Quote by Mother Teresa (Canonised by the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta)
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is not yet here. We have only today. Let us begin.”
Summary: A brief history of mindfulness and a “Western” perspective of meditation as a holistic “self-help” therapy and some meditative techniques available for stress reduction. Researchers are continuing to explore the healing power of mindful meditation and with the use of brain scans and tests, like cortisol and cytokine levels; more and more scientific evidence is coming to the fore to confirm its positive health benefits.
Read time: 11 minutes
Mindfulness is a “term” that has been bandied about for a long time but has come into Western mainstream since about the late 90’s. From those who are deeply spiritual and attend yoga, Reiki and/or a variety of religious retreats to those who meditate occasionally to escape the stresses of modern life “when and as” they can fit it in to their busy schedule… a vast cohort of the population are seeking answers to the restlessness they experience within their everyday life. This includes celebrities, professionals, homemakers, care-workers and many others across a wide spectrum of life.
It is accepted that modern Western Practitioners and teachers of Mindfulness centre around the Eastern religions of Buddhism and Hinduism, but some acknowledgement has to be made of commentators that acknowledge further roots in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Taoism. It is of interest that in the West, the references are to particular people and institutions whilst in the East, this is traced to religious and spiritual institutions. So, simplistically, mindfulness has been merged with Buddhist philosophy for a very long time with Hinduism being a pivotal influence and one that that emerges quite strongly in history. But history is not my remit here and I invite you to further research this yourself and note that this practice has transcended past cultural roots and, like Reiki, is not tied to any specific religious beliefs.
Mindfulness may be described as being in the “here and now”… being “present”. It has been related to all aspects of life and as an example I mention the notorious subject of dieting or weight-loss. (Both terms used as popularly understood and not scientifically!) Mindful eating is sometimes suggested as a weight loss approach, where one appreciates each morsel of food one eats, metaphorically “making love to one’s food”, chewing slowly and appreciating each taste and texture. Personally, I suspect this approach slows down one’s eating considerably, helping one to consume a bit less, helping digestion and as a result of this, promoting weight loss. But, it begins with the intention – being mindful.
Mindful meditation has been used to manage and even heal all sorts of mental health issues, striving for better wellness in a more secular and accessible form. The benefits of practicing mindful meditation (and other holistic complimentary therapies) are beginning to be researched more widely and scientific papers are available more readily with remarkable proven conclusions of healing. Whilst conventional medicine has the monetary backing of “big pharma”, holistic therapies, in my opinion and many others, quite frankly don’t generate enough income to warrant financial backing. In Italy, Fazia et al (2023), researched the effects of a short retreat in improving biological markers of stress and inflammation. A reduction of cytokines, which are inflammatory stress chemicals that can lead to depression, were observed as well as an increase in anti-inflammatory levels.
Further positive statistics can be found with some diligent “Googling” and with this, slowly the reputation of complimentary therapies being “quasi-science” are being replaced with scientific research. These research results prove that by easing anxiety and stress, overall health can improve and result in increased sleep quality, lowered blood pressure and even ease pain. Rosenkranz (2013) showed that those who meditated regularly had smaller neurogenic inflammatory responses compared to those who didn’t. For those who want to read the detailed research, the reference is below, but for most of us it’s enough to know that stress levels decrease in those who meditate regularly and the related health benefit’s mentioned are a knock-on health benefit.
Statistics can help take the “woo woo” out of complimentary treatment, but sadly it more often just bores us and we probably swipe past those messages within a nano-second to more exciting posts or news. Thanks to Hollywood movies, celebrities, well-known sports personalities and the media, mindful meditation has been popularised and we are probably more likely to pause on these publications. So when we hear that Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey meditate, we sit up and listen… and when we learn that the billionaires Bill Gates and Richard Branson share the habit, we are suddenly more motivated to dive deeper into the practice.
Life coaches and therapists advertise meditation widely in social media and it is common to find educational institutions and workplaces introducing such workshops and techniques to help their staff manage stress, cope with anxiety and improve overall health and wellbeing. This has a two-way benefit in that healthy employees contribute to a more productive workplace. To get on with this yourself, search “steps to meditation” and you will find various permutations, like “5 best steps” “7 best steps” “6 elements” and many other titles, but I particularly liked this one: “There is only one step to meditation – do it …!” I will acknowledge this author when I come across it again… trawling the Internet can lead one to going round in circles!, but for starters do go to the NHS website for their references to “what is mindfulness”. It’s free! On this site you will find NHS support for “mindfulness-based therapies as a way to treat less severe depression… recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)”. Also look at the NHS “Meditation for Beginners”. The fact that the NHS supplies and recommends meditation gives massive credibility to this complimentary approach and has a ripple effect to even more studies being done in this area. I invite you to research emerging evidence yourself, but just want to reinforce here that it is not just an etheric concept and although in its infancy, psychological and neuroscientific research has been increasing over the past two decades.
So with lists of different types of meditation out there, I want to mention that Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki, was a Buddhist monk who in the early 1920’s pursued a spiritual journey where he meditated and fasted over 21 days on Mount Kurama in Japan. It was here he experienced enlightenment and developed the Reiki system of energy healing. You may, therefore, also come across Reiki Meditation or Reiki Sound Meditation whilst scrolling the Internet.
Despite there being so many types and meditation, the main purpose of the exercise is to make the mind still and listen to the sound of silence and let this lead . It is a passive state and one in which we lose control and go into “auto-pilot”. Moments like these can occur spontaneously, as described by Laurelle Gaia in an article “Reiki and Meditation”, whilst performing routine activities, like brushing one’s teeth, running or walking. Although that is the case, one still needs to set aside time for this and make it a routine to reap the benefits. The process is about “emptying” one’s mind of thought, by acknowledging and accepting that thought before letting it go. What’s missing in my formulation of a simplified explanation is how we process each thought to be able to release it. An example of the complication of the thought process could be this: You notice a deep scratch on your car and it annoys you and you start thinking about the inconvenience and expense of having it repaired. You get home and your partner asks if you’ve seen their spectacles. You immediately snap back with a nasty or sarcastic reply. Your brain heard the comment about the glasses, but your thought was still on the irritation of your car and you replied inappropriately. Now, the car irritation will not dissipate by merely “letting that thought go”… well, not with any regular person anyway! But, if you can “park” that annoying thought by acknowledging that it is upsetting and that you will deal with it at a given time in the future – it will help to prevent additional and irrational irritations. We have negative thoughts and unpleasant things happen. That’s life! But waking in the middle of the night and spending time worrying about it, is only going to make you feel more angry and unhappy and the lack of sleep will possibly have other knock-on negative effects. By having that thought “parked” with a particular intention or action, when it comes to mind you can consciously tell yourself just that it’s “parked” until the time you are going to address it. (Look, I haven’t said it’s an easy technique and ‘all is bliss’!) Thoughts also may come with memories and emotions. This is where trained practitioners can make a difference and in-person attendance of meditation or mindfulness sessions may have better therapeutic results. But, you can train your mind and you owe it to yourself to do what you can to reduce your stress levels and the repercussions that accompany these.
For the “do-it-yourselfers”, there are a lot of free or affordable video recordings that you may benefit from and I suggest you find a handful of favourite meditations and then alternate these as you fancy. Personally, I prefer repetition but some people prefer the variety and stimulation of having alternative tracks. Forty-five to sixty minutes is probably viewed as a general guide, but twenty minutes is a good start. That said, the pressure and time restraints caused by busy lives could put you off. That’s where just 5-10 minutes regularly set aside could be the start of a practice that could make a difference to you in the long run as you build up the time spent in meditation. If you catch a bus or train to work, this is a good time to meditate. (Obviously, NEVER, meditate or listen to meditation whilst driving.) Steady breathing will help you still your body and mind and a general guidance would be to breathe in for less counts than one releases. (Ideally, breath in for the count of 4, hold for 4, breath out for 6-8 counts, hold for 4 and repeat.) When I did a course in Meditation (TM) more than 20 years ago, I was given a mantra to repeat and this was the only “tool” that was needed to reach deep levels of relaxation. Instead of a given mantra, you could repeat an affirmation, either based on a personal goal and/or a general emotional or spiritual affirmation.
There are a good few tips given here to begin meditating. So in the words of Mother Teresa “We only have today. Let us begin”… and remember, if you don’t have the time for meditation and you find it almost inconvenient, you probably need it all the more. Set aside just 5 minutes a day from TODAY!
Resources
https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/mental-wellbeing-tips/how-to-meditate-for-beginners/#
https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/mental-wellbeing-tips/what-is-mindfulness/#
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10201046/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov A short Mindfulness retreat can improve markers of stress and inflammation.
https/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Roles of Inflammation, and Neuroinflammation in Pain.
https://www.reiki.org/articles/reiki-and-meditation
