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A
meditation session affects our physiology in subtle but obvious
ways. After a ten-minute meditation almost anyone should be able to
say, “Yes, my muscles have relaxed, I am breathing more easily and my
mind is less agitated.” It follows that it could have more far-reaching
benefits as well.
Personally, I see the results of meditation every working day. Since
1987, I have run the Perth Meditation Centre in Western Australia. I
have taught around 15,000 people to meditate, most of whom have
attended at least one course of seven weeks duration. I have seen this
unspectacular activity lead to huge improvements in physical and mental
health. It can transform people in ways that any psychologist or
physician would envy.
Many doctors and psychologists understand how a patient’s state of mind
affects his or her health, but they have to be cautious about
recommending meditation as a treatment. There are many charlatans in
the alternative health field, selling hope and placebos to sick people.
However, meditation itself has passed the test. There are now decades
of substantial scientific research on meditation. We know that it helps
with certain common ailments, and makes the body and mind function
better in measurable ways. Many doctors realize that this can be enough
to markedly improve a patient’s health. About a quarter of my students
are now referred to me by medical practitioners.
Although the connection between body and mind is
self-evident, it is difficult to scientifically investigate.
Psychologists evaluate mental states and scientists measure biological
functions but there is no lingua franca between them. The units of
measurement and methodologies used in these two disciplines are so
different it is all but impossible to connect them.
We know, for example, that fear and anger (which are the province
of psychology) activate the sympathetic nervous system (the province of
medicine). We can measure the chemistry involved in exquisite detail,
but how on earth do you measure fear or anger? Or even scientifically
define the difference between them?
Managing one’s health is complicated. There is rarely a single cause to
any illness. The body operates as an interlocking network of multiple
functions. Staying healthy is not a matter of knocking out individual
illnesses when they arise. It is more about paying attention to an
array of small details on a daily basis and thereby slowing the rate of
aging, or “wear and tear” in the body.
While meditation can produce dramatic turnarounds in illness, it is
even more valuable as a preventive measure. Meditation can help us
maintain optimum function and delay the inevitable effects of aging. It
helps us keep our blood pressure under control before it leads to a
stroke. By sleeping better, we have more energy and our immune system
is more efficient. We breathe better, manage pain better and digest
food better. Meditation helps us manage our health intelligently before
the damage becomes irreparable.
Meditation is easy to do. It has clear physical results that you can
see if you look for them. The medical evidence clearly shows how
relaxation is essential for the healthy functioning of the body.
Whether you are sick, or want to maintain your health, or simply want
to enjoy life more, you will find that meditation is worth looking into.
Our bodies are extremely good at maintaining balance, so why do we
still get sick? There are some causes that are largely beyond our
control. The ravages of age or severe outer stressors such as war or
starvation will wear us down, no matter what we do.
In theory, we could pace ourselves well and be in a balanced state all
day long--eating, working, exercising and resting well. If we kept this
going all our lives, there is a good chance we would live to a hale and
hearty old age.
But, being conscious animals, we frequently ignore the signs of stress
and overrule the intelligence of our bodies. We get overexcited and
push ourselves to the limits. We eat and drink and work too much and
eventually lose all concept of a balanced life. And though we often
grind to a halt out of exhaustion, we usually don’t let ourselves fully
recover before plunging back into the fray.
We can also be mildly stressed for years at a time. To be 10% more
stressed than you need to be can make you just as prone to middle-aged
illness as extreme stress. Because mild continual stress is so common,
we often take it as being “normal,” and don’t realize how insidious it
is.
Many people are ill because they look for purely physical solutions to
their health. In many ways, the more specific the medical intervention,
the less it contributes to total health, and vice versa. If you take
pills for high blood pressure, they are unlikely to improve your
insomnia or indigestion or chronic pain. So you need to take pills for
each of those, and maybe some antidepressants as well.
However, if you meditate to lower your blood pressure, the effect is
less direct but can have wider benefits. Your hypertension improves but
you also have less abdominal gas, you sleep better and your pain
bothers you less. Meditation is less precise in effect than a diuretic,
but it goes one step further back to a more fundamental cause: our
over-active anxious minds.
Perhaps the best foundation for health and long life is to be
profoundly content or happy, and there aren’t any simple recipes for
this. For most of us, a balanced and harmonious life usually requires
decades of trail-and-error and a high degree of self-awareness.
Fortunately, we don’t have to get everything right all at once. The
meditation tradition is very clear in that you start right where you
are. You just do what you can in the moment, rather than trying to plan
the perfect life.
This
article is excerpted with permission from How Meditation Heals
©2001 by
Eric Harrison. Published by Ulysses Press, Berkeley, California.
Available in stores or visit www.ulyssespress.com.
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