About meditation
Meditation has been surrounded by much mystique, but is really something very simple and quite natural. It is often said that meditation is a combination of relaxation and concentration.
It seems contradictory to talk of relaxation at the same time as concentration, because when we try to concentrate on something we usually tens muscles, for example wrinkle our forehead; bite our jaws together, etc. We probably tens our muscles, at least partly, to signal to others that we are concentrating. It is also a natural thing to do when preparing for the execution of a sudden body movement. (We are probably full of old couplings between body movements and mental constructs. Have you for instance noticed how often people strongly bite their jaws together when they are cutting something with a wire cutter?)
Let us therefore use the word attention. When we meditate, we are fully awake, but deeply relaxed, while we direct our attention onto something. It is completely impossible to go to sleep while meditating. If you fall asleep you have not paid attention.
Your thoughts may not wander about freely. That is not meditation. Let us use the word concentration for a moment. Concentration is not letting your thoughts drift. This is achieved by fastening your attention to something and keeping it there as you relax.
I will now describe a very simple meditation method. You need not sit in any special way, or think of any special word, or breathe in any special way. You just simply do this.
- Lay on your back on your bed and make sure you are comfortable.
- Close your eyes and feel where your toes are, your feet, legs, arms and that you can relax the muscles in the neck, scull and face.
- Slowly breath a few times.
Now the real meditation starts.
- Try not to govern your breathing. Let the body breathe in its own rhythm.
- Now pay attention to your breathing. Observe, without interfering, how air flows in through the nose, down into the lungs and back out through the nose.
- Do not pay attention to the thoughts that comes into your mind and they will go away. Direct all your attention to observing your breathing only.
- After a while your body feels warmer. That is because you are now so relaxed that the fine blood vessels in your skin are widened thereby increasing the flow of blood in the skin where the nerve cells that register heat are situated.
- Just continue to observe your breathing. You can try to slowly form a little smile and feel how your facial muscles relax (if they have been tensed).
- If you continue to observe your breathing without thoughts, you will eventually be so relaxed that you can feel the beating of your heart in your whole body. You can register the minute motion of your body that is a result of the variation in blood pressure caused by every heartbeat.
- You just experience breathing and pulse and are deeply relaxed.
- Whenever you want to, you stop.
The advantage of this method is its simplicity and that you pretty soon can use observation of breathing to reach calm and relaxation wherever you are. If you use this method in the evening, but not immediately before you go to sleep, you will have a much better sleep.
There are two types
When measuring brain activity, it was found (Dunn etal 1999) that: relaxation, concentration meditation, and mindfulness meditation resulted in three distinctly different patterns. This was seen as proof of three different unique forms of consciousness.
In concentration meditation attention is directed towards a mantra (sound or word) that one silently repeats to oneself, a physical object, or a visualization (inner picture). Concentration meditation involves a shielding off from, or attenuation of that which is not the focus of attention. The concentration meditation results in an increased ability to concentrate.
Mindfulness meditation involves directing the attention towards observing breathing, while at the same time being open to non-valuing observation of other impressions as they present themselves. These can be sounds, visual impressions, or thoughts. Eyes can be closed, but are more preferably kept half opened, which makes this meditation suitable to instances when one has to sit and wait, travels by buss, or similar situations.
Mindfulness meditation has much in common with Zen-Buddhist meditation, and can lead to transcendence experiences.
It has been found that mindfulness meditation yields a host of good effects. In a large series of well-documented studies it has been shown that ca 20 minutes a day, five days a week, for eight weeks, of mindfulness meditation can: reduce stress, increase empathic abilities, lower blood pressure, increase the ability to coop with chronic pain, ease fibromyalgia , reduce depression, ease migraine & tension headache, ease epileptic seizures, reduce anxiety, and ease nervous ailments in the digestive tract. The effects are surprisingly strong and in some cases in par with active medicines. For an overview see Bonadonna (2003).
References
Bonadonna, R. (2003): Meditation's Impact on Chronic Illness, Holistic Nursing Practice; Nov/Dec 2003; 17, 6; pg 309
Broderick, P. C. (2005): Mindfulness and Coping with Dysphoric Mood: Contrasts with Rumination and Distraction, Cognitive Therapy and Research, Vol. 29, No. 5, October 2005, pp 501-510
Dunn, B. R, Hartigan, J. A. and Mikulas, W. L. (1999): Concentration and Mindfulness Meditations: Unique Forms of Consciousness? Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1999
Gross, C. R., Kreitzer, M. J., Russas, V. and Treesak, C. (2004): Mindfulness Meditation To Reduce Symptoms After Organ Transplant: A Pilot Study, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine; May/Jun 2004; 10, 3; pg 58
Ott, M. J. (2002): Mindfulness meditation in pediatric clinical practice, Pediatric Nursing; Sep/Oct 2002; 28, 5; pg 487
Penzien, D. B., Rains, J. C. and Andrasik, F. (2002): Behavioral Management of Recurrent Headache: Three Decades of Experience and Empiricism, Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, Vol. 27, No. 2, June 2002 (2002)
Ramel, W., Goldin, P. R. and Carmona, P. E. and McQuaid, J. R. (2004): The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Cognitive Processes and Affect in Patients With Past Depression, Cognitive Therapy and Research, Vol. 28, No. 4, August 2004, pp. 433-455
Shapiro, S. L., Schwartz, G. E. and Bonner, G. (1998): Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Medical and Premedical Students, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Vol. 21, No. 6, 1998, pg 581
Tacon, A. M., McComb, J., Caldera, Y. and Randolph, P. (2003): Mindfulness meditation, anxiety reduction, and heart disease: A pilot study, Family and Community Health; Jan-Mar 2003; 26, 1; pg 25
Weiss von, D., Millea, P. J. and Holloway, R. L. (2002): Use of mindfulness meditation for fibromyalgia / Reply, American Family Physician; Feb 1, 2002; 65, 3; pg. 380
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