meditation & health
|
| Health Conditions that are benefited
by Meditation |
| Drug Addiction |
| The Transcendental Meditation
technique has proven to be a successful coping
strategy in helping to deal with drug addiction,"
a useful tool in psycho-neuro-immunology (PNI)
by helping to control the immune system, and an
effective manager of stress and pain. |
| Prolonging Life Expectancy |
| A strong link has also been
established between the practice of TM and longevity.
Only two factors have been scientifically determined
to actually extend life: caloric restriction and
lowering of the body's core temperature. Meditation
has been shown to lower core body temperature. |
| Stress Control |
Most of the people who get
on meditation do so because of its beneficial
effects on stress. Stress refers to any or all
the various pressures experienced in life. These
can stem from work, family, illness, or environment
and can contribute to such conditions as anxiety,
hypertension, and heart disease. How an individual
sees things and how he or she handles them makes
a big difference in terms of how much stress he
or she experiences.
Research has shown that hormones and other biochemical
compounds in the blood indicative of stress tend
to decrease during TM practice. These changes
also stabilize over time, so that a person is
actually less stressed biochemically during daily
activity.
This reduction of stress translates directly into
a reduction of anxiety and tension. Literally
dozens of studies have shown this. |
| Pain Management |
Chronic pain can systematically
erode the quality of life. Although great strides
are being made in traditional medicine to treat
recurring pain, treatment is rarely as simple
as prescribing medication or surgery.
Anxiety decreases the threshold for pain and pain
causes anxiety. The result is a vicious cycle.
Compared with people who feel relaxed, those under
stress experience pain more intensely and become
even more stressed, which aggravates their pain.
Meditation breaks this cycle.
Childbirth preparation classes routinely teach
pregnant women deep breathing exercises to minimize
the pain and anxiety of labor. Few call it breath
meditation, but that's what it is.
Meditative techniques are also a key element in
the Arthritis self-help Course at Stanford University.
More than 100,000 people with arthritis have taken
the 12-hour course and learned meditation-style
relaxation exercises as part of a comprehensive
self-care program. Graduates report a 15 to 20
percent reduction in pain.
A study reveals that 72 percent of the patients
with chronic pain conditions achieved at least
a 33 percent reduction after participating in
an eight-week period of mindful meditation, while
61 -percent of the pain patients achieved at least
a 50 percent reduction. Additionally, these people
perceived their bodies as being 30 percent less
problematic, suggesting an overall improvement
in self-esteem and positive views regarding their
bodies.
Meditation may not eliminate pain, but it helps
people cope more effectively. |
| Cancer and Other Chronic Illness
|
| Meditation and other approaches
to deep relaxation help center people so they
can figure out how they'd like to handle the illness
and proceed with life. Dr. Ainslie Meares, an
Australian psychiatrist who uses meditation with
cancer patients, studied seventy-three patients
who had attended at least twenty -sessions of
intensive meditation, and wrote: "Nearly
all such patients can expect significant reduction
of anxiety and depression, together with much
less discomfort and pain. There is reason to expect
a 10 percent chance of quite remarkable slowing
of the rate of growth of the tumor, and a 50 percent
chance of greatly improved quality of life." |
| Heart disease |
| Meditation is a key component
of Ornish therapy, the only treatment scientifically
proven to reverse heart disease. |
| High blood pressure |
| As soon as Dr. Benson learned
that TM reliably reduced blood pressure in meditators,
he taught the relaxation response to 36 people
with moderately elevated blood pressure. After
several weeks of practice, their average blood
pressure declined significantly, reducing their
risk of stroke and heart attack. |
| Psoriasis |
| This disease causes scaly red
patches on the skin. A study suggests that compared
with the skin patches of people with psoriasis
who receive only standard medical therapy, the
skin patches of those who also meditate clear
up more quickly. |
| Respiratory crises |
| Asthma, emphysema and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) all restrict
breathing and raise fears of suffocation, which
in turn makes breathing even more difficult. Studies
show that when people with these respiratory conditions
learn breath meditation, they have fewer respiratory
crises. |
| Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), Tension
Headaches |
Meditation can ease physical
complaints such as premenstrual syndrome (PMS),
tension headaches and other common health problems.
Meditation gives people a psychological buffer
so that life's hectic pace doesn't knock them
out. Practicing meditation is like taking a vacation
once or twice a day. When you nurture yourself,
you accrue tremendous spin-off benefits.
For example, when you are under high stress, it
can worsen symptoms of PMS because stress can
cause the muscle tension associated with PMS complaints
such as fatigue, soreness and aching. On the other
hand, when you meditate regularly, you dramatically
reduce your body's response to stress, and that
can ease the discomfort associated with PMS. The
results may not be apparent for several months.
You will probably need to meditate regularly for
several months before your body responds positively. |
| Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcers,
and Insomnia |
Meditation can also improve
irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers, and insomnia,
among other stress-related conditions. Eighty
percent of the people who use meditation to relieve
insomnia are successful.
Meditation can help prevent or treat stress-related
complaints such as anxiety, headaches and bone,
muscle and joint problems. Meditation also provides
an inner sense of clarity and calm, and that,
in itself, may help ward off certain illnesses. |
| Fibromyalgia |
| According to one study, meditation
may relieve the discomfort of fibromyalgia, a
condition that causes fatigue and intensely painful
"trigger points." When 77 men and women
with fibromyalgia followed a ten-week stress-reduction
program using meditation, all reported that their
symptoms improved. And half described their improvements
as "moderate to marked." |
| Psychological benefits of Meditation |
| Meditation can help most people
feel less anxious and more in control. The awareness
that meditation brings can also be a source of
personal insight and self-understanding. |
| Handling Repressed Memories and
Enjoying Life |
Meditation may lead to a breakdown
of screen memories so that early childhood abuse
episodes and other traumas suddenly flood the
mind, making the patient temporarily more anxious
until these traumas are healed. Many so-called
meditation exercises are actually forms of imagery
and visualization that are extraordinarily useful
in healing old traumas, confronting death anxieties,
finishing 'old business', learning to forgive,
and enhancing self-esteem.
Meditation frees persons from tenacious preoccupation
with the past and future and allows them to fully
experience life's precious moments. Many men and
women tend to live in a state of perpetual motion
and expectation that prevents them from appreciating
the gifts that each moment gives us. We live life
in a state of insufficiency, waiting for a mother
to love us, for a father to be kind to us, for
the perfect job or home, for Prince Charming to
come along or to become a perfect person. It's
a mythology that keeps us from being whole.
Meditation is a humble process that gently returns
us to the now of our lives and allows us to wake
up and re-evaluate the way that we live our lives.
|
| Depression |
| Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness
and isolation are hallmarks of depression-the
nation's most prevalent mental health problem.
Meditation increases self-confidence and feelings
of connection to others. Many studies have shown
that depressed people feel much better after eliciting
the relaxation response. |
| Panic attacks |
| Sometimes anxiety becomes paralyzing
and people feel (wrongly) that they are about
to suffer some horrible fate. Panic attacks are
often treated with drugs, but studies show that
if people who are prone to panic attacks begin
focused, meditative breathing the instant they
feel the first signs of an episode, they are less
likely to have a full-blown panic attack. |
| Meditation Posture |
The first step in meditation
is correct physical posture. We commonly describe
this in terms of a sevenfold physical posture
called the "Seven Points of Vairocana."
The position of one's body has a very direct and
powerful effect on the state of one's mind.
There is a very strong connection between body
and mind. At the subtle level, body consists of
the outer and inner forms. The outer form is our
physical body, and the inner forms are the channels
and prana. It is said that if the body is straight
or erect, the channels are straight; and if the
channels are straight, then the wind-prana flows
straight. When the channels and prana are straight,
then mind becomes balanced, calm and clear. So
having a correct and upright posture causes one's
mind naturally to come to rest in a state of tranquillity
or peace. |
| Preparation of Meditation Seat |
| First, one prepares a comfortable
seat, consisting of a meditation flat meditation
cushion or mat, and a small round or rectangular
cushion to go under one's backside. The actual
size, form and materials composing the cushions
depend on what is comfortable for your particular
body. The proper seat is extremely important.
|
| Posture of legs |
| The first posture discussed
is the position of the legs. Either of two main
postures is preferred. First, the most common
posture, is sitting cross-legged with one foot
just in front of the other, in what is called
the "bodhisattva's posture." This posture
is depicted in paintings of Tara and others. Second,
the more demanding posture is called the "vajra
posture," often referred to in the west as
the "lotus posture," in which the feet
are placed on the opposite thigh. This posture
is depicted in paintings of Vajradhara and others.
So the first point is the legs. |
| Posture of the Eye Gaze |
| The second posture is the gaze
of the eyes. The eyes are neither made to open
wide, nor are they closed. Their lids are half-lowered,
and the gaze is angled slightly downward in the
direction of the tip of one's nose. The reason
for this is that if one's eyes are wide open,
and one is looking outward, then one's mind will
tend to follow visual perception. On the other
hand, if one's eyes are closed, one tends to become
dull. This posture describes a happy medium between
the two extremes of gaze. |
| Posture of the Back |
| The third posture is the back,
or spine. One sits upright and keeps the back
straight, like an arrow. |
| Posture of the Shoulders |
| The fourth posture is to keep
the shoulders even and relaxed. One refrains from
sitting with one shoulder higher than the other,
holding the shoulders them at the same height. |
| Posture of the Head |
| The fifth posture is bending
or slightly hooking the throat, which actually
straightens the back of the neck, but to an excessive
degree. The chin is tucked in slightly. |
| Posture of the Mouth |
| The sixth posture is slightly
opening one’s mouth and leaving some space between
one’s upper and lower sets of teeth – enough that,
if one had to, one could breath through the mouth.
The mouth is not clamped shut. |
| Posture of Tongue |
| The seventh posture is to place
the tongue so that the tip or front of the tongue
touches the palate. |
| Posture of the Hands |
| The placement of the hands
is not part of the seventh posture, but a few
alternatives are taught. In the “gesture of meditation”,
one hand is placed palm upright in the other one,
which is also palm upright. Alternately, the hands
may be placed palm downward on the legs just behind
the knees. |
