Anxiety is considered a negative mood disturbance that results from failure to predict, control, and obtain desired goals and is associated with dysfunctional cognition, behavior, and physiologic over-activity. Anxiety further impairs health by motivating increased use of tobacco and alcohol and predisposes the individual to chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease. A new meta-analysis published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found the Transcendental Meditation technique has a large effect on reducing trait anxiety for people with high anxiety. Trait anxiety is a measure of how anxious a person usually is, as opposed to state anxiety, which refers to how anxious we are at the moment. Studies on high stress groups, such as veterans suffering from PTSD and prison inmates, showed dramatic reductions in anxiety from TM practice, whereas studies of groups with only moderately elevated anxiety levels, such as normal adults and college students, showed more modest changes.

Lilian Lontra – Certified Teacher, Transcendental Meditation
llontra@tm.org