meditation

[alley-oops]

 
Here's something for you all to meditate on

Here is an article from the BBC News :

Scientists say they have found evidence that meditation has a biological effect on the body.

A small-scale study suggests it could boost parts of the brain and the immune system.

Meditation has been practised since ancient times, mainly in the East.

It is now catching on worldwide as a means to reduce stress or to help with pain caused by various illnesses.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States enrolled 41 people in a trial of so-called "mindfulness" meditation.

It is a technique developed by an American stress reduction specialist - Jon Kabat-Zinn - for helping hospital patients deal with pain and discomfort.

Encouraging

Twenty five of the subjects attended a weekly class and one seven-hour retreat during the study; they were also given exercises to carry out at home. The others did not receive meditation training and acted as a control group.

After eight weeks, the researchers measured electrical activity in the frontal part of the brain. They say this region was more active on the left side in the individuals who meditated and was associated with lower anxiety and a more positive emotional state.

Participants were also given a flu jab at the start of the study and those who meditated had higher levels of antibody, say the researchers, led by Dr Richard Davidson.

"Although our study is preliminary and more research clearly is warranted we are very encouraged by these results," he said.

Caution

A British expert says the results - published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine - are interesting but need further scrutiny.

"There is increasing evidence that meditation is a useful and, for some people, a powerful therapy," said Dr Adrian White of the department of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter.

"But we still need more information to determine who it helps and precisely what its benefits are."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2725487.stm

[Shawn]

AMEN!

Works great! It's pretty hard at first, but once you are able to let go of all that internal chatter in your head, there is a calming peace that lasts for days.

I have found that it really helps eliminate many of the side effects (not sure how that works exactly) but when I don't meditate the sides seem worse.

Theory so far...
Maybe clearing your mind, clears out the anxiety/fears of the aches/pains and/or discomfort that we tend to dwell on all week, every week while on treatment. Have you ever noticed that when you are occupied with something else; you forget about and temporarly don't feel the side effects? The mind is a crazy thing...maybe that is what this Tibetan Parable means?

When you stir a tablespoon of salt in a glass of water and drink it, it tastes terrible. But when you take that same tablespoon of salt and stir it into an enormous clear blue mountian lake and then drink that water, it will still taste sweet and fresh.

The Tibetans monks say that it isn't the salt that is the problem - it is the expansiveness of the container and when we sit down, relax, and clear out all of our thoughts we become more expansive, therefore diluting the "salt" (negative feelings and thoughts) in our minds.

Who knows?  ...food for thought.

I also like the description given by Wayne Dyer -
Prayer is you talking to God
Meditation allows you to listen to God
God's one and only voice is silence...

Good Luck and much love
Shawn

[alley-oops]

Thanks for your input oh wise one.  It's great to hear that you use this free and freeing tool to help you on your txing journey.  Through meditation and positive visualization I have been able to lower my virual load by 1 million in 6 months. Now with those plus yoga and natcell, my liver enzymes and billirubin are at" normal "for the first time in many years.
Alley

[Shawn]

Awesome!

You are doing incredable! Keep me posted on your progress, it's always cool to have someone else getting great results doing some of the same things.

Much Love and a peaceful mind
Shawn

[alley-oops]

Thanks Shawn,
I will keep ya up-dated, you are on  on shot 40, does that mean only 8 more , right???
Much love and a mindful peace
Alley

[little_juan]

Yes Shawn...

Very wise words...
Be still.... and listen....

Alley... That IS awesome news!!!!!
Go girl go!


L.

[Shawn]

You got it...8 left.

I think you are on the right track with meditation - being new to it myself, I had no idea that it could be as powerful as I have experienced so far.

Highly recommed it to all!

Good luck and much love
Shawn

[Al]

Alley,

I have a tough time counting once I run out of fingers & toes. Higher math is beyond my ken. Whatever the count, you're in the "home stretch." Hang in there~

I'm also a firm believer in the power of positive thinking & meditation.

Do you think my mantra of "God, I REALLY need a Porsche" is a tad bit self-serving?"

[alley-oops]

Al ,
As long as you remain truely open to recieving,  that mantra sounds perfect. It may not be brand new but a porche is a porche is a porche is a porche, right?
Alley

( what higher math are we refering to? did I miss something?)

[tara]

I thought the corect mantra was "Oh God won't you buy me a Mercedes bensz."
  Anyhow, I'm a big advocate of meditation also, although I have been slacking off on it lately.
  I believe that mindfulness meditation is what is known in Buddhism as "vipsana."  This does NOT involve trying to think about something else other than your bodies discomoforts.  Just the oposite, it encourages you you to sit and do nothing but listen to the sensations in your body without trying to run from them or judge them.  Often, if we do that, we find that they are not so bad.  When we are done, by some strange process, they seem to still be not so bad.  An aphorism in Vipasana is "when you run away from your suffering, you run towards it."  In other words, trying to constantly avoid feeling our unpleasant sensations just winds up making them worse.
   Of course, theire are many other forms of meditation besides Vipasana, and different schools of thought on the subject.  Whatever works, I say.
  (Some people really do chant for material objects such as a new car, BTW.).

[Dude]

I was into transcendental meditation back in the 60's and early 70's, and it helped me a lot. Especially in basic training. It was a constant test of ones endurance, kind of like dealing with this virus, only on another level. But each night when we all lay down to sleep, I'd be in my bunk in the lotus position meditating.

Before I went in (the military) I shared a pad with a close friend of mine, and next to our house was a pine forest. There was a really nice Australian pine tree that we made a triangular platform in, all the way at the top, and we used to go up there and just meditate on the beauty of being in a place where only birds normally went, turning to the left to see the ocean, to the right to see the Banana River, and listening to the constant hiss of wind in the pines. Australian pines are very whispy and the tops are pretty thin, so you'd be waving back and forth to the rhythm of the wind. It was so relaxing.

In basic training, when I'd meditate, I'd be in that tree, and every detail of it's wonder would flow through my senses, as though I were sitting there experiencing it in real time. I could even smell the salt air. It was so peaceful, and I think it is what helped me the most there. A lot of the guys were totally stressed out, and I was able to actually enjoy myself through the entire time there.

Now when I meditate, I try to imagine a pool of water, and as I begin the water is rough, lots of waves and chaos, but after a short while it calms down, and eventually it is like glass. I smell it, feel it, and know it's there inside my spirit. It is my spirit. It's my spirit pool, and I am in control of it through meditation. You can manage your waters with meditation. You can walk on water in meditation. What you "see" in meditation you can control, and once you grasp that concept, you change the stress to a thing that you can manage, instead of it controlling you. Peace comes easily, but other stresses arise in time and you go back in and take control of that as well.

Once you begin, and once you find that you have power over it, you are in charge to a greater degree, and you'll come back to it again and again. It's not out of despair, it's out of a desire to maintain calm within. And it works.

[alley-oops]

Sometimes, I like to visualize a purified stream of blood running through me.
alley

[willy]

Joris:  I was into TM for a few years in the early 70's.  I didn't stop for a good reason.  It was just so hard for me to sit still for 20 minutes two times a day.  Of course, that is what I told myself then, and perhaps even now.  When I pay attention to what I do during the day I DO find that I sit still often for hours, (Duh, like in front of the computer or TV) but my perception remains the same; TOO BUSY!
         As far as techniques go it worked fine.  I could lower my blood preasure and pulse to lower that the sleeping state.  For a person that likes to stay up and never go to bed it's probably the very thing that I should be doing now.  (Ha ha; probably RIGHT now.)

Willy

[alley-oops]

Here I am 2 and a half years later and I still meditate...and I still feel pretty good from it...
I highly recommend this as a daily practice...(or a nightly practice for those with insommnia)

no Porche garuntees Al...

alley~

[Al]

Here I am 2 and a half years later and I still meditate...and I still feel pretty good from it...
I highly recommend this as a daily practice...(or a nightly practice for those with insommnia)
no Porche garuntees Al...

Alley,

It was fun revisiting your thread from '03. Good to hear that, 2 1/2 years later, your meditation is still working/helping you on a daily basis.

I wonder how Shawn is doing these days?

Al

PS: I gave up on the whole "Porsche-Thru-Positive-Thinking-Meditation-Reiki-Prayer" thing a couple of years ago & have a adopted the more realistic, pragmatic "If It's To Be, It's Up To Me " approach and am currently embezzling my way to Porsche-hood~