Scott Cawelti

This 34 year-old-column speaks to anyone who struggles with an overstressed life, I think.  Back in 1978, I was overwhelmed with my life--finishing an advanced degree, struggling with a fledging teaching career, newly divorced, etc. etc.  

TM, or Transcendental Meditation, worked for me then--and I STILL meditate now, twice a day.  I think it's added years to my life, honestly.  

Any kind of meditation works if undertaken conscientiously, but TM (mantra meditation) was among the easiest and most relaxing.   

5/19/78

Everyone has a favorite social problem. Some say racism is rampant and deserves constant attention; others insist that capitalism is the root of all evil, with money running a close second. Still others favor drugs, pollution, television, nuclear proliferation, over-population; the list of social problems goes on.

My favorite problem is stress. Like pride used to be the No. 1 all-time Deadly Sin, Stress is the No. 1 all-time social problem. (We've exchanged social problems for sin here, but that's another column.)

Just a glance around any roomful of adults will reveal the effects of stress. People are overweight, overdrunk, overtired, oversick, overworked, overdrugged, and too soon underground. Literally everyone I know has some problem with stress. Their work, their schedules, the pressures they feel, the incredible changes they've seen (men have been on and off the moon for almost a decade now!) all make for a definite need to find some effective, healthy way to release stress.

Sleep, of course, is the one of the best stress-relievers. So is laughing and crying. So if we could sleep, laugh and cry enough we could release most of our daily stresses and feel quite good. Show me someone who can't sleep, laugh or cry, and I'll show you an unhappy soul.

Other ways of releasing stress are less effective, though probably more attractive: drinking, sex, dancing, (not necessarily in that order) participation in physical sports, and talking with shrinks. Some of these have the side advantage of being fun, too. But the problem with all of these stress-releasers is that they provide highs that are almost inevitably followed by lows that create even more stress. So unless you like roller coasters, these stress-releasers are best avoided, except for the side advantages.

The only way, I must say, that I have found that really does release stress is meditation. Now wait: I don't mean thinking about something intensely for a long time, nor concentrating on an object like a candle or a belly-button. I'm speaking of Transcendental Meditation, or TM.

TM is a form of meditation that requires almost no effort, is completely relaxing, and it has actually made me feel less and less stress in my life. I'm getting to the point where I feel relaxed almost all the time. And not glassy-eyed passive relaxed, but simply released from those stresses that kept me from enjoying myself. (Consider: has mental tension ever helped anyone enjoy anything?) My old neurotic highs and lows have been replaced by a deep sense of well being that is itself a high, but is not subject to the lows.

The TM meditation technique seems to give me two restful twenty-minute breaks everyday, without the fuzzy-eyed hangovers that daytime naps can bring on. Thus I get deep rest that relieves more stresses than sleeping—or crying and laughing, for that matter.

I would never say that TM is the only way to release stress. It is simply the only way I've found that works for me. Besides, it helped get me off cigarettes, and I had tried to quit for eight years.

Now I know all the objections to TM—I had them myself. It's expensive, it's a religion, it's the MacDonald's of meditation, highs and lows are part of a creative life. Most of these objections are from people who really haven't bothered to look into TM. I find that just about everyone who actually tries it for awhile knows that it works; stresses begin to disappear.

In other words, after years of going around all stressed up, TM truly helps people finally get unstressed.  

It's both energizing and liberating.  

5-18-97

All the current findings agree: Americans don't sleep enough.

Thanks to a combination of busy lives, our work ethic and electric lights, most of us sleep seven hours or less a night. About a third of us sleep six hours or less, then get up, work all day, and often come home to more work and family obligations at night.

We're on task up to 18 hours a day, year in and out.

No wonder we all eat too much sugar, drink too much coffee, and seem so worn out. Look at any group of Americans in any mall: Obesity, bags and circles under the eyes, and generally grumpy expressions. And these are the kids — the adults look worse.

What's the solution? More exercise, fewer sweets, and the hardest of all, more sleep.

For most of us, it's not possible to actually sleep more during the night. No matter how hard I try, I can't get to bed much before mid-night, and can't sleep much past seven. There's too much to do, and my internal alarm goes off around seven no matter when I finally nod off.

The answer? More naps.

Unfortunately, naps still are frowned upon in our work-hard-or-you'll-never-succeed Puritan culture. Nappers are slackers, and vice-versa.

In last Wednesday's Courier, an article on napping discussed the terms "clapper" and "snapper" — the former being a closet napper, and the latter being someone who nags a napper, probably by calling them a slacker.

So in a world of clappers and snappers, how to be a non-slacker napper?

The best way, of course, is to get your boss to set aside a time and place for naps for everyone. That's slowly happening in some companies run by enlightened bosses (that is, nappers) who know the value of a good nap.

There's a next best way, though: Meditation.

I started meditating some 20 years ago when I took a Transcendental Meditation course. Lo and behold, I discovered that meditating and napping were approximately the same.

 There were only two differences. I almost never slept past 20 minutes per nap after a couple of weeks, and nobody complained when I excused myself to meditate.

So I kept on, year after year, napping/meditating twice a day for a total of 40 minutes.

Occasionally during an especially heavy day, I'd grab a short cat-meditation right after lunch, but that was tricky, since meditating on a full stomach sometimes leads to a fairly deep sleep.

More than once I nodded off to wake up wondering in a panic where I was and what I had missed.

But that was rare. I still believe in twice-daily napping, and remain firmly convinced that I now sleep better, and feel far less of that aching fatigue that makes life so tedious.

You don't need a fancy meditation course to learn it, either.

Here's how:

First, find a quiet spot and disconnect the phone. This is critical, since a sudden ring while deep in meditation can rocket you out of your chair for a hard landing.

Second, put a "Meditating" sign on your door. "Person Sleeping" or "Nap Time — Do Not Disturb" will not have the same effect.

Third, set a watch or any alarm device for 20 minutes or so. If you don't do this, you can easily fall asleep for an hour or more and wake up feeling quite dead.

Fourth, breathe in, saying to yourself "In, I'm getting calmer," and then breathe out, say-ing "Out, I rest."

Continue slowly breathing in and out while saying these phrases quietly to yourself until the alarm goes off, or you fall out of your chair — whichever comes first.

Finally, come out of your nap with renewed energy and gusto, ready to face non-flappers with a sense of joy, if not superiority.

I'm convinced if more Americans would take time for such naps, we'd probably get so healthy we'd have to take up some bad habit just to feel right.