Many businesses offer the Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) technique to their employees. Oprah’s staff learned, as did Katy Perry’s entire touring crew.

The TM technique is also a big hit on Wall Street. Ray Dalio, founder of the $160 billion investment company Bridgewater Associates, offers the TM course to his 735 employees, and about 500 now practice the technique.

Thousands of business professionals practice the TM technique to reduce stress, improve their health, and increase productivity and creativity

Many others have followed suit—hundreds of Wall Street professionals have taken the TM course, reports the David Lynch Foundation^SM TM Center in New York City.

And in April, Variety magazine broke the news that “Marvel’s Top Executives Are Obsessed with This Daily Self-Care Practice.”

Despite these marquee examples, the TM technique isn’t widely known as an effective element of business strategy.

Here are ten reasons why it makes sense for every company to make the TM course available to everyone on the team.

Variety magazine broke the news that “Marvel’s Top Executives Are Obsessed with This Daily Self-Care Practice.”

1. Health Cost Savings

Stress impacts businesses more than ever. According to recent studies, 80 percent of workers feel stress on the job and nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage stress.

“Even as their economy roared, more Americans were more stressed, angry, and worried last year than they have been at most points during the past decade,” reports Gallup’s 2018 update on the world’s emotional state. There is evidence that stress contributes significantly to illness, ranging from colds and flu to cancer, diabetes, and heart attacks.¹

A study in the The American Journal of Managed Care³ of medical utilization and expenditures found that participants in the Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health, which includes practice of the TM technique, showed greatly reduced hospital stays, outpatient hospital visits, and overall medical expenditures in comparison to norms.

But several studies² have shown that practicing the TM technique relieves stress and reduces health care costs.

Robert Herron, Ph.D., in his published research, has concluded that the stress-busting TM technique may be an effective method for reducing healthcare costs.³

When employees of a company practice TM, their reduced stress and improved health can really benefit a company’s bottom line.

Consequently, a TM course for employees can pay for itself in saved costs for healthcare, hospitalizations, and reduced absenteeism.

When employees of a company practice TM, their reduced stress and improved health can really benefit a company’s bottom line.

2. Reduced Absenteeism

At Executive Management Associates, Inc. 33 percent of the company practice the TM technique

If people aren’t sick, they come to work.

According to published research,⁴ practice of the TM technique reduces absenteeism and thereby saves money.

In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the cost of absenteeism in the United States at $225.8 billion annually, or $1,685 per employee.⁵

Reduced absenteeism, then, is a second payback for  the TM technique in the workplace.

According to published research, practice of the TM technique reduces absenteeism and thereby saves money.

3. Reduced Turnover

Healthy employees also remain on the job.

An Academy of Management Journal article, “Transcendental Meditation and Productivity,” reported that when people practice the TM technique, they experience increased job satisfaction⁶—a second way that TM helps people stay in their current positions.

A study in the Academy of Management Journal⁶ found that employees who learned the Transcendental Meditation technique showed improved job satisfaction in comparison to control subjects.

What does it mean for a company when employees stay on the job?

Companies don’t have to pay for advertising to find someone new. They don’t lose the productivity of the employee who was already up to speed. They don’t have to spend weeks or months training a new employee, who also might later become dissatisfied and quit.

A study by the Society for Human Resource Management shows that the cost of replacing a salaried employee is about six to nine months’ salary: “For an employee making $60,000 per year, that comes out to $30,000–$45,000 in recruiting and training costs.”

By increasing job satisfaction, a TM course  for employees allows companies to save big bucks on the cost of employee turnover.

When people practice the TM technique, they experience increased job satisfaction—a second way that TM helps keep people on the job.

4. Better Work Atmosphere

Interviews and video from Lindsey Adelman Studio illustrate how the practice of the TM technique helps boost the work ethic, creativity, and productivity of the studio’s brilliant designers, artists, managers, and staff.

Lindsey Adelman, founder and creative director of Lindsey Adelman Studio

Published research also documents a variety of workplace benefits for professionals in the fields of nursing and education. These side benefits would be useful for any organization or profession interested in improving the mental health, emotional competency, and resilience of its employees.

“Group coherence is a powerful tool for organizational effectiveness” when employees practice TM, attests Andrew Bargerstock, business professor at Maharishi University of Management, who’s also been an executive with a Fortune 500 company, established two successful businesses, and consulted with many companies, including Allstate Insurance, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and Virginia Department of Social Services.

The practice of the TM technique helps boost the work ethic, creativity, and productivity of the Lindsey Adelman Studio’s brilliant designers, artists, managers, and staff.

5. Less Fatigue

We’ve all experienced fatigue in the workplace and its impact on our work and that of our colleagues.

A meta-analysis in American Psychologist,⁷ which drew definitive conclusions from all available physiological research on the TM technique, found that the practice of TM produces a state of deep rest compared to control conditions, as measured by reduced respiration rate, reduced basal skin conductance (increased skin resistance), and reduced plasma lactate.

According to a study cited in EHS Today on best practices for environment, health, and safety, “Of the nearly 29,000 employed adults interviewed, 38 percent said they had experienced ‘low levels of energy, poor sleep, or a feeling of fatigue’ during the past two weeks. Total lost productive time averaged 5.6 hours per week for workers with fatigue, compared to 3.3 hours for their counterparts without fatigue.”

Practicing the TM technique helps lift the fog of fatigue by providing deep rest, as numerous studies on brain integration and excellence in leadership have shown.⁷

To emphasize the point, Michael Desmarais, head of global recruiting for Goldman Sachs in New York, told the Financial Times that his TM practice enhances both his mental sharpness and vitality: “There is an advantage to having an edge. I don’t think meditating threatens the edge. It enhances focus.”

“There is an advantage to having an edge. I don’t think meditating threatens the edge. It enhances focus.” —Michael Desmarais, head of global recruiting, Goldman Sachs

6. Creativity

Creativity seems to be turning the business world inside out. We don’t take taxis any more. We grab a ride with our enterprising neighbor who drives for Uber. We don’t go to a department store. We simply buy what we want online, and it appears sometimes the same day at our front door. Thank you, Amazon. Maybe we don’t stay at a hotel. Instead, we get an executive suite or a cozy cottage through Airbnb . . . and save money.

Creativity is not just about having fun and being entertaining. It is literally about survival in a dog-eat-dog world.

Iconic filmmaker David Lynch

Meditating filmmaker and producer David Lynch has immortalized the value of TM and creativity in his popular book Catching the Big Fish. “Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper,” he writes.

Lynch is talking about how the TM technique allows us to experience quieter, more expanded levels of thinking and the mind. As a result, we return to our work with fresh ideas and greater creativity.

It’s not that we try to find solutions or big ideas during our 20-minute TM practice, but with regular meditation and stress reduction, increased creativity and solutions spontaneously come to us after meditation.

Former CEO Hans Hickler talks about his increased creativity as a result of practicing TM. And Mark Hess, an award-winning retired realtor and director in public relations and community affairs, also credits TM with increased creativity and ability to solve problems.

Alexander Gillis, a real estate investor, feels his TM practice helps him see value in  properties that others find worthless. He then turns them into profitable income producers.

The TM technique allows us to experience quieter, more expanded levels of thinking and the mind. As a result, we return to our work with fresh ideas and greater creativity.

7. Productivity

Greater productivity, too, is an often overlooked benefit of offering the TM technique within a business. When people practice TM, they experience reduced stress, greater efficiency, and creativity, which often spontaneously heightens their output. With TM, workers are clear. They’re fresh. As a result, they’re more productive.⁶

A study in the Academy of Management Journal⁶ found that employees who learned the TM technique showed improved job performance in comparison to control subjects.

Robert Daniels started out as a chimney sweep, and in a few years, built a successful company—Copperfield Chimney Supply. A long-time TM practitioner who moved from California to Fairfield, Iowa, in the early 1980s with his family, he experienced some striking business success in this small town, home of Maharishi University of Management.

Daniels eventually sold his company to a Chicago venture capital firm for more than $3 million.

Other examples of TM and successful productivity are legendary. Billionaire investor Ray Dalio, mentioned earlier, attributes much of his success to practicing the TM technique.

Or how about successful investor Mark Axelowitz, managing director at UBS Wealth Management, who splits his 18-hour days between Wall Street, philanthropy, acting, and three kids? TM is also part of his success formula.

With TM, workers are clear. They’re fresh. As a result, they’re more productive.

8. Better Management

When individuals and companies adopt the TM technique, not only do employees perform better, but management also rises to new heights.

David Bishop, former head of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and MGM Worldwide Home Entertainment

“The world-class executive search firm, Korn Ferry, conducted a study of close to 500 executives,” says executive David Bishop, former head of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and MGM Worldwide Home Entertainment, who is now heading up his own media company. “They found that CEOs who were self-aware had 25 percent higher financial performance than those who weren’t.”

TM and its advanced techniques may be one of the most direct routes to increasing self-awareness and self-development, as shown in several studies indicating greater self-actualization among TM practitioners.⁸

“CEOs who were self-aware had 25 percent higher financial performance than those who weren’t.” —David Bishop, former head of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

9. Spontaneous Good Fortune

Nothing can substitute for being in the right place at the right time, opportunities coming your way, or meeting the right people to achieve your vision. Many meditating business people find that greater “synergy” throughout a company heightens the possibility for good fortune.

Larry Comp, President of LTC Performance Strategies

Larry Comp, President of LTC Performance Strategies, a nationally recognized High Performance and Total Compensation Solutions firm, feels practicing TM has improved his luck.

At the start of his career, he experienced some difficulty landing the HR job he wanted. But “I attended a TM meeting and got to talking to a very friendly gentleman who turned out to be the director of HR and public relations for a major division of a Fortune 100 company,” he reports. “He got me lined up for an interview, and I got the job. I was about 23 at the time and was happy for the opportunity to be in charge of hiring for a nuclear research center.”

Meditating businessman Fred Gratzon enjoyed sudden success with his Great Midwestern Ice Cream Co. when People magazine, to his great surprise, branded his blueberry ice cream the best in the country.

As a Chicago Tribune article puts it, “To say that good fortune smiled upon him may be an understatement.”

Fred Gratzon, author of The Lazy Way to Success: How to Do Nothing and Accomplish Everything

Gratzon started his company knowing nothing about ice cream except that he loved it. He credits his success to the energy and freedom from stress he gains from TM, along with two-thirds of his employees. “I don’t want to make a big deal about TM, but it works. We don’t have to strip our gears working 20 hours a day to be successful,” he told the Tribune.

People in business who practice the TM technique offer other examples of spontaneous good fortune. When meditators transcend and experience pure consciousness regularly, they become more attuned to the foundation of life, which supports and facilitates their desires and actions.

“I don’t want to make a big deal about TM, but it works. We don’t have to strip our gears working 20 hours a day to be successful.” —Fred Gratzon, Great Midwestern Ice Cream Co. founder

10. The Seeds of Success

In summary, companies that offer the TM course find their employees stay on the job, and they’re happier. They don’t get sick as often as before. The atmosphere in the company is lighter, more pleasant, and encouraging.

Employees and managers tend to be more clear-headed, compatible, and—best of all—creative. They work conscientiously in a kind of frictionless flow. They perform well with what they can control, and the company’s new synergy often takes care of what they cannot. Success comes more easily.

Staff at the Lindsey Adelman Studio practice the TM technique together

So those are my 10 reasons for bringing the TM technique to every business. It’s one of the most highly researched, and yet underutilized, business optimization tools available today. A virtual secret sauce for business success!

It seems like every day it’s gaining greater and greater acceptance and recognition among executives and CEOs around the country. Who knows? Maybe your company is next!

To learn how programs for instruction in the TM technique could be structured and implemented for your company, please contact:

Robert Farley, Managing Director, Center for Leadership Performance
rfarley@tm.org • (800) 421-3250

James G. Meade, Ph.D., is a full-time teacher of the TM program in Los Angeles and the author of 30 books, mostly about business, including 5 in the famous Dummies series and The Human Resources Software Handbook: Evaluating Technology Solutions for Your Organization, a 400-page sourcebook with leading business publisher John Wiley.

References