Psychological Benefits of Meditation

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Psychological Benefits of Meditation

 

From Rudraksha Beads Societies Group by Kari Sprowl

 

 

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:

 

 

Dr. Borysenko notes that " 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 " , says Daeja Napier, founder of the Insight Meditation Center

and lay dharma teacher of insight meditation in suburban Boston.

 

" 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, " says Napier. " 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, " says Napier. " We realize that the only thing missing

is mindfulness, and that's what we practice. "

 

 

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 by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., associate

professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical

Center in Worcester and director of the medical center's Stress

Reduction Clinic, 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.

 

 

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