As the voting public turns its attention to Candy Crowley, CNN's senior political correspondent who will moderate tonight's presidential debate, small facts about the veteran of nine presidential elections are beginning to emerge. Among them? Crowley is a devotee of transcendental meditation.
Crowley's breakneck speed began to creep up on her during the last presidential election and she turned to a number of lifestyle changes to regain some balance, Prevention reports. She became a vegetarian, hired a personal trainer and took up a meditation practice. Now? "It’s the only thing I won’t go a day without doing," she tells the magazine.
TM, as many followers call it, is the practice of meditating with a mantra in an effort to reduce stress and access calm and focus. As HuffPost Healthy Living reported previously, there hasn't been conclusive, large-scale research on the health effects of transcendental meditation, but small observational studies have found benefits, including anxiety reduction, alleviation of symptoms from post-traumatic stress disorder and improved school performance. One study at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles even found physiological gains, like reduced blood pressure, diabetes and obesity among heart disease patients.
This is hardly TM's first brush with boldfaced names. The practice, which was created in its modern incarnation by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, was popular with superstars from the 1960s and 70s, including the Beatles, Mia Farrow and Clint Eastwood. Current celebrities are also involved in the practice, perhaps most notably the director David Lynch, whose David Lynch Foundation is devoted to bringing transcendental meditation to underserved populations. Who else is in on the practice? Read on:
