Health via Meditation/Stress Reduction

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone...

I love articles on meditation, because they show how through our own

efforts we can enhance our lives, by addressing our own minds, and

it speaks to the importance of relaxation... (Absolutely none of

which you can get from pyschotropic drugs...) But I am always a bit

nervous that someone is going to accuse me of pushing a particular

religion... So just to clarify, I think meditation is as the

article wrote, " mindfulness " but if people are still not comfortable

with that, I would substitute other skilled relaxation techniques,

or even prayer of one's choice...

Be Well,

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

Health via Meditation/Stress Reduction

 

" Not only do studies show that meditation is boosting their immune

system, but brain scans suggest that it may be rewiring their brains

to reduce stress....

 

....At Cambridge University, John Teasdale found that mindfulness

helped chronically depressed patients, reducing their relapse rate

by half. Wendy Weisel, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors and

author of Daughters of Absence, took anxiety medication for most of

her life until she started meditating two years ago. " There's an

astounding difference, " she reports. " You don't need medication for

depression or for tension. I'm on nothing for the first time in my

life. " ...

 

....But the current interest is as much medical as it is cultural.

Meditation is being recommended by more and more physicians as a way

to prevent, slow or at least control the pain of chronic diseases

like heart conditions, AIDS, cancer and infertility. It is also

being used to restore balance in the face of such psychiatric

disturbances as depression, hyperactivity and attention-deficit

disorder (ADD). In a confluence of Eastern mysticism and Western

science, doctors are embracing meditation not because they think

it's hip or cool but because scientific studies are beginning to

show that it works, particularly for stress-related conditions. " For

30 years meditation research has told us that it works beautifully

as an antidote to stress, " says Daniel Goleman, author of

Destructive Emotions, a conversation among the Dalai Lama and a

group of neuroscientists. " But what's exciting about the new

research is how meditation can train the mind and reshape the

brain. " Tests using the most sophisticated imaging techniques

suggest that it can actually reset the brain, changing the point at

which a traffic jam, for instance, sets the blood boiling. Plus,

compared with surgery, sitting on a cushion is really cheap...

 

....At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Richard Davidson has

used brain imaging to show that meditation shifts activity in the

prefrontal cortex (right behind our foreheads) from the right

hemisphere to the left. Davidson's research suggests that by

meditating regularly, the brain is reoriented from a stressful fight-

or-flight mode to one of acceptance, a shift that increases

contentment. People who have a negative disposition tend to be right-

prefrontal oriented; left-prefrontals have more enthusiasms, more

interests, relax more and tend to be happier, though perhaps with

less real estate...

 

....the evidence from meditation researchers continues to mount. One

study, for example, shows that women who meditate and use guided

imagery have higher levels of the immune cells known to combat

tumors in the breast. This comes after many studies have established

that meditation can significantly reduce blood pressure. Given that

60% of doctor visits are the result of stress-related conditions,

this isn't surprising....

 

....Over the years, he has helped more than 14,000 people manage

their pain without medication by teaching them to focus on what

their pain feels like and accept it rather than fight it. " These

people have cancer, AIDS, chronic pain, " he says. " If we think we

can do something for them, we're in deep trouble. But if you switch

frames of reference and entertain the notion that they may be able

to do something for themselves if we put very powerful tools at

their disposal, things shift extraordinarily. " ... "

 

This

<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,1101030804,00.html>August

4, 2003 Time article is worth reading - Incorporating meditation in

our lives could go a long way to keep the pharma cartel at bay. Who

Like my earlier discussion, on

<http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/08/08/orthomolecular_trea

tment_of_cancer_depression.htm>Orthomolecular Treatment of Cancer -

Depression, will have much to say and debunk this route of

treatment, with all their blood money and even going as far as

<http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/07/10/snake_hiding_in_the

_grass_exposed.htm>corrupting<http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2

003/07/10/snake_hiding_in_the_grass_exposed.htm>

our tax money towards their ends

 

 

Chris Gupta

For complete article go to:

 

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/08/12/_health_via_meditati

onstress_reduction.htm