What Are Loyola Med School Students Doing To Beat Stress?

Medical practitioners have one of the most demanding professions in the world. The same goes for medical students, whose study schedule and professional training can be stressful and intense.

Imagine incorporating something into this schedule for students to tangibly and easily reduce the amount of stress in their daily lives.

Loyola University’s medical program has done just that. Their program incorporates training medical students in the evidence-based, stress-busting Transcendental Meditation technique.

Dani Terrell, second year medical student at Loyola and a graduate of the Transcendental Meditation class describes her first experience with the TM technique: “That first day [of the TM class], you learn how to meditate and…that first day I just had such a calm and clarity and extreme rest. I think that’s one of the things that’s most appealing … you have this profound rest that I think most people don’t even get when they go to sleep – and you have it in 20 minutes.”

 

So far the program has had widespread success with students reporting that the technique is beneficially life-altering. Students express evidence with reduced stress, elimination of migraine headaches, and overall positive experiences from practicing the TM technique.

Terrell says: “It’s changed the kind of person that I am inside and out. Part of that is because it really lets you maximize your full potential – the kind that everyone knows that they have inside but gets impeded upon by all these tiny obstacles and stresses that come up every day.”

The Video: Originally posted here.

The Technique: Transcendental Meditation is a simple, natural, effortless technique practiced twenty minutes twice each day while sitting comfortably with the eyes closed. It is easy to learn and enjoyable to practice and is not a religion, philosophy, or lifestyle. Over six million people have learned it — people of all ages, cultures, and religions — and over 380 published, peer-reviewed research studies have found that the TM technique significantly reduces stress, anxiety, and fatigue, and promotes balanced functioning of mind and body.