FOR SALES' SAKE MEDITATE!

Maximum success in selling can only be achieved when the salesman has an active, vital, healthy body with a balanced mind and stable emotions. A salesman who is experiencing stress, hypertension, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, a migraine headache, an allergy, or any number of similar types of ailments so prevalent in the pressure cooker business and political climate of today, is going to be selling with a handicap.

I was doing some public relations work for my employer, by visiting with a data processing supervisor of one of our larger accounts. During our conversation the supervisor commented, "Do not send that fat man around. I can't stand him." I thought, "What a thing to say!" I personally liked Ted. The supervisor, perhaps had a prejudice against fat. What would you do in a situation like that? Keep sending Ted to call on the supervisor for follow-up sales and service? Ted was eventually dismissed from the company. Maybe there was more to it than just his over-weight appearance. Ted was not very graceful climbing stairs and would get short-winded quickly while trying to keep up with others. He was selling with a handicap that was robbing him of his livelihood. How many "Teds" are out there working against themselves?

The following two incidents had more severe consequences for two of my associates' sales careers. David was a hard working insurance salesman who told me he became his company's top salesman as a result of hard work. "I drive myself. I push, push and keep pushing. I have to admit that it is an obsession with me," he said. He told me that he was a workhorse and could not rid himself of competitive thoughts. He lacked balance and a broader perspective in life. Worst of all, at the height of his career, he lost life itself due to hypertension.

The second incident occurred two years later. I had just taken a vicious and uncalled-for browbeating from my boss who periodically lost control of himself, only later to return and apologize. The pressures of the job were too much for him to handle and he projected his feelings of inadequacy onto others. After this last blowup, to which I responded with total equanimity and control, my friend Marty came to me and asked, "How can you take the beating you take under Phil and still show no sign of wear?" Marty noticed I had something going for me and wanted in on it. Unfortunately, before I could clue him in he dropped dead from a heart attack. He was only 56 years old. He often spoke of his dream to someday develop his property in Oregon into a luxury golf course. The closest Marty came to realize his dream was to die while teeing off at the ninth hole at his favorite golf course.

These incidents are true. I am not using poetic license to make a point. I do not have to. I have many case histories from which to choose. The business world is packed with people like David, Phil and Marty who are straining at the bit to be first in the game of life. Not knowing how to play the game of life they sacrifice their health and, too often, their lives for achieving one small aspect of the spectrum of success.

I am sure that you will agree that success is not just money, or power, or recognition for being first. Success is holistic and includes having good physical health, peace of mind, and controlled emotions. Health should never be compromised for acquisition of material gain. Poor health takes the salesman's attention away from selling and, in extreme cases, takes the salesman out of selling. In contradistinction, good health enables the salesman to sell more, earn more and to have more of the material comforts of life he desires.

The TM technique, by providing the salesman with improved physical, psychological and emotional health, has a direct correlation to the selling success of the salesman. Numerous research studies have been performed on many persons around the world to evaluate the effectiveness of Transcendental Meditation in the revitalization, rejuvenation and maintenance of mental, emotional and physical health. The following abridged list of benefits was gleaned from five volumes entitled, Scientific Research on the Transcendental Meditation Program, Collected Papers, Volumes I to V, published by MERU Press. The Transcendental Meditation program was found to:

1. Decrease the workload and wear on the heart.
2. Gradually bring about a permanent and beneficial reductionin heart rate.
3. Reduce systolic and arterial blood pressure.
4. Improve tolerance to exercise by persons with angina pectoris.
5. Markedly decrease the concentration of blood lactate (lactate concentration in blood is directly associated with anxiety neurosis, anxiety attacks and high blood pressure).
6. Reduce and eliminate migraine headaches.
7. Reduce anxiety.
8. Reduce use of alcohol and cigarettes.
9. Increase internal control and tolerance in frustrating situations.
10. Reduce depression.
11. Reduce psychosomatic disease.
12. Strengthen the body's immune system.
13. Decrease allergies.
14. Decrease inflammation of the gums, providing a stronger basis for dental health.
15. Be a therapy for insomnia.
16. Normalize weight.
17. Reduce neuroticism.
18. Develop moral maturity.
19. Increase liveliness, friendliness and adventurousness.
20. Reduce use of nonprescribed drugs.
21. Decrease airway resistance in asthmatic patients.
22. Provide faster recovery from sleep deprivation.
23. Increase self-confidence and assertiveness.
24. Increase self-acceptance and contentment.
25. Develop a positive tendency to see man as essentially good.
26. Increase self-actualization.
27. Enable a faster pace of progress.
28. Increase spontaneity and self-sufficiency.
29. Increase endurance.
30. Decrease inhibition.
31. Increase sense of humor.
32. Increase creativity.
33. Improve thought-action coordination.
34. Speed up reaction time.
35. Improve efficiency in perception and performance.
36. Increase alertness while reducing dullness.
37. Increase perceptual ability.
38. Increase vitality.

This list is exemplary of the diverse and broad scope of benefits in the field of health resulting from the practice of the TM technique. *Please see Fig. 8 Fig. 9

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Center for Health Statistics high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke, and is the first and third leading cause of death, affecting one-fourth of U.S. adults.

Results of a new study recently published in the American Heart Association's journal, Hypertension, indicate the TM technique was effective in stress reduction and lowering high blood pressure.

For salesmen with families please note, the April 2004 issue of the American Journal of Hypertension reported the findings of a study by the Medical College of Georgia that the practice of Transcendental Meditation resulted in a reduction of hypertension in inner city high school students when compared with a control group who did not practice the TM technique, but instead, attended health education classes. Dr. Vernon A. Barnes, who performed the study, stated that Transcendental Meditation should be considered for reducing high blood pressure in high risk teens to reduce the chances of hypertension showing up later when teens grow up to adulthood.

To date, over 6,000 physicians have learned the TM technique in the United States, and many prescribe it to their patients. Gary Kapland, M.D. Clinical Director of Neurophysiology, North Shore University Hospital, New York University School of Medicine stated:

Because the leading risk factor of stroke is hypertension and because the TM technique has been shown to reduce hypertension and is free of the side effects often seen with hypertension medication, I wholeheartedly recommend the TM program to patients who have had a stroke or are at risk for a stroke.

Dr. John Zamarra, M.D., F.A.C.C., an Orange County cardiologist, recommends the TM technique to his patients after his research findings indicated that the TM technique was highly effective in the reduction of the pressure and stress off the heart muscle.

Additionally, on file with the TM movement, are literally thousands of pages of anecdotal evidence attesting to the TM program's beneficial role in the field of stress reduction and health.

(*NOTE: Figs. appearing in this online book may vary from those in the paperback version. These Figs. are links to the official www.tm.org website.)