Discovering your Mantra
Transcendental meditation courses come to the Algarve.
Joana Feyo went on a mediation course to get over a relationship break-up and found it so beneficial she decided to become a teacher. Now one of only six Transcendental Meditation teachers in Portugal, Sophie Sadler went to meet her for coffee to find out about mantras, meditation and how she found love again in a Thai jungle!
Followers of this practice reads like a celebrity A-list including Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, Clint Eastwood, Hugh Jackman, Jerry Seinfield, Naomi Watts, Liv Tyler, Martin Scorsese, Jane Fonda, Ben Harper, Katie Perry, Russel Brand, Cameron Diaz, and none other than the Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
So what´s the big deal? A five-year study, published in the journal Circulation, on patients with coronary heart disease reported a 48% reduction in heart attack, stroke, and death among those practising the TM technique compared to controls.
Analysis of brain waves during meditation shows that the mind goes into a state of deep rest and all the brain is functioning coherently. This decreases neurotic behaviour and increases creativity, moral reasoning, learning ability, intelligence.
Joana tells me; “Our creativity is all in a reservoir and all that blocks our access to it, is stress. We need to find how to access the silent part of our mind.” Meditation is now conquering sceptics due to all the research proving its benefits. It is good for anxiety and depression and is based on the theory that the mind is an ocean. Rough on the surface at the conscious thinking level, but silent at the bottom.”
Originally from Lisbon, Joana studied in the Netherlands in international hospitality management, with a masters in Business innovation, she is an intelligent and engaging speaker. Despite being won over by her arguments she is keen to show me many youtube videos that prove the benefits. The most impactful of these is a video from Norwich University, the oldest private military college in the US. Seasoned veterans who are as far removed from your image of levitating hippies than it is possible to get, talk about the benefits of T.M in a military academy. Students reported feeling more focused, more clarity, calmness, improved ability in sports, stress management and improved sleep.
After Joana ended a relationship she took time off work to do a TM course. She wanted to get better at meditation as she found her brain became easily distracted.
“Within one day all my relationship issues were resolved. It was such a revelation I decided I wanted to teach it to others.” This seemed impossible as the cost of doing the course is 20,000 US$, but she told her teacher she wanted to do the course and he started to look for scholarships for her.
She started to help with a school programme in Oliao where she got talking to the guest speaker Bevan H. Morris ( the president of the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, for 36 years and a founder of the Natural Law Party.) Everyone felt so intimidated they were too scared to talk to him but Joana was totally unaware of his fame!
He put in a good word for her with the David Lynch charitable foundation, founded by the film director in 2005 to fund the teaching of TM in schools. David Lynch Foundation is the main responsible for the work done with a population at risk, including veterans, prisoners, schools, people with HIV and women victims of abuse.
Joana won the amazing accolade of a scholarship from the foundation, although she modestly suggests this was because Portugal is short of teachers. The training was in a spiritual area of Thailand called Channnthaburi I ask her to describe it to me.
“Heaven on earth. Everything new with the most beautiful gardens you have ever seen. You are looked after and meditate every day, you learn at your own speed and only take exams when you think you are ready. You have to really want it as you are away for six months with little access to reality and not much time off.”
There is no alcohol or cigarettes and student follow a vegetarian diet, which she thought would be hard for her as she was previously a party girl, but she says she didn´t miss it.
It was during her studies that another life-changing event occurred. Every morning she would walk in the jungle at 5.30 am and a few days before the end of the course, a man appeared to from the middle of the banana fields. This was made all the more surprising as Joana had not encountered any men for weeks as the course was split between the sexes!
They got talking and then arranged to meet every morning. Their friendship led to love and the man is now her boyfriend! He is moving to the Algarve from Bristol in England, this year to teach with Joana in Portugal.
Joana tells me; “TM is very simple and effortless, you don´t need to change your lifestyle and its not a philosophy. It is a simple and natural technique which allows your mind to calm down. You just need to find two 15 min slots per day.”
Research shows that during the practice the body achieves a state of deep rest which reduces the release of the stress hormone cortisol by 30% with 20 mins of meditation and an increase in serotonin which promotes feelings of well-being.
Maharishi Mahesh was the Indian guru that brought the technique to the west. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Maharishi achieved fame as the guru to the Beatles, the Beach Boys and other celebrities.
Maharishi was also a scientist and mathematician and he engaged wit western medicine to accept the benefits. TM is based on a sound or “mantra”. A word or a sound that is positive and has no meaning. It takes you into the mind by keeping it active but not directed so you do not give way to distraction. They have a systematic way of finding your personal sound and your mind naturally wants to follow that sound and so you slip into the transcendent.
You are given a mantra by your teacher and taught how to use it properly in a course which must be carried out on four consecutive days. Joana has now taught 200 students of both group classes and private. The price of the course is not cheap but they are set by the foundation and is dependent on salary and there are special rates for students and people on low incomes.
There is also a special technique for kids where they can go into meditation while drawing or walking around by repeating a mantra. TM is now in 75 countries but Portugal is the leading country for teaching it as part of the school curriculum.
She taught at a school in Lisbon where kids came from social housing and it was normal to bring knives to school. Given the task of teaching 10-14-year-old kids how to meditate, she thought they would be self-conscious but for 10 minutes they made no noise. Afterwards, the teacher came and hugged her and said she had never known that level of silence in the classroom. “This is the only peace they have in their life and they are grateful for the individual attention they were given.”
So if you are looking for some inner peace it would seem that you need to talk to Joana and although you might not find a man in a banana filed, you are sure to find a state of restful awareness.
For enquiries on monthly group course and private courses: joana_dbf@hotmail.com (+351) 934540782.
davidlynchfoundation.org
