{"id":12170,"date":"2014-11-03T12:32:25","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/?p=12170"},"modified":"2014-11-03T12:36:15","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:36:15","slug":"9-things-i-notice-when-i-stop-meditating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/people\/9-things-i-notice-when-i-stop-meditating\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Things I Notice When I Stop Meditating"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my dad and me. My dad, who learned in the 60s and became a teacher a few years later, taught me the Transcendental Meditation technique when I was 5. I was a rebellious kid, though. Sometimes I thought about my cat instead of my mantra. (Before I learned, I desperately hoped my mantra would actually be \u201ccat.\u201d …Alas!)<\/p>\n

So don\u2019t tell my dad, but occasionally I fall out of my habit of daily TM practice. It happens; I\u2019m not gonna lie! I get caught up in life, work, activities, friends, or I have an unproductive workday, and come 5 o\u2019clock, part of me feels, \u201cYou need to do SOMETHING! And meditating for 20 minutes is not that thing.\u201d Because sitting still, doing nothing, with my eyes closed, is not conventionally synonymous with productivity. But you know what else was unconventional in the last century? Women\u2019s suffrage, renewable energy, the internet! …You know, things that are obviously awesome. <\/p>\n

Even so, sometimes my conventional instincts overshadow what I know from experience to be true. I always come back to my regular Transcendental Meditation practice, though, because, not to give anything away, without it, I start feeling less awesome. <\/p>\n

Here are 9 things I notice when I stop meditating:<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

1. I have less and less energy.<\/strong> I meditate to relax and reset, but after those 20 minutes, I feel energized. I feel like with each mediation I miss, my body protests a little bit louder, until finally I can\u2019t ignore my inner voice saying, \u201cExcuse me! Can we take a minute to revitalize? Or 20?\u201d<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> I have less patience.<\/strong> That\u2019s really just a nice way to say that I get more irritable. Small things that shouldn\u2019t matter at all start to bother me.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> I have a harder time making decisions.<\/strong> It\u2019s like options, and the pros and cons of each, get blurry, or the details of a conflict are more unfathomable, and I can\u2019t put my finger on the best thing to do or say. Transcendental Meditation is to decision-making as my glasses are to seeing.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> I start feeling insecure.<\/strong> When I\u2019m inwardly fulfilled and happy, I don\u2019t crave reinforcement from others; I\u2019m more content to do my own thing, more able to laugh by myself, and more confident in new situations. And I don\u2019t mean that I turn into a helpless, needy mess when I miss a week of meditation, but I might start second-guessing my clothing choices, or hold back a comment in a work meeting.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> I find less joy in the little things.<\/strong> You know those days when you can\u2019t help but smile because your coffee tastes SO good? When I\u2019m doing my TM practice regularly, I have a lot more of those days, and when I\u2019m in a lull, I have a lot less. Simple as that.<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> I\u2019m less motivated.<\/strong> Literally, the will to go for a run slips away, and suddenly, I\u2019ve rewatched a season of Friends in under 24 hours.<\/p>\n

7.<\/strong> I start eating worse.<\/strong> I heard someone say one time, \u201cTM adds a moment in my mind to stop and think, rather than just react,\u201d and when it comes to an additional piece of pizza (which will UNDOUBTEDLY leave me groaning, \u201cWhhyyyyyyy?\u201d on the floor) I know EXACTLY what that person meant. That extra second to think is all it takes for me to happily say, \u201cNo, thanks,\u201d and finish a meal in that perfect place where I\u2019m not hungry, but not so stuffed I want to die.<\/p>\n

8.<\/strong> I start feeling worse.<\/strong> About almost everything, even my past. I wonder if I went to the wrong school, if my job is moving me in the right direction, what the right direction even is! The thing that keeps me doing TM, more than anything else, is the optimism and inner peace that it cultivates in me.<\/p>\n

9.<\/strong> I feel less fulfilled.<\/strong> Which leaves me wanting \u201cmore.\u201d Which more often than not lands me on the couch watching TV for that instant gratification. Which puts me in bed 2 hours later. So I get up later the next morning and don\u2019t have time to do TM before I start work. Which takes me back to the beginning of this post. Rinse. Repeat.<\/p>\n

Bonus round! Here\u2019s the kid that so badly wanted to meditate on the word \u201ccat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rose<\/p>\n

(My mom obviously foiled my true intentions by dressing me in a snail shirt.)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes my conventional instincts overshadow what I know from experience to be true, but I always come back to my regular Transcendental Meditation practice, because, not to give anything away, without it, I start feeling less awesome. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":12171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[209,210,22],"class_list":["post-12170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-benefits","tag-meditating","tag-transcendental-meditation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12170"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12214,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12170\/revisions\/12214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}