Speaker 1: Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Bob Roth, and I've been teaching people to meditate
Speaker 1: for fifty years, helping them to stay calm under pressure,
Speaker 1: reboot and re energize their lives, and basically be a happier,
Speaker 1: healthier version of themselves. And now I want to help
Speaker 1: you do the same. Welcome to Stay Calm, your daily
Speaker 1: dose of calmness. Every weekday morning, I'll share a meditation story,
Speaker 1: offer a simple practical tip about how you or a
Speaker 1: loved one can stay a bit calmer in your life,
Speaker 1: and then we'll end each episode together with a moment
Speaker 1: of gratitude. My hope is that I can share what
Speaker 1: I know to anyone who needs it. Ready, sit comfortably,
Speaker 1: take a few deep breaths, and let's begin today's journey.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about Michael J. Fox,
Speaker 1: the great actor, director, producer, author, and all around extraordinary
Speaker 1: human being. A few years ago, I received a telephone
Speaker 1: call from a woman named Tracy. She explained that she
Speaker 1: wanted to arrange a course for her husband to learn
Speaker 1: to meditate. I said we could schedule a time, and
Speaker 1: then I talked about some of the benefits and I said,
Speaker 1: has a very powerful effect for reducing stress and anxiety.
Speaker 1: And she interrupted me and she said, yes, my husband
Speaker 1: is Michael J. Fox, and you may know he's been
Speaker 1: living with Parkinson's for over twenty years. I want to
Speaker 1: give him a tool that might help him manage his anxiety.
Speaker 1: So he came into my office two weeks later, and
Speaker 1: when he walked in, he said, I just want to
Speaker 1: let you know that usually when I'm out in public,
Speaker 1: I have a medication to reduce the tremors. But I'm
Speaker 1: on no medication right now. I want to see how
Speaker 1: potent transcendental meditation could be. I gave him a mantra,
Speaker 1: which is a word or a sound that has no
Speaker 1: meaning associated with it. He closed his eye, and before
Speaker 1: I closed my eyes, I noticed that immediately the tremor stopped.
Speaker 1: Several minutes later, I opened my eyes, asked him to
Speaker 1: open his and his hands were still calm. He stared
Speaker 1: at his hands for several minutes, not saying a word.
Speaker 1: Then he looked over at me and he said, this
Speaker 1: is the calumnist I felt in twenty years. As he
Speaker 1: was leaving to go home, I said, I want you
Speaker 1: to meditate this afternoon for twenty minutes. I want you
Speaker 1: to meditate tomorrow morning for twenty minutes. So he came
Speaker 1: back to the office the next afternoon, and sure enough,
Speaker 1: in both meditations, as soon as he started to meditate,
Speaker 1: his tremors calmed. What was more impressive to him, though,
Speaker 1: was how he felt afterwards. He said, he did this
Speaker 1: peacefulness inside that he hadn't had in years. Michael has
Speaker 1: continued to meditate for five years, and every time he
Speaker 1: meditates the tremors stop. They do increase slowly after meditation,
Speaker 1: but that is inevitable because Parkinson's is not a stress
Speaker 1: base disease. But what was more impressive to him was
Speaker 1: that equanimity that he felt inside. And he told me
Speaker 1: about a talk that he had recently given in Toronto.
Speaker 1: And before, even though he'd given the same talk for years,
Speaker 1: he'd be so nervous and he'd be reviewing his speech
Speaker 1: over and over and over again. This time he just
Speaker 1: sat in the green room, did his afternoon meditation, walked
Speaker 1: out on the stage, gave the best talk he'd ever given. Now,
Speaker 1: the interesting thing about Michael's story, and it is a
Speaker 1: lesson for all of us. There are inevitable challenges and demands,
Speaker 1: an unexpected tumult and traumas that come to us in
Speaker 1: our life for which we may have little or no
Speaker 1: control over. But what we do have control over is
Speaker 1: how we respond to those challenges and demands. And look
Speaker 1: at Michael, top of his game twenty years ago, comes
Speaker 1: down with Parkinson's. He didn't let it stop him from
Speaker 1: building his career and enjoying his life. But the last
Speaker 1: few years the anxiety was rising in him. He wasn't
Speaker 1: living in the present, he was fearful of the future.
Speaker 1: What the meditation has done was allow him to enjoy
Speaker 1: and appreciate what he has now. And what a lesson
Speaker 1: for all of us. We're accessing a field of calm
Speaker 1: that lies deep within everyone. When we transcend in meditation,
Speaker 1: we can enliven that with all the other important natural
Speaker 1: things we do in our life, getting enough sleep, exercising,
Speaker 1: eating properly. Going back to this point about sleep, this
Speaker 1: is what happens when we don't get enough sleep. There
Speaker 1: are two hormones. One is called grellin and it is
Speaker 1: the hunger hormone. It's what makes us feel hungry. Then
Speaker 1: there's another hormone called lepton. Lepton is what tells us
Speaker 1: that we're full, we're satisfied. When we don't get enough sleep,
Speaker 1: grellan the hunger craving hormone goes up. The lepton hormone,
Speaker 1: the one that says I'm done, decreases. We have a
Speaker 1: craving and we're never satisfied. And that, my friends, is
Speaker 1: a formula for disaster. All right, let's end this time
Speaker 1: together doing something that I think should be a feature
Speaker 1: of our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So
Speaker 1: let's take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take
Speaker 1: a break, just take a moment. It turns out when
Speaker 1: we do that, it's good for our health as well.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back, all right. Thank you for joining.
Speaker 1: This is Bob Roth. Keep calm, Thanks for listening today.
Speaker 1: I hope you heard something that inspires, that uplifts you
Speaker 1: and that you can incorporate into your own life. Until
Speaker 1: next time, remember, meditate, be kind, and be true to yourself. Hey,
Speaker 1: all of you out there, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your stories, your questions, or anything
Speaker 1: else on your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook or Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send
Speaker 1: me an email at Meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: I look forward to hearing from you.