North Hills News Record, April 14, 1998

By Rex Rutkoski, Staff writer

Transcendental Meditation aims to restore balance in a person's life. As the mental technique settles the mind down, the body settles down and experiences a deep state of rest, says regional TM instructor Sonia Gunderson.

TM provides the body enough rest so that the body can start to correct physiologically, she explains. "The benefits come from within. We have found that a process of normalization takes place once the body's own healing ability is functioning properly."

Gunderson, who is based in Iowa, was trained and certified as an instructor by Maliarishi Mahesh Yogi in 1975. She visits Pittsburgh periodically throughout the year to give introductory lectures on TM and teach the meditative practice.

Formerly Project Manager for the Institute for Research on Consciousness and Human Development at Harvard, she also is president of Performance Solutions. The firm is dedicated to optimizing employee performance.

Gunderson also offers private and corporate classes in TM. Area corporate clients have included Alcoa, Carnegie Mellon University's executive program, USX and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She also works with the cardiac program at St. Clair Hospital.

"Each person gets what they need from TM by tapping into their body's natural healing ability. It starts to bring their own life into a state of balance," she says.

An excitable person, for example, can learn to calm down, she says. "That doesn't mean they lose their creativity or energy levels. It's just that they are able to function free of the stress that drives that kind of excited nervous system," Gunderson says. Lowenergy people and those who are depressed, on the other hand, tend to become more energetic and livelier, she says.

She also has seen relationships improve with couples and in families who practice TM. "They start to be more patient and loving, more able to give in relationships," she says.

She feels the practice is especially timely what with current news reports about sleep deprivation. "TM gives the body an efficient way to get a deep rest. It's deeper than sleep," she says.

Gunderson stresses that TM is different from other forms of meditation and relaxation in its practice and its effects. "TM involves no mind control or concentration, which makes it more natural and effortless than other forms of meditation," she explains.

TM instructor Kofi Kondwani, who conducts postdoctoral studies on TM and health at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health, says he has not had anyone who could not learn the technique and enjoy its benefits.

"I've taught TM in prisons and hospitals and in school. People enjoy experiencing the deep silence within from TM," says Kondwani. He has been involved in projects throughout the country on the effects of TM on blood pressure.

Kondwani learned TM in 1974 while in the Army in Korea. He was studying martial arts and wanted to improve his reaction time. "Then other positive benefits of TM caught my attention. My memory got better, I could sleep better at night. It was so good I decided to teach it. I find TM very helpful in my life," he says.

He describes it as natural and effortless. "It's something you don't work to do. You are doing less and less until you are doing nothing, then a natural process of mind and body does everything," he explains. TM allows a person to settle down to increasingly fewer thoughts while they are meditating," he says.

"You go beyond thinking. You transcend thoughts. When that occurs, the heart rate slows down, the body slows down, there are changes in blood chemistry because the body settles down. It gets rid of the stress stored in it."

The Good News About TM

Sources include Journal of Clinical Psychology, American Journal of Cardiology, American Journal of Psychiatry, American Journal of Managed Care, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Journal of Clinical Psychology, British Journal of Psychology, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality.

Reprinted with permission of North Hills News Record

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