I’ve mentioned the benefits of meditation on this blog before, but now it appears that the folks at NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) have also recognised the benefits that mindfulness can have in combating stress and depression. If only there were enough people to teach the techniques!
Thankfully, a new self help site has been set up, which includes tips on mindfulness and how to reduce your stress levels, including a stress test which you can use as a rough measure of how stressed you may be feeling.
This new site was launched in January 2011 and can be found at:
You’ll notice I said “enhance” and not “change” – though change can happen too. Kind of depends how you look at change! I don’t believe in quick fixes (how could I, it’s taken me 40 years of existing to learn how to live well!) so I’m not going to tout meditation as a cure all for everything – but it is certainly one of those things, like exercise, and a healthy diet, that you can put in your arsenal of tools to deal with the relentless pace of modern life, or indeed those times, for example redundancy or retirement, when there are uncomfortable downshifts in our activity levels. So I decided to write a simple article on meditation. It’s not a how to guide, just a few pointers and an explanation of what meditation is, and how it’s helped me personally.
According to the dictionary definition, meditation is “to reflect on, to contemplate”, whereas the more Buddhist definition (meditation originates from thought systems such as Buddhism and Hinduism, though does not need to be religious in nature) would be along the lines of “To train, calm, or empty the mind, often by achieving an altered state, as by focusing on a single object”. Of course, there are many different kinds of meditation, with different foci, but to keep it simple, I will say that for me, meditation is a state of heightened, relaxed awareness, usually attained by focusing on the breath. It involved a concept called mindfulness. Usually, we are very busy, and focused on rushing through things, we usually do not pay much attention to how we are walking, our heartbeat, or our breath. Being mindful is more or less a special way of paying attention. For example, when I do the washing up, do I really pay attention to the delicious sensations of the soapy water running over my skin, stimulating my nerve endings, of the pressure applied to utensils, of the many diverse sounds? Probably not – usually I will be thinking of that meeting tomorrow, what happened yesterday, who I am going to have lunch with next week. When I am mindful, I slip much more into the present moment and pay attention to what is happening in the now. Such thinking can make the washing up more interesting, and be very relaxing in itself!
So it is with meditation, where the meditator will sit, and gently get into the moment. The breath is the most common object to focus on, and indeed the breath is one of the body’s rare dual control mechanisms – it happens all by itself, driven by our nervous system – and yet we can also control it, hold our breath, take deep breaths, breathe faster or slower. At it’s very simplest, meditation is simply sitting and paying attention to the breath. This is actually harder than it sounds – you will be surprised how many thoughts rush in, how many worries, niggles, decisions, memories, fantasies, crop up. Surely you are in control of your own mind? Perhaps not! By the way, how you sit is largely up to you. Lying down might make you prone to go to sleep, though there are systems of meditation that involve lying down. You could get a Zafu and Zaputon (A cushion and a mat) but a straight backed chair will do. THe first thing to do is pay attention to the body – where are the tensions? Any aches and pains? How are you feeling now, in this moment? Calm? Stressed? Hungry? All that is fine! Just something to be noted. Slowly, the attention is brought to the breath, perhaps a few deeper breaths are taken. And then counting the breath can begin, an act of focusing the mind, simply paying attention to the breath – breathe in, breathe out… count one….breathe in, breathe out… count two – and so on up to ten, then go back to one. It might sound easy, but note how long it is before your mind has wandered off into the middle of next week This doesn’t make you a failed meditator – it is just the nature of the mind. And each time you notice that your mind has wandered off, is actually the sign of heightened awareness, because usually we just let our minds race totally out of our own control.
Some meditations run in stages. After this first counting of the breath, the focus might change after so long, and now the count is done before the in breath, followed by a stage of simply breathing without counting, and then perhaps focusing on one particular part of the breathing process – the sensations at the nostrils, or the rising and falling of the chest. The meditator does not try to control the breath, just lets it flow naturally, pays attention to it, does not judge it, and lets distractions fall away with the rising and falling of the breath (ideally, of course!) The whole idea is to relax the mind and body, to stop the mind racing, and to stop the feverish thoughts which usually send the nervous system into a stressed out frenzy daily, meditation can provide a little oasis of calm in your schedule. It leads to a lower heart rate, stimulates beta endorphin production, and helps to focus and calm the mind. Sooner or later, the calm achieved in meditation will follow the meditator around in their daily lives. Stressful situations can be let go of more easily, as with the letting go of the breath and distractions during meditation itself. Ultimately, the goal of some meditators is enlightenment, but one step at a time! In fact, meditation can help with many problems by stilling the mind and enabling the meditator to look at things more clearly (a process often called insight meditation).
Personally, I found that meditation really helped increase my ability to relax and to deal with stress; things that seemed a “big deal” no longer seemed quite so big after a few months of meditating, almost as if it makes the mind grow a little extra stress capacity. It also made me feel a little more confident and sociable. And it’s just a great way to relax! As always, caveat lector – it may not be for everyone, and like a lot of things, you might need to stick at it for a while before you can truly know if it works for you. But millions of people around the world do meditate every day, and it really does work wonders for a lot of them!
There are plenty of books, CD’s, and audio recordings (eg guided meditations) to help explain the process further, and there is likely to be a meditation class in your area. It is a big area, but I hope this article on meditation and the links to various books will help you in your journey.
This doesn’t make you a failed meditator – it is just the nature of the mind. And each time you notice that your mind has wandered off, is actually the sign of heightened awareness, because usually we just let our minds race totally out of our own control.