Mind-Body HEALING

MINDFULNESS for Healing and Pain  Relief

David Sillito from BBC News reported January 4, 2012 from the London School of Economics on the growing scientific evidence which shows that taking a regular Mindfulness Meditation break can actually change how your mind responds.

CLICK HERE to Listen: Mindfulness: The Science of Stillness

Mindfulness Practice can help us to cope better with the stresses of daily life.

Now it seems it can even "change how much pain you feel"... even in cases of chronic disease where severe pain significantly adds to overall suffering, such as with lupus.

Silllito explains that Mindfulness "involves no religion, no chanting, no incense" .. Rather it is "a scientifically proven way of combatting stress and depression". 

THE HOW: Mindfulness is based on the simple act of focussing on the breath. We pause during our daily activity .. to notice our body breathing ... following each breath with our mind ... as air comes in and flows out .. 

AND when the mind wanders [as it does] ... gently bring our thoughts back again to follow the breath. 

The beauty of doing this simple practice, is that you "cannot do anything wrong". 

You will naturally get distracted by other thoughts and sensations as you focus on your breath. 

When you realise that you have gone off-track from your breath, gently bring your mind back to watching and feeling your breath .. simply noticing the breath ... coming IN, and going OUT. 

One breath at a time, moment by moment - That's IT !  

In David Sillito's audio report above, we learn that in an independent evaluation of the brain scan obtained from Sillito's friend with lupus after she had done 8 weeks of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training, Neuroscientist Dr Alena Antanova from Kings' College reported a clear reduction in anterior cingulate reactivity within her brain. This area is believed to be the part of the brain which responds to the ....  . It seems to become calmer.

Corresponding to this brain change, Sillito's friend reported that she was now more able to "turn down the pain a notch or two" by using Mindfulness Meditation. Feeling less "suffering" brings a greater sense of having some control of degree of pain. We can to distance ourselves from "the hurt" that severe and/or constant pain imposes. Gaining this sense of more control can be very important to managing a chronic ongoing disorder .. where the daily grind of ongoing pain can often lead to sleep problems and depression.

In such cases Mindfulness practice can do a lot to restore a person's confidence as and activity levels improve along with mood states.

Neuroscience results from brain scans taken after people have done 8 weeks of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training [MBSR] - involving 30 minutes of daily Mindfulness Meditation - continue to show clear evidence that the brain changes even after such a relatively short time of dedicated mindfulness practice..

There is a lowering of activity in the anterior cingulate region in the frontal area of the brain - a region which appears to be intimately involved in the human response to stress and pain.

This MBSR Program initially grew out the pioneering work of Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn which began in the 1970s. 

As an 8 week intensively researched program, MBSR launched the systematic scientific study of the benefits of Mindfulness Meditation. This has created a wealth of research evidence supporting the positive benefits to human health and well-being in f adopting mindfulness practice into everyday life.

As a result, Mindfulness Research is now well established all over the world, including at leading medical institutions like the Mayo Clinic and John Hopkins, and re-known Universities like Harvard, Yale and MIT ... and is increasingly being adopted by scores of big business organisations, eg Apple, Google. 

More than 40 peer-reviewed controlled studies on Mindfulness now come out each month!

The scientific evidence increasingly points to "Mindfulness" practice being a priority skill to master if one wishes to maximise how well we function at home and at work, as well as improving our mental and physical well-being. 

After over thirty years investigation, MBSR has now evolved into a Western-styled "skilled practice" ... adapting the core basic cognitive principles and effective skills that were developed and refined over thousands of years within the ancient Buddhist and Zen meditation practice traditions into a scientifically sound mind/body practice. MBSR has been adapted to work and military settings [as in MBFT - called M Be Fit]] and to improving work and family relationships., It is is now widely regarded as an effective secular meditation practice. 

It has also been adapted to use with children and in dealing with mental health problems; as well as more recently effectively employed in a wide range of medical settings where traditional treatment can only go so far - such as with chronic and terminal disease and the notoriously difficult area of Chronic Pain. In can be taught to people of any religious or sociological origin. It has become increasingly recognised as an effective daily living practice with a preventative role in coping with the stress of modern life, and preventing stress-related medical disorders. 

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