Just regarding TM- I had to do some research for it for Debate(very long story), and some of the information I found was this:
TM doesn't work for everybody. People complain of symptoms from practicing ranging from headaches to seizures to general emotional weirdness.
The important part of TM is not repeating a given mantra- the important part is the stillness and general relaxation. They did a study where they had a bunch of people do TM, and a bunch of people were told that they should think about as many things as possible at one time, and a bunch were told to just sit still. In the end, all groups reported the same positive(and IIRC, negative) phenomenon.
TM won't necessarily make you fly :-). There are actually several lawsuits regarding this in the courts...some people received upwards of $100k.
Anyway, what I find really helps for relaxation is
1. Breathing deeply.
2. Shaking out your limbs. It looks silly, but helps.
3. Learning to notice when you're not relaxed. As you do more aikido, you'll start to notice. For example, do tenkan from kate-tori, and have uke hold tightly onto your wrist- If you aren't relaxed, uke will hurt your wrist, and though it'll tense you up, its a good test of relaxation.
6 months and going.