Mindfulness and focused awareness meditation disrupt the brain's ability to completely rest. This is measured by activation of the "default mode network," which are the regions of hte brain that become most active when you're not trying to do anything.

While it may *seem* like long term practice of these techniques becomes effortless, in fact, the DMN is STILL disrupted by their practice, and the situation only gets more accute, the longer you have been practicing. This is perceived as "getting better" by people who do these kinds of practices.

TM, on the other hand, doesn't disrupt the activity of the DMN, either in short-term or long-term TMers.

With all three kinds of meditation, your brain's activity outside of meditation starts to resemble the activity found during meditation. This means, that with the first two types, you have less and less ability for the brain to truly relax and wander when it needs to. The quietude is that of someone who is always paying attention but never fully relaxed. Studies have shown that "aha!" moments of creativity become less and less likely with such practices, and to compensate, practitioners get better and paying attention to the details of what they already know.

With TM, on the other hand, the quietude found during TM is that of someone who is fully relaxed. As above, the situation starts to be found outside of meditation. Mind-wandering is always available, as is the ability to pay attention, but mind-wandering creativity is ALSO still available. The result is *balance*, which is not found with the first two practices.

Research on athletes show that they become extremely good at paying attention. However, what sets world champions apart from the also-rans is the ability to let their brains fully relax. The brain-wave patterns of world-champions are naturally very much like those found in long-term TM meditators while the brain-wave patterns of also-rans are far less-so.

For maximum success, it seems obvious that one kind of meditation stands out: the kind that induces changes in the brain similar to what is found naturally in champions, not what is found in the also-rans.