March - April 2023 Transformation

AMI Classes for March - April 2023

AMI MEDITATION

A Proprietary Curriculum

Proven Effective in a Peer-Reviewed Clinical Study

Developed and Taught by Leonard Perlmutter (Ram Lev)

How YOUR CONSCIENCE Can Work for You

AMI MEDITATION® provides a practical, proprietary curriculum that will bring joy and fulfillment back into your life! You’ll learn how to easily transform burnout, stress, worry, anger, and sadness into energy, creativity and will power – by employing the Super Conscious Wisdom of Your Conscience. And as you practice what you learn, you’ll successfully balance all your personal and professional responsibilities.

AMI MEDITATION®

PROPRIETARY CURRICULUM

is derived from the award-winning book, The Heart and Science of Yoga and the new book, YOUR CONSCIENCE

by Leonard Perlmutter (Ram Lev)

Yoga Science & Philosophy–WEEK 1

How to use the mind for the best choices

How to create new, healthier habits

Understanding pain as an agent for healing

Increasing energy, will power & creativity

Antidotes for worry, stress and depression

AMI Meditation®–W EEK 2

Systematic procedure for AMI Meditation®

Diminishing distractions with your Mantra

Learning the one-minute meditation

Building focus and fearlessness

Breathing Techniques–WEEK 3

Breath as Medicine

How breathing irregularities foster dis-ease

Three-part diaphragmatic breath

Yoga Psychology & Ayurveda–WEEK 4

Coordinate the Four Functions of the Mind to access the power and Inner Wisdom of Your Conscience

Use the power of NOW to build and heal relationships

Ayurvedic Medicine & Nutrition for your health

Easy-Gentle Yoga Exercises–WEEK 5

Yoga stretches to detox the lymph system and benefit your muscles, nerves, joints, glands & internal organs

Physiological benefits of yoga postures

Mind / Body Self-Care Plan–WEEK 6

The healing power of prayer

The practical benefits of contemplation

Creating a therapeutic self-care plan for yourself

Learning to budget your time

Integrating spirituality into daily life

Endorsed by Dean Ornish MD, Bernie Siegel MD, Larry Dossey MD

Taught by Leonard Perlmutter (Ram Lev)

AMI’s Foundation Course was developed and is taught live on Zoom by Leonard Perlmutter (Ram Lev). Leonard is a noted educator, philosopher, Yoga scientist and founder of The American Meditation Institute. He is the author of The Heart and Science of Yoga,® YOUR CONSCIENCE, and the mind/body medicine journal, Transformation. He is a direct disciple of Swami Rama of the Himalayas. Leonard’s lectures are enlivened by his inspiring enthusiasm, vast experience, humor and clear teaching style. He has taught at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, The New York Times Yoga Forum, Kaiser-Permanente, numerous medical schools and the U. S. Military Academy at West Point.

New Clinical Study finds AMI MEDITATION® reduces both Burnout & Secondary Traumatic Stress while increasing Compassion Satisfaction Levels

©Lifestyle Medicine

“Mastery of the mind and consciousness IS the next frontier of well being. The AMI MEDITATION® curriculum contained in this Foundation Course is a profoundly important bridge that connects modern quantum science with ancient spiritual traditions.”

MARK PETTUS MD, LEAD CLINICAL STUDY AUTHOR

AMI MEDITATION®

UPCOMING CLASSES Medical Accreditation

PHYSICIANS • PAs • NPs (18 CMEs)

americanmeditation.org/physician-cme

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint providership of Albany Medical College and The American Meditation Institute. Albany Medical College is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Albany Medical College designates this Live activity for a maximum of 18 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits .  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. TM

Registration Includes: Lifelong support, a 20-minute Guided Meditation, a copy of The Physiology of Easy-Gentle Yoga, and a FREE subscription to AMI’s Transformation journal.

Health Insurance Coverage

Check with your health insurance plan provider.

Live and Interactive On ZOOM with

Leonard Perlmutter

AMI Founder

Feb 28 - Apr 4 Tuesdays

Apr 11 - May 16 Tuesdays

May 23 - June 27 Tuesdays

6:30 -8:30pm ET, $695. (6 WKS)

Required Texts available at AMI Bookstore: The Heart and Science of Yoga ® Your Conscience

Physicians: $995; PAs, NPs: $895

CALENDAR

FREE: EVERY SUNDAY GUIDED MEDITATION & SATSANG

LIVE on ZOOM • Sundays 9:30-11:00am ET with Leonard (Ram Lev) & Jenness AmericanMeditation.org/sunday

March 2023

MAR 6 - APR 10: GITA/ YOGA PSYCHOLOGY see p. 5

Mon. Nights, 6:30 - 8:30 PM ET (6 wks) Live on ZOOM

April 2023

APR 11 - MAY 16: AMI MEDITATION® see p. 2-3

Tues. Nights, 6:30 -8:30 PM ET (6 wks) Live on ZOOM

APR 17 - MAY 22: GITA/ YOGA PSYCHOLOGY see p. 5

Mon. Nights, 6:30 - 8:30 PM ET (6 wks) Live on ZOOM

May 2023

MAY 23 - JUN 27: AMI MEDITATION see p. 2-3

Mon. Nights, 6:30 - 8:30 PM ET (6 wks) Live on ZOOM

MAY 25: COMPASSIONATE BUDDHA

Thurs. Night, 6:30 - 8:30 PM ET (1 wk) Live on ZOOM

The Practical Guide to Optimize Your Conscience

“This short book is long on wisdom. Highly recommended.”

Dean Ornish MD

“This book is a gift for humanity.”

Bernie Siegel MD

AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE

American Meditation Institute

Education for Enlightenment®

March-April, 2023 • Vol. XXVI No. 4 ©2023 PO Box 430, Averill Park, NY 12018

americanmeditation.org \ Tel. (518) 674-8714

ami@americanmeditation.org

AMI is a tax exempt, non-profit 501(c) 3 educational organization. Donations are fully tax deductible.

A casual meeting room at The Equinox Resort

7 Reasons to Attend

AMI’s Conference for Physicians, PAs and NPs

You became a doctor because you care about people. You work hard and truly want to serve your patients and profession. But as a physician, you’re subject to many stressors, such as:

• You’re feeling overworked, and your passion for your medical practice is waning

• You’re frustrated by cumbersome and time consuming regulations and requirements

• The burdens of medical liability, on-call issues and lack of sleep weigh heavy

• You’re struggling with your own mental or physical health condition

• You seek tools to reduce stress, burnout, anger, depression and exhaustion

• You feel a need for greater emotional and spiritual fulfillment in your life

• You seek clinically proven holistic strategies to improve your work/life balance

The only Comprehensive Training in Yoga Science Proven in a Clinical Study to Reduce Burnout & Stress

October 17-21, 2023

The Equinox Resort & Spa • Manchester, VT americanmeditation.org/cme Tel. (518) 674-8714

YOGA SCIENCE LAB ®

How to Practice Meditation-in-Action

Valerie Chakedis Ed.D.

Prerequisite: AMI’s Foundation Course

LEVEL II: In the AMI Meditation® Course, you learned that your thoughts are your most valuable asset. The Yoga Science Lab® will help you examine your thoughts and expand your ability to focus your attention. The techniques learned in seated AMI Meditation® are applied in every duty and responsibility throughout the day. This process is called Meditation-in-Action. By experimenting daily with the Super Conscious Wisdom reflected by your Conscience, you’ll develop decision-making skills that will enhance your confidence and creativity in all relationships. As you have already learned, to experience real freedom you must be centered in the present moment, know who you are, and follow your Inner Wisdom. The Yoga Science Lab® can help you achieve that freedom!

THURSDAYS, 6:30PM -8:30 PM ET, $75.

JUNE 1 AND 8 (2 WKS) LIVE ON ZOOM

YOGA PSYCHOLOGY BHAGAVAD GITA STUDY

Leonard (Ram Lev) and Jenness Perlmutter

LEVEL II: In continuous six week installments this course presents the profound teachings of the Bhagavad Gita as a handbook on the science of life and the art of living. If you are seeking a manual or guide for the supreme task of living a fulfilling and purposeful life in the world today, this ongoing study will provide you the practical wisdom, tools, meaning, courage and confidence you need. Each week Leonard and Jenness will share their personal life experiences to help inspire you in applying the profound psychology of the Bhagavad Gita. Although these scriptures are thousands of years old, they are perfectly relevant to reducing stress, enhancing your health and creative abilities, while offering you a fresh, positive perspective on all your family and business relationships.

MONDAYS, 6:30 - 8:30 PM ET, $150. (6 WKS)

MAR 6 - APR 10; APR 17 - MAY 22 LIVE ON ZOOM

STUDY FINDS: AMI Meditation Benefits Physicians and other Healthcare Providers EVEN DURING THE CHALLENGES OF COVID-19

by Beth Netter MD

For decades Leonard and Jenness Perlmutter, the co-founders of and teachers at the American Meditation Institute, have shared the ancient, yet profoundly practical and transformative wisdom and teachings of Yoga Science. The Perlmutters have synthesized this knowledge into the practices of AMI Meditation and other AMI Meditation tools presented and taught in their book, “The Heart and Science of Yoga®” and in the AMI Meditation Foundation Course.

In 2009, with concern for the ever-growing and essentially health-depleting effects of burnout and stress in the healthcare community, AMI applied for and received CME-accreditation for their core curriculum taught in the Foundation Course and, since then, in AMI’s CME-accredited The Heart and Science of Yoga® Physicians Conference for physicians and all healthcare providers.

The Perlmutters have had an ever-deepening dedication to helping alleviate the symptoms and effects of burnout and stress in physicians and other healthcare providers, but also to supporting this caring and increasingly overwhelmed community in feeling better about themselves and their practice of medicine, and to help them improve the quality of their lives.

The question comes: Is it possible that taking The Heart and Science of Yoga® course and doing AMI Meditation practices could actually help me, even during the most stressful of life’s circumstances?

The answer: The encouraging results of the AMI Meditation Study recently published in the November 2022 issue of Lifestyle Medicine provide positive evidence that the answer is a resounding “Yes.”

In 2017 The American Meditation Institute began the Berkshire Medical Center’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved AMI Mediation Study to examine the effects of AMI Meditation in healthcare providers. Study participants attended AMI’s annual CMEaccredited The Heart and Science of Yoga® Physicians Conference where they learned and practiced AMI Meditation and many other AMI Meditation tools. At the conference participants

learned and practiced AMI’s systematic meditation procedure with a mantra they had selected from the list published in the book, The Heart and Science of Yoga®. For the six months following the conference, study participants engaged in a regular/daily AMI Meditation practice using a 20-minute recorded guided AMI Meditation provided for them (as it was for all conference attendees). They also received a monthly motivational letter.

As a baseline measure, before the conference, study enrollees had completed the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) Measure (a survey) and a demographic survey. They then completed the ProQOL Measure and an informational survey at 3-months and 6-months. The ProQOL Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue Version 5 was used to assess Compassion Satisfaction and the two components of compassion fatigue: Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress (stress that is experienced from work or environmentally produced challenges such as those healthcare providers experience when listening to their patients’ reports of stressful, often traumatic, life events). The same protocol was repeated over three consecutive years (2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2019-2020) with three different groups (one group per year following that year’s conference). All three groups of study participants began the same meditation protocol on the same date (November 1st) in the week following that year’s conference (which was held at the end of October each of those years) and were monitored for six months. Participants kept a log of the number of times they did the AMI Meditation practices and reported these on the 3- and 6-month surveys. The data for each of those three groups was then aggregated into one cohort comprised of those study participants, from each of those years, who completed all six months of the study. Initially 54 healthcare providers enrolled. Of these participants, 21 completed the full six months of the study.

The results were an analysis of the changes in Burnout, Secondary Traumatic Stress and Compassion Satisfaction from baseline (before

Results of the AMI Meditation Study:

the conference) to six months. One could logically assume that life and its challenges might change slightly, but remain fairly consistent over a six-month period. That was true for the participants who attended the 2017 and 2018 conferences. However, the participants who attended the 2019 conference, and who continued their AMI Meditation practices during the study period from November 2019 through April of 2020, faced the unexpected, disturbing, and life-changing challenges of COVID19. This group had just completed their 3-month surveys when the pandemic, and all the resulting changes in their personal and professional environments, began.

How did COVID-19 affect this subgroup of participants who were to complete the last three months of the study through the end of April 2020? Even for this subgroup of participants (n=6; all physicians) in the midst of the early stages of the pandemic and “quarantine,” there were sustained statistically significant improvements from baseline to 6-months in the Secondary Traumatic Stress scale scores and, although not statistically significant, sustained numerical improvements were noted from baseline to 6-months for the Burnout scale and Compassion Satisfaction scale scores. From baseline and 6-months, Secondary Traumatic Stress scores were reduced 25.7%, Burnout scores were reduced 21.5%, and Compassion Satisfaction scores improved 13.2%. Of note, the changes in the three scales for this subgroup were numerically similar to the changes found for the whole study cohort. (For the whole cohort (n=21), there were statistically significant improvements in all three scales from baseline to six months.)

As one physician participant from the 2019-2020 subgroup reported in the 6-month survey: “I’m sleeping better and more. I feel

better equipped to deal with the stress of COVID-19.”

So the answer is: YES!, it is quite possible that taking The Heart and Science of Yoga® course (offered on Zoom during the year and at AMI’s October 2023 Physicians Conference), and maintaining daily AMI Meditation practices may indeed reduce Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress and increase Compassion Satisfaction in your life––even during the most stressful of life’s circumstances.

* Data and excerpts from the published Study are included in this story.

During her medical career Dr. Netter served as an anaesthesiologist, holistic physician, and acupuncturist. A graduate of the University at Buffalo’s School of Biomedical Sciences, she completed her residency in anesthesiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Beth is Chair Emeritus of AMI ’s Department of Medical Education

To view the entire AMI Meditation Study in “Lifestyle Medicine,” scan this QR Code

Dr. Pettus is a board certified internist and nephrologist, Director of Medical Education and Population Health at Berkshire Health Systems, a member of the AMI Department of Medical Education, and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at UMass Medical School.