to provide a holistic approach to healthcare. Ms Aanchal Bhatia, President and Chief Clinical Psychologist at TMC was 11 years old when she got introduced and trained in TM at Maharishi Nagar where her grandfather Late Mr R.N.Kapoor was the trustee of the Maharshi foundation.  “I feel blessed to have experienced the benefits of TM at a young age. At TMC, it is our goal to provide the benefits of such practices from complementary medicine to our members. We aim to bring evidence based complementary medical practices to the fore.”

The workshop, which was packed to capacity, saw participants of all ages learning the technique from TM expert Dr Alex Hankey,Professor at SVYASA (Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Bangalore, India; the world’s first Yoga University, ww.svyasa.edu.in). The five day workshop saw distinguished participants whose names cant be published to maintain confidentiality .

TM was developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, based on ancient Vedic knowledge. This branch of holistic health management has over 6 million followers, all over the world. TM does not require any major changes to your lifestyle nor does it creates excessive strain. Instead, the meditative process involves silently chanting a mantra. This mantra is different for each individual. Regular practicing TM allows practitioners to achieve a state of “restful alertness”.  TM is one of the most well researched meditative techniques with over 350 scientific studies published in scientific journals. Practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM) helps improve concentration, relaxes the mind and body by preventing distracting thoughts and brings about awareness. Whats more, it is one of the recommended techniques by the AHA for lowering blood pressure. When practiced regularly, the benefits of TM include*:

• TM could reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke
• Lower blood pressure
• Reduce anxiety and stress (including post-traumatic stress disorder)
• Reduce atherosclerosis and maintenance of  the right cholesterol (LDL/HDL) balance
• Reduced insomnia
• Reduced acute and chronic pain
• Reduced substance abuse
• Increased awareness and perception (Better brain function)
• Improved creativity and learning ability
• Improved academics and school behavior among students

It is recommended that TM be practiced for 15 to 20 minutes, at least twice a day for maximum benefits. Drawing parallels with modern medicine in which the organism is systematically sub divided into organ systems, organs, tissues and cells, Dr Hankey elaborated that integrative approaches, when used together with modern medicine, help correct the imbalances in the different Doshas and Sub-Doshas(bodily fluids according to Ayurvedic medicine)and to restore health, in a much better way than compared to modern medicine being used alone.

Ms. Bhatia announced that The Texas Medical Concierge has forged a partnership with the Maharishi Foundation USA. As a result of this collaboration, TM will now be part of the evidence-based holistic health services offered by Texas Medical Concierge. Given the resounding success of the TM workshop, Texas Medical Concierge will organize several new rounds of the workshop, details for which will be announced shortly. ITC Maurya, Sardar Patel Marg, Bapu dham, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, Delhi 110021, India