Consider the following stories:
The Power of the Non-existent
A patient suffering from depression overdoses on his anti-depression pills in an attempt to commit suicide. Once the moment of madness passed, he realizes his error and rushes himself to the ER, hyperventilating. Subsequently, his blood pressure drops and is given IV fluids to stabilize his condition, but the doctors are unable to detect any trace of the drug in his blood work. Turns out the patient was placed on a placebo drug trial for his depression and what he thought was potent to kill him was nothing but sugar pills. When he was informed of this, his symptoms of ‘dying’ immediately started vanishing.
Thoughtful Fix
A Tibetan monk cures a severe gangrene in his foot, which had required amputation, by using an exceptional meditation technique called Tsa Lung, where the power of the mind is used in visualizing a cleansing wind course through the energy centers in the body and open those chakras to flush out impurities from various channels. Medically translated, this process is similar to inducing hyperthermia that kills bacteria and increasing blood flow and oxygenation to promote healing. Neuroscientists and medical researchers were baffled by his self-healing technique that they set out to studying the lama’s brain through MRI scans to understand what transpires in the top floor during meditation (thanks to which, a decade-long research on effects of meditation on the brain is now at full throttle).
Such is the power of the mind.
Leave it to its own means, it will feed on lower instincts like fear and wreck a havoc on health. Train it to its higher potential and it will perform miracles.
But somehow this inbuilt power is a concept touched only in self-help books, motivational talks, and on therapists’ couch while it should ideally be a part of core curriculum in schools. Awareness about the mind, its mechanics, and the means to harness its supreme power constructively should be introduced to children at an early age because clearly, the next generation is going to need it like air.
This rather concerning revelation made a slow dawn on me when I recently came across yet another article, or rather a mud sling fest, over the safety of genetically modified foods and its derailing effects on health, which instantly put a damper on things.
Now I prefer not to go into the details of it since I have made my sentiments about such issues amply loud in my previous post.
But what is becoming more and more clear is the fact that the changes mankind made in the name of modernization, advancement, and ease in living are finally starting to show its ugly side. For instance:
- Pesticides resulted in an increased and improved crop production, but also had toxic repercussion on health as a side effect.
- Cell phones were a dinosaur step in communication, but now have this ‘minor’ issue called radiation exposure.
- Antibiotics were said to have revolutionized medicine, but they have also caused those pesky bacteria to now rouse a mutiny called superbugs.
Point in case is that our choices as individuals and as a group, from the micro to the macro, seem to have a crippling aftereffect of some sort that we are always two steps behind at discovering. By the time we realize something is unsafe for our wellness, reality creeps up quicker than our own shadows and confirms the damage that it has already done.
On the other hand, I read some pretty promising things about meditation, things that stand face to face with biology and shed science-filtered light that go beyond its usual, much-heard benefits like reducing stress, lowering blood pressure, increasing memory, and fostering inner peace.
- Meditation protects the brain by slowing down age-related degeneration of gray matter in the brain. (Brain typically starts deteriorating in our 20s – wait, what!)
- Scientific researches that use neuroimaging and genome-level technology show that mindful meditation leads to positive structural changes in areas of the brain associated with depression and dementia.
- While morphine reduces pain intensity by 25 percent, meditation does the same at 40 percent.
- Mediation does not only reduce cellular damage, but it could also reverse it (circle back to the Tibetan Lama).
In a few words, meditation can heal our bodies.
Given the state of things at present, I feel that there is no way we could escape the unpreventable influx of toxins and stressors in life. So instead of trying to tackle the offense and failing miserably, it makes better sense to strengthen our defense.
And what better defense there is but meditation – the prescription strength magical fix for our overly assaulted bodies and minds.
For the clueless novice, there are several types of meditation practices lined up for our picking – mindful meditation, transcendental meditation, visualization meditation, compassion meditation, nondirective meditation, and even more in the making. Although the options sound intimidating, they all hinge on the same basic steps: stay still, breathe deeply, and be mindful of the plethora of thoughts flying in and out of your mind (which, truth be told, is only a small step toward the real meditation and is certainly not an end in itself).
Breathing is as natural and basic as it could get. Must be simple, right?
Well, making something like meditation seem simple is just universe’s way of saying “Joke’s on you, sucker!”(Cont.)
