Christopher sings ‘A Beautiful Life’ for this Netflix film—a song about life, loss, becoming, and love.

June 8, 2023

On June 1st, Netflix launched an exciting new film — A Beautiful Life (2023). Danish pop star Christopher showcases his musical talent as he makes his leading role debut in this emotional romantic drama about music’s healing powers. He wrote and sang all the songs for A Beautiful Life, which was directed by Mehdi Avaz and written by Stefan Jaworski.

When Elliott (Christopher), a young fisherman with a hidden talent and an extraordinary voice gets discovered at a party by Suzanne, a high-profile music producer who is willing to give him the chance of a lifetime, he must decide if he is ready to open himself up to stardom — and love.

The film’s Official Teaser shows Christopher as Elliott singing his first song, Hope This Song Is For You, followed by the Official Trailer in Danish with English subtitles. That same trailer, and the film, are now available in English on Netflix.

It doesn’t matter who you are. What really does is who you become.

One of the main messages of the film comes out when Suzanne responds to her business partner’s doubts about Elliott. She sees his raw talent, his great potential, and assures Patrick: “It doesn’t matter who you are. The important thing is who you can become.”

“Who do you sing for when you sing?”

Suzanne asks her estranged daughter Lilly, who also heard Elliott sing, to collaborate with him, to produce his music. Their personalities clash and they get off to a rocky start. One of the first things Lilly asks him is, “Who do you sing for when you sing?” Puzzled, Elliott offers no answer.

She explains what makes a song significant, how to communicate it to an audience for it to resonate with them. This insider information is new to Elliott who listens without responding, taking it all in. This is the creative core that will powerfully manifest in the final scene and song of the film. Here is that explanation.

Imagine there’s someone you’re singing to. Someone you’re singing for.

“A song doesn’t just exist. It comes to life. Between two people. One who sings and one who listens. Whether you’re here in the studio or in a big, packed stadium with thousands of fans. You’re not performing for nothing. You have to choose a person, or you have to imagine there’s someone you’re singing to. Someone you’re singing for. If you’re not singing for anyone, then it’s all the same. Then, the song doesn’t exist. Then you don’t exist.”

The song is powerful because it personalizes the universal cycle of life, love, and loss into a story, expressing feelings an audience can relate to.

This is songwriting at its best. One of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. It put a lump in my throat and moved me to tears. It is so good it deserves a Grammy award and at least an Oscar nod if not a win!

Listen to A Beautiful Life here along with the lyrics below.

A Beautiful Life

"Baby, I'm pregnant" she said
And I saw my whole life
Flash before my eyes
So much for planning ahead
We gon' be all right
There won't be a right time
Oh, I said, "I am way too young"
I'm just a kid, I can't raise one

It feels like my life is over
Feels like my future's crushed
And I'm gonna miss the times when
It was just the two of us
I don't ever want to let go
Of everything that I love
It sure feels like dying
Saying goodbye
To my beautiful life

"Daddy, I can't sleep," she said
Can you leave the light on?
And please sing me my song
And I can't help but think to myself
Those green eyes and brown curls
Turned into my whole world
She's growing up so fast
If only I could make it last

It feels like my life is over
Feels like my future's crushed
'Cause my baby's getting older
Tomorrow she'd be all grown up
I don't ever want to let go
Of everything that I love
I turn off the lights
And say goodnight
To my beautiful life

Pack the bags and ready to go
We look at each other
She looks like her mother
Off to chase dreams of her own
She cries in the backseat
As we wave at the taxi
Oh, our baby's moving out
Leaving this home an empty house

Feels like my life is over
Feels like my future's crushed
And I'm gonna miss the times when
It was just the three of us
I don't ever want to let go
Of everything that I love
It sure feels like dying
Saying goodbye
To my beautiful life
To my beautiful life

"Baby, I'm pregnant" she said
And I saw my whole life
Flash before my eyes

You can listen to the other songs in the film's Soundtrack on Spotify. Or choose your own music service at https://christopher.lnk.to/ABeautifulLife. And visit Christopher's YouTube channel for excerpts of songs from the film. 

Today, on June 8th, Christopher premiered a new Official Music Video for the film on his YouTube channel with A Beautiful Life.

A simple Late Fragment by Raymond Carver reminds us of what is important in this life

June 3, 2023
Late Fragment

And did you get what 
you wanted from this life, even so? 
I did.
And what did you want? 
To call myself beloved, to feel myself 
beloved on the earth.

All of us: The collected poems
By Raymond Carver
Vintage Books, 1996

VAC awarded CWWI grants to teach TM to military veterans with PTS. Now DND awards a grant to teach TM to survivors of Military Sexual Trauma.

May 25, 2023

New Federal Grant from Department of National Defence Awarded to the Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative

Over the last three consecutive years, the Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative (CWWI), has been awarded a grant from Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) to teach the Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) program to military veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) and related comorbidities while serving in the Canadian Armed Forces. The Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative is a charitable organization mandated to bring the TM program to individuals whose lives are impacted by toxic levels of stress.  

In February 2023, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, the Honourable Lawrence MacCaulay, and his team met with the National Director of the Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative, Helen Creighton, to review the work of CWWI in bringing the TM program to Veterans and their family members.

VAC posted articles on TM helping veterans.

(Click on photo to enlarge it.)

Department of National Defence Grant Awarded in April 2023

Based on the success of the VAC-funded grants, the Department of National Defence (DND) has now fully funded a new grant for CWWI to teach TM to survivors of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) who are currently serving, or who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) or the Department of National Defence: Community Support for Sexual Misconduct Survivors Grant Program. [At this link, Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative (CWWI) is listed under Nova Scotia, where their National Office is located.]

The project can also include family members or support workers and will be taught in 8 major Canadian cities where TM teachers have taken additional training to work with this population.

This initiative aims to bring an effective evidence-based stress-reduction technique to those who have experienced sexual misconduct within the Defence community. Due to the trauma and negative emotions linked to sexual misconduct, this population is at risk for prolonged mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, PTS, low self-esteem, addiction and more. 

Research has demonstrated that the TM program is one of the most effective methodologies for reducing the above issues, which are often present in those who have experienced sexual misconduct. Overcoming the negative effect that sexual misconduct has on one’s mental health is a critical first step in moving forward with one’s life.

Confidential quantitative surveys will be administered pre- and -post TM training for self-compassion (Neff, 2011) and trait anxiety survey (Cohen, 1983).

Self-compassion is the self responding positively in times of personal struggle. In addition to decreases in stress and improved levels of self-compassion, CWWI expects results to be similar to past research with veterans, such as:

• Reduced flashbacks and bad memories: Military Medicine 176 (6): 626-630, 2011

• Improved quality of life: Military Medicine 176 (6): 626-630, 2011

• Decrease in insomnia: Journal of Counseling and Development 64: 212-215, 1985

• Twice as effective as other relaxation techniques for decreasing trait anxiety: Journal of Clinical Psychology 45(6): 957–974, 1989

The CWWI project is overseen by several Advisory Boards, including healthcare professionals and military members and employs a researcher with expertise in qualitative and quantitative data. 

CWWI is working with support groups mandated to help those affected by sexual misconduct, networking with doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists who work with this population, and reaching out to support groups. 

CWWI is grateful to researchers Ann Royer, PhD, and Tanis Farish, PhD, as well as to Advisory Review Board members Dr. Raju Hajela [Major, retired], Dr. Brian Rees [Colonel, retired], and Ami Stadnick, MSc, R. Psych. 

Article submitted by Helen Foster-Grimmett, Lead Instructor—Canadian Armed Forces, Veteran, Police and First Responder Outreach—Canadian Women’s Wellness Initiative.

# # #

See this October 29, 2017 post about Helen bringing the TM program to her local area police department: Central Saanich Police Service and Area Police Officers Learn and Benefit from Transcendental Meditation.

Canada’s TM TV News Spot: The Antidote to Stress

May 21, 2023

Here is a 30-second TV news spot some Canadian friends are testing out on CHEK TV in BC. The ad airs 44 times over 3 months during the 5pm, 6pm and 11pm News. The voiceover is by a longtime TM teacher, Bob Chelmick, who was the CBC news anchor in Alberta for decades. It broadcasts throughout Vancouver Island and also in the Lower Mainland including Vancouver, and spills over into Washington State. It was first posted on Garry Foster’s Facebook page and is now on their Transcendental Meditation Canada website as The Antidote to Stress.

Six seconds into the video we see a photo of a helicopter carrying a large specialized water bucket to help put out forest fires. Don Arney, inventor of the Bambi Bucket® for Aerial Firefighting, was inducted into the 2017 National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention. It is manufactured in Vancouver, Canada and shipped to clients in more than 110 countries.

From 8-10 seconds are photos of burned-out healthcare workers and first responders. A recently published study conducted at Miami hospitals showed Transcendental Meditation was highly effective in rapidly reducing healthcare worker burnout symptoms during the height of the Covid crisis. The study was supported, in part, by the David Lynch Foundation as well as Miami-area donors.

Enjoy this excellent article in the Alberta Prime Times on how Transcendental Meditation benefits those with medical issues, ongoing anxieties, even PTSD.

Related interview: Listen to David Lynch Foundation CEO Bob Roth with Katy Perry And The “Cure For The Common Stress”.

Find a TM Center near you at https://www.tm.org/choose-your-country.

The miracle that is Lucy—a neurodivergent blind 13-year-old child prodigy featured on ‘The Piano’

April 30, 2023

Listen to this neurodivergent blind 13-year-old child prodigy play the piano. It is moving and unbelievable. She makes the instrument sing. The music she feels and expresses through her fingertips goes right to the listener’s heart. It felt like I was hearing these well-known classical pieces for the first time. This is how Lucy communicates with the world. It is profound and incomprehensible! These videos tell the story.

BBC – The One Show – Talking about Channel 4’s ‘The Piano’

BBC’s The One Show invited the host and a judge of a new television show, The Piano, on England’s Channel 4. Host Claudia Winkleman and pop star Mika, one of two judges with pianist Lang Lang, discussed the concept for their series and how they were secretly judging amateur musicians playing on street pianos located outside train stations in selected cities. That portion of the interview starts at 1:26 and concludes at 7:25. They don’t give too much away, but we later find out in future episodes that the series will conclude with a final concert performance at England’s premier Royal Festival Hall.

Lucy performs Chopin’s Nocturne in B flat minor

One of those musicians is Lucy, a 13-year-old blind girl who stuns the crowd with her piano performance of Chopin’s Nocturne in B flat minor, Opus 9 number 1. We first see Claudia speak with Lucy’s mom outside the Leeds train station as they wait for Lucy’s teacher, Daniel, to lead her to the piano on an elevated platform. What happens next is breathtaking! It leaves Lang Lang speechless wondering how Lucy can learn how to play the piece. That question is answered below in The Amber Trust video – Lucy’s Story, showing us how Daniel instructs her using The Amber Sound Touch method.

Here is the FULL BROADCAST of that episode. It serves as a backgrounder leading up to the final performance. At 10:24 Claudia reveals to all of the musicians gathered together for the first time that they not only played for people at the train station locations, but also for the world’s greatest classical pianist and a well-known pop star who were secretly watching them. Lang Lang and Mika are introduced, surprising everyone. The explanation of what their intent was, and the power of music, is worth listening to. They invite everyone to attend the upcoming Festival Hall performance as their VIP guests and, after hours of deliberation, announce who and why 1 of the 4 finalists was selected to perform at the finale—Lucy. Actually, as it turned out, all 4 finalists—Jay, Sean, Danny, and Lucy—played, and Lucy was selected as the performance of the night.

Lucy performs Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1

Lucy performed Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1 on Channel 4’s Finale of “The Piano’ at Royal Festival Hall. You could hear a pin drop in the hall, the audience was that intently focused on her, many moved to tears. After her performance, Lang Lang and Mika rose to their feet applauding, shouting “Bravo.” Everyone joined them giving Lucy a standing ovation.

Here is the full episode of 13 Year Old Blind Lucy’s Final Performance at the Royal Festival Hall on The Piano Show. You can read the YouTube notes for fuller explanations. There was one last surprise for the 4 finalists—a piano delivered to their homes!

Complete version of Lucy playing Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1

Enjoy this complete version of Lucy playing Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1. It starts at 1:48. An earlier well-edited short section of the video introduces us to Lucy’s mom explaining her daughter’s medical condition, then segues to Daniel walking Lucy to the piano where she plays Chopin’s Nocturne in B flat minor. It’s where Lang Lang, speechless, not knowing what to say, calls her a genius. At the end of this final performance, everyone is on their feet applauding wildly. The applause continues as Daniel and Lucy leave the stage. Claudia returns and proudly says, “Ladies and gentlemen, THAT is Lucy!”

The Amber Trust – Lucy’s story

The Amber Trust – Lucy’s story is a film made 3 years earlier about Lucy when she was 10 years old, blind, with autism and severe learning difficulties, but exceptional musical potential. Her teacher, Daniel, explains and demonstrates how he guides Lucy to play classical pieces on the piano. Adam Ockelford, founder of The Amber Trust, speaks at the end of the film. Lucy’s story is a part of ‘Amber Sound Touch’, The Amber Trust’s online resource for teaching music to blind and partially sighted children and young people, including those with additional disabilities. For more details, visit The Amber Trust website.

The Amber Trust has now worked with Lucy for over 10 years through their Music Awards program, funding the piano lessons she receives with her wonderful teacher, Daniel. Lucy achieved ‘performance of the night’ on the finale of Channel 4’s The Piano, receiving a standing ovation for her performance of Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1 at the Royal Festival Hall. They are very proud of everything she has accomplished on the show!

May 7, 2023: Astonishing moment blind and autistic pianist Lucy 13, stuns 20,000 spectators at Coronation Concert

Tens of thousands of spectators at King Charles’ Coronation Concert were left speechless Sunday evening as 13-year-old blind and autistic pianist Lucy Illingworth gave a jaw-dropping performance. The pianist, who is part of Queen Camilla’s patronage, The Amber Trust, was one of the talents chosen to perform at a concert taking place on the grounds of Windsor Castle. Playing a rendition of Bach’s Prelude in C Major, the teenager prompted smiles and applause from the Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte, leaving the newly crowned King and Queen speechless. Her mother Candice Illingworth was beaming as she proudly sat next to her talented daughter as she wowed the crowd.

One of Mika’s Fan Club members from Japan posted Lucy’s performance of Bach’s Prelude in C Major at The Coronation Concert. So inspiring!!!

More videos of Lucy on YouTube

Lucy’s father, Mark Illingworth, takes videos of her joyfully playing a range of musical pieces, which he posts on his YouTube channel.

Other inspiring artists featured on The Uncarved Blog

To see other inspiring artists featured on The Uncarved Blog, scroll through the Archive of the ‘Music’ Category.

A Spring Haiku inspired by Radim Schreiber’s photos of pink dogwood flowers

April 24, 2023
Spring Haiku 
Inspired by Radim Schreiber’s photos

Pink dogwood flowers
Delicate tender beauty
Captured by the lens

April 21, 2023
Fairfield, Iowa
© Ken Chawkin

Related posts: Japanese culture: poetic aesthetics, artistry, and martial arts, inspired me to write haiku and tanka || Radim Schreiber captures the magic of fireflies in beautiful award-winning photos and films

Tony Anthony’s amazing eight-year spiritual journey with TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

April 1, 2023

Some people I know highly recommended Tony Anthony‘s recent book, A Joy-Filled Amazement: My Eight-Year Spiritual Journey with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I read it and found theirs and other familiar names mentioned in the story. I checked the many positive Customer Reviews, recognized some of the reviewers, and decided to add my own.

This personal story is told with sincerity, vulnerability, and transparency. Some fascinating moments give us a glimpse into Tony’s relationship with TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and his evolving experiences, in and out of meditation.

This personal story is told with sincerity, vulnerability, and transparency. Some fascinating moments give us a glimpse into Tony’s relationship with TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and his evolving experiences, in and out of meditation.

Here is a look into the author’s background, what he’s accomplished during his lifetime, and a description of the book.

About Tony Anthony

Tony Anthony was born in New York and educated at Syracuse University. He served as a combat correspondent for the 198th Infantry Brigade in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. His stories and photographs appeared in Stars & Stripes and in newspapers around the world.

He has had a career in the creative arts: as an author, a painter, a photojournalist, and a creative director. As a photojournalist, Anthony photographed the attack on the World Trade Center from a Blackhawk helicopter on September 11, 2001 for the NGO Americares. Days after the US bombed Baghdad in 2005, he photographed the first humanitarian relief mission to Iraq. He has photographed on all eight continents, including the melting ice in Antarctica.

He has written three previous books: Life is War But You Can Win, an inspirational book for Veterans; Beneath Buddha’s Eyes, a novel; Before the Next War, a novel set in Vietnam based on actual events. He has directed a documentary film, Fearless Mountain, about a Buddhist forest monastery. The author is the recipient of an Atlantic Monthly writing award. He resides in Northern California and has two grown sons.

A Joy-Filled Amazement

A Joy-Filled Amazement is the wild and enthralling tale of a spiritual seeker that proves that anything is possible. The book begins at the lowest moments of the author’s life—penniless and mind-ravaged, just back from Vietnam, living in the hold of an anchovy boat. In an inexplicable encounter, he meets Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the spiritual leader who brought Transcendental Meditation to the West made famous by the Beatles. The great Indian guru enthralls him with a vision of the life he longs for and the way to get there. The story is an eight-year odyssey, to Maharishi’s ashram in Switzerland, to India, and finally to enlightenment. The journey is complex, deeply spiritual, and genuinely captivating.

A generation of seekers

Ours was a generation of seekers. If you’re on the spiritual path or curious about it, this book will satisfy. You will spend time in the heart and mind of a seeker turned finder.

Ours was a generation of seekers. If you’re on the spiritual path or curious about it, this book will satisfy. You will spend time in the heart and mind of a seeker turned finder. Tony also describes some pretty cosmic experiences that will inspire. Glad I read it!

On page 258, Tony shares something that surprised and pleased me. A friend who cleaned Maharishi’s apartment had invited him along, which was unexpected. While his friend “went about about replacing flowers in vases and otherwise straightening up in the sitting room, I took a seat and thumbed through a book of photographs taken by Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney’s wife. On the front piece was a hand-written note to Maharishi saying how much she and Paul loved and appreciated him.”

Book Cover

Tony chose Spanish graphic designer Jonas Perez to design the book cover. He selected the typeface and gold color and left the rest to him. Jonas surprised Tony “with the sensitivity and subtlety of the design.”

You may recognize the famous photo of Maharishi on the beach at the former Island Hall resort in Parksville, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. It was taken by Victoria artist, photojournalist, and filmmaker Karl Spreitz. Eileen Learoyd, a columnist for The Daily Colonist at that time, asked Karl to take the photo for her article on Maharishi (September 20, 1963). An early meditator, Eileen later became a TM teacher. Maharishi appointed her National Leader of Canada. Her daughter, Grania Litwin, also a journalist, sent me the article, photo, and one of it on a billboard with the words, learn to meditate, and the mailing address.

Book Title

In case you’re wondering, as I was, about the book title, Tony explains that in the 3rd paragraph on page 309 under Acknowledgements.

The title of the book is taken from The Shiva Sutras, revealed by Swami Laksmanjoo, a close friend of Maharishi’s. In Verse 12, he explains the signs by which we can determine that a yogi is established in that supreme state of Lord Siva: “The predominant sign of such a yogi is joy-filled amazement.”

Related reading

Here are two novels I’ve read and reviewed about meditating philosophy professors that you might enjoy: “To Be Enlightened” by Alan J. Steinberg and “The Best Of All Possible Worlds” by B. Steven Verney.

Many articles have been written about Maharishi. Here is a blogpost on the centennial of his birth with links to other articles and interviews.

Cartoonists show us the pressure some people put on their pets and how they try to deal with it

March 26, 2023

This funny cat cartoon by Scott Metzger gives us an insight into the lives of pets and what they have to put up with from their human owners.

With this kind of pressure some cats need to undergo therapy, as shown in this Bizarro cartoon by Wayno & Dan Piraro.

One of their earlier cartoons showed a dog on the psychiatrist’s couch, but for a different reason.

Other cartoonists worth checking out for a few more laughs

Gary Larson’s cartoons are funny because they make us see the unexpected humor in things

Funny cartoons make us laugh ‘cuz they’re true

This funny and wise cartoon from David Sipress reminds us that things are not as bad as we think

Good cartoons teach us a lot if we’re willing to learn and laugh at our little foibles and neuroses

Harpist Nadja Dornik beautifully performs Claude Debussy’s romantic composition Clair de Lune

March 18, 2023

Today, Serbian pianist and harpist Nadja Dornik posted her performance of Claude Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque, L.75 – III. Clair de Lune. The whole composition was recorded on August 30, 2022 at the Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall, including the first and second movements — I. Prélude and II. Menuet — posted 4 and 3 weeks earlier, respectively.

Historically, Clair de Lune, was a French poem written by Paul Verlaine in 1869, and became the inspiration for the third and most famous movement of Debussy’s 1890 Suite Bergamasque of the same name.

You can actually hear Debussy playing Clair de Lune (1913), recorded on a piano roll, Claude Debussy plays Debussy. It is included in the Complete recordings made by Claude Debussy: The Composer as Pianist. Compilation from all Debussy recordings available “Claude Debussy Plays His Finest Works” (1904-1913).

Also enjoy listening to Kristan Toczko, one of Canada’s premier harpists, perform Debussy’s romantic composition, Clair de Lune. That post contains links to performances by famous pianists and other musicians, some on unusual instruments, recorded for the celebration of Debussy’s life and music in 2018, the centennial of his passing.  

In an earlier post, Nadja Dornik transcribed and performed a stunningly beautiful version for harp of Frédéric Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu.

See Canadian pioneer filmmaker Norman McLaren’s 1968 NFB film ‘Pas de deux’ for a truly spellbinding aesthetic experience. Predating digital effects, this masterpiece won many national and international awards.

‘Pas de deux’ was nominated as ‘Duo’ for Best Live Action Short Subject at the 41st Academy Awards (April 14, 1969) to honor the films of 1968. It was the NFB’s 24th Oscar®-nominated film at the time.

Some other amazing artists I’ve been inspired by and written about are available in the Archive of the ‘Music’ Category on The Uncarved Blog.

Transcendental Meditation reduced healthcare workers’ burnout symptoms during Covid crisis

March 5, 2023

NEWS RELEASE 3-MAR-2023

Transcendental Meditation highly effective in rapidly reducing healthcare worker burnout symptoms during the height of the Covid crisis

Healthcare providers (HCP) at three Miami hospitals during the height of the Covid crisis, who practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM), showed a rapid and highly significant reduction in stress-related burnout symptoms such as somatization, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and emotional exhaustion, as well as significant improvement in mental well-being, compared to a parallel matched lifestyle-as-usual group (LAU), according to a new study published today in PLOS ONE.

A total of 65 healthcare providers at the three Miami hospitals (Baptist, Mercy, and Encompass Hospitals), were enrolled in the TM group, as well as 65 parallel match controls. Validated surveys were used to assess burnout and stress-related symptoms including the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 scale (BSI), the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI), and the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well Being Scale (WEMWBS).

After two weeks symptoms of somatization, depression, and anxiety in the TM group showed a near 45% reduction and insomnia, emotional exhaustion and well-being had improved by 33%, 16% and 11% respectively. At three months, the TM group showed mean reductions in anxiety of 62%, somatization 58%, depression 50%, insomnia 44%, emotional exhaustion 40%, and improvement in mental well-being of 18% (Examples Figures 1 – 3). TM appeared easy to learn and was maintained by the subjects within an average weekly TM session completion rate of 83%. (Click on Figures 1-3 to enhance details.)

“The results of this study—one of the largest on the effects of TM in a healthcare setting conducted during the height of the Covid crisis—are dramatic, not just because of the size and significance of the improvements in a variety of burnout indices, but notably in how rapidly the results were seen,” said Mark S. Nestor, M.D. Ph.D., the principal investigator, and lead author of the study. Dr. Nestor is Director of the Center for Clinical and Cosmetic Research in Aventura Florida, and Voluntary Professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “This rapid and dramatic improvement in stress-related symptoms is not often seen with the use of medications much less with other easy to learn mental techniques.”

The authors point out that “the study confirms and expands on the previously reported benefits of the practice of TM and its positive psychological impact on healthcare providers in high stress settings and should be considered as a rapid intervention for healthcare worker burnout but certainly may have application to other at-risk populations.”

The study was supported, in part, by the David Lynch Foundation as well as Miami-area donors. The article is titled “Improving the mental health and well-being of healthcare providers using the Transcendental Meditation technique during the COVID-19 pandemic: a parallel population study.”

# # #

Source: EurekAlert!

Peer-Reviewed Publication | Randomized controlled/clinical trial

See the full PowerPoint Presentation PDF with all 6 Figures.

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265046

News Coverage: The first to report on this study was Australia’s Mirage: Healthcare Workers’ Burnout Reduced with TM During Covid Peak. News Medical, one of the world’s leading open-access medical and life science hubs, also reported: Transcendental Meditation reduces stress-related burnout symptoms among healthcare providers.

A month later, Psych News Daily reported: Transcendental Meditation reduces burnout, new study finds. A new study has found that Transcendental Meditation reduced symptoms of burnout and insomnia, while improving overall well-being.


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