Daily Mail Journalist Transforms Her Life and Workplace with Meditation

"I wish I'd been taught this at school – it's the best life skill I've ever learned."

Daily Mail feature writer Marianne Power says  Transcendental Meditation has helped her to combat stress, sleep better and perform better at work.

Marianne learned the TM technique last summer after a colleague recommended it, and was soon meditating twice a day.

Before she embarked on her TM routine, Marianne said she was running on empty. Writing in the Daily Mail, she said: "By day I was stressed by silly things that made me snap at people.

"By night I would try to unwind with too many hours of television and too many glasses of wine before lying awake in bed stewing over all my worries. I was run-down, got every cold going and at my very lowest points was prescribed antidepressants.

TM had an immediate effect on Marianne, and a year later she says it has changed her life.

Photo by the Daily Mail

"There's something about the sound vibration of the mantra going over and over in your mind that lulls you into a kind of trance. The repetition of the sound is like a lullaby.

"You go into your own world and yet you are still aware of your surroundings. You're neither awake, nor asleep, nor dreaming – just beautifully relaxed. It's like a warm bath for your brain."

After the first lesson, she felt calm and focused and that night, enjoyed the longest, deepest sleep since childhood. She's been sleeping well ever since.

"Situations that would once have sent me into a tailspin no longer have the same effect."

She said: "The more I meditate, the less I seem to be bothered by things. Situations that would once have sent me into a tailspin no longer have the same effect.

"My heart doesn't race in the way it once did; I have become more calm and rational; my concentration at work has also improved.

"I think this is primarily because I am better rested and less stressed, but scans have shown that meditation actually increases the size of your hippocampus – the part of the brain associated with memory and learning. I also feel healthier.

"I have had only one cold in the past seven months. And then there are the less tangible changes, the ones to your personality and relationships.

"Friends have commented on the fact that I seem more relaxed. I certainly feel more content, less inclined to snap or overreact.

"So is this a miracle? Am I now the perfect person? Hardly. Like most of the good things in life, it takes work. Like going to the gym or eating well, you have to keep doing it even on days when you tell yourself you are too busy.

"I meditate for 20 minutes morning and night. After breakfast, and then at 4pm – and on days when that's not possible, on the train or in a taxi. Every little helps ... I feel better.

"I'm just so happy that I've found a tool that helps me perform well in the day and sleep better at night.

"I wish I'd been taught this at school – it's the best life skill I've ever learned."

Read the full article at the Daily Mail.