MEDITATION METTA [Loving Kindness]

Meditation and other mindfulness practices have become increasingly popular as they relate to improved health. With a growing interest in Eastern medicine and its philosophies, meditation has moved to the forefront of recommended treatments for stress, anxiety, and chronic pain. 

Meditation has been purported to enhance creativity, problem solving, and focus. Many athletes have used visualization techniques for years as a means of enhancing their performance on the playing field. Using this type of deliberate attention is clearly nothing new.

What is new is its newfound popularity among Western society and its health practitioners, who have often been quick to denounce anything that lacks approved scientific research to support its claims.

So Why the Change?

A simple look at current health patterns underscores the fact that common health issues such as obesity and diabetes are becoming more prevalent. With all of the modern techniques and medicine, there is still an increase in the occurrence of these diseases.

The failure of modern medicine’s ability to address these illnesses has resulted in a renewed interest in alternative methods. Many have replaced acupuncture for physical therapy. Others use meditation in place of medication.

• Pain elimination

A meditative practice provides these benefits through its effect on the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). This is the branch of the nervous system responsible for your body’s fight-or-flight reaction. When the SNS is activated, certain processes take place to prepare against a real or perceived threat:

• Increased heart rate
• Mobilizing blood to the extremities
• Increased muscle tension
• Increased breathing rate

Putting it to Work

Although these are all functions that are beyond your control, you can impact them with meditation. By altering your breathing pattern, you can slow down the heart rate and reduce muscle tension. This is where the health benefits of meditation begin. Deliberately slowing down your breathing activates the opposing parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). This lowers SNS stimulation and as the body begins to quiet down, so does the mind. As physical tension is released, so is mental tension.