The two women we’re featuring come from very different backgrounds, but both endured traumatic life experiences that left them with intense stress and a lack of inner peace.

Along both of their paths, the Transcendental Meditation technique played a significant role in the rebuilding of their inner strength.

At 19 years of age Supriya Venkatesan enlisted in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq where she served for 15 months. She described feeling “lost and disconnected” and suffering from what she describes as an “uneasy conscience.”

Now, a veteran and freelance writer based in Princeton, N.J., she recently wrote this article for the Washington Post about how the Transcendental Meditation technique helped her to recover from her experiences in the army and of war.

According to Supriya, after a mere forty-eight hours after being discharged from the Army, she headed to Iowa, of all places, and arrived on campus at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.

MUM is a progressive liberal arts college established by the founder of the Transcendental Meditation technique, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. At MUM, students learn and practice the TM technique as a part of the curriculum.

Supriya describes her initial experiences with practicing the TM technique saying: “I cried for hours during post-meditation reflection. I released the trauma that is familiar to every soldier who has gone to war but is rarely discussed or even acknowledged. I let go, and I blossomed. I was emancipated of the unhealthy habits of binge-drinking and co-dependency in romantic interludes, as well as a fear that I didn’t know controlled me.

For the first time in my life, I found forgiveness for those who had wronged me in the past. I literally stopped to smell the flowers on my way to work every day. And I smiled. All the freaking time. I even felt smarter. Research shows that meditation raises IQ. I’m not surprised. After graduation, I went on to complete my master’s at Columbia University.”

Supriya’s is just one inspiring story of how the TM technique can help to re-build inner strength from past experiences.

Similarly, others who have lived through life challenges also testify how the TM technique helps to give them their lives back – to realize inner peace and regain their self-worth.

For Cynthia, a survivor of sexual abuse, TM helped her to transform the residue of her traumatic experiences to re-build her self-esteem “higher than it’s ever been in her entire life.”

She says: “Other people are noticing, they’re saying, wow there’s something different about you, you just seem like you’re at peace.”

Enjoy Cynthia’s full testimonial in the video below.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson