Meditation as Therapy
Thank you, Tom, (http://www.coachingloft.com/Coach.htm) for your comments on Physiological Benefits of Meditation. Thank you also for sharing a bit of your personal experience with applications of meditation in physical therapy. It is encouraging to hear that modern conventional medicine is effectively applying what some would call “alternative medicine” in healing severe injury and coping with chronic pain.
As I noted, I was first introduced to meditation in the late 1970’s while in therapy under Dr. Michael Emmons. At that time, I was having acute symptoms of hypoglycemia, including tremors, lack of concentration, irritability, and severe fatigue. For three years I tried anything that sounded as if it had a trace of hope for relief. I tried a high-protein, low carbohydrate diet. I went on a regular exercise program. I saw several different specialists and had my blood glucose tested several times. I lost thirty-five pounds. But my symptoms persisted, and I was having difficulty focusing in my university classroom. I felt desperately hopeless.
Although my memory of my meditation sessions with Dr. Emmons has likely diminished over thirty years, I remember that it was not explicit that the intended purpose of the meditation therapy was to reduce stress or to relieve my symptoms. Dr. Emmons asked me to simply describe any images I was seeing from my subconscious during the meditation sessions. The outcome, after many sessions, was the revelation that I was in denial about the stress I was under at the time. This precipitated a radical change in my life; so radical that some would think I would have brought on even more stress and more symptoms. But surprisingly, as soon as I removed the original source of the stress, all of my symptoms immediately disappeared.
At that time, I was not aware of any relief from my physical symptoms as a direct benefit of the meditation. I saw the meditation as a process of discovery that revealed the source of my symptoms. It was like watching a strangely edited movie with disconnected images that made no logical sense. But as the movie progressed over weeks, I began to notice recurring themes. One day, Dr. Emmons asked if I noticed that the images kept coming back to one issue. That was the revelation that opened the door to solving my physical symptoms.
Like many people, once my symptoms were relieved, I returned to “business as usual”, and I discontinued with the meditation. From time to time over the next fifteen years, I noted that the symptoms would briefly return, perhaps for a few days or a week. With apprehension I would anxiously wonder if I was falling back into hypoglycemia. I would begin to feel that same hopelessness. But then I would reflect on my previous experience, and I would look for a source of stress in my life. In retrospect, it is curious that I did not turn to meditation in this state of reflection. But in each case, I noticed that I was feeling trapped in a stressful situation. When I addressed the stress, the symptoms again immediately disappeared. I learned to recognize the warning signs my body was sending to my awareness about the negative effects of stress, and I addressed the source of the problem before the hopelessness set in.
Although meditation had been a window that revealed how stress was (and is) a source of ill health, it wasn’t until fifteen years ago that I began to understand the direct health benefits of meditation practiced on a daily basis. It wasn’t a sudden “conversion” experience. Instead I have gradually come to increasingly appreciate how the process of silencing my mind (that likes to worry way too much!) for even short periods of time each day is beneficial to my mental and physical well being. It has become as important as daily physical exercise, a healthy balanced diet, and eight hours of sound sleep.
Occasional practice of meditation for some quick relief when we realize we’ve slipped into the “stress zone” and then to soon return to “business as usual” is not the most effective way to create a consistently healthy life. That’s much like dieting to lose ten pounds, and six months later, you find yourself five pounds heavier. Effective meditation is a lifestyle habit that grows more effective with consistent, daily practice. And it does not require a lengthy commitment out of your day.
A close friend sets his alarm to awake every morning at 3:30, meditates for an hour, and goes back to sleep. That sounds like a rather radical commitment. But many adults, including myself, awake around that time of the morning without an alarm, lie awake worrying about something for an hour, and go back to sleep. Conversations about this common pattern among my friends have led me to call this “the worry hour”. I suspect that it may have some deep primeval function left over from when our survival required hyper-vigilance to night predators. But putting this in the context of my friend who meditates for an hour each morning at 3:30, his practice seems to be a perfectly logical and workable adaptation. By quieting his mind at that time of day, he is quite effectively diminishing a large block of time that might otherwise be committed to worry.
I cannot say that I regularly commit an hour of meditation at 3:30 A.M. I can say that whenever I awake at that time and I find myself worrying about something, I use meditation techniques to quiet my mind. My personal preferred time to meditate is an hour or two after lunch. Most people feel a bit of a lull in energy at that time of day, and for me, it’s a natural time to relax and quiet my mind. I concentrate on deep easy breathing, inhaling through my nose, and I allow my whole body to relax. It’s an effective “de-stressor” and I feel wonderfully refreshed.
The point is to make a commitment to find that time each day for yourself according to what works best for you. It should not require work on your part. Simply find some quiet time, relax, and focus your mind on something as simple as a soft sound or a calming image. Quiet your mind and your body will follow.