MARGO L. BAUM

Aug 2, 2019

 

After reading the article about teen mental health (“Helping teens in affluent communities cope with mental health,” Scarsdale Inquirer, July 26), I wonder, what is mental health? Is it simply the absence of anxiety, depression and stress?

As a Scarsdale High School graduate, I understand the pressure to achieve. However, in my teens I wanted more then aspiring to good grades, attending an Ivy League school and making six figures. I didn’t know what I wanted until I found something that transformed my life.

At age 17, I learned a simple mental technique called Transcendental Meditation, which I have now practiced for 45 years. TM became a source of inner development that created a solid foundation of inner strength and bliss within me. From this experience, I believe the missing component of mental health for teens is inner development. I credit TM for providing me with an inner sanctum of peace and saving my life. Due to my experience, I feel the desire to help others lessen the stress of daily life, especially our youth.

As an elementary school teacher, I have witnessed the stress on students of having to gain knowledge of subjects and yet not be taught how to gain inner fulfillment. We train the mind and intellect of our youth to get into better and better elementary, middle, high schools and colleges. But, having achieved all this, are the students balanced, happy, loving adults? More importantly, is the journey from child to adult filled with love, happiness and a balance of heart, mind and spirit? Or is it a path riddled with stress, anxiety and depression?

I have watched students battling anger, low self-esteem, social troubles and academic issues change through instruction in TM. Students around the world have learned this simple mental technique and have had their lives transformed.

Students at The Thacher School, the oldest coed private boarding school for high school students in California, face many of the same issues that impact students from affluent communities: the stress of standardized tests, the pressure to get into good colleges, massive amounts of homework due daily, the pressure to excel in sports, etc.

Thacher students learned TM and found positive results. Michael K. Mulligan, head of the school, said, “Students today are under more pressure than ever to succeed. Standardized testing and grades play increasingly important roles in secondary and college placement outcomes — and many of our youngsters and teens are showing signs of folding under the stress of homework, grades, testing and parental expectations. Our kids need a break, and Transcendental Meditation is one great answer to helping them find rest, peace and calm. Simple, easy and effective, TM has provided for our students … a critical time-out from the stresses of the day. Our students who learned this technique last year report more peace and silence in their day and more resilience in their activities. It has been a gift and a blessing in their lives.”

The use of meditation as an intervention may seem ridiculous to some. Yet, many of the greatest ideas and inventions of our times started out as seemingly insane. For example, my father, the late Dr. Gilbert Baum, was a pioneer in diagnostic ultrasound. The chief of staff at the Veterans Administration Hospital, where my father did his research, told my dad, “Baum, I thought you were certifiable to think you could use sound to see.”

A new paradigm in imaging in the health field came about due to my father’s endless zeal to follow what he knew to be beneficial to the world.

TM has been scientifically validated in more than 600 research studies to reduce stress, anxiety, anger and depression. The research also indicates a greater sense of inner calm develops and a stronger sense of self. In some cases insomnia is alleviated.

The David Lynch Foundation has given TM to veterans, domestic violence victims, and students in schools around the world, transforming the lives of individuals from darkness to light.

Why not give TM to SHS students to develop inner contentment? Why not create a new paradigm of mental health for our youth? When inner development and outer achievement go hand in hand, the result will be true mental health for Scarsdale students.

Margo L. Baum, of Brite Avenue, received her bachelor’s in education from Boston University and her master’s in education from Maharishi University of Management, an accredited university in Fairfield, Iowa. She has taught elementary school and creative writing workshops around the world.

Before grades and careers, education is about people— about hearts and minds learning to live well.

In Europe stress, anxiety, and even addiction are rising sharply among adolescents. But there is hope!

A new wave of educators and policymakers recognizes that true learning begins with well-being. The European Council’s Pathways to School Success —the recent EU framework for more inclusive and healthy schools— urges schools to nurture mental health, inclusion, and resilience as part of their mission to ensure every learner can thrive—calling for whole-school approaches that make emotional well-being a foundation of quality education and life success.

An innovative answer

Schools have been involved in Portugal in two Erasmus+ co-funded projects EUROPE and FRIENDS, answering successfully this EU call through a simple, evidence-based practice that dissolves stress and awakens inner potential: the Quiet Time with Transcendental Meditation (QT/TM) program. Just a few minutes twice a day help students and teachers calm anxiety, improve focus, and build emotional balance—reconnecting with themselves and rediscovering joy in learning and teaching, while nurturing a more peaceful and inclusive school community.

…And in addition to that, the QT/TM program has also a powerful effect in the promotion of physical health!

🧠💓 Stress reduction: new cardiovascular guidelines and its relevance to education

Today, in fact, stress reduction is increasingly recognized also as a key factor in both preventing and treating major diseases.

Recognizing the link between mind and heart, for the first time in 50 years, the 2025 U.S. National Clinical Practice Guidelines for prevention and treatment of high blood pressure, include “stress management” under “Lifestyle and Psychosocial Approaches”, recommending people with hypertension to use practices to reduce stress as an essential part of an healthy lifestyle, and the use of this approaches for primordial prevention.

 

The guidelines specifically highlight the Transcendental Meditation technique, recognized to “have consistent moderate- to high-level evidence for lowering Blood Pressure”, and advise a 3- to 6-month trial of lifestyle modification before the use of medication therapy if needed.

 

Click to explore the Guidelines:

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001356

Why this is relevant to education? Because it is recognized that cardiovascular disease, Europe’s leading killer, disproportionately affects vulnerable groups, and these include children and socioeconomically-disadvantaged populations (Health at a Glance: Europe 2024 report).

 

AND PREVENTION STARTS EARLY!  If children learn healthy stress-reducing habits in school, we can also reduce the risk of chronic diseases like hypertension later in life — leading to healthier lives and stronger, more inclusive societies…

The FRIENDS project aims to promote proven stress reduction through the Transcendental Meditation program into schools across Europe — fostering physical and mental health, well-being and inclusion, while contributing to the long-term prevention of major health challenges.

Through ERASMUS+ mobilities, schools from EU countries come now to visit a model implementing school in Portugal, and the Quiet Time with Transcendental Meditation programme is spreading across Europe!

🌱 Let’s help every child discover the quiet strength within—and build a kinder, healthier Europe together.

Join the growing European community of schools embracing this innovative approach that is transforming education!

 

Discover FRIENDS: https://friends-project.eu/

Discover EUROPE: https://europe-project.org/

Discover FRIENDS Erasmus+ Mobility: https://friends-project.eu/mobility/

 

 

Mirta Castellaro and Stefano Mancin

EU Implementation Coordinators EUROPE & FRIENDS Projects