Archive for the ‘meditation’ Category
Brief Training In Meditation May Help In Pain Management
Living with pain is stressful, but a surprisingly short investment of time in mental training can help you cope.
A new study examining the perception of pain and the effects of various mental training techniques has found that relatively short and simple mindfulness meditation training can have a significant positive effect on pain management. Though pain research during the past decade has shown that extensive meditation training can have a positive effect in reducing a person’s awareness and sensitivity to pain, the effort, time commitment, and financial obligations required has made the treatment not practical for many patients. Now, a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte shows that a single hour of training spread out over a three day period can produce the same kind of analgesic effect. Read more…
The Desire for Peace
We would probably all agree that the pitch of the world, today, has reached higher decibels than ever in history. Around the world wars continue to proliferate, and the blare of guns firing and bombs detonating fill the air. The intense and heated shouts of antagonist political and religious zealots merge into unintelligible racket. Everything is faster, noisier, and more “extreme.” What doesn’t assault our ears, affronts our eyes. Once simply ugly billboards are now electronic and light the night with consumerism. Uninvited advertisements sweep across our computer monitors like phantoms, and then stop, impeding our ability to read more valued words underneath them. In addition, what we see is horrifying. The media presents live coverage, over and over again, of acts of violence and catastrophic events that have resulted in pain and suffering. Where can peace be found in these times? And, is it possible to get there from here? Peace can be found within each of us, at the still, quiet core of our being. And we can find it through meditation.
We start by turning away from the outer world, closing our eyes, and turning within. There, in that inner-most place, we discover that which seemed unknowable and elusive, but was always there…peace. Through the slowing of our breathing, we give our body the experience of refuse…and we find peace. Through the slowing of the excessive activity of our thoughts, until they gently drift, like falling leaves, and settle into quietness…we find peace.
This type of meditation enlivens every cell, fiber, and tissue of our being. Therefore, it can be healing. The babble of our mind momentarily stops with the type of meditation. Therefore, this type of meditation can be revealing.
The problems of body and mind vanish when we meditate in this way, and they often do not return when we open our eyes and move out into the world again. The peace that we have recognized within transforms into the peace of our actions in the world.
Today, maybe more than ever before, every one of us needs to meditate — to bring forth peace in ourselves and, therefore, bring peace to the world.
This item: Walk Yourself Well: Eliminate Back Pain, Neck, Shoulder, Knee, Hip and Other Structural Pain Forever-Without Surgery or Drugs by Sherry Brourman