Speaker 1: Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Stay Calm, your daily dose of calmness. I'm Bob Roth,
Speaker 1: and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years,
Speaker 1: helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re
Speaker 1: energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version
Speaker 1: of themselves. And now I want to help you do
Speaker 1: the same. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths,
Speaker 1: and let's begin today's journey. Okay, here's a sentence for you.
Speaker 1: I gave a talk at the Vatican about transcendental meditation
Speaker 1: with Katie Perry. I taught Katie to meditate back in
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten in India. I was there for
Speaker 1: Katie's wedding to Russell Brand. The marriage didn't last, but
Speaker 1: the meditation did for both of them. Now fast forward
Speaker 1: to April two thousand and eighteen, I was invited to
Speaker 1: speak at an international medical conference co sponsored by the
Speaker 1: Vatican on innovations in health care for the twenty first
Speaker 1: century called Unite to Cure. The topic of my talk
Speaker 1: was impacting children's health through transcendental meditation. Katie had also
Speaker 1: been invited to participate in the conference as an entertainer,
Speaker 1: not as a speaker. But at the last minute a
Speaker 1: glitch arose trying to stage the concert, and unfortunately it
Speaker 1: had to be canceled. Still, Katie wanted to join me
Speaker 1: for my talk about t M for children, and she
Speaker 1: was eager to meet the Pope. I'm telling you about
Speaker 1: Katie not because she's some megapop star, but because of
Speaker 1: how she's using her pop stardom to tell a whole
Speaker 1: new generation of young kids, particularly young girls, about meditation,
Speaker 1: how it has helped her, and how it can help them.
Speaker 1: The need to do something to help these kids is
Speaker 1: beyond urgent. From two thousand and seven to two thousand
Speaker 1: and seventeen, suicides among ten to twenty four year olds
Speaker 1: rose fifty six percent, overtaking homicide as the second leading
Speaker 1: cause of death in this age group after accidents. The
Speaker 1: increase among preadolescents and younger teens is particularly startling. Suicides
Speaker 1: by children ages five to eleven have almost doubled in
Speaker 1: recent years, and children's emergency room visits for suicide attempts
Speaker 1: or suicidal ideation rose from five hundred and eighty thousand
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven to one point one million
Speaker 1: in two thousand and fifteen, and forty percent of those
Speaker 1: visits were by children younger than age eleven. Hard to comprehend.
Speaker 1: I have had the very good fortune to direct the
Speaker 1: David Lynch Foundation. For the past sixteen years. We have
Speaker 1: brought transcendental meditation for free to more than one million
Speaker 1: at risk kids in the United States and all over
Speaker 1: the world. Research shows these meditating school kids are happier,
Speaker 1: do better in school, have higher graduate sation rates, stay
Speaker 1: out of trouble with the law. Now, one million kids
Speaker 1: may sound like a lot, but really it's a tiny
Speaker 1: drop in the bucket. This is a pandemic of global proportions.
Speaker 1: And this is where Katy Perry has come in. She
Speaker 1: breaks down the barriers about what meditation is and what
Speaker 1: it does. She makes meditation okay for a twelve year
Speaker 1: old girl. Katie wants everyone to know why she meditates. Quote.
Speaker 1: When I meditate, it feels like my whole brain opens
Speaker 1: up and I experience an incredible stillness. It's nothing like
Speaker 1: I've ever known, and that brings some of the best,
Speaker 1: most creative ideas to the surface. It's also helped a
Speaker 1: lot with my anxiety. Instead of having to turn to
Speaker 1: prescription drugs. I've been able to turn to TM. When
Speaker 1: Katie does a concert tour, it's at least a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty cities and each stop is completely sold out.
Speaker 1: She performed before sixteen thousand people, large, the young girls
Speaker 1: and their parents. I see how stressed out kids are,
Speaker 1: Katie says, I'll meet them backstage. I see them in
Speaker 1: the audience. They're stressed out by their devices, by keeping
Speaker 1: up with appearances, by wanting to emulate what they see online.
Speaker 1: I feel so much for them. I know that meditation
Speaker 1: has been such an incredible tool for me to connect
Speaker 1: back with myself. It's really important for kids to have
Speaker 1: this tool too, for it to be offered in school
Speaker 1: so the kids can yes focus and do better in school,
Speaker 1: but more importantly, so that they'll be able to know themselves,
Speaker 1: find their true selves, be their authentic selves. I just
Speaker 1: want to be a messenger of good, and this is
Speaker 1: one of the greatest messages I can give. So what's
Speaker 1: our lesson for today? The health tip from Katie is
Speaker 1: as old as humankind. Be true to yourself, be genuine,
Speaker 1: be authentic. All right, let's end this time together doing
Speaker 1: something that I think should be a feature of our
Speaker 1: everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So let's take
Speaker 1: thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take a break,
Speaker 1: just take a moment. It turns out when we do that,
Speaker 1: it's good for our health as well. I'll be right
Speaker 1: back all right. Thank you for joining me today. I
Speaker 1: hope you heard something that inspires, that uplifts you and
Speaker 1: that you can incorporate into your own life. This is
Speaker 1: Bob Roth. Stay calm, hey, all of you out there.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your stories, your questions, or anything else on your mind.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at
Speaker 1: meditation Bob. You can also send me an email at
Speaker 1: meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com. I look forward
Speaker 1: to hearing from you.