Scientifically Proven Health Benefits of Meditation

Why meditate?

Funnily enough, this is not a question I hear very often.  I get the "why" question about a lot of things, but not about meditation.

I say "funnily enough", as I know the reality is that very few people really seem to practise meditation.  They apparently know why they should, but just never get around to it.

But I am now going to give some good medical reasons anyway.  Don't skip them!  Don't say "I know why I SHOULD meditate" unless you regularly practise meditation.  If you don't regularly practise, then you really need to remind yourself of exactly what you are missing.

According to "Mind", a large and well respected mental health charity, one in four people in the UK will suffer with a mental health problem this year.  Read that again: one in four!  You may not live in the UK, but the statistics are probably very similar in your country.  Probably not publicized, as to far too many people "mental illness" is a dirty word, so the problem tends to be brushed under the carpet.  Just think about it for a second - if you have a spouse and two children then the statistics say it is very likely one of you will have a mental problem in the very near future.  By far the commonest problem is a condition consisting of a mix of anxiety and depression.  Roughly 10% of the population suffer from this.  Over 2.5% will suffer from severe clinical depression.  Around 17% will consider suicide at some point in their life.  Are these statistics surprising and disturbing?  They certainly took me aback!

One of the best answers to this very prevalent problem is to practise meditation.  In January 2014 an assistant professor of medicine at John Hopkins University, Madhav Goyal, published a paper in the American Medical Association's journal of internal medicine, reviewing the results of properly conducted scientific studies on the impact of meditation on anxiety and depression.  Goyal found good evidence that meditation was as effective in countering and controlling anxiety and depression as was a properly administered and controlled drug therapy regime.  He also found that there had been far too little proper research of this kind, and the suggestion was that meditation would most likely be found to be even more effective if anyone bothered to research it more thoroughly!  What an inditement!  But also, what an endorsement of the power of meditation!

Another study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, showed that a meditation program resulted in a significant reduction in anxiety and panic attacks in a group of patients with anxiety and panic disorder.

A study by neuroscientists at Harvard University, headed by Dr Sara Lazar, showed that regular meditation resulted in a significant increase in the grey matter of the brain in areas that controlled memory, learning ability, regulation of emotions, compassion, self-awareness and the ability to put things in perspective - and that these results were obtained after only 8 weeks of meditation.  Please read this sentence again!  Regular meditation even for a fairly short period has been demonstrated in a controlled scientific experiment to increase your ability to learn, to control your enotions, become more self-aware, become less concerned about problems, and even simply to be more compassionate.  Look at that list!  If you are at all interested in self improvement you should certainly be including regular meditation in your various practices.

The more the cerebral cortex of your brain is folded, the better your brain becomes at processing information.  In other words, you make better decisions if your brain is folded more.  Well research by the UCLA Department of Neurology in 2012 showed that people who meditated regularly experienced greater folding of their cerebral cortex.  This means meditation improves your brain in a way that means you can make better decisions.

An article published in 2010 in "Behavioural and Brain Functions" showed that even novice meditators were able to perform tasks significantly better after just a short course of meditation.  The research also showed that there was an apparent reduction in the need for sleep in the group practising meditation for a longer period.  So the evidence suggests you should be able to work more effectively, whatever that work might be, and either sleep less or gain greater benefit from sleeping for the same number of hours.  Do you think this might be beneficial for you?  If so, you need to meditate!

In the Journal of Neuroscience, 6th April 2011, a group of researchers reported on a study which showed meditation significantly reduces the effect of pain.  They measured two factors - pain "unpleasantness" and pain intensity.  The research showed that after just 4 days of meditation, the volunteers showed a reduction of 57% in the "unpleasantness" of a pain sensation, and a 40% reduction in the intensity of the pain.  Apparently this is a greater impact than a normally prescribed dose of morphine would give, but without the potential side effects of severe constipation and even possible addiction if too much morphine is required.

There are many more proven health benefits of meditation, but let me finish with just one more.  A study by scientists at the Institute for Psychological Research and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, showed after a very short period of meditation (three 45 minute sessions every 10 days) the meditators became more creative.  When researching a problem we all have a tendency to follow one train of thought and then miss all the other possiblities which might otherwise have occurred to us.  This is termed "convergent thinking".  The opposite of this, "divergent thinking", allows us to consider lots of different ideas instead of being trapped in just one way of thinking.  What the researchers found was that the meditation exercises promoted divergent rather than convergent thinking.  So if you meditate you are much more likely to come up with different, productive ideas.

I suggest you read this again and again.  Meditation has scientifically proven, medically confirmed benefits.  It changes your brain physically in ways that:

•   reduce anxiety, depression and other mental health problems
•   increase your ability to learn
•   improve your memory
•   improve your ability to control negative emotions
•   reduce your worries about problems
•   improve your abilities to find the right answers to problems
•   increase your compassion
•   increase your self-awareness
•   improve your ability to make the right decisions
•   improve your ability to complete tasks properly
•   reduce the intensity and "unpleasantness" of pain
•   improve creativity

Is this list long enough for you?  I hope so, even though it has only just scratched the surface.  Perhaps now you will be more ready to start meditating properly and regularly so you can gain all these great benefits!

How to Avoid Goal Traps

You may wonder why I am talking about "goal traps".  What exactly is a "goal trap" and why is it so important to avoid it?

Giving Up

I know of many people who have given up on goals for a number of different reasons.

Some have found they set goals in the past which they were never able to achieve.  This has happened to them so often that they have decided there is no point in having any goals.

Some have decided that having goals saps their energy and is tiring.  Far better, they argue, to have no goals and just lazily coast through life.

Some believe there is nothing they particularly want in life, so there is therefore no need for them to have any goals.

Hopefully you do not fall into any of these categories.  But even if you don't now it is possible you will fall into the trap of adopting one of these views at some point in the future, so I want to give you the ammunition now to stop this from ever happening.

Unrealistic Goals

Have you ever had any unrealistic goals?

This is really quite a difficult issue.  I strongly believe in the infinite power of the universe.  This power can achieve literally anything we want.  So how can any goal be unrealistic?

I would suggest the term "unrealistic" is relative rather than absolute.  Yes, it is true you can achieve anything you want if you really want it enough.  But there are two golden rules you must follow if you are going to achieve that goal.

First you must REALLY want to achieve it.  Not simply think it would be quite nice - if your desire is that wishy-washy you are unlikely to achieve anything at all unless it is very easy to achieve in the first place.  You must have a strong desire to achieve it.

Second you cannot have any negative thoughts about it.  This is perhaps the most difficult to achieve.  Say, for example, you are in a wheelchair and your goal is to become the first seriously disabled person to climb Everest.  Certainly that would be classified in most people's minds as an unrealistic goal.  It is not impossible, but the difficulties involved would probably make it seem so to even the most optimistic among us.  If you have chosen that as your goal, then very likely a little voice inside you will keep telling you it is unrealistic and that you have no hope of achieving it.  What makes it unrealistic is not so much the goal itself, but that voice which tells it IS unrealistic.  Unless you are able to avoid any such negative thoughts it is unlikely you will achieve the goal.

Goals Sap Your Energy

Do you find working towards goals is tiring?  Do you sometimes wish you didn't have to work so hard trying to reach goals?  If so, you could be in danger of slipping into the trap of feeling it is better simply not to have any goals in the first place.

This is a trap you simply MUST avoid.  Do anything and everything you can to avoid it.  Once you start on the slippery slope of feeling that goals sap your energy it is very difficult to escape from the trap.

The reality is living a life without goals saps far more energy from you than will the toughest goal.  Read this sentence again, as it is extremely important.  If you take nothing else away from this article, please at least remember this.  Living a life without goals saps far more energy from you than will the toughest goal.

Now you can see why I have called it a slippery slope.  In a goal-less life your energy is dissipated.  The more energy you lose the more difficult it becomes to change direction and start working towards goals again.

The truth is that the right goals do not sap your energy.  The wrong ones can though.  The ones that don't really inspire you and fill you with hopeful energy.  If you find yourself slipping into the "goals are so tiring" mode, you have to look again at the goals you are setting yourself, replacing them with ones that excite you.  As long as you do this you will find your goals energize you rather than sapping your energy.

Nothing You Want

This can be one of the most difficult traps to climb out of if you ever fall into it.  Saying "there is nothing I want in life".  It really is not true, but sometimes it can deceptively seem so.

There are a number of different reasons you might fall into this "goal trap".

Often people fall into it because of one of the earlier traps I have discussed.  They have given up on goals, found their goals were too unrealistic, found their goals sapped too much energy from them, and so they find it easier simply to say they simply don't have any goals.

Feeling there is nothing you want out of life can also be a symptom of depression.  This is a very dangerous condition, and if you believe it possible you are falling into it you really must do something about it.  Go and see a medical professional.  Also, you may find one of my earlier articles helpful.  Try reading my article on how to avoid sadness (http://iwanttoimprovemyself.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/avoiding-sadness-five-point-plan.html), or the one on using music to ease depression (http://iwanttoimprovemyself.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/using-music-to-ease-depression.html).

If you do believe there is nothing you want in life, then you should take some time to think about all the things that have made you happy in the past.  Think about the things that gave you a sense of achievement.  Dig beneath them and you will find other things that can inspire you and which could be realistic goals for you to target.

Avoiding Goal Traps

Try not to allow yourself to fall into any of these goal traps.  If you do fall into one, make sure you work on getting out.  Now you know what goal traps are it should be easier for you to recognize them when they arise, and easier for you to find a way out if you inadvertently do fall into one.

Avoiding Sadness - the Five Point Plan

Being Sad

I have written several articles focussing on happiness, showing how and why we should be happy most of the time.  In this article I want to turn this on its head a little.  Instead of simply talking about happiness, let's think a moment about sadness.

Sometimes it may be appropriate to be sad.  In Ecclesiastes we are reminded that there is a right time for everything, including a time for being sad.  Solomon was renowned as a very wise man, and it is widely believed that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes.  Whoever wrote it, there are some very wise words in this book, and you do not need to be a practising Jew or Christian to find it helpful. In chapter 3 we are told "there is a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to be sad and a time to dance."  If, for example, you have just lost your life partner to cancer I really wouldn't expect you to get up and dance.  Having said that, you should know in your heart that your life partner would not want you to be sad, so the time for sadness should be very limited.

Usually, though, it is not at all appropriate to be sad.  Many people are often sad and cannot say why they feel this way.  They just do!  If this happens to you, don't despair - as I said, this happens to many people.

Depression

It is important to recognize whether you are simply sad or are suffering from clinical depression.  If the former I have some answers for you below in the five point plan.  If the latter you probably need some additional help.  Go and see your doctor.  Don't be embarrassed about doing this.  Depression is as much an illness as is cancer.  In both cases you need treatment or the illness may kill you.  The earlier you seek help the more likely something can be done about it.

Some very famous and successful people have suffered from, but also survived, depression, including (in no particular order):

•  Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who has bipolar II disorder
•  Boxer Frank Bruno, who has bipolar disorder which led to him being briefly sectioned under the mental health act.
•  Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of her son Moses
•  Actress and singer Kylie Minogue, who suffered clinical depression when she was diagnosed with breast cancer
•  US President Abraham Lincoln, whose depression frequently made him feel completely inadequate and whose friends had to put him on suicide watch
•  "Harry Potter" author J K Rowling, whose depression made her suicidal and had a course of cognitive behavioural therapy
•  Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, who credits his practice of Zen Buddhism with the cure of his depression
•  British Prime Minister and Nobel Prize winner Sir Winston Churchill, who called his manic depression "black dog"
•  Astronaut and Moon walker Buzz Aldrin
•  Discoverer of gravity and the laws of motion, Sir Isaac Newton
•  Comic actor Jim Carrey

Some of the symptoms of clinical depression include:

•  Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, and believing your situation cannot improve and there is simply nothing you can do about it
•  A loss of interest in hobbies and activities you used to enjoy
•  Changes in sleep pattern (either oversleeping or an inability to sleep)
•  Changes in appetite and changes in weight (usually a gain or loss of more than 5% in a month)
•  An unusually short temper causing strong feelings of anger
•  Reckless behaviour (e.g. binges of drinking, compulsive gambling)
•  A feeling of listlessness and loss of energy
•  Problems concentrating on anything or making important decisions
•  Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
•  Unexplained headaches

If you have several of these symptoms, or even only one or two but to an extreme, it is very likely you have some form of clinical depression.  Remember that list of famous people who have similarly suffered with depression.  Recognize you are not alone.  Accept the fact that you need some help to deal with this just as so many of them did too and visit your doctor for advice before it is too late.  At the same time, with the knowledge of your doctor, try some of the techniques below.

The Five Point Plan

Whether you had a good reason to be sad but now that time has passed or you are sad but do not know the reason why, you should have a good armoury of techniques to counter this sadness.  This applies equally to people with depression and to those who are not clinically depressed but still sad.  The five point plan I am going to suggest as your armoury was originally proposed by the 13th century Italian monk, St Thomas Aquinas.  Although Aquinas was a Catholic priest these are not religious practices, so they are equally appropriate whether you are a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist ... or of no religion at all.

Thomas Aquinas suggests five simple practices to shake off your sadness:

1. Treat yourself.  This is a practice I also recommend to anyone trying to improve themselves - reward yourself properly for each step forward you take.  I find, for example, it is a good way for students to study properly, rewarding themselves after, say, an hour of solid study.  But now I am not talking about a reward.  I am talking about giving yourself something you like for no other reason than that you like it.  This may be a few glasses of wine, a bar of chocolate, a visit to a concert ... the list goes on, and your choices from that list will be very personal to you.  Surprisingly, too many people find this exercise very difficult.  They feel guilty.  If there is a cost involved they feel it is a waste of money that should be used for something "more sensible".  Even if there is not a cost involved, they feel for some other reason that it is wrong to enjoy pleasure for pleasure's sake.  Rid yourself of that guilt feeling.  There is no need to feel guilty, as what you are doing is not frivolous.  You are treating your sadness in a way that may avoid the need for medication.  In fact, do not simply use this to treat sadness when it arrives, but use it as a way of avoiding the sadness in the first place.  Make it a habit to treat yourself in this way regularly.  Do it for no other reason than the fact that it is something you enjoy.  Just as you give gifts to the most important people in your life (at least, I hope you do!), give gifts to yourself.  Actually, if you get into the habit of doing this you will also find it will become more natural for you to give gifts to others.  As has often been said, in order to love others, first learn to love yourself.  And if you love yourself, why not treat yourself to lovely gifts?
2. Cry.  Too many of us feel it is wrong to cry - especially men.  It is not wrong to cry.  Rather, it is wrong not to cry if you really are sad.  Crying allows you to release sorrow that will otherwise be bottled up inside you and will continue to hurt you until eventually you find a way to release it.  Why not release it right away by crying?  Cry even if whatever is causing you sadness is not really anything too bad.  By crying you can wipe that sadness away almost in an instant.
3. Share your sadness with a friend.  Again, this is something it is often a lot easier for women to do than men.  But whether you are a man or a woman, sharing your sorrow will help relieve it.  If you have a life partner it is almost certainly best to share your sorrows with him or her.  Typically you will find a woman is better at reacting in the right way than a man.  Men tend to believe that if someone brings them a problem they are expected to find an answer to that problem.  Women, on the other hand, often want nothing more than someone sympathetic to share the problem.  Sometimes a husband trying to give an answer to the problem his wife has brought to him will be dismayed to find she seems to be ungrateful.  The problem here is that she wanted someone to understand, and by giving her what he believes is the answer the husband has made her feel he does not understand, and does not sympathise with her.  If you are a man and your wife is trying to share her sadness with you, do not initially try to give her an answer.  Instead, listen and hug her.  Let her share that sadness and show her you care.  Later, if there IS an answer (and often there is not!) you can suggest that answer to her.  But only after you have allowed you to share properly with you first.  Likewise, if you are a man you should realize that the purpose of sharing your sadness with your partner is not to try to get an answer.  Don't expect an answer, just a lightening of your burden as you share it.  And if you are a woman trying to share your sadness with a man, recognize he may not understand what reaction you need.  Perhaps you should preface it by telling him you have this sadness and that you need to share it with him, but you are not looking for an answer.  That way he will be better prepared to handle this in the right way.  If you do not have a life partner you should try to find some very good friends you trust enough to share your sadness.  Don't wait until you need to share - go out now and start looking for those real friends.
4. Think about and immerse yourself in what I think of as Eternal Truths.  This will mean different things to different people, but it can include great music, literature, and art, as well as meditation and / or prayer if you find these practices helpful.  It can include walking in the countryside enjoying the great views and the reminder of how wonderful the world around us is, or viewing the night sky through a telescope and marvelling at the beauty and immensity of it all.  When you immerse yourself in these eternal truths you will find your sadness is rightly put in its place, as sadness is not an eternal truth.
5. Enjoy a nice, long and luxurious bath and a good long sleep.  This really needs little more explanation.  A good bath and a proper sleep can work wonders!

The next time you feel sad for any reason, try this five step plan which was given to us eight centuries ago.  I think you will be amazed at just how effective it can be!

Using Music to Ease Depression

Shakespeare wrote "If music be the food of love, play on".  Music can, indeed, be the food of love, and of every other emotion.  It also has great power, particularly through the use of emotions, to heal, improve relationships, improve your memory, study far more effectively, and help you grow and develop your personality.

Take depression for example.  Now before anyone thinks I am suggesting you avoid medical treatment, I am not.  Depression is a serious illness and therefore has to be taken seriously.  If you think you might be suffering from depression your first port of call should be a doctor.  But having said that, music can be used very effectively to help ease the symptoms of depression.  It is also a great way of dealing with a melancholic mood that may or may not be caused by depression.

How should you use music to help ease depression, or the blues?  You should create a playlist of appropriate tracks of music.  Begin the list with music which seems to match your depressive mood.  Melancholic, slow tunes.  Blues music would be a good start - or perhaps Fado or Enka if you are familiar with those styles.  If you enjoy classical music, then perhaps Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata, or Wagner's "Liebestod" from "Tristan and Isolde" would be appropriate.  The key is to use music you like, of whatever style, but which clearly matches your mood.

Believe it or not, just listening to this kind of music matching your mood can change your mood completely, hence the popularity of blues music for example.  But do not stop there!  The next step is to select some tracks that are more "mid tempo".  Ones that are a little faster and feel a little happier.  An example might be "Only the Lonely" by Roy Orbison, or Bach's "Air on a G-String".

From there, move to some more "up-beat" and happier pieces of music.  For example "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys, or "Für Elise"by Beethoven.

Finally, end your selection with some really joyful, faster tempo pieces.  "Fun, Fun, Fun" by the Beach Boys, "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles, Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever", or the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's 9th Symphony (i.e. the final movement) all spring to mind.

When you play this selection, in that order, you will find it lifts your mood.  You should find yourself in a much happier state by the end.

Again I stress this is not a cure and is not intended as an alternative to medical advice when needed.  But it can certainly help alleviate symptoms of depression, and is certainly very powerful when you are simply feeling low and want to snap out of that mood.

Don't wait until you need to use this playlist.  Create it now, and then keep it ready for when you really need it.  If you wait until you need it you will find it much more difficult, and perhaps even impossible, to create it properly.

Make sure you use styles of music that you are comfortable with.  I have given examples of pop music from the 60's and traditional classical music, as these are styles I enjoy.  If you click on the title of each track I have suggested you will be able to obtain a copy if you do not already have it.  But you can equally use modern rock, punk, hip hop, new age, or anything that moves you.

The example I have given is just for lifting your mood, and it will do that in a very powerful way.  There is not enough space here to go through all the other ways you can use music in your personal development journey, although I may introduce some more in a future blog if enough people ask me to do so.  But you can see the technique I have used here, and can then modify it in order to create different playlists for different purposes.

If you are interested in pursuing this further, check out "The Tao of Music" by John Ortiz.  You can get a copy here.  Alternatively, if you are in the UK, try this link: UK Version.

Get going now and start using music to improve your mood!