I have practiced Transcendental Meditation (TM) consistently for years. The reason is not complicated, it works, and it is actually enjoyable to do. I say this as someone who spends a large part of life dealing with markets, risk, uncertainty, and occasionally listening to gurus confidently predict the future on social media five times a week.
Well, markets are very good at exposing weak temperaments. Stress, impatience, ego, fear, greed, eventually all of them show up somewhere in the portfolio or decision-making process. TM has been one of the few things that consistently helps me keep things balanced.
There is plenty of research behind TM covering stress reduction, sleep, cardiovascular health, cognitive function and so on. I am not going to turn this into a scientific presentation. I only know that after years of practice, the twenty minutes spent meditating are often among the most productive parts of the day.
I do feel for people who become interested in meditation but get distracted by all the noise, suspicion, marketing arguments, and strange debates surrounding TM. The actual technique itself is surprisingly simple. You practice consistently and the benefits quietly accumulate over time.
In some ways, it reminds me of investing. The best results are often not dramatic. They compound quietly in the background while everybody else is busy reacting to headlines, social media panic, and emergency market alerts every 10 minutes or so.
Over the years I have also noticed that quite a number of highly successful people quietly maintain some form of meditation practice. Most do not advertise it loudly because there is no real need to. They simply understand that clarity, emotional stability, energy, and calm decision-making are valuable assets in both business and life.
In a modern environment where many people are overstimulated almost nonstop, having the ability to properly rest the nervous system may actually be one of the more underrated advantages around today.