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[Editor's Note -- Greg Schweitzer is offering a free introductory class. Information can be found at the end of this article or in The Expression's Events list.]
by Jane Stahl
It’s no secret: life is difficult. And it’s also no secret that life’s difficulties cause mental and emotional stress that affect our physical bodies; 70-90% of illness and medication use is linked to stress.
Greg Schweitzer has a tool to create deep, healing calm that can be used anywhere, anytime. The deep state of “restful alertness” has been measured repeatedly to be deeper than the level of rest experienced in sleep. Under stress, our hearts race, blood pressure rises, breathing becomes shallower, digestion slows, and our immune system is compromised. The result: we get sick. And unhappy.
Stress prompts health concerns in every area of our physical and mental state: anxiety, depression, brain fog, fatigue, sleep disorders, relationship concerns. Anger diabetes, obsessive compulsive disorder, chronic pain, headaches, fibromyalgia, weight gain. And a general lack of joy and inner peace.
To manage life’s stresses and protect ourselves from the effects, Doug Schweitzer has been offering science-based Effortless Meditation as part of his Stress Reduction Resources organization for over 40 years.
His resumé includes teaching Transcendental Meditation (TM) for 17 years at the Maharishi Ayurvedic Health Center in Massachusetts, the facility that offered a refresher course to George Harrison of the Beatles and inspired “guest” Dr. Wayne Dyer in his life’s work after learning TM with Greg. Celebrity clients included Barbara Streisand. Deepak Chopra, hailed by Time magazine as one of the 100 top icons and heroes of the 20th century, was the clinical director at the Center; Greg was the director of guest services. All clients were known as “guests.
Greg has stories about the celebrity guests, but he decided to leave and begin his own practice when the facility took on the fee schedule of an upscale spa, and he returned to his Berks County roots.
“Everyone wants to live more peacefully,” Greg emphasizes. “Meditation takes our minds to a place of rest; our body responds similarly. Rest is nature’s medicine.” Greg himself meditates for 20 minutes, twice a day.
As his “guests” discover, meditation can take place anywhere and needs no equipment. Some of those he taught over 20-30 years ago continue to practice TM.
Doug operates Stress Reduction Resources in Sinking Spring; he’s taught meditation techniques to corporate staff and individuals—in-person and on-line. Forty of fifty GPU employees in 2000 signed up to learn meditation after hearing a presentation on it and have offered stories of the life-changing benefits.
Other corporate clients include Air Products and Chemicals, J.C. Ehrlich Pest Control, Godiva Chocolatier, and Penn State Hershey Medical Center.
Instruction continued for four days of sessions lasting 90 minutes. Feedback was positive. One senior buyer offered that daily meditation boosted his energy level, relieved tension in his neck, and lowered his blood pressure. Others spoke of clearer thinking, better sleeping, and greater productivity at work.
“Meditation is a deep dive into the mind,” Greg explains. Like in the ocean: the deeper you go, the calmer and quieter the water.”
Doug is offering a FREE "Introductory Class" at Ellixson's Tae Kwon Do Academy on Saturday, February 3, 2024, 2:00-3:30 p.m. Call 610-670-6700 to pre-register. A 7-class program will follow in February.
Greg Schweitzer confronted his own stress decades ago as an industrial engineer, a graduate of Drexel University, whose job was to examine efficiency quotients in industries and recommend strategies to improve them. “At that time of my life, I was the guy with the stopwatch…creating stress!”
Raised to believe that once he had his college degree, he’d live “happily ever after”—paid well, secure, respected. However, “life happened”: after a few years following graduation, he found himself unfulfilled and unhappy in his job; his first wife had died suddenly, and he felt trapped. “I found myself going to work every day and wondering, “Is this why I went to college?”
About that time, Greg became aware of a book by Richard Bach titled Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, a story about a seagull who wasn’t like his friends. Rather than spending the days on the beach searching for food, Jonathan was in the sky perfecting his flight. And while Jonathan’s seagull friends thought he was off his rocker and ostracized him, he was enjoying life to the max.
In discussing the book with friends, Greg questioned why human beings couldn’t also be that happy. Greg’s friend assured him that they could and one night, on the way to a party, life changed when his friend wasn’t available to attend the party, but invited him to a lecture instead.
This particular friend was interested in yoga and other ways of approaching life’s challenges that in 1974 were not mainstream. Meditation was one of those ways. So, instead of going to the party, Greg went to the lecture; and, after it, decided to try meditation. He’s been meditating twice a day ever since.
The meditation he learned was TM, the type developed by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, taught in India, and practiced by the Beatles. Greg had seen a poster inviting him to learn about the practice sometime during his last year of college, but was preoccupied with graduating, getting married, and avoiding being drafted to fight in Viet Nam. He dismissed the idea at the time but recalls asking himself why people would be interested in something like meditating.
Today, in these stressful, divisive times, where mental health issues and suicide ideation in all age groups are on the rise, Greg’s Effortless Meditation can be an antidote, a tool the world could certainly use-- not just for surviving the “slings and arrows” of life, but for thriving at optimum health and contentment.
Contact Greg for additional details, schedule an appointment for an introductory session, or purchase gift certificates: 610-670-6700. Website: StressReductionResources.com. GregSchweitzer.com
The conversation with Greg from which this article was created can be found on the "B Inspired" podcast, available on your favorite podcast platform including Anchor FM, Spotify, Google, Castbox, Breaker, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic, and Apple.
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