Living Well

A Transcendental Meditation Journey

5/31/2023

TM Instructor Mike Hummel

By Ken DeLaat

It started years ago when I was doing a story on one of Mike Hummel’s Transcendental Meditation workshops. I knew he had been practicing it for many years and delivering instruction as well. It must have served him well since Mike is perhaps one of the most positive humans I’ve ever been fortunate to be acquainted with. His dedication to not just the practice itself but the process of educating others of the benefits it brings is unwavering.

One day while working out at Tamarac Mike and I were exchanging pleasantries and I mentioned a friend who had embarked on a TM journey several months ago. She holds a pretty high stress job in a metropolitan area and took instruction after years of struggling with sleep. She found the practice had improved her sleep patterns considerably and as a result improved her outlook even more considerably.

Mike and I spoke a bit about it and he said, not for the first time, “You ought to take it.”
I nodded in agreement and said I would think about it.
When my Dad was asked something we knew would never come to fruition he would say “I’ll think about it.” Fairly early on my sibs and I realized this was his way of not slamming the door on our ideas (“We should put in a swimming pool!”) but in reality his thinking about it ended with that reply.

But I did think about it. I remembered doing a story on Mike working with students at a local school and observing one of their sessions. I was impressed by how quickly the kids had taken to the practice and was told by staff of their improvements academically, particularly in the area of being able to focus.
An ongoing issue throughout my 7+ decades has been the challenge of staying focused on any consistent level and while age has improved this lately there has been a bit of a backslide.
The next time I ran into Mike I led with “Well, I thought about it. Let’s go.

Arrangements were made and it began with scheduling sessions for four consecutive days, a challenge for me due to an unrelenting series of meetings and other commitments I seem to have signed on for. It took a few weeks but we worked it out and I began instruction.

Side note: I have always considered myself a skeptic. I eschew conspiracy theories that are ridiculous in nature, cast a wary eye to ideas that others dear to me might hold, and remain cynical sometimes even in the face of some compelling evidence to the contrary. Thus I approached the process warily and not overly optimistic regarding the possible results. On the other hand there has always been a willingness to try a new adventure and my curiosity was piqued about TM.

There were rituals to be observed in the beginning including being given a mantra, a personalized sound used as a vehicle for assisting the mind in settling down. Mike took me through the process of meditation, encouraging me to allow thoughts and sounds to enter into my mind pattern.
When Mike would say “We don’t try to meditate. We allow meditation to happen” it was perhaps the best advice I could hear. When attempting meditation early on I struggled with the notion that I was somehow doing it wrong. That the thoughts I was having were signs that I was failing TM. Prior attempts at meditation always involved attempting to purge the thoughts. In this practice they were part of the process.
It took awhile but I became able to allow the thoughts to enter and pass, returning to what Mike called transcending.

About transcending.
Many years ago (say, 35-40) I was encouraged by a colleague to visit a local masseuse. I had never gotten a massage before then and she extolled the wonderfulness of the experience to the point where I needed to give it a try.
During the massage there was a space of time when I had no thoughts. None. I wasn’t asleep, just totally thoughtless. It didn’t last because at the time life was pretty busy with younger kids, full time jobs and a mountain of responsibilities and commitments to attend to.
That is the closest I can come to in explaining what happens to the thought process in TM. There is a free floating seemingly timeless period absent of any intrusive thoughts. It’s peaceful, self embracing and as Mike has described it, innocent. I cannot put a time on it nor is it easy to describe. It just is.

As for the thoughts that enter, I was speaking to a friend who also practices about this. I told him the thoughts were from the past. Things I hadn’t thought about for years, even decades. Not traumatic events nor even conflictual times, just encounters with others or things that happened that I may have forgotten about. He said the same was true for him. They were pleasant memories for the most part but surprisingly resurfacing after so much time.
I asked Mike about this and he explained it being part of the process of the practice. A way of connecting to the past and then letting it go.

It has been quite the journey. As instructed I have meditated 20 minutes twice a day. I have a favored spot but have learned to be able to practice in unfamiliar places as well. While there have been times I have missed, they have been few and far between and I am acutely aware of the difference in my day when I don’t get both in.

What has it given me?
A way to begin and end my day on a positive note
A greater appreciation of the world and the people around me.
An increased awareness.
And as to my primary goal…
A much needed increase in focus.

I usually sleep well and I am not a very high stress person by nature. Both are areas TM practitioners find to be helped dramatically by the practice.
But for months before finding TM I struggled mightily with writer’s block.And while this may not affect others as much for one whose business involves a substantial amount of writing, a block can cause problems. It seemed everything I put on paper…well, screen I guess…was a struggle. I thought of a Kurt Vonnegut quote describing writing struggles. “When I write I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in my mouth.”
It was the same for reading. I found myself frequently wandering away from the words on the page and my pile of unfinished in-progress books had become more than ponderous.

Since committing to the practice the block has been seemingly lifted. Beyond the writing for N3 many other projects put on hold have been returned to with a shake or two of vigor and deadline attached requests from other sources no longer fill me with dread or get me thinking of ways to politely refuse.
And while as always there is considerable debate as to the quality of the writing, at the least I am no longer spending too much time staring at a blank screen searching for the right words.

I’m not a panacea kind of person. I don’t believe there is a lone path all should follow. But TM has worked for me in ways that have gone beyond the expectations I had going into it. It delivers with simple tools. The research on it is remarkable and the process of learning is painless.

I have always struggled with adherence to activities that require commitment. My workout history is checkered with gaps of various lengths, there have been numerous attempts at Tai Chi, yoga never really grabbed my attention for long and I can only eat healthy for about 4 ½ days before finding myself knee deep in chips and ice cream.

But I cannot imagine not practicing TM. There are just too many benefits to be had from spending 20 minutes twice a day dedicated to self enlightenment.
I only wish I had listened to Mike when he spoke to me about it years ago, but as the saying goes…
“When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

Free Introduction: Transcendental Meditation on Thursday, June 8, 7:00 PM, at Tamarac, the Center for Health and We’ll-Being, 1401 West Main Street, Fremont.

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