Going Transcendent

Heard about the many benefits of mediation, but never been able to make it a habit? Transcendental meditation is easy to learn and stick to - and can even enhance your Pilates practice

- Joanna Powell

TEN YEARS AGO, MANDI BATEM AN FOUND HERSELF SO STRESSED SHE BEGAN LOSING HER HAIR . Feeling trapped in her sales job and unfulfilled in her marriage, her anxiety was mounting to the tipping point. “It was a really tough time,” she says. “I was only 30 years old and had always had a healthy head of hair, so when it started falling out, I knew I had to do something.” Although she had previously tried—and failed—to stick to various types of meditation, including mindfulness and Zen meditation, she decided to look into Transcendental Meditation (TM), the practice first made famous by the Beatles in the 1960s and championed today by the likes of Katy Perry and Jerry Seinfeld.

After basic one-on-one instruction, Bateman began to practice TM for 20 minutes twice a day. Profound changes followed. She felt a new inner calm. Her hair stopped thinning. And she began to clearly see the need to revamp her life. She separated from her husband, moved from Vermont to California, and quit her career in sales to become a full-time Pilates and yoga instructor. “TM helped me understand the path I wanted to be on,” she says. “It absolutely changed my life.” Today, despite her busy schedule teaching in three Bay Area studios while launching a new tech startup, Lubbdubb, she rarely misses her sessions. “I can probably count on two hands the number of days I haven’t meditated in the past 10 years,” Bateman says.

Besides discovering a new life path, Bateman also credits meditation with taking her deeper into the “mindful part” of her Pilates practice. “It helps me pay attention and not worry about other things going on in that moment,” she says. “Both in my own practice and in teaching, it makes me be more present, build better rapport and be more joyful.”

THE TM BOOM