What is mindfulness? A philosophical process? Psychological? Neurological?
She sits down to meditate. It’s a painful process in more ways than one. Sitting crosslegged, her knees hurt – not even hurt, but agonize. Sitting quietly, she notices how the unquiet in her wild brain doesn’t seem to stop, not for long at least. For a moment, as she watches her thoughts go by, she forgets how much her knees hurt. Just thoughts, then angry thoughts, then worry thoughts, all float by. At some point – she’s not sure exactly when – she starts to notice these thoughts as objects, even as separate objects. And then the bell on her timer goes off. She’s done for today and not too sure if this was helpful or not. She does know that she will do it again tomorrow. But that’s for then, not now.
Mindfulness Meditation. If not a craze, it is certainly more popular than it has ever been in the past. Maybe in the US at least; people have been meditatin in one form or another for thousands of years.
More recently, we’ve seen news that mindfulness, while it may be a psychological process with philosophical underpinnings, appears to actually change the brain.
The Wisconsin Monk sstudies show how it actually changes brain process.
In the past few weeks, studies have appeared that, at least preliminarily, show growth in the cortex and gray matter of the brain.
I recently came across this video from Google that discusses the effects that meditation does have on the brains of practitioners.
Meditation won’t help you eliminate or mange stress. You can only do that by removing stressful things from your life. For most of us, that’s not a likely path.
Living mindfully and meditation can help you go with the stress rather than against it. Combining meditation with exercise will help you limit the damage stress chemicals do to your body and your brain.
That seems to me like it may be worthwhile!
She sits again today and notices that she eases into posture a little better. She knows that tomorrow may be different. Noticing a little worry float by about that, she acknowledges it, accepts it, watches it float down the stream, and breathes.
Mike
Photo via Doctor Noe
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