It’s barely seven thirty in the morning as Bob Roth, the CEO of the David Lynch Foundation and a leading figure in the Transcendental Meditation movement, graces a sprawling oceanfront residence in Montauk, his white linen shirt the saratorial equivalent of his cool, calm, and kind demeanor.

Since it was popularized in the United States in the 1960s, Transcendental Meditation, or TM, has moved from the periphery of ancient Eastern traditionalism into the board rooms and classrooms of the present. Roth insists that unlike most meditations which expect the impossible—to “clear your mind of its thoughts”— TM is about giving you tools to access the calm beneath the rush of those thoughts, leading to increased wellness and productivity. In his latest book on the practice, Strength in Stillness, Roth compares the busy mind to the energetic waves at the surface of the ocean. TM, he says, helps its practitioners dive into the stiller waters near the ocean’s floor, enabling more precise, focused thinking. The practice itself can be done anywhere, requiring only a place to sit comfortably upright where the meditator can close their eyes and relax.

World-class celebrities and business leaders across the gamut—Ray Dalio, Oprah, Ariana Huffington, Tom Hanks, Jerry Seinfeld, Martin Scorsese, and Katy Perry, to name a few—have adopted the twenty-minute TM tradition into their daily routine, with Roth as their teacher. Dalio even says it’s the single most important reason for his success. Here’s why Roth advocates for universal embrace of the meditative practice.

The most important thing to know is that all meditations are not the same. TM isn’t a panacea and it isn’t a religion. It’s a technique, backed by science, used to reach a deep level of the mind where it is naturally quiet, settled and peaceful. The mantra is the vehicle we use to reach those depths. In TM, the body gains a state of rest deeper than sleep in many regards, according to research. This deep state of rest allows the body to reboot itself, which is important. If you want to fix your computer, you turn your computer off then reboot it. If you want to fix your car, you turn it off. If you want your body to heal itself, you give it a deep rest. Meditating for twenty minutes, twice a day, wakes up the creative networks in the brain and resets the amygdala, giving the mind a rest from its state of hyperarousal.

For too long, people thought that meditation would make you passive. That is certainly not the case with Transcendental Meditation. I’m almost 70 years old and have been meditating for over 50 years, and I have more energy now than I had when I was in my 20s and 30s. TM gives me more resilience, more energy, more strength, more power to do all the things I need—and want—to do in my life.

That’s exactly true. We work with the most vulnerable populations to people of very high net worth. But whether it’s a 10-year-old kid in the South Bronx, a vet suffering from PTSD, a famous entertainer or a high-powered CEO, stress and trauma are like ticking time bombs inside everybody. Wealth, fame, power—they don’t make us immune from the ravages of stress. The old adage is true: happiness lies within, and so does health and wellbeing. It’s interesting: many of our corporate clients came to TM because they saw a video of a veteran or an inner-city school kid doing TM and they think, ‘If that kid can do it, I can do it too.’

There are so many external events that we cannot control in our life, including the huge financial and health challenges brought on by COVID. But what we can have some control over is how we respond to those very difficult pressures. TM provides a simple, easy-to-practice tool that, as I said, gives the body a profound state of rest, reduces stress, and wakes up the creativity and problem-solving centers within the brain so we can more effectively navigate these turbulent days with energy, focus, and grace.

Stress is like a tumor that is metastasizing in the physiology of just about everyone and in society as a whole. The situation is urgent and needs to be addressed. The David Lynch Foundation is focused on funding large-scale clinical trials to demonstrate the impact of TM as a treatment for healing trauma, reducing high blood pressure and decreasing anxiety. Right now, you can get a prescription from your doctor for anti-anxiety or antihypertensive medications, and the prescriptions will be covered by Medicare or your insurance provider. If the results of these larger TM trials are as impactful as the previous studies, then it won’t be long before you will be able to be covered for TM instruction, too. That will be a very good day.