What if there was a single remedy that would: boost the immune system, ease pain, reduce anxiety and stress, promote balance and peace of mind, and increase your sense of joy and purpose in life? Would you take it? I believe I know of such a remedy. It cost nothing to use daily and needs no special equipment or ability to do. It is MEDITATION. The studies have been done, the verdict is in, and the evidence is still mounting. A regular practice of meditation yields numerous benefits to the body, mind and spirit. And that’s the power of this ‘single remedy’. Its influence reaches beyond any single problem; it benefits the whole person. Let’s face it, when the body is ill, it’s not just the body that is out of balance, rather the whole person. Read on, my friend. Let’s take a closer look at this powerhouse of a remedy, MEDITATION. It could be just the thing you’ve been looking for to round out your otherwise effective health regimen, or a wonderful first step in creating one.

Here in Part-one of this three-part article, we will focus on ways meditation affect the body. The physiological benefits of meditation became popularly known with the work of Drs Herbert Benson and R. Keith Wallace when they studied Transcendental Meditation, and people who practiced it. What they found and documented was that meditation decreased heart rate, breathing rate, and oxygen consumption. These changes were accompanied by beneficial changes in hormone levels, and increase in alpha waves in the cerebral cortex area of the brain (also beneficial). Basically, they found meditation to be a de-stressor. They described these restful, restorative changes in a term coined by Benson as the relaxation response. Benson went on to show that any simple type of concentration meditation, whether secular or nonsecular, produced the same core of deeply restorative changes.

Have you noticed that illness occurs more often when you are stressed out? Stress wrecks havoc on our immune system. More recent research shows that under some conditions, deficient immune functions, such as natural killer cell activity and helper T-cell function can be at least partially restored by simple concentration meditation. Other studies proved the impressive effects meditation has on the cardiovascular system so much so that The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health now recommends meditation, exercise, and salt restriction as the first line of treatment for mild to moderate hypertension (high blood pressure). Amazingly, these beneficial changes happen after only a few weeks of practice, and even in novice meditators.

In my practice, I use meditation in my programs for stress relief, immune system enhancement, and for pain management. For pain relief, I use a meditation practice called “mindfulness meditation.” Mindfulness meditation is a practice of being “fully awake” to the moment-to moment experiences in life, and even to the experience of pain. For example, try this exercise:

Become comfortable sitting or lying and become aware of your body. Become appreciative of all that it is doing right. Now become aware of any painful or tense parts. Imagine that you can breathe directly into that spot. Let the breath come and go from that place while you notice everything you can about the sensations there. Do this without avoidance or judgment. Just be the observer.

It is common to notice that the sensations of pain or tension changed. It may have increased at first, but if you stayed with it, it probably lessened or even disappeared.

This simple exercise may give you some insight on how MEDITATION can affect the body. We will continue this discussion in Part-two, and I am beginning a Meditation Class in September. See the events Calendar for details.

Submitted by Carol Williamson, MS, CHHP. For more info call A World of Solutions (937) 898-2484.