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Research / Articles
Mindfulness is at last becoming the subject of serious scientific interest and scientists are discovering what practitioners have known for thousands of years, that this simple practice has major psychological and health benefits and represents a solution for a whole range of physical and mental health issues. Here are a selection of articles that you might find interesting.
Mindfulness improves brain chemistry and function - Article Written for Psychology Today, by Colin A
The brain waves of Mindful practitioners show why they're calmer and happier.
Maybe meditation isn't so mysterious after all. Neuroscientists have found that meditators shift their brain activity to different areas of the cortex - brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex. This mental shift decreases the negative effects of stress, mild depression and anxiety. There is also less activity in the amygdala, where the brain processes fear.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, recorded the brain waves of stressed-out employees of a high-tech firm in Madison, Wisconsin. The subjects were split randomly into two groups, 25 people were asked to learn meditation over eight weeks, and the remaining 16 were left alone as a control group.
All participants had their brain waves scanned three times during the study: at the beginning of the experiment, when meditation lessons were completed eight weeks later and four months after that. The researchers found that the meditators showed a pronounced shift in activity to the left frontal lobe. In other words, they were calmer and happier than before. The study will be published in the next issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
Mindfulness and dealing with cravings
A useful article by Elisha Goldstein Ph.D on the application of Mindfulness in managing cravings
Whether our addictions have to do with alcohol, drugs, food, sex, gambling, emailing, or shopping, the addictive behavior is often preceded by some triggering event that sets off a flurry of uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and sensations, leading to cravings and urges to engage in the addictive behavior.
An important part of recovery is being able to recognize our triggers and how cravings and urges manifest in our bodies and minds.
The practice of Mindfulness gives us a unique tool to slow time down and bring awareness to the thoughts, feelings, and sensations associated with the triggering event while it is occurring.
As soon as we bring awareness to the moment, we have stepped out of auto-pilot, giving the choice over our behavior back to us and in turn giving us the ability to gain back control of our behaviors and our lives.
Often, cravings and urges are our longing for things to be different than the way they are in the moment. Dr. Alan Marlatt, the Director of the Addictive Behavior Research Center at the University of Washington, defines a craving as the desire to experience the effects of engaging in the addictive behavior, while an urge is a relatively sudden impulse to engage in an act such as drinking, shopping, or gambling - feeling the high.
Urges and cravings often feel like they strike without warning, but with a mindful lens, we can develop a sensitivity to the internal and external cues and an openness to the present-moment experience that counteracts our addictive behaviors.
Dr. Marlatt proposes a few ways urges and cravings can be triggered.
The first is through a lack of insight into the body-feeling state such as sadness, anxiety, or guilt that manifest as physical sensations in the body.
The second is through defensive and distorted styles of thinking, such as denial, rumination, or catastrophizing.
The third is through our automatic negative interpretations of events such as attributing a relapse to personal weakness. In practicing mindfulness, we are not trying to get rid of or avoid these difficult experiences, but instead instill an openness and curiosity about them, learning how to acknowledge them and relate to them differently, breaking the cycle of relapse.
Take a moment right now to bring awareness to how your emotions, distorted thought styles, and automatic interpretations of events, can feed into cravings and urges.
In terms of emotions, a growing amount of research is pointing to an unquestionable connection between negative emotions and relapse. The internationally acclaimed Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh speaks to the importance of being aware of our difficult emotions and even approaching them with compassion rather than suppressing them.
It is the natural course of emotions to come and go as it is for thoughts, physical sensations, and just about everything else.
Think about if you have ever felt the emotion of sadness or joy. Did the feeling eventually pass? However, with uncomfortable emotions we often try to ignore or avoid them. It is in this struggling and avoidance where we find our greatest suffering and in turn, our greatest triggers, cravings, and urges.
Mindfulness gives us the ability to become aware of our emotions and as soon as this happens, we move from auto-pilot to the present-moment and regain the ability to be in control.
As we do this, we increase our awareness of the impermanence of emotions, reduce cravings and urges, and become less fearful and more confident that we can do it again the next time without resorting to addictive behavior.So what do we do, how can mindfulness help?
In concert with the fundamental principle of impermanence found in mindfulness literature, Dr. Marlatt developed a technique called "urge surfing" which uses mindfulness and breath-focused meditation to help us ride out the urge.
An urge to engage in an addictive behavior can be seen as an ocean wave in that it starts small, gets bigger, crests, and finally subsides.
Urge surfing teaches us to use the focus of our breath as a "surfboard" for riding the wave of uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and sensations rather than struggling or giving in to it. Although ideally it is best to be guided through this, here are a few steps you can try to get started:
First do a brief practice where you sit, stand, or lie down and notice your breath coming in and out of your body. You can think of it as keeping your breath company. This is good initial practice so when an urge comes you'll be more likely to remember to do this.
As you have the urge, you can bring awareness to the breath and let it surf the wave of the sensations associated with the urge. Noticing the physical sensation of the impulse as it changes and intensifies in the body. You may notice sweating, salivating, tightening of the muscles, or constriction of the chest.
Be aware of any thoughts that arise in the mind and also be aware how they come and go as well.
Many people can testify to the idea that an intense urge only lasts about 20-30 minutes, so notice the urge as it eventually falls like a wave in the ocean.
As I mentioned earlier, it helps to be guided by a live person or a CD, but this is a good start.
May you be well, may you be at peace, may you be healthy, may you be free from suffering!
~ ~
Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. is a pioeer in the integration of mindfulness meditative techniques into the clinical therapeutic setting. He holds a private practice is West Los Angeles, is a public speaker, and a Consultant to Aliveworld. He is author of the audio CD "Mindful Solutions for Stress, Anxiety, and Depression", co-author of the CD "Mindful Solutions for Addiction and Relapse Prevention" (http://drsgoldstein.com/CDs.aspx), co-author of the upcoming workbook Mindfulness Stress Reduction and co-author of the multimedia Guide and Community Mindfulness, Anxiety, and Stress found in Aliveworld (www.aliveworld.com) He also teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).
Mindfulness improves your mental wellbeing
A review of Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley, Ballantine www.sptimes.com
Mindful meditation can create brain changes that in turn affect perception, the book says. Anything that stimulates your brain, including the words you are reading at this moment, affects the way you think.
But, as neuroscientists are learning, this road runs in two directions: While your brain produces your thoughts, your thoughts have the ability to make physical changes in your brain. For example, if you develop the habit of recognizing and challenging negative thoughts about yourself (I'm stupid; no one will ever love me, etc.), you may be able to brighten your mood more effectively than Prozac could. Quietening your mind through meditation may increase the activity in your left prefrontal lobe, which produces feelings of happiness and contentment. And if you generate feelings of compassion for others, you may become more tolerant and less aggressive. The secret to such changes is focusing your attention, according to Sharon Begley, author of Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain.
Attention is the mental device that filters the flood of sensations flowing into the brain, pulling out the bits that coalesce into coherent thoughts and perceptions. "Paying attention physically damps down activity in neurons other than those involved in focusing on the target of your attention," Begley says. Focused attention also ramps up activity in other neurons, which produce more connections to meet the new demands placed upon them. This may sound like New Age wishful thinking, but Begley, science writer for the Wall Street Journal, provides persuasive scientific evidence to bolster every assertion. She built her rigorous but utterly readable book on the 2004 Mind and Life conference held in India, where several scientists met with the Dali Lama, an avid student of cognitive neuroscience, who has convened the conferences since 1988. This conference was devoted to neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to rewire itself in response to experience. In the brains of people who play the guitar or the violin, for example, more space is devoted to regions that control the string fingers. But the most amazing transformations are those that involve pure thought. Some people with obsessive-compulsive disorder improve by practicing mindfulness meditation, which teaches them to regard their obsessive thoughts as mere products of faulty brain wiring. Changing the brain by harnessing the will has the potential to bring malfunctioning minds back to health, Begley says, and to raise healthy minds to higher levels.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction used in alcoholism treatment
The UB Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) is launching a study to examine the effects of "mindfulness-based stress reduction" (MBSR) in the treatment of alcoholism. For the past 37 years the RIA has been making groundbreaking addiction discoveries. Here’s an account of the study written by Lauren Donovan - Staff writer for The Spectrum Online, University of Buffalo.
Alcohol abuse is one of the most common and destructive ways that students choose to deal with stress. RIA, a national leader in the study of alcohol and substance abuse issues through the MBSR study, is investigating alternative ways to deal with stress, as well as ways to increase stress management abilities.
"The study is anticipated to begin this winter and will take approximately four years to complete," said Kimberly Walitzer, Ph.D., deputy director for RIA and one of the investigators on the project.
According to Walitzer, stress is in everyone's lives and can be dealt with many different ways, although people often deal with stress by turning to alcohol. RIA is investigating alternative ways to deal with stress.
MBSR has never been used in the treatment of alcohol abuse but is often used in behavioral medicine for stress reduction, Walitzer said.
Gerald J. Connors, Ph.D., the director of the RIA, is the clinical psychologist heading MBSR in an alcoholism treatment study. According to Connors, the study is a first for the institute.
The study is being funded by a million-dollar grant given to the institute by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), according to Connors.
"There are two core phases of the project. In the first phase, we will adapt the MBSR treatment that has been used with other clinical populations for application with alcohol abusers," Connors said. "In the second phase, we will conduct a pilot study to assess the impact of the intervention on clients' ability to avoid drinking after treatment."
According to Walitzer, it is hypothesized that MBSR will decrease relapses to drinking following treatment and improve psychological well-being.
RIA's main goal in conducting the research is to provide an outpatient treatment in the Buffalo area through their clinical research center. The staff of certified professionals provides services to clients who need help along with their families, explained Connors.
"It is our expectation that becoming more mindful and aware of one's behavior and cognitions in a range of situations faced after treatment will help people not to use alcohol to cope, but instead to use other coping strategies and thus avoid relapsing," Connors said.
According to Connors, the RIA has just now received funding for the study, so there are no results as of yet. Previous research by others using MBSR with other populations (i.e. non-alcohol/substance abusers) would suggest clients in treatment for an alcohol use disorder will see similar benefits.
"MBSR has the potential to decrease relapse to drinking following treatment, which would provide important health benefits to individuals being treated for alcohol dependence," Walitzer said.
RIA frequently recruits participants locally from the Buffalo area. Students interested in participating in a research project at RIA, located at 1021 Main St., are encouraged to call (716) 887-2239 and leave their name on the Telephone Project Recruitment Line.
Mindfulness And Meditation In The Modern World
Today the study of meditation has entered research labs throughout the U.S. and the world. Scientists are exploring the brain states (using brain imaging tools such as fMRI and EEG) associated with meditation practice as well as changes in other body physiology (e.g. immune response, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.). The science is still relatively small, but findings are intriguing, including evidence that meditation influences brain structure and function, immune response, stress response, attention and emotional regulation. Overall, adding meditation to one's life appears to improve an overall state of well-being (happiness, if you will), reduce anxiety, and foster healthy relationships.
A geneticist I know describes Buddhist meditation techniques as a "technology with some 2,000 years of research and development." But, what does it mean to meditate? Do I need to sit on a cushion in a cross-legged position for a lengthy period of time to understand the nature of the mind? Perhaps yes, perhaps no, it depends on you and what works best for your investigation and discovery. Meditation is a tool of introspection and reflection, of discovery of the origin of individual thoughts, feelings, and experience.
Many scientists are studying a type of meditation called mindfulness: the practice of applying a moment-to-moment attention to experiences - as they arise (whether the experiences are of the senses, such as sound or taste, or experiences of the mind, such as thoughts or feelings). Science is revealing that this the simple practice of being more mindful promotes health and well-being, and it is entering mainstream medicine and wellness programs around the country (See Coming to Our Senses by Jon Kabat-Zinn).
At UCLA our mindfulness classes and workshops have been overwhelmingly well-attended. Why this great interest? I believe it is because we are a society under stress, immersed in technology, immersed in information, rushing, rushing, and rushing in life, struggling daily to find balance between home, work, and family. We have invested exorbitant time, money and energy into technology at the expense of attending to our abilities to attune to ourselves, other people, and the planet and to discover and reflect on our true nature - our values, virtues, and purpose in life. Attention to one's inner world requires tools, time, and creativity, just like a healthy body requires water, nutritious food, and exercise.
Meditation and mindfulness are tools for use by anyone requiring only a willingness and intent to practice. You can teach yourself, learn from a book, or attend a class. You can use the breath to practice, hone your attention and develop a more mindful stance in life. It is in the repetition of observing the breath (breathing in, breathing out), catching your attention as it drifts away, and returning it (with kindness) to the breath that awareness begins.
As a moment of silence is filled with thoughts of distraction, desire for noise, company, or movement, you begin to discover how your mind works. The hum of a clock elicits a cycle of thoughts and feelings of movement, again you begin to understand how your mind works. Over time and practice, you may gain patience, first a tolerance, then an embrace of a deeper understanding of your self and your relationship to the world. The repetitive pattern of 'discovery' can arise in everything you do, and you may discover that introspection and reflection have created a space between experience and your reactions to them, a space in which you can choose your response. Practicing over and over while sitting, while walking, or doing daily activities are part of learning to be more mindful. Everyday objects can replace the breath in practice. For example, you can eat mindfully, observing the texture, smell, and taste of each bite of food, giving it your full attention. In this way, mindfulness can be integrated into daily life, when talking, walking, listening, or relating to others, the planet, or yourself.
Perhaps mindfulness, meditation, and other mind-body practices (such as yoga and tai chi) are increasing in popularity in the West because they let us experience internal investigation, without it being so verbal in nature. They provide us with an awareness of the chatter within and around us, they provide us with a gift of listening, they provide us with great insight into our very nature. It is a misperception to think that meditation means silencing the mind, silencing thoughts or feelings; it is a process of learning about the mind, full of the complexity it holds.
As a scientist, I love the challenge of understanding my mind, from the inside, while learning what science tells us from the outside. The merging of these two approaches will yield knowledge far greater than either can alone.
Meditation really does reduce stress
An article is taken from issue 2625 of New Scientist magazine, 13 October 2007, page 21
NEED to chill out and pay attention too? Just five days of training in a Chinese meditation technique can help.
Previous studies have suggested that various forms of meditation can improve attention and reduce stress, but there have been few randomised controlled trials - the best way of testing a treatment's effectiveness.
So a team led by Yi-Yuan Tang of the Dalian University of Technology in north-east China teamed up with psychologist Michael Posner of the University of Oregon, Eugene, to put a meditative technique called integrated body-mind training (IBMT) to a controlled test. The team randomly assigned 80 students to 20 minutes per day of tuition, either in how to relax the body's muscle groups or in IBMT.
After five days, those trained in IBMT scored better on tests of attention and mood. They also produced lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol when asked to perform some difficult mental arithmetic (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707678104).
Other researchers are intrigued, but say it is unclear whether these positive effects are transient. Another question is whether longer periods of training would produce bigger or more profound cognitive changes. "The real goodies come with long-term practice," suggests Roger Walsh, a psychiatrist who studies meditation at the University of California, Irvine.
Zen meditation by psychotherapists matters
A study that show’s psychotherapist who practice Mindfulness are more effective
An investigation by German researchers headed by Professor Nickel which was published in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics indicates the practicing Zen meditation by psychotherapists matters.
All therapists direct their attention in some manner during psychotherapy.
A special form of directing attention, 'mindfulness', is recommended. This study aimed to examine whether, and to what extent, promoting mindfulness in psychotherapists in training (PiT) influences the treatment results of their patients. The therapeutic course and treatment results of 124 inpatients, who were treated for 9 weeks by 18 PiTs, were compared. The PiTs were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups: (i) those practicing Zen meditation (MED; n = 9 or (ii) control group, which did not perform meditation (noMED; n = 9). The results of treatment (according to the intent-to-treat principle) were examined using the Session Questionnaire for General and Differen-tial Individual Psychotherapy (STEP), the Questionnaire of Changes in Experience and Behavior (VEV) and the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R).Compared to the noMED group (n = 61), the patients of PiTs from the MED group (n = 63) had significantly higher evaluations (according to the intent-to-treat principle) for individual therapy on 2 STEP scales, clarification and problem-solving perspectives. Their evaluations were also significantly higher for the entire therapeutic result on the VEV. Furthermore, the MED group showed greater symptom reduction than the noMED group on the Global Severity Index and 8 SCL-90-R scales, including Somatization, Insecurity in Social Contact, Obsessiveness, Anxiety, Anger/Hostility, Phobic Anxiety, Paranoid Thinking and Psychoticism. This study indicates that promoting mindfulness in PiTs could positively influence the therapeutic course and treatment results in their patients.
Medical Studies/Trials
News-Medical.Net
Published: Tuesday, 13-Nov-2007
Mindful meditation can reduce stress and depression
Jennifer Smith - Special to the Village News
Thursday, January 10th, 2008. Issue 02, Volume 12
The word “meditation” has a lot of baggage attached to it. Even in this age of corner-store yoga classes, an exotic whiff still lingers over meditation. Is it a good thing? Is it difficult? How do I do it?
Sometimes associated with particular religions, meditation is not the practice or ritual of any sect but of many. In Christian-based religions meditation is considered a form of prayer.
Meditation is indeed a good thing. Several studies using control groups of those who do not meditate and those who do have shown that even 10 to 15 minutes of meditation a day can reduce blood pressure, heart rate, anxiety and mild depression and bring about a happier and calmer mindset.
A 2003 University of Massachusetts Medical School study used brain scans to show how meditation worked on the brain. Scans showed that meditation shifted blood flow from the right frontal cortex to the left frontal cortex.
Excited yet?
I didn’t think so.
A quick lesson in brain anatomy will illustrate why this is a big deal.
Our brain’s frontal lobes act as the emotional control centers. Our personalities are in our frontal lobes, and if they are damaged we experience personality changes – more or less anger, more or less impulse control, more or less happiness, for example.
The right frontal lobe (RFL) is located behind the right eye, and when we experience stress the RFL gets increased blood flow. The stress also makes the heart beat faster, breathing become shallower and blood pressure increase.
Chronic stress can literally change the brain.
If you have a bad day at work, fume over traffic or can’t sleep because of bills, your RFL is awake and busy, and that’s a bad thing.
The left frontal lobe (LFL), behind the left eye, is the calm, reassuring side of the brain. A 2003 study published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry showed that mild depression is often caused by hypoactivity (abnormally diminished activity) in the LFL.
When patients’ LFLs were stimulated with magnetic stuff that no one in the real world has access to, they felt happier, calmer and more at peace with themselves and their environment.
The good news is that we don’t need fancy medical-grade magnets to increase the blood flow to our LFL. Each of us has access to a technique that stimulates our left frontal lobe and helps us make it through this life a little more easily.
That technique is meditation.
There are several ways to meditate. They do not all call for sitting in the lotus position on a special mat and chanting mantras – although you can do that if you like.
The primary goal of meditation is to quiet the brain’s endless chattering. The Buddha called it “monkey mind,” jumping from one branch to another, never settling down, never at peace.
Meditation really is a gift to yourself, and spending a few minutes a day quieting the mind can have dramatic positive effects on both your health and mental outlook.
Mindfulness as medication
Does meditating have positive effects on both the mind and body? MEKHALA GUNARATNE investigates
Focus on my breathing patterns— simple, right? Breathing is something I do unconsciously everyday, a key process to my very existence, so how difficult could this be? I’m sitting cross-legged, comfortably leaning my back against a sturdy wall. I place my timer in front of me. Today’s goal: one 10-minute session. I close my eyes and imagine each breath as I inhale, traveling through my nasal cavity, filling my lungs, feeling my chest expand and contract when I exhale. I’m surrounded by complete stillness, peace; this is nice—except for the deafening “tick-tock” of my clock breaking the silence only 45 seconds into my first meditation session (and yes, I peeked). Focus, I remind myself. Breathe. I let it pass, and attempt to concentrate. Two minutes later my thoughts have already travelled back into my past, glimpsed my future, and struggled against my present condition: the strong urge to nap. I didn’t know breathing could be so exhausting. Disappointed with my inability to concentrate, I re-evaluate my goal and adjust it accordingly: 5 minutes, max.
Frustrated with my own progress, and curious about meditation’s true benefits, I seek the expertise of Dr. Tony Toneatto, a senior scientist in the Clinical Research Department at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Dr. Toneatto suggests that “to feel the complete benefits of meditation you should practice 20- minute sessions daily.” He reveals that mindfulness of meditation is an issue close to his heart. As an associate professor in the departments of psychiatry and public health sciences at U of T, Toneatto is director of a new minor program: Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health.
“This program is an integrative approach to the psychology of Buddhism. Its focus is not the religious aspect of Buddhism, rather it explores the theories and applications of Buddhism to physical and mental health,” said Toneatto.
Defining the mindfulness of meditation can be elusive. “It is a state of mind that requires you to remain psychologically present. It is important to remain non-judgemental, accepting,” Toneatto said, “whatever happens in your mind, you’re not holding onto it, you’re not rejecting it, you let it come and go. There are many forms of meditation—eating, walking, yoga. When meditating, sit comfortably, concentrate on the rhythm of your breath, and permit mental events to naturally arise and subside without interference—do not avoid them, but do not hold onto them,” he instructed.
Dr. Toneatto distinguishes between mindfulness and mindfulness meditation. “Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment, while mindfulness meditation includes direct, experiential insight into the nature of mental activity and events.” He explains that there are two main stages of meditation: tranquility and insight meditation. “Tranquility meditation involves calming the mind, usually by maintaining awareness of breathing and resisting the urge to focus on internal chatter, while insight meditation involves understanding the nature of our thoughts. Both are equally challenging to achieve, but if you can, you will not only develop peace of mind, but learn to understand it”.
It is evident that the current fascination with meditation is just as much scientific as it is religious. Toneatto, also a registered clinical psychologist in Ontario, said, “Meditation is comparable to medication. Research suggests that it has significantly benefited individuals who suffer from chronic pain, anxiety disorders, stress, addiction, and depression. It has both physiological and psychological benefits.”
An eight-week study led by Toneatto evaluated the effects of daily 20- minute sessions of mindfulness meditation among 17 undergraduates. After a pre- and post-assessment of depression, somatic stress, and anxiety, findings concluded that these participants reported lower rates of anxiety, depression, and somatic stress, especially among those with greater than 11 hours of meditation, over an eight-week experimental period. “Those that suffer from depression and anxiety are convinced that their negative beliefs about themselves are self-fulfilling prophecies. With meditation as a form of cognitive- behavioural treatment the goal is to realize that just because you have these beliefs doesn’t mean they are true—the same can be applied to problem gamblers,” Toneatto explained.
Interested in the role of meditation as a part of a cognitive behavioural treatment for problem gamblers, Toneatto will evaluate how effective such practice is at controlling distorted thinking patterns. “Problem gamblers have illusions of control and irrational superstitious beliefs— like talismanic superstitions where they think an object will increase the probability that they will win,” said Toneatto. “We will research whether mindfulness meditation, if practiced by problem gamblers, will reduce their rate of relapse by teaching them to have more control over their thoughts, like how to proactively respond to gambling-related urges rather than satisfy them,” he added.
Buddhism is the fourth-largest religious tradition in the world with approximately 365 million followers (about 6 per cent of the world’s population). Historically stemming from India, Buddhism spread throughout Asia—Cambodia, Taiwan, Japan, Sri Lanka, and Korea, to name a few— and quickly emerged as a popular and promising religion in the West. In a nutshell, Buddhism possesses the solution to eliminate suffering and discover true happiness in the form of enlightenment.
The many forms of Buddhism include Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Tibetan, and Zen. However, they all share the same core principles of the “Four Noble Truths:” (1) suffering exists, (2) suffering exists because of our attachment to our desires, (3) suffering will cease to exist when we detach ourselves from our desires, and (4) freedom from suffering is possible if we practice the “Eightfold Path.“ So, what is the Eightfold Path? It is composed of eight behaviours (right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right contemplation) that are characteristic of three qualities (wisdom, morality, and meditation). Meditation allows you to improve the behaviours of the Eightfold Path, thus bringing you closer to enlightenment. Toneatto emphasizes the view that “meditation allows you to reach your highest human potential. It teaches you about your own thoughts and develops your best human qualities whether you meditate for religious or therapeutic purposes.”
Meditation also enhances awareness. “In today’s society, we are constantly bombarded with opportunities for pleasure that we mistake for true happiness. Pleasure is a form of misdirected attempts at quests for enlightenment. Through meditation we awaken from the illusions of conditioning and see our essential self, not our conditioned self,” Toneatto said.
Is it true that meditation can be the next antidote to stress, and other psychological and physiological illnesses? It definitely sounds like it. Going forward, I’ve fine-tuned my tactics and thrown away the timer—today’s goal: no limits, no restrictions, no boundaries— to transcend reality by accepting it (easier said than done).
Mekhala Gunaratne for The Varsity.ca
Published on March 03 2008
Meditation helps kids with ADHD
The study has been published in the journal Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
Meditation can help improve symptoms in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), an international psychiatry conference heard this week.
The Australian study in 48 children diagnosed with ADHD found meditation led to an average 35% reduction in symptom severity over six weeks, and enabled many to reduce their medication.
Study co-author, Sydney general practitioner Dr Ramesh Manocha, told the World Psychiatric Association conference in Melbourne this week that improvements occurred in behaviour, self-esteem and relationship quality.
Children said they slept better and were less anxious at home. They also said they could better concentrate and had less conflict at school.
Parents were happier, less stressed and more able to manage their child's behaviour.
The trial, at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, taught the technique to children under 12 taking ADHD medication and their parents.
The technique uses visualisation, music and nature plus one-on-one instruction. For six weeks they attended two sessions a week at the hospital and meditated twice a day at home while soaking their feet in cool salt water.
"We had remarkable results. Overall there was about a 35% improvement in symptoms, which was significant," Manocha says.
"Six were able to go off medication and their behaviour normalised, 12 halved their medication and another group reduced it by about one-quarter. Feedback from children was the best, things like 'I always knew what I was doing was not good and upset people but now I can control it'."
In the moment
Manocha, who has taught Sahaja yoga meditation to patients in the past, says the meditation is about being in a state of mental silence and not thinking. He says it gives people the ability to tap into the present moment.
"Kids are generally naturally meditative; they think in the moment," Manocha says.
"Children with ADHD are inattentive, hyperactive, impulsive but meditation is the opposite. It focuses attention, is still and in control of urges. This re-teaches kids who have forgotten these skills and lost their natural ability to meditate because something in their environment is off balance. It gives them a tool to get back into the normal zone."
Happiness is an inside job
UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young
By wisdom and discrimination, man can learn that happiness is not dependent on external circumstances; rather it is to be found in the simpler joys of life. – Paramahansa Yogananda
Chronic stress seems to be a ubiquitous quality of modern life; so much so, that, for many, it is beginning to be accepted as a normal state. There is the morning rush to get to work on time, deadlines to meet at work, gym time to fit in, traffic to fight, grocery shopping and all the kids’ activities to manage. Once home, there are emails to check and online banking to do, in addition to all the other regular stuff of daily life.
Then, there are the mini-crises: the car breaks down, a filling falls out, a child is sick or there is trouble at school. On a larger scale, there could be a job loss, financial distress, serious illness or even a death.
Against this background of much that seems to be uncontrollable, we strive to be happy, by doing and creating things we think will make us happy. For some, it means the right house, car or club membership. For others, it may be a promotion, big salary, recognition or fame. Others yet may strive to have the perfectly sculpted body, the marathon run or the youthful appearance. But all these happiness goals rely on manipulating external circumstances. Rather than creating joy in the present, many of them will result in some future fulfillment.
So on the one hand, we have the present-day chronic stress, and on the other, happiness that will result down the road when certain goals have been accomplished. Where does that leave us in the meantime? It appears we are in a limbo state, dealing with the daily challenges while believing that when we have mastered them, we will be rewarded. It is like being in a race towards a finish line and someone keeps moving the line.
Happiness, as we well know, does not work that way. Happiness that is connected to outcomes or goals is not true happiness. Like conditional love, it is “conditional happiness.” It depends on something outside of us.
Unconditional happiness is a different matter altogether. It is a choice we make to unconditionally love ourselves and life itself. We see life as a gift. We truly and maturely understand that life, like the oceans and the air itself, will have some turbulence.
We can choose to race through it, head down, intensely focused on our goals and controlling as many aspects of life as possible. We may have to battle frustration and disappointment, and even stress, when the world does not co-operate with our plans.
Conversely, we could choose to go straight to the happiness. This does not necessarily require re-evaluating our lives and making major changes, although that definitely works.
It could be as simple as choosing happiness in each moment. Rather than having stressful thoughts, we could choose to notice what is good and beautiful in each moment. It could be the fact that we have good health or that the sun is shining. It might be a refreshing rain that makes the flowers grow and the grass green. We might look into the innocent face of a child or a pet and see the beauty there.
We could be thankful that we have employment, and are employable, though we may be frustrated with our job. Even a teen’s messy room can be a beautiful thing. Just ask parents who have lost their teenager.
Beyond all of that is the wonder of it all – the stars, the oceans, the sky, the birds and flowers. When we forget all of that, we are like little ants, carrying our burdens across the anthill, oblivious to the larger context in which we labour.
Yes, we will have bad days and times when we grieve. On all the other days, and the days in between, we can decide to be happy. Unconditionally.
Gwen Randall-Young is a psychotherapist in private practice and author of Growing Into Soul: The Next Step in Human Evolution. For information about her book, other articles and CDs, visit (www.gwen.ca).
As a scientist I used to think meditation was hokum. Not any more!
As a scientist, I have always been cautious about alternative therapies — I would rather put my faith in conventional medicine, which has been put through numerous trials and research, and proven to work through rigorous experiments.
And save for the occasional massage, I would certainly never spend my own money on alternative treatments. Some of my fellow scientists have even stronger views and dismiss it all as quackery.
Yet over the past few years, Britain has seen a dramatic uptake in alternative therapies. I'd always thought that the real reason these therapies "worked" for people who used them was simply because they were just very good at making the placebo effect work.
But having spent the past few months examining the scientific facts about hypnotherapy, reflexology and meditation — three of the fastest growing therapies in the UK — I'm beginning to understand their appeal.
Take meditation, for instance. Not so long ago, I would have said sitting around cross-legged for hours, reflecting on goodness knows what, would be a pretty futile exercise.
Yet it's said meditation can help with many things, including depression and anxiety, as well as helping us feel more content and leaving us better able to think.
In search of the truth, I travelled to the foothills of the Himalayas, where I learned basic meditation from a Buddhist monk called Matthieu Ricard.
He has been called the "happiest man in the world" and has been meditating for 30 years. Ricard believes meditation changes the way you experience every moment of your life, reducing anxiety and boosting compassion.
And after meditating with him, I definitely felt calmer and more at ease. In my own life, over the past few years, I'd made a point of sitting down quietly for 20 minutes a day on my sofa, listening to music, simply to have a break.
It suddenly struck me that what I'd been doing wasn't dissimilar to meditation. And while Ricard's views could sound like mumbo jumbo, his theories are increasingly being given weight by science.
At the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Professor Richard Davidson has carried out a study where he has seen significant changes in brain activity when people meditated.
Those in his study also reported feeling less anxious and happier.
Likewise, Dr Herbert Benson, who works at the Massachusetts General hospital in Boston, has studied a myriad of different types of meditation and their effects on the body, and concludes that they produce a deep form of relaxation which he calls The Relaxation Response.
When I visited him, I was hooked up to several machines which measured my stress levels, including my pulse, the tension in my muscles, my breathing rate, even the sweat on my skin.
I was told to sit quietly for ten minutes, so my pulse rate when resting could be measured. I then had to undertake a simple meditation exercise, during which my pulse and breathing rate actually went below my normal level at rest.
It was clear that meditating had caused physical responses in my body. Dr Benson believes the regular elicitation of the relaxation response can help with a whole range of medical conditions in which stress plays a role, such as asthma, infertility and diabetes.
Although this link between stress and illness isn't fully understood, scientifically this is not an unreasonable link to make.
At the same hospital, neuroscientist Sara Lazar is also getting some intriguing results looking at meditation's effect on neuroplasticity — which is the ability of the brain to change structure as it learns new tasks.
Neuroplasticity occurs when we learn to juggle or play a musical instrument. In these instances, parts of the brain actually thicken, which shows the brain is, growing new connections.
Lazar has also found the cortex of the brain — which governs thought processes — are thicker in people who meditate regularly compared to non-meditators.
To see if this is actually down to meditation will require more research, but the potential implications are exciting.
For example, in the elderly, the cortex is known to thin and shrink, so meditation might slow down the effects of growing old.
I made similarly exciting findings when I looked into hypnotherapy. It's a therapy I've long considered pretty wacky, but I did unearth some rather compelling work by Professor Irving Kirsch from Hull University.
He used an MRI scanner to monitor the brain when people were told, under hypnosis, to imagine seeing a black and white picture in colour.
They were also monitored as they did the same thing while not hypnotised. He found that, when hypnotised, the subjects activated the parts of their brain that would be active if they were in fact seeing colour.
But when they were in a normal state, this area was not activated.
But my natural cautiousness about alternative therapies seemed to be well-founded when it came to reflexology.
To heal a range of ailments, practitioners apply pressure to different areas of the feet which are considered by reflexologists to be a mirror image of the body itself.
An anatomist told me the "foot map" used by reflexologists has no anatomical basis.
Professor Leslie Walker from Hull University has found that reflexology helps breast cancer patients relax and so improves their quality of life — but he found no significant differences between the results for reflexology and head massage.
This made me wonder whether there could potentially be benefits from massage and touch, rather than from reflexology per se.
So I looked at what we really know about massage, and found, to my surprise, that the answer is not very much.
By the end of all my explorations, I was left with more questions than answers. But there is no doubt that certain studies in this field are yielding results which made me — and possibly even the most sceptical of individuals — take stock when it comes to the value of alternative therapies.
I'll certainly be adding meditation into my daily routine from now on.
Mindfulness Practice: Therapy for Client and Therapist
Why spend a single moment doing what appears to be nothing? Because that time is essential to mindfulness. It has the extraordinary power not only to help us connect with and heal ourselves but to do the same with others. It offers an avenue for functioning more purposefully. The same 24 hours will still be there, but how we move through them may become vastly different.
The time invested in sitting quietly with eyes closed, body relaxed, breathing deeply and listening to our own rhythms is known as mindfulness practice and it has its roots in Eastern spirituality. It is how Jerome Front, a nationally-known leader in the field of clinical psychology and family therapy, began a workshop at Western Michigan University’s Fetzer Center in Kalamazoo in early April. More than 120 professionals in counseling and social work gathered to learn how this practice could help them and their clients.
Mindfulness practice allows us to experience the world much more intimately and meaningfully. Front has studied in various parts of the world with some of the pioneers in mindfulness and meditation, among them Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Daniel Siegel, and Saki Santrelli. Front’s visit to Kalamazoo was sponsored in part by a generous gift from retired Family & Children Services clinician George Opdyke and a member of the Family & Children Services Board of Directors, Earlie Washington. Washington is Interim Dean of the College of Health and Human Services at WMU.
Between sessions of leading his audience in mindfulness practice, Front posed questions to stir self study, often leading to “a-ha” moments. “What is it,” he asked, “that you do when there is no client in the room? Is the client with you in your thoughts?” Front said that the field of neuroscience states that an image of the person remains inside us in our mental and physical reactions to them. The more mindful of them we become, the better able we are to be of help. However, taking care of ourselves through mindfulness practice also means that there are times when we clear our minds so that we are refreshed. It is a matter of balance.
“Western education has left us bereft in recognizing our bodies as a form of communication and wisdom,” he explained. “Our body is a source of knowing, not as Victorian training would have it, a source of desire and sin.” The mind and body are intimately linked and in fact, the feeling center of the brain is connected both to the heart and the gut by transmission pathways.
Western culture rewards us on the basis of “doing” rather than “being”, said Front. This pressure, in turn, feeds the phenomenon that is wreaking havoc in our culture. “We need grosser amounts of stimulation before we will give something even our partial attention,” he stated. “Meanwhile, silence is given a negative connotation as in giving someone ‘the silent treatment.’” What could become times of healing and connecting are denied.
Front went on to explain that sometimes we get into a “saturated state” when the anxiety we feel is in our minds and bodies at the same time and we are not able to think we can do anything about it. Health problems are one very direct outcome of this, as are fractured relationships.
In his own work in psychotherapy, Front maintains a private counseling practice, teaches at the Graduate School of Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University, and conducts experiential training for therapists. He emphasized to his attentive audience that, “The ability to be mindful and in the moment and to truly feel both with our minds and our bodies, allows us to become better therapists because we are more empathic.” Smiling, he said, “The same neurons that light up in the brain during mindfulness practice light up as part of a healthy loving relationship.”
Meditation Good For Psychiatrists' Mental Health
Report from the Annual Meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Imperial College, London, 1 - 4 July 2008, The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Meditation sessions are proving a hit for members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists at their Annual Meeting at Imperial College, London - with a growing number claiming they are turning to the spiritual discipline to combat anxiety and burnout.
Meditation workshops, run by the College's 2,000-strong Spirituality Special Interest Group, are overbooked. "It seems to be an indication of the need for spiritual nourishment, something that College members are not finding easily in the outside world," says Dr Sarah Eagger, chair of the Spirituality Group.
Dr Eagger, consultant psychiatrist at St Charles Hospital, London, said her daily meditation practice was as important in her everyday work as her medical training. "A strong spiritual practice really comes into its own when you are faced with a very distressed patient, while also coping with the pressures of working in teams under immense stress, and then having to spend hours filling in forms that make you feel that you are not trusted. I am stressed enough as it is. Without meditation practice to keep a still space inside, I would be suffering burn-out."
Dr Andrew Powell, the founding chair of the Spirituality Group, said: "There is a level of concern within the profession about being trapped in a culture of measurement and box-ticking. The result is that it's becoming ever more difficult to practice psychiatry, to contain the anxiety and concerns of our patients, to maintain a common humanity and avoid getting caught up in an 'us and them' mentality."
However, many mental health practitioners struggle to understand the relevance of spirituality to their work, the meeting was told. Julia Head, specialist chaplain at the Maudsley Hospital in London, told the conference that spirituality is increasingly recognised as a vital part of good mental health care.
"The National Institute for Mental Health in England is just the latest body to acknowledge the limitations of modern medicine by recommending that practitioners provide spiritual support alongside physical treatments, including medication," said Dr Head who coordinates 'recovery' training programmes for 300 mental health practitioners in the London boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth.
"Practitioners should be encouraging hope, and fostering a desire for change and the possibility of recovery. Yet this idea of healing, as opposed to clinical treatment, is something that is foreign to many practitioners," she said. 'They feel trapped in a culture where measuring clinical activity is the priority. It takes them time to understand that in order to support their patients' recovery, they need to feel valued themselves and to take time for their own nurture.'
The meeting was also told that the evidence-base for the therapeutic value of meditation for a wide range of health problems was significantly stronger than most pharmaceutical products. A new meta-analysis of 823 randomly controlled trials of meditation, conducted by the US National Institute of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, showed the clinical benefits of meditation across a wide range of physical and emotional disorders.
"Meditation is a way of life rather than quick fix achieved by paying for eight sessions or using gimmicks such as incense, music and light," Dr Avdesh Sharma, past president of the Indian Psychiatric Association, said. "It doesn't work immediately. You need to practice it for several weeks before the effects begin to be felt."
Dr Sharma added: "If meditation was a drug, we'd all want shares in it. It has a beneficial effect on most physical health problems and is very effective for mental health problems significantly reducing levels of depression and anxiety by improving relaxation, oxygenation of the brain, insomnia and energy levels."
Reference:
Solving Money Problems with Meditation Techniques: A New Approach
An interesting articles on using the ancient technique to deal with a very modern problem.
Recently, it seems that more and more Americans are climbing higher and higher into debt, especially after last summer's subprime fallout. According to the AP, the value of credit cards 30 days late was $17.3 billion in October 2007, a 26 percent jump from what it had been earlier in the year.
Debt has a way of mounting, and those caught in it start to feel like they have no way out. It can be almost like drowning to some. We're told to invest wisely, or consolidate our debt, or seek other outside help in order to get our financial affairs in order. But what if that's the wrong approach? What if it's not outside, but inside that we need to be looking?
Could meditation help people solve their debt problems?
One of the most difficult problems people face is breaking out of the little box we put ourselves in, filled up with worries about work, family, and money, amongst many others. What do we do about these worries? We look outside for help. We look to financial planners when money becomes unmanageable. We look to Prozac or organizational seminars when work becomes unmanageable. That seems to be the Western way.
However, in those situations, we are treating the symptoms, not necessarily the problem itself. Even if you can get out of debt, a lack of understanding about your money habits could land you right back into hot water with your bill collectors.
Meditation is about bringing yourself out of the stresses of daily life and taking pleasure in the here and now. However, it's also about clarity and coming to a deeper understanding about yourself. Once you have a better understanding of yourself and why you do things, you can fix the source of the problem, rather than just focusing on the symptoms.
Making meditation a part of your daily life
Will you gain clear insight on the source of all your financial problems after your first 20-minute meditation session? It's doubtful. The Buddha himself meditated for 49 days straight before he achieved ultimate enlightenment. Although that's not in the cards for most of us, taking just 10 or 20 minutes each day to meditate can make quite a bit of difference, both in stress level and in self-awareness.
The first step is to find a 10-minute or 20-minute block each day that you can have complete solitude. It may be in the morning before you jump in the shower. It may be your afternoon break at work. It may be while your kids are at after-school activities. It doesn't matter. Just find yourself a time, and find yourself a place with good memories or good vibes.
Once you've got your time and place, the only thing that remains is to meditate. For some people, a simple breathing meditation is very simple and effective. Others, however, need some kind of meditation tool that helps to bridge the gap between Eastern philosophy and Western culture. One such meditation tool is the Zen Stick, a smooth, buffed tool that users toss and catch with their eyes closed.
The benefit of a tool like the Zen Stick is that it can help you reach a meditative state much more quickly. This means you need only spend about 5 minutes a day meditating, as opposed to 10 or 20 minutes.
Gain greater clarity today
Meditation is a small change that, like a pebble thrown into a pond, can have a positive ripple effect on every area of your life. You can gain any number of mental, spiritual, and physical benefits from meditation, as well as increased clarity and understanding about yourself. Make meditation a part of your daily routine and learn to break the harmful cycles in your life.
Laurie Desjardins for the American Chronicle, Mechanism Behind Mind-Body Connection Is Identified.
A new study by researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) provides fresh insights into the mind-body connection, by finding how chronic emotional stress ages the immune system.
Researchers have found that the stress hormone cortisol suppresses immune cells' ability to activate enzymes that keep the cells young by preserving their ability to continue dividing. Every cell apparently contains a tiny clock called a telomere, which shortens each time the cell divides and according to the researchers, short telomeres are linked to a range of human diseases, including HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease and aging.
Previous studies have shown that the enzyme telomerase keeps immune cells young by preserving their telomere length and researchers insist that their latest study may help understand why the cells of persons under chronic stress have shorter telomeres. The findings show how stress makes people more susceptible to illness.
"When the body is under stress, it boosts production of cortisol to support a "fight or flight" response," says Rita Effros, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and a member of the Jonsson Cancer Center, Molecular Biology Institute and UCLA AIDS Institute.
"If the hormone remains elevated in the bloodstream for long periods of time, though, it wears down the immune system. We are testing therapeutic ways of enhancing telomerase levels to help the immune system ward off cortisol''s effect. If we''re successful, one day a pill may exist to strengthen the immune system's ability to weather chronic emotional stress," the researcher adds.
Mindfulness slows down progression of HIV
A new study at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA shows that by reducing stress by practising mindfulness, this can bolster the immune system, therefore slowing the progression of disease in HIV-positive adults.
CD4+ T lymphocytes, or simply CD4 T cells, are the "brains" of the immune system, they co-ordinate the immune system's activity when the body comes under attack. They are also the cells that are attacked by HIV, the virus slowly eats away at them, weakening the immune system.
It has also been found that stress can accelerate CD4 T cell decline. UCLA researchers report that the practice of mindfulness meditation stopped the decline of CD4 T cells in HIV-positive patients suffering from stress, slowing the progression of the disease. The study by UCLA researchers (published in the online edition of the journal Brain, Behaviour and Immunity) shows that the practice of mindfulness helped to stop this decline, by helping sufferers to deal with their stress, therefore slowing the progression of the disease.
"This study provides the first indication that mindfulness meditation stress-management training can have a direct impact on slowing HIV disease progression," said lead study author David Creswell, a research scientist at UCLA's Cousins Center. "The mindfulness program is a group-based and low-cost treatment, and if this initial finding is replicated in larger samples, it's possible that such training can be used as a powerful complementary treatment for HIV disease, alongside medications."
An eight-week mindfulness-based stress-reduction (MBSR) meditation program was run and compared to a one-day MBSR control seminar, participants were a stressed group of 48 HIV-positive adults in Los Angeles. In the eight-week group, those involved showed no loss of CD4 T cells. In contrast, the control group showed significant declines.
Creswell also found that the more mindfulness meditation classes people attended, the higher the CD4 T cells at the study's conclusion.
In order to understand the health benefits of mindfulness meditation, Creswell and his colleagues at UCLA are now examining the underlying pathways through which mindfulness meditation reduces stress, using brain imaging, genetics and immune system measurements.
"Given the stress-reduction benefits of mindfulness meditation training, these findings indicate there can be health protective effects not just in people with HIV but in folks who suffer from daily stress," Creswell said.
Mindfulness Meditation: A New Treatment For Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia has emerged as a common, yet difficult to treat disorder. A group of investigators of the University of Basel has proposed a new modality of treatment in the July issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) proposes a systematic program for reduction of suffering associated with a wide range of medical conditions
Studies suggest improvements in general aspects of well-being, including quality of life (QoL), coping and positive affect, as well as decreased anxiety and depression. A quasi-experimental study examined effects of an 8-week MBSR intervention among 58 female patients with fibromyalgia (mean, 52 ± 8 years) who underwent MBSR or an active social support procedure.
Participants were assigned to groups by date of entry, and 6 subjects dropped out during the study. Self-report measures were validated German inventories and included the following scales: visual analog pain, pain perception, coping with pain, a symptom checklist and QoL.
Pre- and postintervention measurements were made. Additionally, a 3-year follow-up was carried out on a subgroup of 26 participants. Pre- to postintervention analyses indicated MBSR to provide significantly greater benefits than the control intervention on most dimensions, including visual analog pain, QoL subscales, coping with pain, anxiety, depression and somatic complaints (Cohen d effect size, 0.40-1.10).
Three-year follow-up analyses of MBSR participants indicated sustained benefits for these same measures (effect size, 0.50-0.65). Based upon a quasi-randomized trial and long-term observational follow-up, results indicate mindfulness intervention to be of potential long-term benefit for female fibromyalgia patients.
Reference: Paul Grossman, Ulrike Tiefenthaler-Gilmer, Annette Raysz, Ulrike Kesper. Mindfulness Training as an Intervention for Fibromyalgia: Evidence of Postintervention and 3-Year Follow-Up Benefits in Well-Being. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 2007;76:226-233
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics and was found on the Science Daily website.
