Demystifying Meditation

It has been validated that 20 minutes of meditation is the equivalent of 3 hours of sleep. If you are on a plane and onto your next important board meeting, think about how efficient you can be by utilizing 20 minutes of that time to regenerate and renew yourself and be clear and focused for the upcoming event.

First thing we have to do is demystify meditation. Truly, its not this thing that these pious monks do high on the hilltops in Tibet, nor is it exclusive to Eastern philosophy. What is meditation? Actually, let's rather refer to it as relaxation and that brings me to telling you about Herbert Benson, cardiologist, researcher, educator, a mentor. He had a private practice in Massachusetts and in 1962 some TM students, who requested to do a research study on the effects of TM on his patients, approached him. The first time they approached him, in his own words he threw them out the door. Fortunately, they were persistent and so two years later they were back, knocking on his door. This time, for whatever the reason, he was open to their suggestions and the next thing a research study was set up, incorporating his most difficult patients, those that did not respond to medication etc. They hooked them up to all sorts of electrical devices and then analyzed the data. Guess what! Here were these cardiac patients, medically at risk of dying, literally. The study showed that when they were meditating for 20 minutes twice a day, they were able to keep their medical condition under control. The data revealed not only a decrease in blood pressure but also a slowing down of their heart rate, their rate of breathing, as well as a decrease in muscle tension.

So here's this doctor, renown as a physician and researcher and his data is showing that something like an esoteric and spiritually associated practice of meditation is truly having a profound effect on his patients. Yes, they were able to control a life threatening medical condition by taking 20 minutes twice a day to be quiet. Imagine that! Well, the first thing that he did was to package it in vocabulary that was going to be easier for his colleagues to digest and so he coined the phrase 'eliciting the relaxation response' and he continued to analyze the techniques with more scrutiny and eventually came up with the understanding that the basis of the success of the process was in what he referred to as the 'refocusing process'.

You see, people tend to think that meditation is hard to do and that you really have to stay focused in order to achieve the benefits and if you don't do all that, that its a waste of time and of no benefit. Wrong! The benefit is in the doing. Just taking the time to sit there. And the process occurs through 'refocusing'. In other words, when you take the time to practice eliciting the relaxation response, you choose a focus of attention. Now, it doesn't have to be the so-called mantra, which is a harmonic sound that is given to people when they are initiated into the practice of TM. In fact, it can be anything. It can be focusing on your breathing or it may be using a phrase that you choose from your religious affiliation or even a visual image. To elicit the relaxation response, all you need is a focus and then what you do is keep on refocusing on that word, sound, object, whatever. You see, what Benson found was that there was a direct shift in the autonomic nervous system. The body physically switches from a sympathetic to a parasympathetic mode.

Let me take a moment or two and explain this aspect of our human function. When you understand the basis of this function, I know you will feel more open to incorporating the practice because it makes so much sense. The autonomic nervous system is comprised of the two polar opposite responses from the body that put it in sympathetic or parasympathetic mode. The sympathetic nervous system is activated dramatically and manifests what is known as the fight or flight response. This phenomena was first documented by Dr Walter B Cannon of Harvard Medical School early this century who found that when a person is subjected to a frightening experience it unconsciously and automatically sets up a physiological reaction to get ready to fight. In other words, there is a cascade of hormones from the adrenals that flood the body, like the flame of a dynamite stick and causes arousal. The heart rate increases, the rate of breathing increases, so does the breathing rate, blood pressure and metabolism. Because of the stresses of daily living, our bodies are constantly in the sympathetic mode some researchers suggest 50 times a day starting with the alarm first thing in the morning. Now when we are lying on the beach in Hawaii, listening to the sound of the waves and the gulls, our bodies automatically switch into parasympathetic mode.

Well, we don't want to have to wait for that opportunity to be lying on the beach. We want to be able to access that state of mind everyday. That relaxation does not result in inactivity and disassociation. Instead, it results in clarity and focus. The mind is able to rid itself of the cobwebs and utilize its potential without interference of unwanted thought processes. Of course, the most challenging aspect lies in the execution of the technique. We are creatures of habit and its very difficult to change our daily priority list so that it includes taking the time to be quiet twice or even once a day on a regular basis. You see Benson's studies went on the verify that as long as the patients continued to execute the practice, their hypertension was under control, but if they stopped doing it, the hypertension slowly became a problem again. The real benefit of the technique is truly incorporating the practice on a regular basis. Another interesting fact is that when you regularly practice relaxation it reduces end-organ sensitivity to the stress hormones adrenaline and noradrenalin. In other words, we still secrete the hormones when we're stressed but they no longer have the same over-stimulating effect on our tissues, muscles and organs.

It is not the same as sleep. When you sleep it takes 3-5 hours for the metabolism to slow down. It takes 3-5 minutes when eliciting a relaxation response:

So back to the idea of refocusing. Sometimes there are a lot of thoughts that are passing endlessly through our minds and when we close our eyes and start to focus on the pattern of our breathing, say, we are interrupted by these thoughts that keep coming back and demanding attention. Now here's the secret to success. It doesn't matter how many thoughts there are, it doesn't matter how restless it makes you feel. As soon as you notice that you are focusing on the thoughts instead of focusing on whatever you have chosen as your 'distraction' you remind yourself that you don't want to be paying attention to that thought right now, and gently refocus your attention. That's the process. And its so simple and easy. And it works. You just have to take the time to do it. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Sometimes, while you're doing it, it feels like it is not doing anything for you, but when you open your eyes, you notice the distinct change in how you feel.

Of course, the most remarkable aspect of the practice is in the cumulative effect. The more you do it, the easier it is to access the state of relaxation, and the benefits of the practice creep into your daily activity where you experience that sense of clarity and calm throughout the day and not only immediately after doing it.

Here's my mom, 85 years old and going strong. What an amazing lady. My greatest gift to her and to me, mind you, was taking her with me to the TM center when I first went there 25 years ago. Not only did has it given her clarity of mind and incredible stamina, but it helped us to resolve many discordant issues that were primary stumbling blocks that prevented us from having a loving relationship. You see, for as long as I can remember, I was this renegade. I don't know why I didn't want to conform. I wasn't trying to be difficult. I just thought differently and was pretty strong-willed at that. You can imagine how this attitude was not well received by a very authoritarian parent who only knew one way, her way.... and a very conservative way at that. Well, interestingly enough, over an extended period of time, my mother and I were truly able to resolve most of the issues that put us at loggerheads with each other. I can see now, very clearly, that what developed was a mutual respect for one another that never existed before. We were able to disagree without it having to be a major issue. In fact, my friends that were around while I was a teenager, were amazed by the visible change that occurred. Instead of screaming at each other as our buttons got pushed, we found ways of interacting that were supportive and tolerant. It was probable the evolution of my relationship with my mother that kept me committed to the practice all these years.

Actually the true around came about in 1987, only 10 years ago, when Deepak Chopra was invited as the keynote speaker at the Acupuncture symposium which was held at the Bahia Hotel in Mission Beach. Now you have to understand that I had been engaged in the practice of meditation since 1972. But there were many days that there just wasn't time to meditate. I would get caught up in my daily activities, kids, work, studies, dead lines, social activities, whatever. After several days of I would notice a subtle shift towards feelings of anxiety and tension that would come up internally, and so not enjoy the sensations and knowing what I could successfully count on to help, I would then resume my practice. The night that Chopra gave his presentation, I got it! A light bulb went on in my head. I can't even recall all the things that he said. It was almost as if the practice over all those preceding years allowed me a true understanding of what he was saying. Why was it that I could clearly see the ways in which I nurtured my body externally on a daily basis and yet failed to make the connection of how equally if important it was to do the same internally? I came away from that experience committed to my daily practice and I can truthfully say that I haven't missed a day since. It doesn't matter where I am in the world, and I do alot of traveling, whatever the time is that I have to be up, I just wake up 20 minutes earlier, sit up in bed and take 20 minutes. Its the best thing that has happened to me, truly.

What I like about the practice is that it allows you to maximize your own potential. We tend to think that the only way to process stuff is by talking to others. What you realize and begin to experience is that a lot of that stuff can get taken care of by you, and with very little effort. You don't necessarily need to be focusing on a particular problem. Your body just needs to be in a better frame of mind to access the solutions and a lot of those you know yourself, you just enhance the ease of access.

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What is meditation?

Meditation usually refers to a state in which the body is consciously relaxed and the mind is allowed to become calm and focused. Several major religions include ritual meditation; however, meditation itself need not be a religious or spiritual activity. Most of the more popular systems of meditation are of Eastern origin, though there exists also various forms of Christian, Jewish and Muslim meditation.
Meditation as a form of alternative medicine brings about mental calmness and physical relaxation by suspending the stream of thoughts that normally occupy the mind. Generally performed once or twice a day for approximately 20 minutes at a time, meditation is used to reduce stress, alter hormone levels, and elevate one's mood.
A discipline in which the mind is focused on a single point of reference. Employed since ancient times in various forms by all religions, the practice gained greater notice in the post war US as interest in Zen Buddhism rose. Meditation is now used by many nonreligious adherents as a method of stress reduction; known to lower levels of cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress. Enhances recuperation and improves the body’s resistance to disease.
Meditation is an easy and simple way to balance a person's physical, emotional, and mental states. It is easily learned and has been used as an aid in treating stress, anxiety, pain management, and as part of an overall treatment for other conditions including hypertension and heart disease. Research shows that meditation decreases the heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen consumption, and even decreases blood pressure.