Speaker 1: Never waste a mistake. If it's a mistake, learn something
Speaker 1: from it, because it will be the best lessons you'll
Speaker 1: ever learn. Welcome to the one you feed throughout time.
Speaker 1: Great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have.
Speaker 1: Quotes like garbage in, garbage out, or you are what
Speaker 1: you think ring true. And yet for many of us,
Speaker 1: our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity,
Speaker 1: self pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't
Speaker 1: have instead of what we do. We think things that
Speaker 1: hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not
Speaker 1: just about thinking. Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent,
Speaker 1: and creative effort to make a life worth living. This
Speaker 1: podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in
Speaker 1: the right direction, how they feed their good wolf m
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us. Our guest on this episode is
Speaker 1: Dr Norman E. Rosenthal, a world renowned psychiatrist, public speaker,
Speaker 1: and best selling author who is known for his innovative
Speaker 1: research and inspirational writings. He is currently clinical Professor of
Speaker 1: Psychiatry at Georgetown University's School of Medicine. His new book
Speaker 1: is super Mind, How to Boost performance and live a
Speaker 1: richer and happier life through transcendental Meditation. Here's the interview. Hi,
Speaker 1: Dr Rosenthal, Welcome to the show. Hi, They're good to
Speaker 1: be here. I'm excited to have you on. It's kind
Speaker 1: of fortuitous timing. This was not planned, But when I
Speaker 1: originally started talking with your publicist, I was not doing
Speaker 1: TM at the time, and that's what your latest book
Speaker 1: is about, transcendental meditation. But I've been doing it again
Speaker 1: now for several months. I had taken it a long
Speaker 1: time ago when I was eighteen, but I took a
Speaker 1: refresher course recently, and so I've been doing it for
Speaker 1: the last several months. So it's kind of interesting because
Speaker 1: at the time when we booked you, I wasn't but
Speaker 1: but now I am. So we'll definitely dig deeper into
Speaker 1: that and some of the other work you've done in
Speaker 1: your career. But we'll start like we always do, with
Speaker 1: the parable. There's a grandfather who's talking with his grandson.
Speaker 1: He says, in life, there are two wolves inside of
Speaker 1: us that are always at battle. One is a good wolf,
Speaker 1: which represents things like kindness and bravery and love, and
Speaker 1: the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like
Speaker 1: greed and hatred and fear. And the grandson stops and
Speaker 1: he thinks about it for a second, and he looks
Speaker 1: up at his grandfather and he says, well, grandfather, which
Speaker 1: one wins, And the grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed.
Speaker 1: So I'd like to start off by asking you what
Speaker 1: that parable means to you in your life and in
Speaker 1: the work that you do. I think it's a profound parable,
Speaker 1: and profound because it's true that whatever we practice is
Speaker 1: what we will succeed at. And if we practice anger
Speaker 1: and violence, we will succeed at that. But to my mind,
Speaker 1: for me personally, that would not be a successful life.
Speaker 1: That would be a life of destruction. Everything that I've
Speaker 1: done in my professional and personal life has been geared
Speaker 1: towards trying to make the world a little bit of
Speaker 1: a better place, which each of us can only do
Speaker 1: to a very small degree. But if all of us
Speaker 1: do that, then we can have a very powerful collective force.
Speaker 1: So I think that practicing good things, it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: I've always made the best choices, done the best things,
Speaker 1: but I've always tried, and I think thanks to the
Speaker 1: knowledge and wisdom I've acquired along the way. I'm doing
Speaker 1: a better job now than I did before, and that's
Speaker 1: the way I would like to see for my children,
Speaker 1: my grandchildren, my friends, and the people listening to the podcast. Well,
Speaker 1: that's an excellent way to start. One of the things
Speaker 1: that you are probably most known for is that you
Speaker 1: were the researcher who discovered seasonal effective disorder. The fact
Speaker 1: that we get depressed during the winter time. Tell me
Speaker 1: a little bit about what led you to that discovery
Speaker 1: and what you think are some of the most effective
Speaker 1: treatments for it. As I think of everything that I
Speaker 1: have contributed, the most important things come first from within,
Speaker 1: from an insight that is due to me looking deep
Speaker 1: inside myself and then looking at other people and saying, wait,
Speaker 1: a sick Could this supply to them too? Could this
Speaker 1: be a general phenomenon? And that's what happened with seasonal
Speaker 1: effective disorder. I came from South Africa. I was twenty
Speaker 1: six years old. I went to New York City to
Speaker 1: do my psychiatry residency, and when winter came and the
Speaker 1: days became short and dark, I had never previously experienced
Speaker 1: such a slowing down my thinking of my emotions, of
Speaker 1: my creativity and that returned in the spring. The momentum
Speaker 1: and the zest came back with spring and summer, and
Speaker 1: that happened three years in a row. So perhaps it
Speaker 1: was not a coincidence that I ended up doing a
Speaker 1: research fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health with
Speaker 1: a group who were looking at cycles, cycles of mood,
Speaker 1: of light of day and night. And in that context
Speaker 1: I came across some people who had that winter experience
Speaker 1: much more than I did. And that's when, with the
Speaker 1: help of colleagues, I put the pieces of the puzzle
Speaker 1: together and I said, look, these people, we people are
Speaker 1: having this regular, full winter depression that gets better in
Speaker 1: the spring and summer, and it may be due to
Speaker 1: the light. Maybe that the lack of light is driving it.
Speaker 1: And so let's give these people more light. And I
Speaker 1: gave myself more light as well, and I immediately felt
Speaker 1: the effect. It was not difficult to discern. I took
Speaker 1: a big ceiling fixture, I remember back then all you
Speaker 1: could get with these sort of four ft long ceiling
Speaker 1: fixtures with fluorescent bulbs in them, and I put it
Speaker 1: in my bedroom, and you know, I immediately felt that impact.
Speaker 1: And so we did research, many research studies to really
Speaker 1: verify the syndrome, and others replicated it, and light therapy
Speaker 1: became a standard treatment over these years. But there are
Speaker 1: many things that people can do to help themselves with
Speaker 1: this particular melody. The seasonal effective disorder tell us anything
Speaker 1: about other types of depression, well, I think it shows
Speaker 1: how there are different inputs and different circuits that can
Speaker 1: propagate depression and where if you interfere with them it
Speaker 1: can actually help depression. So, for example, a recent form
Speaker 1: of research that I have gotten into with my colleague
Speaker 1: Dr Eric Finzy, he's a dermatologist and researcher here in Maryland,
Speaker 1: we have been looking at botox for depression because paralyzing
Speaker 1: these frown muscles turns out to be also an antidepressant.
Speaker 1: So I think that what it can tell us is
Speaker 1: that there are many specific inputs that can fuel depression
Speaker 1: and if you interfere with them in a positive way
Speaker 1: bad thinking negative thoughts, thinking negative thoughts that had led
Speaker 1: to cognitive behavior therapy. So I think we just have
Speaker 1: to recognize that depression is fueled by multiple inputs, any
Speaker 1: of which might be helpful if we modulated it in
Speaker 1: treating the depression. Making will feel better. We have to
Speaker 1: tackle it in many different ways. One of the things
Speaker 1: that we talked about on the show An Awful Lot
Speaker 1: is the idea that we become great not in spite
Speaker 1: of our difficulties, but often because of them. And so
Speaker 1: you wrote a book all about this, called The Gift
Speaker 1: of Adversity, The Unexpected Benefits of Life's Difficulties, Setbacks, and Imperfections.
Speaker 1: Could you give me a brief synopsis of your thoughts
Speaker 1: on how do we turn difficulties, setbacks, and imperfections into
Speaker 1: positive things in our lives? Well, yes, When I began
Speaker 1: work on that book, it was initially in my mind
Speaker 1: conceptualized as lessons that nobody ever taught me m hm,
Speaker 1: Things that I learned that nobody ever taught me. But
Speaker 1: I learned them anyway, and there were some of the
Speaker 1: most important lessons, And when I combed through them, I
Speaker 1: saw that it was when difficulties occurred, sometimes very terrible difficulties.
Speaker 1: And so I took many of these incidents from my
Speaker 1: own life, but also from the lives of some fascinating
Speaker 1: people whom I was lucky enough to meet. So, for example,
Speaker 1: as a young man, sitting in a car with my girlfriend,
Speaker 1: I got attacked and stabbed nearly nearly to death, and
Speaker 1: fortunately I made a complete recovery. But that taught me
Speaker 1: that every day of life is precious. Every day, never
Speaker 1: waste a single day. And so that was one great
Speaker 1: insight that life gave me that nobody else could give me. Also,
Speaker 1: some some of the things that I described our mistakes
Speaker 1: that I made, well, that was a mistake. I shouldn't
Speaker 1: have been sitting there. I should have been, you know,
Speaker 1: tucked away in some safe place. And I remember a
Speaker 1: wonderful Latin teacher, a woman came to visit me in
Speaker 1: the hospital after I'd been stabbed, and I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I was such an idiot to be sitting there, necking
Speaker 1: in a dark, shady place. And she said, she said,
Speaker 1: she had this Italian accent, wonderful Italian accent. I'll imitate it.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm not a good imitator, she said, Norman.
Speaker 1: She said, sitting and necking in dark places is what
Speaker 1: that's what life is all about. She made me feel better.
Speaker 1: She might have a point, Yeah, she made me feel better.
Speaker 1: So in any event, you know, when things go wrong,
Speaker 1: they say you cannot become a master sailor. On Calm Seaves.
Speaker 1: It's only when you're tested and challenged that you can
Speaker 1: really learn. And so that's a perspective that I particularly
Speaker 1: want to give to the young people who don't realize that.
Speaker 1: I say, never waste a mistake. If it's a mistake,
Speaker 1: learned something from it, because it will be the best
Speaker 1: lessons you'll ever learn. Let's turn our attention now to
Speaker 1: your latest book. Actually, you know you've written a couple
Speaker 1: of books on the subject of transcendental meditation. The most
Speaker 1: recent one is called super Mind, How to Boost performance
Speaker 1: and live a richer and happier life through Transcendental Meditation.
Speaker 1: So let's start off and maybe talk about what transcendental
Speaker 1: meditation is for people who are not familiar with what
Speaker 1: it is, and then we'll talk more about what the
Speaker 1: supermind is from their Transcendental meditation, which is often called
Speaker 1: t M, is an ancient form of meditation that comes
Speaker 1: from India, and it involves sitting down twice a day
Speaker 1: for about twenty minutes, closing your eyes and thinking a mantra,
Speaker 1: which is a it sound that doesn't actually have a meaning,
Speaker 1: and you do need to be taught, so the book
Speaker 1: won't actually tell you exactly how to do it. But
Speaker 1: what the book does, People say, is that a how
Speaker 1: to book? I say, no, it's a why too book.
Speaker 1: Because our most precious resources time. So before you are
Speaker 1: willing to devote twenty minutes twice a day of your
Speaker 1: precious life, which I've just told you every day is precious,
Speaker 1: before you devote that time, you have to be persuaded
Speaker 1: that it's worth your while. So basically, that's how you
Speaker 1: do it. It sounds very very simple, and actually it
Speaker 1: is simple and automatic. But even simple and automatic things
Speaker 1: take a little practice and a little learning and a
Speaker 1: little teaching. That's why it's taught. So for example, when
Speaker 1: you ski down a say modest hill, then gravity is
Speaker 1: going to do the work for you. Gravity will pull
Speaker 1: you down, but you do need to know how to
Speaker 1: work your legs in the right way and you're you know,
Speaker 1: ski poles in the right way so that you can
Speaker 1: remain balanced and get down the hills. So even though
Speaker 1: it's not effortful, it takes a little bit of skill
Speaker 1: and that can be easily learned. So that's really the
Speaker 1: actual method. But then what happens to you once you
Speaker 1: get the hang of it is that when you go
Speaker 1: into that meditating state, you go into something called transcendence,
Speaker 1: which happens to be the name of an earlier book
Speaker 1: on the subject that I wrote. And that is a
Speaker 1: state of consciousness where you're very calm and very alert,
Speaker 1: which is kind of unusual to be calm and alert
Speaker 1: at the same time, and it's very lovely and pleasant
Speaker 1: and wonderful and you when you do this repeatedly, it
Speaker 1: begins to settle down your nervous system in a very
Speaker 1: healthy and positive way. Let's talk about transcendence for a second,
Speaker 1: because that's one of those things is that I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people, myself included, find meditation to be challenging.
Speaker 1: Now I know that TM one of the big things
Speaker 1: is to be effortless about it, is to not put
Speaker 1: any any effort into it. However, how do you encourage
Speaker 1: people to continue? Maybe if and initially it's difficult to
Speaker 1: sit there with your brain racing for twenty minutes, because,
Speaker 1: at least in my experience and a lot of people
Speaker 1: have talked to you, I'm not one of the I
Speaker 1: transcended quickly kind of people. Well, I think that's right.
Speaker 1: I didn't transcend, or at least I didn't realize I
Speaker 1: was transcending that quickly. But let's take your initial parable
Speaker 1: with the grandfather. The grandson says which wolf wins out,
Speaker 1: and he says the one you feed, So that's good.
Speaker 1: But then in the actual teaching of this child, you
Speaker 1: have to say, well, how do you feed the good wolf?
Speaker 1: What do you give the good wolf to feed? How
Speaker 1: often do you feed? What kind of food is best?
Speaker 1: So the the basic message is very very simple, but
Speaker 1: then when you actually get to do it, you need
Speaker 1: a little guidance from the grandfather. So in a very
Speaker 1: analogous way, the actual technique of TM is very simple,
Speaker 1: but you need a little guidance. And that's why the
Speaker 1: presence of the teacher who is going to be there
Speaker 1: for you until you get that technique just where you
Speaker 1: want it and just where it does the good that
Speaker 1: you wanted to do. And so that's what I would say,
Speaker 1: you know, there there is in the teaching for successive days.
Speaker 1: Each day the teacher goes through the technique with you,
Speaker 1: asks you for feedback. Then you should come back in
Speaker 1: a week and say how are you doing. And I
Speaker 1: think what a lot of people don't realize is that
Speaker 1: they have the support they have the support. So somebody
Speaker 1: is going to take you by the hand until you
Speaker 1: get that technique just where you want it to be. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, Oftentimes we think, well, this is a pain
Speaker 1: in the neck. You've got to go back and have
Speaker 1: it checked and so on and so well, No, think
Speaker 1: of it a different way. Think of it as endless
Speaker 1: support until you have that technique right, and it's not
Speaker 1: that difficult. Oftentimes the trouble, the biggest trouble is we're
Speaker 1: forcing it, we're judging it, We're saying to ourselves, I'm
Speaker 1: not doing this well enough, try harder, work more. Whereas
Speaker 1: it's it's work less, you know, it's just let it happen.
Speaker 1: It's it's that easy. And it's so strange because so
Speaker 1: many of the things that we strive for in life
Speaker 1: are really quite difficult. So to find something where the
Speaker 1: actual goal is to be easy is paradoxically a little
Speaker 1: out of line with the rest of our work. Very
Speaker 1: interesting point. Let's talk a little bit about the difference
Speaker 1: between transcendental meditation and other types of meditation. The type
Speaker 1: of meditation that we are all here about all the
Speaker 1: time in today's world is mindfulness. You've got a great
Speaker 1: chapter in the book, and I think, given that you
Speaker 1: are definitely biased to t M, I think you did
Speaker 1: a nice job of being relatively even handed in your perspective,
Speaker 1: which I know you were trying to do, so nice job. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you. Yes, I think that the important thing is
Speaker 1: for somebody to just acknowledge a bias right up front,
Speaker 1: because I think we're all biased based on our own experiences.
Speaker 1: You know, I've had this amazing ride with TM. It's
Speaker 1: been so wonderful. It's changed who I am as a person,
Speaker 1: so naturally I'm extremely enthusiastic about it. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not here to convert anybody or persuade anybody. I'm just
Speaker 1: here to just share a wonderful experience that I've had
Speaker 1: personally and professionally. Because many of my patients now meditate
Speaker 1: with a technique that helps you to feed the good wolf.
Speaker 1: Basically because as you feel nicer within yourself, other people
Speaker 1: respond better to you. Other people feel nicer to have
Speaker 1: you in their presence, and then they are better people.
Speaker 1: So you're not only feeding your own good wolf, you're
Speaker 1: feeding the good wolves all around you because you're putting
Speaker 1: out good energy. Now, as you point out, mindfulness is
Speaker 1: very different when you practice mindfulness, whether it is focusing
Speaker 1: on an object, focusing on the breath, or thoughts like
Speaker 1: loving kindness, for example, you're given a very specific directive
Speaker 1: focus on thus and such experience at moment to moment
Speaker 1: in the present, and you're taught how to go about
Speaker 1: doing that. Now, that is a process that involves the
Speaker 1: part of the brain, which is the prefrontal cortex, where
Speaker 1: decisions are made, judgments are made, active instructions are followed.
Speaker 1: In contrast, when you automatically access something as you do
Speaker 1: with a mantra in TM, that part of the brain
Speaker 1: is not really online. And when you start judging your
Speaker 1: TM or saying this isn't good enough or whatever, then
Speaker 1: you actually interfere with the process because you're bringing that
Speaker 1: prefrontal cortex online. In addition, there are deep seated circuits
Speaker 1: in the brain called the default mode network. That's a
Speaker 1: network of pathways that come alive when the brain is
Speaker 1: not focusing on anything in particular. And as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: that set of circuits shuts off during mindfulness when you're focusing,
Speaker 1: and it comes alive during transcendence. So all of this
Speaker 1: is to say that these are very different practices, They
Speaker 1: ask different things of the meditator. They have different effects
Speaker 1: on the brain, and so we should imagine that they
Speaker 1: would different effects on a person's life. When I ask
Speaker 1: people who do mindfulness, and in that chapter there are
Speaker 1: two people who do both t M and mindfulness, so
Speaker 1: they basically compare the effects. Mindfulness does just what it
Speaker 1: purports to do. It helps people stay in the present,
Speaker 1: in the here and now, and therefore understand the reality
Speaker 1: of the changing world, both external and internal, from moment
Speaker 1: to moment. TM does exactly what it purports to do.
Speaker 1: It takes you into a different state of consciousness called
Speaker 1: transcendence when you meditate. And then here's where the leap
Speaker 1: comes to supermind. As you practice TM more, that beautiful
Speaker 1: state of consciousness filters into your daily life and begins
Speaker 1: to shape every aspect of brain functioning, from memory to creativity,
Speaker 1: to performance and also to the sheer joy of living.
Speaker 1: I was very fascinated by the studies on the default
Speaker 1: mode network you referenced in your book. A study that
Speaker 1: I really like and I've participated in, which is Dan
Speaker 1: Gilbert's study on UM you know what people are doing,
Speaker 1: and he kind of came out with a title, you know,
Speaker 1: is a wandering mind and unhappy mind. No, no, he
Speaker 1: didn't do it that way. He said, the wandering mind
Speaker 1: is an unhappy one. Yes, the wandering mind is an
Speaker 1: unhappy mind. Your perspective on it was interesting because I
Speaker 1: found for myself by and large that a wandering mind,
Speaker 1: at least the wandering mind that I have, is not
Speaker 1: a very happy mind. Um. And so you know, in
Speaker 1: those cases, what we're doing is turning off, you know,
Speaker 1: in mindfulness practice other things, turning off the default mode network.
Speaker 1: And that's that's being a little bit more focused. Now
Speaker 1: you're almost describing a third type of thing here, which
Speaker 1: is not your ordinary wandering mind. It's the kind of
Speaker 1: mind you come across through TM training. Yes, I think
Speaker 1: you've nailed it, because you know, when your mind normally wanders,
Speaker 1: it's usually because some problem has popped into your head.
Speaker 1: So let's say you're doing work on a computer, you're
Speaker 1: filling out, you're punching numbers into a spreadsheet for example,
Speaker 1: or whatever you're doing, and then suddenly you remember, oh,
Speaker 1: my car, the meter on my car is expired or something,
Speaker 1: or I wonder what my girlfriend is up to. She
Speaker 1: wasn't feeling well this morning, I wonder how she's feelings.
Speaker 1: Your mind is wandering, but the way the mind works
Speaker 1: is unresolved issues pop into your mind to be noodled
Speaker 1: over and processed and fixed. So it's not surprising that
Speaker 1: wonder ing is often, in the normal course of events,
Speaker 1: associated with some level of unhappiness. But what happens when
Speaker 1: your mind wonders, if you want to put it that
Speaker 1: way during TM, is it's actually a very joyful thing.
Speaker 1: And I described in my book a walk that I
Speaker 1: might have where I'm thinking about this, thinking about that,
Speaker 1: my mind is wandering here and there and m it's
Speaker 1: you know, very joyful, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'm riveted by something I mentioned, grass growing through the asphalt,
Speaker 1: which looks as green as emeralds um and absolute delight
Speaker 1: to watch and to look at. So yes, then I'm
Speaker 1: being mindful. But I'm not being mindful because somebody told
Speaker 1: me to. I'm being mindful because that is where my
Speaker 1: attention was drawn. And that's not what they mean by
Speaker 1: mindfulness at all. But it is a sense of being
Speaker 1: very alert to the world around us. In all it's
Speaker 1: it's glory. Basically, Yeah, I'm I'm not sure that I
Speaker 1: agree that that's not what is meant by mindfulness. On
Speaker 1: on some hand, I think the goal of the practice
Speaker 1: is to be able to see the beauty that's kind
Speaker 1: of right around us. Um. And I think the thing
Speaker 1: about that I've read about the default mode network and
Speaker 1: what Daniel Gilbert did and all that is that, um,
Speaker 1: it's when our mind is wandering off to very self
Speaker 1: referential things, you know, where we're just kind of thinking
Speaker 1: about ourselves and how we fit and what we you know,
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff. And that leads into with
Speaker 1: TM ultimately talking about you know, who you really are.
Speaker 1: And I think we haven't had a chance to get
Speaker 1: much into super mine, and we're quickly running out of time.
Speaker 1: But super mind, from your perspective, is a mind that uh,
Speaker 1: you know, functions better in all aspects, has access to
Speaker 1: different areas of consciousness and and one of the things
Speaker 1: that you talk about is discovering who you really are. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think it's true we have perhaps not given supermnd
Speaker 1: it's due it's the mind waking up the mind in
Speaker 1: all its full potential. That's why I say super mind.
Speaker 1: And I'll just say from personal experience and from watching
Speaker 1: many people meditate, and also we have a survey of
Speaker 1: more than six people that everything you would want in
Speaker 1: terms of feeding that good wolf is grown when you
Speaker 1: have a super mind. It's not just that you're a
Speaker 1: better person, but you're a happier person, you're more effective,
Speaker 1: you're more productive, you're more creative. And I want to
Speaker 1: also emphasize that it's not a matter of abstract concept,
Speaker 1: it's a matter of specific instances. That's why I just
Speaker 1: load the book with very intriguing stories from very intriguing people.
Speaker 1: When I say, you know, who are you really? Somebody
Speaker 1: who really epitomized that question is Hugh Jackman, who said
Speaker 1: that t M, after many years, has has given him
Speaker 1: a sense of authenticity who he really is, not just
Speaker 1: a famous actress, singer, dancer, but who he is as
Speaker 1: a person. And so it is with a homeless man
Speaker 1: who my feature that he has had a terrible history
Speaker 1: of feeding the bad wolf, drugs, crime, violence, incarceration. Now
Speaker 1: on the outside, having learned TM, he walks in the
Speaker 1: street in his uniform. He has a sort of job
Speaker 1: that was given to him by a charity where he says,
Speaker 1: I'm greeted every day by people, they're not their head,
Speaker 1: they smile, they're pleased. I'm cleaning the street. It feels
Speaker 1: so wonderful to be part of ordinary society. And then
Speaker 1: he says, at lunchtime, I go into Central Park, I
Speaker 1: sit on the slopes, I close my eyes, I think
Speaker 1: my mantra, I hear the birds, and I'm the happiest
Speaker 1: person imaginable. So that's what the supermand is all about.
Speaker 1: Whether you're homeless, or whether you're a famous actor, or
Speaker 1: whether you're a psychiatrist, or whether you have a wonderful podcast.
Speaker 1: As you do, you can be the best that you
Speaker 1: can be. And the way to the super mind from
Speaker 1: your perspective is through transcendental meditation. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: claim that there's only one way to get anywhere. I'm
Speaker 1: all for saying there are many doors to dharma, there
Speaker 1: are many ways to getting good things. But this is
Speaker 1: one very reproducible, dependable, reliable way, and a way that
Speaker 1: I know and that I want to share with the reader.
Speaker 1: For getting there. Yeah, Well, like I said earlier on,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of fascinated right now with transcendental meditation because,
Speaker 1: like I said, I started doing it. I did it
Speaker 1: a long time ago, and then most of my meditation
Speaker 1: experience has been various forms of mindfulness meditation. So it's
Speaker 1: been really interesting for me for the last three months
Speaker 1: to really get deep into transcendental meditation. And I will
Speaker 1: say thank you to you because your books are very good.
Speaker 1: Why too, I read your books and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: better get that second twenty minutes in today. You know
Speaker 1: it's it's helped me. It's helped me remember more regularly
Speaker 1: my motivation for why I want to meditate, why it
Speaker 1: feels important to me. And and so that's one of
Speaker 1: the things with with TM that I've started doing is
Speaker 1: at doing that second session nearly every day. You know,
Speaker 1: that second twenty minute session. I'm so happy you say that.
Speaker 1: And here's where Superman comes in once again, because you
Speaker 1: know you can say, well, I'll miss the twenty minutes
Speaker 1: and it's not a big deal. But firstly, it is
Speaker 1: a big deal because I don't feel the same if
Speaker 1: I haven't had that. I can tell the difference now
Speaker 1: in terms of how I feel in the immediate since.
Speaker 1: But the other thing is I realized that I'm not
Speaker 1: just meditating for those twenty minutes. I'm meditating so that
Speaker 1: I can grow all these functions that we've talked about,
Speaker 1: all these things that constitute feeding the good wolf. My
Speaker 1: mind is growing with each meditation. I feel it, and
Speaker 1: I that's why I wanted to share it. So if
Speaker 1: transcendence was how TM settles down the overstressed nervous system,
Speaker 1: the supermand is how it wakes up the mind to
Speaker 1: its full potential. Excellent. Well, I think that is a
Speaker 1: great place to wrap up. I'll have links on the
Speaker 1: website to your books, to your website and all that
Speaker 1: stuff out at when you feed dot Net. And thank
Speaker 1: you so much for taking the time. It's been a
Speaker 1: pleasure to talk with you. And maybe we'll do this
Speaker 1: again soon. Well, that would be wonderful. And do send
Speaker 1: me all the links because I'll post them on my
Speaker 1: social media as well. Excellent, Okay, fantastic, Take care, Okay,
Speaker 1: bye bye. You can learn more about Dr Normandy Rosenthal
Speaker 1: and this podcast at one you Feed dot Net slash
Speaker 1: norm