Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.
-Siddhartha, 500 B.C.
I have a practice you can try most anywhere and anytime... in your work clothes, your gym clothes, even naked in bed. It's simple to do, but it takes a little time. And I mean just a little time - 12 minutes is all it takes!
If you want to quickly improve your health and happiness, this activity can do it. And it takes very little effort. Paradoxically, the less effort you exert, the stronger its effects.
What is this practice? Meditation.
I have asked people who have never done it, why not? Commonly people say they are afraid meditation has religious connotations. It is true very devout and religious people invoke this technique when they "pray." From monks to Muslims, from Catholics to Buddhists, this process happens during quiet times and prayer. The amazing thing is you don't have to practice any specific religion to get the health benefits of this process.
A cardiologist named Herbert Benson studied meditation in the 1970s and wrote a book called The Relaxation Response. As you may recall, the '60s and '70s began a new era in health. It was a time when medicine and its scientific method wrestled with the world of alternative and complementary medicine. The hippies of the '60s had ideas for world peace and alternative ways to cure disease, while "western medicine" held to its paternalism and hierarchical beliefs.
Concepts of personality - constructs such as a "Type A" personality - led researchers to uncover statistical correlations between Type As and heart disease. However, as medicine and science advanced, few of the leaders in health care paid attention to the benefits of simple and cheap solutions. It was the new era of medicine, and pharmaceuticals were thought to be the answer to most every question.
But this is really not true. As one of history's greatest inventors, Thomas Edison, wrote years ago...
The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human body, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.
A century later, his message is still true. Easy-swallowing pills and medicines are not the answer to everything. Many simple, common-sense activities promote good health and prevent disease.
I first learned about meditation in my freshman year of college, when I discovered my roommate doing it. He had been doing it for a few years in high school and his older parents (they were in their early 60s) were practitioners for years. He told me how I could learn to do it, and I soon enrolled in a course in transcendental meditation. As they say... the rest is history.
The power of meditation comes from the "relaxation response" and how it changes our physiology. During meditation, our brain waves convert to a pattern that is as deep and in some ways deeper than sleep. It is also more restful and recharging than a nap. It turns out, meditation releases chemicals that are the direct opposite of the so-called "stress hormones." These chemicals and hormones trigger pathways of healing and regeneration.
Active meditation has been shown to lower your heart rate and increase both your blood's oxygen saturation and the delivery of oxygen to tissue. A Scientific American article from 1963 reported yogis actually lowered their heart rates to one and two beats a minute by invoking this "relaxation response." Now that's what I call relaxed!
Paradoxically, and perhaps the best part, meditation has benefits identical to exercise but without the wear, tear, and stress on your body that happens when training too hard.
What else can meditation do?
§ . Increase your powers of concentration.
§ . Increase your longevity.
§ . Reduce the number of visits to your doctor.
§ . Reduce the likelihood of an admission to the hospital.
§ . Improve fertility.
§ . Reduce inflammation (a key to health).
§ . Boost the immune system.
§ . Increase serotonin (the chemical for fighting depression).
§ . Lower blood pressure more than any drug (Yep, read that again).
Of course, as with any lifestyle change, it is only effective if you do it! When I first learned to practice meditation, I studied transcendental meditation. Since then I have developed variations by reading about meditation, relaxation and awareness (for instance, the works of writer Jon Kabat-Zinn, famous for popularizing the phrase "Mindfulness Meditation")... Many of the people who invoke the response (including some religious folks) truly believe the process, if practiced by enough people, would lead to decreases in crime and even promote world peace...
When it comes to meditation and relaxation, here is what I do:
§ . I read the book The Relaxation Response every year on a weekend retreat for health. I recommend you go and buy it today!
§ . I meditate once a week on a weekend day. Plus, I try to fit one or two sessions in during the work week... often on days when I'm scheduled to perform surgery.
§ . I sit and meditate for 15-20 minutes the moment I recognize a headache or neck ache... which can be a couple of times a month, often triggered by mental or even physical stress and tension.
§ . I sit in a chair with my neck and shoulders balanced and relaxed (this is the hardest part), feet on the floor and hands resting on my lap or sides. I think of one word such as "one" or "omm" or "peace." I do nothing but think of that word. When my mind drifts to other things, I slowly and softly bring it back to that word... taking deep, but not forced, breaths... I let my mind and body go where they want to for 15 or 20 minutes.
§ . If I wake up in the morning without having slept a full eight hours, I will pile some pillows up behind me and then meditate for 20 minutes or so while sitting up quietly in bed... I find this easily equals an hour more of sleep.
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