Meditation in the news ...

I am still (partially) on summer-ease time .. a couple of meditation classes under my belt this week and surprisingly ample time to catch up on my reading.  Here are two interesting articles that appeared in my inbox this week:

Mindfulness Meditation Helps Rheumatoid Arthritis

A new study published by the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases suggests that practicing mindfulness meditation reduces stress and fatigue associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

The study evaluated 67 rheumatoid arthritis patients and randomly assigned participants to either 10 group sessions of mindfulness exercises over 15 weeks, plus a booster session 6 months, or to a standard care plan with a CD of mindfulness exercises for home use. The mindfulness sessions included exercises using music, drawing and guided imagery.

Results : those who attended the sessions showed less stress and fatigue – scoring lower stress scores a the one year mark follow up. Fatigue levels also were significantly reduced.

The authors of the study “indicate that the participants may have incorporated some mindfulness strategies into their daily lives and that these strategies have strengthened their ability to respond to their stressful experience in a more flexible way,”.

Meditation isn't just for hippies any more. And it's not all about saying ommmm

An insightful interview from Time magazine with Jon Kabat-Zinn, the molecular biologist who began meditating when the practice was a little woo-woo.  Now, roll forward forty years and we can see his efforts have been paramount to where meditation sits today, with dozens of studies showing the benefits of his MBSR program (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) which has been running at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center for 32 years.

(Now I have another book to add to my summer reading as Kabat-Zinn has released Mindfulness for Beginners to introduce meditation to first-timers).

Kabat-Zinn started his Stress Reduction Clinic in 1979 where outpatients attend an eight-week course that introduces mindfulness .. a practice of ‘paying attention’.

Massachusetts General Hospital have conducted recent studies that show that eight weeks of MBSR can actually produce thickening in particular regions of the brain important for learning, memory, executive decision-making and perspective-taking (which are vital when experiencing stress or pain); and a thining of the areas that involve threat and fear. After only eight weeks!

Kabat-Zinn notes that “Mindfulness is not about getting anywhere else — it’s about being where you are and knowing it. We are talking about awareness itself: a whole repertoire of ways of knowing that virtually all come through the senses. "My definition of healing is coming to terms with things as they are, so that you can do whatever you can to optimize your potential, whether you are living with chronic pain or having a baby. You can’t control the universe, so mindfulness is involves learning to cultivate wisdom and equanimity— not passive resignation—in the face of what Zorba the Greek called the full catastrophe of the human condition".

He also suggests that you meditate for a good 15minutes “long enough so that you get really bored and antsy and learn how to make room for unpleasant moments.”  .. this is sooooo true and so avoided!