By Ben Turshen.

Lack of sleep is a big problem.

A Gallup pol l from a few years ago indicates that over 40% of Americans get less than the minimum recommended seven hours of sleep (I suspect this number has increased since this poll was published in December 2013). Insufficient sleep has been linked to the development of a number of chronic diseases and conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression. Sleep impacts the quality of our lives every day--our energy, our focus and productivity and our mood.

One of the more immediate benefits of Vedic Meditation is improved sleep. It is not uncommon for brand new Vedic meditators to report falling asleep easier, staying asleep longer and sleeping more soundly within a few days of learning and practicing the Vedic Meditation technique. Click here to read a few stories from my students who started sleeping much better once they learned Vedic Meditation.

This was my experience as well. I had been an insomniac my whole life. Even as a young boy I had trouble sleeping. In college, I began to self-medicate with alcohol, NyQuil or Benadryl. In law school, my sleep got even worse and I went to see a doctor who diagnosed me with anxiety-induced insomnia. I was prescribed Ambien (in addition to a number of other prescription medications I was taking for anxiety, depression and ADD). Through law school and during the beginning of my legal career, every single night I would either need to drink to fall asleep or take an Ambien (I was smart enough to never mix the two). Some nights, my anxiety was so intense that I would stay awake on Ambien and hallucinate, which was terrifying. Eventually I would fall asleep, but the quality of my sleep was awful and every morning I would wake up groggy and exhausted with a hangover from either the alcohol or the Ambien. It would sometimes take me a hour to get out of bed.

Within three days of learning Vedic Meditation, I feel asleep without drinking or taking a pill for the first time in years and slept through the night. I remember waking up the next morning without a hangover, actually feeling rested and clear. It was that moment that I knew that Vedic Meditation would help change my life for good.

By Ben Turshen.

When we were kids in school we learned about pulleys and levers in our science and math classes. With amazement, we found that by utilizing these tools we could move heavy objects with significantly less effort.

These natural laws apply to Vedic Meditation as well--to the technique itself and its effects. By doing less, we accomplish more. By doing least, we accomplish most.

Vedic Meditation is easy and effortless. For thousands of years in India, this form of meditation was referred to in Sanskrit as "Nishkam Karma Yoga", which translates to yoga or union attained by action hardly taken. The technique does not involve any focus or concentration, nor does it involve paying attention to, or monitoring, thoughts or activity, as is the case in some other types of mediation, such as mindfullness. With Vedic Meditation, our mind de-excites and body rests deeply (much deeper than the rest experienced in sleep), unwinding decades of accumulated stress and fatigue.

We start sleeping better and feeling rested, we get sick less, we become more focused and productive at work, our relationships improve as notice ourselves being more patient and attentive.

Vedic Meditation gives you leverage. When we practice this technique, we find that we can move the "heavy objects" in our lives with less effort.