Here are eight ways to give a boost to your growth through the Transcendental Meditation technique.

1. 1. Personal Checking: The first step is to schedule a TM Checking appointment. Personal Checking is a systematic process that ensures correct, effortless practice. It only takes 30 minutes or so—and it’s free! Just phone or email your local TM Center or certified TM teacher to make an appointment.
   2. Regularity of practice: Regular meditation means every day, twice a day, morning and evening. That's the formula for enjoying maximum results from your TM practice. Consistently meditating twice a day brings steady growth and cumulative benefits over time, helping you to rise above the stresses of daily life and maintain clarity and resilience. Check out “20 Tips for TM Twice a Day” for easy ways to be regular, plus this self-paced slide show for more information.
   3. TM Primer and TM Quiz: Check out “10 Things Every Meditator Should Know” for an easy, interactive review of many TM basics.
   4. The TM app: Support your TM practice and enhance personal growth by accessing the TM course review and tips to maximize your benefits, using the TM timer and daily meditation log, viewing inspiring videos and articles, and much more. Contact your local TM teacher about how to download the TM app.
   5. Knowledge Meetings and Group Meditations: Take advantage of TM program follow-up meetings, which include Group TM Checking and group meditations. Participating in Knowledge Meetings ensures that, as your TM experiences deepen over time, your understanding of those experiences grows as well. After a Knowledge Meeting and Group Meditation, many meditators report that their TM practice is even more effortless, enjoyable, and effective. Check with your local TM teachers for their schedule of upcoming Knowledge Meetings.
   6. TM Retreats: A TM Retreat is our number one recommendation for accelerating your overall progress and growth of consciousness. Enjoy a half day, full day, or weekend of deep meditation and revitalization while immersing yourself in profound knowledge. Find TM Retreats near you.
   7. Advanced Techniques: Getting an Advanced Technique boosts our TM experience and personal growth. Through the TM Advanced Techniques, we enhance our ability to experience finer levels of thought—to develop finer perception while becoming more and more familiar with the experience of our own silent Self. Learn more about Advanced Techniques.
   8. Take care of yourself: Maintaining a healthy lifestyle—including a balanced diet of wholesome foods, sufficient sleep, and regular exercise—will help you get the most out of the TM technique and support your personal growth. Everything that’s good for your mind and body is good for your meditation and vice versa.

Personal Checking of the TM technique is a simple, step-by-step process that reestablishes correct, effortless practice. It only takes 30 minutes and is especially recommended during your first few months of TM practice, and then as often as needed or desired after that. Personal Checking is free at any TM Center in the United States. It is also available at TM Centers around the world. Contact your local TM Center to schedule an appointment.

There are two aspects to the TM program—experience and understanding. Twice-daily TM practice is the practical, experiential aspect, and the principles explaining the process of meditation and our growth of consciousness provide the understanding.

Gaining a deeper understanding of how the TM technique works gives us insight into the growing clarity and depth that we naturally experience in our meditation over time. In addition, we learn what consciousness is and how higher states of consciousness develop.

TM teachers provide regularly scheduled Knowledge Meetings to deepen both your understanding and experience with:

• TM Group Checking or group meditation
• Q&A about your TM practice
• Video talks by TM Founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; Dr. Tony Nader, head of the international TM organizations; and other TM experts and researchers

Knowledge Meetings are free of charge to everyone who has learned the TM technique. Ask your local TM teacher about scheduled meetings in your area.

Yes, you can take advantage of a wide range of talks online for knowledge and inspiration:

• Online talks and group meditations hosted by TM Centers. Contact the Centers in your region to see if they offer online meetings.
• Videos by Maharishi and others in our Videos Plus section include everything from higher states of consciousness to creativity and the arts.
• Podcasts by Dr. Tony Nader on his “Consciousness Is All There Is” series may be found on  iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and other platforms.
• TM Talks is broadcast every Sunday at 5:00 pm ET and  announced via email and on the Events calendar.
• TMTalks.org archives the videos of all past TM Talks, available to replay any time.
• MIUTalks.org archives a special series of talks by faculty members of Maharishi International University and other experts.

The Transcendental Meditation technique is a preparation for enjoyable, effective, and fulfilling activity. We meditate in the morning, usually sometime before breakfast, to prepare our mind and body for the activities of the day. Then we meditate again, usually sometime before dinner, to release any stress from the day and to prepare us for our evening activities.

Meditating twice a day allows us to enjoy the recharging and stress-relief benefits of TM during both the day and evening. Research has also shown that twice-daily TM practice is more than twice as beneficial as once a day. To gain the maximum from our practice, TM Founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi recommended that we always meditate 20 minutes twice a day. “If you're too busy to meditate,” he said, “then you're too busy.”

Watch this self-paced slide show about the value of regular meditation, and learn what the research has to say about the value of regular meditation.

Check out “20 Tips for TM Twice a Day” for tried-and-true ways to be regular with your twice-daily TM practice.

Effortlessness is the most distinctive feature of the TM technique and is the key to its effectiveness. Maharishi said, “The principle of Transcendental Meditation is simple: Being is bliss in its nature. It is infinite happiness. The mind is always moving in the direction of greater happiness.”

During the TM technique, the mind spontaneously follows its natural tendency toward fields of greater charm and satisfaction. There is no effort, no control, no focusing of the mind, and no concentration. We just follow the easy process we learned from our TM teacher in a simple, natural, innocent way. Research has found that this effortless practice has a unique brainwave signature, different from all other forms of meditation.

As the mind settles inward and goes beyond the thinking process, the body also settles down and experiences remarkably deep levels of rest. This profound state of rest allows the body to release deep-rooted stresses and strains, thereby promoting a more balanced state of health. Research studies explain the broad benefits of the unique restful alertness experienced during TM practice.

To learn more, watch Maharishi's talk on the secret behind why TM is so easy.

The TM technique is different from mindfulness in a number of ways. Scientists have distinguished three basic types of meditation: Focused Attention, Open Monitoring, and Automatic Self-Transcending. As Dr. David Orme-Johnson explains in this article, these three differ in practice, in their brain/body effects, and in their outcomes in daily life.

The term mindfulness includes a variety of techniques that fall under Focused Attention and Open Monitoring. Focused Attention requires holding the attention on a specific thought or bodily process, such as body scanning or breathing, and is associated with high-frequency EEG or gamma brain waves.

Mindfulness techniques of the Open Monitoring type include practitioners observing and accepting their thoughts, emotions, and sensations without judgment, and focusing their awareness on the moment. Open Monitoring is associated with slower EEG brain or theta waves, which occur when the mind concentrates, as in solving a math problem.

The TM technique is different from these two and falls under the category of Automatic Self-Transcending. The effortless practice of TM allows the mind and body to automatically settle into a neurophysiological condition of deep rest, inner wakefulness, and greater brain wave coherence. TM practice is associated with alpha brain waves, when there is inner awareness and wakefulness but no focus on a task.

In TM practice we experience a unique state called restful alertness, different from waking, dreaming, or sleep states of consciousness. This constitutes a fourth state known as Transcendental Consciousness. Alpha EEG indicates that a TM practitioner is experiencing inner wakefulness, while physiological changes, such as slowing of the breath rate and reduced stress hormones, show that the body is in a state of deep relaxation and rejuvenation.

Learn more about how the TM technique is different from mindfulness in Dr. Orme-Johnson's article.

The word transcend means to “go beyond.” During our TM practice, the mind settles inward, beyond all mental activity, and experiences the state of Transcendental Consciousness. This state is called restful alertness because it is a unique fourth state of consciousness, distinct from waking, dreaming, or sleep. It is also known as pure consciousness or pure awareness, because it is consciousness by itself, in its purest, simplest state—your mind’s inner essence.

Pure consciousness is a reservoir of unlimited creativity and intelligence, the transcendental source of all of our mental energy. It is a restful, peaceful, expanded state of awareness that is completely natural to every human being. Scientific research has found that the twice-daily experience of Transcendental Consciousness brings renewal to all aspects of life.

Maharishi explains the process of transcending in his wonderful talk “Being Is Bliss: The Secret behind Why TM Is Easy.”

During TM practice, the mind naturally settles inward, mental activity subsides, and inner wakefulness increases, as verified by EEG brainwave research. There are moments when the mind comes to a state of complete rest yet remains fully awake. In this experience of pure awareness, the body gains its most profound levels of rest—more revitalizing than sleep or simple eyes-closed relaxation.

Studies on the physiological changes that occur during TM practice show a significant drop in biochemicals associated with stress and anxiety, such as cortisol and plasma lactate. The breath rate and other measures indicate a mind-body state that is the extreme opposite of the stress response. The brain becomes more coherent and holistic in its functioning, which leads to improved mental and physical performance after meditation.

In “Transcending and the Brain,” Maharishi explains how the unique experience of transcending enlivens the whole brain, empowering our intelligence.

Maharishi defined seven major states of consciousness, based on the ancient Vedic science of consciousness and human development. We're already familiar with the first three states—waking, dreaming, and sleep. The fourth state is Transcendental Consciousness, which we experience during our TM practice.

In the early 1970s, scientists at UCLA and Harvard researching the physiology of people practicing the TM technique discovered that this state of consciousness was a fourth major state unlike any other—a unique state of restful alertness. Dr. Robert Keith Wallace published this groundbreaking research in Science (1970), then in collaboration with Harvard Medical School in Scientific American (1972).

As Maharishi explained, this fourth state of Transcendental Consciousness is the first higher state of consciousness. Experiencing this state on a regular basis through our twice-daily TM practice is the key to developing enlightenment. Over time, as our physiology becomes more and more stress-free from the deep rest and expanded alertness gained from the TM technique, this Transcendental Consciousness is stabilized and becomes permanent. Stresses and limitations no longer bind or overshadow our inner fullness and joy of life, and we live in a state of fulfillment and freedom. This is a new, fifth state of consciousness.

This fifth state is known as Cosmic Consciousness, which is the first stage of enlightenment. This is a state of self-actualization or self-realization in which we have awakened to the full potential of our inner Self. In this fifth state, the experience of Pure Consciousness—the Self—is never lost during waking, dreaming, and sleep.

The sixth and seventh states of consciousness bring even more joy and effectiveness to daily living.

Maharishi explains the “Characteristic Values of Higher States of Consciousness” in his beautiful talk from 1971. Learn more about enlightenment and the development of higher states of consciousness.

The growth of higher states of consciousness is also explained and discussed in greater depth at Knowledge Meetings with your local TM instructors and at TM Retreats. Ask the TM teachers at your Center about the schedule of ongoing Knowledge Meetings and TM Retreats in your area.

To boost your development, TM Founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created free lifetime TM follow-up plus a series of powerful advanced programs designed to further promote the growth of intelligence, creativity, health, and happiness already taking place through your TM practice.

1. Your local TM Center offers a variety of follow-up and advanced programs, including group meditations, TM Personal Checking, Knowledge Meetings, TM Retreats, and other Center events.
2. Courses to learn TM Advanced Techniques are offered periodically at your Center to enhance your growth to higher states of consciousness.
3. The TM-Sidhi® program helps to develop our ability to think and act from the level of pure consciousness, so that all our thoughts and actions are even more powerful, joyful, and life-supporting.
4. Ask your local TM teachers about other programs that may be available through your Center or online.

A good approach is to talk about the benefits you're experiencing from your  twice-daily TM practice. It’s best not to describe your specific experiences during TM, so your friends can have the same innocent approach to learning that you had. But anyone can relate to the benefits of feeling less stressed, more energized and refreshed, and the overall personal growth that meditators enjoy.

You can also share renowned TM teacher Bob Roth's six-minute introduction to the TM technique, found on the TM.org menu under "Intro video." Or invite your friends to a TM introductory talk at your local TM Center.

1. Tell your friends and family members about learning the TM technique, invite them to a TM introductory talk at your local TM Center, or share Bob Roth's six-minute "Intro Video" at TM.org.
2. Make a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation for national programs to help teach the TM technique to the people who need it most. A matching gift from your employer may be available.
3. If you like, you may select your TM Center for your donation, to support local follow-up services, outreach programs, and TM scholarships. Matching gifts may also be available.
4. Ask about volunteering at your local TM Center, whether you have a specific skill to share or just want to help with whatever may be needed, such as office work, Center beautification, outreach, and more.