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[September 20, 2024; Santa Barbara] – The David Lynch Foundation’s Institute for Mental Health and Resilience has launched MEDITATE AMERICA, a public awareness campaign to drive home the benefits of meditation techniques to help manage and reduce stress. The campaign aims to combat America’s stress epidemic. According to a 2024 study commissioned by the American Psychological Association, nearly 50 percent of American adults report feeling more stressed out than ever, and the numbers are soaring.
MEDITATE AMERICA is a national public awareness campaign being launched simultaneously in more than 50 cities. There are evidence-based benefits of meditation as an antidote to the escalating stress levels in the whole country. During the local campaign, which runs through November 12, free TM Info sessions are available online, and course fees to learn Transcendental Meditation have been reduced by up to 50 percent.
“MEDITATE AMERICA is about waking people up to the very real hazards of stress and the very real, science-backed benefits of Transcendental Meditation (TM)—and encouraging people to take action, learn to meditate and protect themselves against the toxic onslaught of stress,” says Bob Roth, CEO of the David Lynch Foundation and author of the New York Times bestseller, “Strength in Stillness.”
“Americans are feeling very anxious – especially over the economy, gun violence, and the upcoming 2024 election. It’s more important than ever to find ways to mitigate the stress around these destabilizing issues.” Roth says.
Transcendental Meditation is a simple, easily-learned technique that allows the body to gain a profound state of relaxation while the mind, though deeply settled, functions with increased coherence. More than 10 million people have learned the technique and over 400 peer-reviewed studies have verified the physiological and psychological benefits of TM for reducing stress and stress-related disorders, including hypertension, anxiety, depression, and insomnia, while increasing creativity, energy, resilience, and focus.
MEDITATE AMERICA was kicked off with a benefit gala on September 12 hosted by the charismatic Hugh Jackman and the David Lynch Foundation. Mr. Jackman interviewed Dr. Tony Nader, neuroscientist, global Transcendental Meditation expert, and New York Times bestselling author of “Consciousness Is All There Is.” In addition, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy received the “Enlightened Doctor of the Year Award” and global women’s health activist and long-time TM practitioner Maria Shriver received the “Enlightened Woman of the Year Award.”
Replay of the Live Steam and an Introduction to TM and the Meditate America Campaign is at: www.live.meditateamerica.org. Local Santa Barbara TM details are at: https://www.tm.org/centers/santa-barbara
About The David Lynch Foundation’s Institute for Mental Health and Resilience
The David Lynch Foundation’s Institute for Mental Health and Resilience is a nonprofit organization that has provided classes in Transcendental Meditation for free to more than one million under-resourced adults and children in the US and 35 countries, including frontline healthcare workers, veterans, public school teachers, first responders, and women survivors of domestic violence. TM training is also available to companies onsite or through one of the more than 1,000 TM Teaching Centers globally, including 150 Centers in the United States, through teams of certified, highly experienced TM instructors. Through this, the Transcendental Meditation program has been delivered to thousands of small businesses and large corporations and organizations worldwide over the past fifty years, from management to the workforce.