@Mercked TM has a long history of people making money off of it. They say you need to be “taught” the mantras. Its a bunch of crap. The concept is simple… find a word that means nothing. Its should be meaningless so your brain doesnt “think” about anything or associate it with anything as you recite it. Your trying to reach a state where your not “thinking” about anything and your brain trandscends conscious thought. I made up a mantra “gooz venahh” . I couldnt figure out where I came up with it and then remembered its very close to a mantra used in the movie “Anger Management” with Adam Sandler… where he recites… Gooz Frabah. So I probably need to come up with something different. Anyway… you recite it over and over in your head hundreds or thousands of times in the span of 20 minutes. Focusing only on the mantra. You will feel your brain sort of shift after about 20 minutes. Sometimes you will spin into wacky dreams that are sort of in fast forward (at least thats what happened to me a couple times) . This rejuvenates the brain and the body. When you finish… you will feel like you took a nap if you did it right. Its very very hard… takes a LOT of practice. You ideally need to do it twice a day. You do this with your eyes closed and I use the insight timer in headphones as a background noise which helps.
A little background I found on the original mantras handed down by Gurus was that they would give you a mantra derived from an ancient Sandscrit saying or prayer. They dont tell you what it means and because its in an ancient language you basically feel like your silently reciting jibberish. But “supposedly” those words have meaning and power and can help you with whatever your issue is. TM is a big money making scheme so they tell you to never disclose your mantra…etc… Its a little bit like Scientology in that sense which is annoying.
I have had some rough days with very little sleep and if I’m lucky I can get a bit of a recharge after doing TM for 20 minutes… if I’m able to quiet my mind. Some people say that if you get really good at it, you can bring your mind into a deep state of rest which is more restorative than even deep sleep. I dont know that this is true but I believe that practicing TM does help the brain heal and reconnect synapses and neurosteroids, etc… I think it should be used as a multi-faceted approach to healing the brain to beat anxiety and insomnia. I would not by any means say I’m an expert… I did some digging and thats what I found. I hope this helps. So find some jibberish word, find a dark quiet place, recite it over and over in your brain, relax all your muscles, close your eyes, listen to some relaxing background sounds and you will eventually start to “feel” something shift. I hope this helps you and I"m interested to hear back from you guys on any progress or how it made you feel once you felt like you made a breakthrough.