What's The Big Idea: Bob Roth: A Science Backed Introduction To Transcendental Meditation.
“Meditation writ large brings equanimity and power to the mind.”
Today’s guest: Bob Roth
His big idea: How Transcendental Meditation can help us to access the untapped verticality of the mind and reveal calmness and creativity that is latent within us.
Bob Roth is one of the most experienced meditation teachers in America. Bob is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Strength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation,” the CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, which has provided scholarships for over 1 million at-risk youth to learn to meditate, and president of the Center for Health and Wellness which brings TM to companies, government organizations, and nonprofit charities.
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Key insights Shared:
There’s a vertical dimension to life: Transcendence means to reach beyond ordinary human limitations. This practice of transcendental meditation is not bound to a religious experience, it’s universal and physiological.
Transcendental meditation isn’t something that has to conflict with your personal philosophy.
Metaphorically we can compare the mind to the ocean. The nature of the ocean can seem turbulent on the surface with crashing waves, but it’s actually very still for miles underneath the surface.
3 Basic types of meditation
Focused Attention: Begins with the assumption that the mind is constantly in motion (monkey mind) and thoughts are the disrupter of calm. By stopping the thoughts and you’ll create calm in your mind. Studies show that the mind enters a cycle of gamma brain waves during Focused Attention meditation, a high intensity brain pattern that illustrates how engaged the brain is involved while calming the mind.
Open Monitoring: the approach of being mindful and recognizing thoughts as they appear in the mind. This technique focuses on being present in your thoughts and feelings. It qualifies that the types of thoughts you have can disrupt calm (when they’re about something in the past or future and not focused on the present moment).
Dispassionate observation: observing your thoughts, feelings and breath without judgement, witnessing. Creates theta brain waves, common when someone is thinking deeply about a single idea.
Both of the above types of meditation are considered cognitive approaches. Pertaining to your thoughts, moods and behaviors.
Self Transcending: includes transcendental meditation, recognizes that there is a vertical dimension to the mind. We think deeply, we feel deeply, our mind is not just what's at the surface of our thoughts. Transcendental meditation hypothesizes there's a vertical dimension of the mind that's far deeper than institution or the subconscious, A place where the mind is already perfectly settled and unbounded.
Transcendental meditation presents a type of practice that isn’t focused on having a “perfect” session. You simply set up the conditions so that your attention can be drawn inward on it’s own.
3 truths about how meditation affects the body
According to a study conducted by Harvard Medical School, during Transcendental Meditation the body enters a state of rest twice as deep as during REM sleep (however, it cannot replace sleep).
This is measured through a 30 to 40% reduction of cortisol during Transcendental Meditation, there is no drug or exercise known to reduce cortisol as effectively as transcendental meditation.
Rebooting the Amygdala: The amygdala (the part of our brain that controls immediately reactions like ‘fight or flight’) becomes hyper aroused with PTSD, in the past we saw this mostly in survivors of war or soldiers. Now we’re seeing the symptoms of PTSD appearing in everyday people due to the constant stress and barrage of modern life. This fuels depression and substance abuse.
Transcendental Meditation has been shown to “reboot” the amygdala, allowing your mind to return to a neutral space rather than being on constant edge.
Transcendental Meditation alerts and wakes up up your prefrontal cortex (the part of our brain that handles sense of self, planning for the future, creative thinking) and helps activate the “imagination network.”
Previously, scientists considered the non-focused or resting brain state as unimportant. New studies on the default resting state of the mind have revealed this is when our brain is capable of putting together deep insights and creative ideas, thus re-dubbing this resting state of mind as the “imagination network.”
to learn more about Bob and his work:
The David Lynch foundation’s website.
Visit the website for Transcendental Meditation TM.org