Quiet the mind and heal the body

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Jan. 2, 2004. 06:56 AM Quiet the mind and heal the body

Many are turning to meditation to treat illness, improve health

 

 

HILARY MACGREGOR

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

 

LOS ANGELES—Inside a church community room, beginning meditators close their

eyes, straighten their spines in their folding metal chairs and try to rein in,

for just 10 minutes, the thoughts that race like wild horses through their

minds.

 

A woman in the back row yawns. The woman next to her fidgets. Another student

sneaks a peek.

 

" My mind still wanders, " Jeremy Morelock, 33, says of the Buddhist meditation

class he has attended for three months in search of stress relief and spiritual

growth. " I have these imaginary conversations with people, and then I think,

`Whoa, whoa, whoa, concentrate!' "

 

Regular meditation is supposed to quiet the mind and allow the body to tap into

its own innate healing mechanisms. Yogis and monks have preached the powers of

meditation for thousands of years, and the counterculture generation of the '60s

embraced transcendental meditation — a still-thriving form of internal

mantra-chanting — as a method to alter consciousness.

 

But many people today are taking up meditation for reasons that have little or

nothing to do with spiritual enlightenment and a lot to do with improving their

health. Scientists are using MRI and other advanced technologies to study the

physiological changes that occur in meditating Buddhist monks. These researchers

are starting to demonstrate, with the type of laboratory science that can

influence even skeptical physicians, what those who engage in this ancient

practice have believed for many centuries: Meditation works.

 

A growing body of research has shown that meditation has clear benefits. Now,

doctors and other health-care professionals are recommending meditation as a way

to treat a variety of ills, from depression to high blood pressure and

hyperactivity. In some cases, meditation — or as it's sometimes called,

" relaxation techniques'' — is prescribed when other treatments, such as

prescription drugs, haven't worked, or as a complement to drug therapy. Recent

research has shown that meditation can help reduce the risk of heart disease and

stroke, as well as reduce pain and enhance the body's immune system.

 

Meditation is free, accessible and portable. It has no negative side effects — a

fact that makes doctors feel comfortable recommending it. Meditation requires

only that you be able to sit quietly for 10 minutes or more, while focusing on

your breath or a word or phrase. Anyone can do it.

 

As with many lifestyle changes, most notably diet and exercise, getting started

and sticking with meditation can be difficult. Meditation takes time and

discipline. Desperately seeking health or sanity, many stressed-out people yearn

for some quiet time amid the chaotic frenzy of their daily lives. Finding 10

uninterrupted minutes and a quiet place to sit down and shut your eyes can be a

stumbling block. It's problematic to zone out in a cubicle at work, or at a

restaurant during lunch. And home life can be hectic in these wired and wireless

times.

 

No one knows for sure how many of those who begin meditating continue the

practice. Gen Kelsang Lekma, a Buddhist nun who has taught meditation for a

decade in Los Angeles, says the dropout rate is fairly high: Only about half the

students who begin a typical 13-class series will complete it, she estimates,

and perhaps two out of 10 students who begin meditating will still be doing so

after a couple of years.

 

Students abandon the practice for a variety of reasons, Lekma says. Some don't

like it or can't get the hang of it, and others lack the discipline to practise

it regularly, usually daily.

 

How a person comes to meditation may also have an impact on his or her

willingness to stick with it. For example, an increasing number of physicians

are recommending meditation as a form of therapy to patients with heart disease,

high blood pressure and even infertility. Dr. Herbert Benson, a Harvard

University professor and president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in

Massachusetts, says that in his clinical experience, about 60 per cent to 70 per

cent of those who begin a meditation-type practice primarily for medical reasons

(sometimes at the recommendation of their doctor) adopt the teachings.

 

Proponents of the practice — from Buddhists to cardiologists — are trying to

help more people work meditation into their daily lives. So what are the most

effective approaches for starting meditation and ensuring you'll stick with it?

 

The first step is to make the commitment, experts says. Learn about why it works

physiologically and how it might benefit your health.

 

Published more than 25 years ago, Benson's pioneering book, The Relaxation

Response, showed how 10 minutes of meditative technique a day could increase

concentration and counteract the harmful effects of stress, such as high blood

pressure and strokes. Considered by many to be the father of U.S. meditation,

Benson uses the phrase " relaxation response " to refer broadly to various

meditation-type techniques — including prayer, qi gong, yoga and tai chi — that

quiet the brain.

 

Newcomers need to stick with meditation long enough to make it a habit. Taking a

meditation class or attending a meditation retreat can be a shortcut to feeling

the positive effects of meditation faster and establishing a routine, experts

says.

 

" Most people find it very difficult to begin a meditation practice on their

own, " says Lekma. " When you meditate with others, you get some kind of group

dynamic going. When you get some people who are experienced, you kind of feed

off it.''

 

Experts caution, however, that meditation won't produce the immediate " hit, "

such as reduced stress or increased energy, that a workout in the gym or other

brisk exercise will do. Meditation takes time to learn, and even people who have

been doing it for years still have times when their minds wander.

 

" The first few times you feel like an idiot doing it, " says Dr. Lee Lipsenthal,

medical director of the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease and

Lifestyle Advantage in California, who has meditated for 20 years and recommends

meditation, along with diet and exercise changes, to patients with heart

disease. " You are feeling anxious, your head is spinning, you are thinking you

could be doing X, Y and Z, until you get the hang of it. That takes nearly six

weeks of daily practice. "

 

 

 

It is important to be patient and start slowly. Lekma, the nun, suggests

starting with tiny steps, such as a single weekly session with others, followed

by a small personal commitment that you could stick to — for example, five to 10

minutes a day.

 

" People come in with a lot of enthusiasm, but have unrealistic expectations, "

Lekma says. " Instead of taking very small steps they say, `I want to run a

marathon.' First you have to run half a block. "

 

Los Angeles Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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