Tag: meditation

There are many ways to meditate. Mindful meditation is one way to achieve peace. It can recalibrate family dynamics and help adults and children relax and focus their thoughts. And it can take only three minutes to do, anywhere you can find a spot to sit or stand.

Mindful meditation has been used to help adults for 30 years. Now it is being used to help students function better, clear their mind of cluttered thoughts and some experts think it may help students achieve better exam results.

“Research already shows that mindfulness therapy has huge potential for kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety,” says an article in the Globe and Mail. It is one of the cornerstones of the increasingly popular practice of mindfulness, a blend of Buddhism-inspired calm and cognitive-behavioural therapy.

Experts say the key to this rests in the idea that thoughts and feelings – especially negative, anxious ones – aren’t necessarily reality and don’t have to be permanent, says the article. It quotes a Toronto child psychiatrist and mindfulness expert M. Lee Freedman who puts it simply to her patients: “You don’t actually have to believe everything you think.”

Actress Goldie Hawn is author of a new book on mindfulness called 10 Mindful Minutes. Her foundation funded research found mindfulness helped students achieve better reading scores, less absenteeism and a 63 per cent rise in optimism. Now she is working to bring this message to parents to reduce stress in their lives and be more in control of their emotions and reactions. She hopes that this would make us better parents.

Mindful meditation is also effective in some clinical settings, reducing chronic pain and preventing depression relapses. Newer studies on group therapies adapted for children with ADHD and anxiety show that mindfulness is a serious alternative or supplement to medication, says the article.

Mindful meditation is a journey to personal discovery. The idea is, not to rush and not to react or over-react when you feel stressed.

The goal is to increase awareness. Through this increased awareness, the meditator is gradually transformed. The ultimate goal is to be aware or mindful at all times. It is this non-stop awareness that leads to self-transformation.

Your mind will be more focused on whatever task you are doing. You will have more compassion and gradually suffer less and less from negative emotional states which cause unnecessary sufferings. You will learn to live in the present moment rather than being lost in thoughts about the past and worry about the future.

The usual instruction for mindfulness meditation is to observe the breath. There are many variations to this. The one I found on the Internet is summarized here.

You can watch your breath in any way you like. You can feel your belly rise and fall. You may feel the air flow through your throat. You may feel the air in your nostrils. When you find you are no longer mindful of your breath, gently come back to the breath again. It is important not to get frustrated. This may happen often but stay focused or mindful on your breathing. This will help stabilize your mind. And learn to stay focused.

Start with three minutes. Every time you take a break, stop for three minutes and do your breathing exercise. Use the stopwatch and timer on your cell phone. You can increase this gradually to several minutes, depending on how much time you have. Make sure your breathing is always slow and relaxed, with a slightly longer exhale than inhale.

Slow breathing calms the nervous system, lowers blood pressure and reduces pulse rate.

Hate and anger hurts us all eventually. May be mindful meditation will make us more aware of our emotions and actions and help us live a tranquil and healthy life. Live in the present and plan for the future.

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According to an article in the American Scientific Mind, the Dalai Lama meditates four hours a day. In the fall of 2005, the Dalai Lama gave the inaugural Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, DC. The Dalai Lama said meditating for four hours was hard work. He said if neuroscientists were able to find a way to put electrodes in his brain and provide him with the same outcome as he gets from meditating, he would be an enthusiastic volunteer. 

What kind of outcome do we get from meditating?

There is significant scientific evidence that even a short-tem meditation improves attention and cognitive enhancement. That means it improves conscious intellectual act – the mental process of knowing, awareness, perception, reasoning and judgment. 

How does meditation change the brain?

Regular deep meditation makes the gamma waves fire very rapidly in harmony. Neuroscientists have figured out which brain cells are responsible for the gamma waves. They can induce these brain waves in mice. The next thing is to use this technology and transfer to the humans. This way we can create artificial meditation (meditation on demand) and reap the benefits of meditation.

Writing in the Scientific American Mind (Nov/Dec, 2009) Peter B. Reiner says, “At the very least, it is safe to say that the prospect of using advanced technology to mimic at least some of the brain activity present during meditation states has moved from the realm of science fiction to that of scientific possibility.”

What are the other benefits of meditation?

In one scientific study, a group of 40 undergraduate Chinese students were given five days of 20-min integrative training on meditation. The result showed greater improvement in conflict scores, lower anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue and higher vigour, a significant decrease in stress-related cortisol and an increase in immune-reactivity.

Medical and psychological studies have shown that meditation is effective to varying degrees in the symptomatic control of migraine headache, hypertension and other conditions. It helps in the purification of body, mind, and soul. Meditation has been found to reduce heart rate, pulse rate, respiratory rate and plasma cortisol level and to increase electroencephalogram alpha waves associated with relaxation (Shapiro, 1995).

Meditation or for that matter any relaxation exercise appears to impact more strongly when the anxiety is primarily psychological, such as excessive worrying.

In 2008, the American Journal of Hypertension reported that regular practice of transcendental meditation was associated with reductions of 4.7 mm Hg in systolic pressure and 3.2 mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure compared with control groups. These reductions were equivalent to those seen after adding a second anti-hypertensive pill to a treatment regimen. This reduction would be expected to significantly reduce cardiovascular disease risk.

Other studies have shown medical benefits of relaxation exercises such as meditation, breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation in tension headaches, anxiety, psoriasis and cardiovascular diseases. Thus it can increase longevity, reduce use of medical care, medical costs in treating chronic pain, smoking cessation and serum cholesterol level in elderly and others.

As Pythagoras (580 B.C. – 500 B.C.), a Greek philosopher and mathematician said, “Learn to be silent. Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.” Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662), a French philosopher said, “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.”

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It is not difficult to meditate. But it is difficult is to find time to meditate. There are easy ways to meditate and there are elaborate ways to meditate. There are numerous books out there where you can learn different techniques. Today’s column is just an introduction.

Meditation should be effortless. It requires concentration to a visual image, a repeated word or a body sensation such as breathing.

One easy method I have found useful is called walking meditation. I learnt about this at a medical conference. You have to walk clockwise around a room while holding your one hand closed in a fist, while the other hand grasps or covers the fist. You take each step after a full breath.

You can do this during a lunch hour at work or at home when you find 10 minutes or more. Do not worry if your co-workers think you are crazy walking in a circle in your boss’s office. They have probably seen too many movies where they see people walking in circles in mental institutions. We do not believe in stereotyping and profiling.

Walking meditation is a form of meditation in action. The difference between walking meditation and sitting meditation is that our eyes are open, we do not withdraw our attention from the outside world, it is easier to meditate and fit into our schedule and perhaps we are more easily aware of our bodies when we are walking than sitting. The relaxation experienced while walking is more intense than sitting.

Some researchers have come up with an idea of combining relaxation and exercise into one activity. Such as aerobic exercise. It was found that compared with a control group, volunteers who focused their thoughts on a word or phrase while riding a stationary bike had an 11 per cent lower metabolic rate. An anxious, type A individual may do better with this technique because it gives an active mind something to focus on.

Drs. Martin and Marion Jerry’s book (Sutras of the Inner Teacher – The Yoga of the Centre of Consciousness, 2M Communications, Canmore, Canada) discusses in great detail the role and technique of yoga and meditation in the Himalayan Tradition. A serious student of yoga and meditation should read this well researched book.

Other techniques include Zen technique that requires sitting for hours in a position which can be painful and tiring. According to Dictionary.com, Zen is a Mahayana movement, introduced into China in the 6th century a.d. and into Japan in the 12th century, that emphasizes enlightenment for the student by the most direct possible means, accepting formal studies and observances only when they form part of such means. Enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion.

The Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique is a form of mantra meditation introduced in India in 1955 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917–2008). His famous disciples were Beatles. Meditation involves the use of a sound or mantra and is practiced for 15–20 minutes twice a day, while sitting comfortably with closed eyes.

There are many more techniques. If you are a busy person, and most people are, just find a quiet room, close your eyes, pick a word and say it again and again. You can use a rosary to help you concentrate. Or say the word when you breathe in or out. Snoring does not count. But I consider snoring as a kind of meditation after a hard day’s work. And my wife agrees with that as long as she does not have to hear the noise.

So, find a technique which works for you in your busy schedule, name it after somebody you like and enjoy the peace and tranquility. Next week, we look at the medical benefits of meditation.

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Is there a place on this earth where you can find peace and tranquility? If you are keeping abreast of the current events then you would think the end is near. That there is no escape from this unfair and cruel world. There are disasters caused by men and there are disasters caused by nature. So, who is on your side?

Well, it has to be you, your family and your friends. But there is one more place where you can find solace. Let me explain.

I have been interested in meditation since I was a little boy. I was born in a very religious family and daily early morning meditation was encouraged. Not that I always ended up meditating but the importance of meditation in once life was ingrained in me.

Recently, I have been thinking of going to the Himalayas and spend few weeks as a monk and meditate. I will not have to shave my head as I do that every day. I will have to get a saffron coloured rob and a pair of sandals. After a week of meditation, I should find peace and tranquility, walk on water, play a piano, ski on black diamond mountains…and the list goes on.

Then I read the following story on the Internet from one TG from London:

One day a young student at the Buddhist monastery goes to meditate with two monks as part of his education. They go to the opposite side of the lake from the monastery and are about to start their morning meditation when the first monk says, “Oh no, I forgot my mat”. So he walks up to the lake and walks calmly across the surface of the water to the monastery and returns with his mat.

Suddenly, the second monk says, “Oh no, I’ve forgotten my sun hat”. So he runs across the surface of the water to the monastery and returns with a straw hat.

The student is astounded by this and at the end of the meditation he tries to walk across the water. He falls straight in and emerges soaking wet. The two monks look on and after watching his failed attempts for a while the first monk says to the second, “Do you think we should tell him where the stones are!”

If you meditate regularly then you may not be able to walk on water but you will walk through your daily anxieties in a more philosophical and tranquil way. Health is a state of balance between the mind, body, and consciousness. There are many ways to achieve this balance and practice of meditation is one way. Meditation is self-guided, passive attention to single object of focus.

As we know, the practice of meditation has occurred worldwide since ancient times. There are numerous techniques of meditation – religious or otherwise. It should be effortless. Meditation helps in the purification of body, mind and soul. Meditation appears to impact more strongly when the anxiety is primarily psychological, such as excessive worrying.

Ideally, meditation should be done in a quiet room so you can concentrate to a visual image, a repeated word or a body sensation such as breathing. But there are many ways to meditate. We will discuss that in the next couple of articles.

Finally, while in London, Buddha purchased a copy of The Big Issue from a street vendor with a £10 note. When Buddha asked for his change, the vendor looked with a smile and said, “Ah, change must come from within…”

Think about that. And ah, what will we do without Internet? Stay tuned.

Start reading the preview of my book A Doctor's Journey for free on Amazon. Available on Kindle for $2.99!