Advancements in medication benefit society and help to maintain every individual’s health. However, regarding certain suffering such as depression, stress, and anxiety, a safer form of treatment exists. Medications attempting to treat depression, anxiety, or stress contain chemicals which cause the body to react negatively. These negative side effects are not necessary due to the practice of mindful meditation. Mindful meditation is a more beneficial way to heal psychological diseases versus medication because meditation does not create any negative side effects, the practice is equally effective as medications, and there are multiple positive benefits to meditation along with healing. A few additional benefits include a greater awareness, …show more content…
The practice of meditation is the focus on a certain stimuli in order to avoid overwhelming thoughts from entering the brain. Each day, thoughts constantly flow in and out the brain. Meditation is a way to escape the thought, become clear minded, and return to a greater awareness of the present moment. However, the writer Julie Deardroff for Seattle time says, “Meditation will not stop your thoughts. It will not empty your mind. Instead, proponents say, it teaches you how to replace the mental chatter in your head with stillness. This ability helps us live more consciously in the present moment” (Deardroff). Meditation may not put an end to thoughts, but rather transform thought into a state of stillness. Thoughts will occur during meditation but the goal is to recognize the thought, let it pass, and return back to stillness. A person may practice meditation anytime and anywhere. Simply by interrupting the mind and focusing into stillness and quietness, an individual is meditating. Therefore, the practice may be done during any part of the day and by any …show more content…
Also, some patients show noncompliance to their treatment meaning that they do not finish all their prescribed medications. Stress and anxiety may be momentarily treated through medications but meditation causes long term dissipation of stress and anxiety. Also, both stress and anxiety may be linked to a person with depression. Many times a person is depressed because they are overly anxious or too stressed along with other matters of concern. In a Harvard Women’s Health Watch newsletter, the act of going off antidepressants is discussed. The newsletter mentions: “Discontinuation symptoms can include anxiety and depression. Since these may be the reason you were prescribed antidepressants in the first place, their reappearance may suggest that you 're having a relapse and need ongoing treatment” (“Going off Antidepressants” ).The article reveals that leaning towards dependence of these pills can be extremely challenging for some. Many times people do become dependent on antidepressant and must continue to put unnecessary chemicals in the body. The chemicals are unnecessary because the brain possesses the power to create more serotonin and other neurotransmitters that lead to happiness. The ability to access that power within the brain is the practice of
It is often recommended to taper of the dosage of antidepressants gradually so that the body can get used to the change. As a counterclaim, it is said that up to 20 percent of people who stop taking antidepressants can suddenly experience unpleasant side effects, up to 72 hours of the last dose. For some, the discontinuation symptoms are so severe that they avoid taking an psychotropic medications again. However this is rare to happen if the dosages units are not abused and discontinuation of the drug is done through the primary care physicians consent.
Without practicing meditation, we do not reflect on or pay attention to our everyday actions, mostly acting on habit. The world is full of defilements and everyday we are infatuated by them, sensual desires, and delusion, although we often do not know it. Meditation weakens these unwholesome temptations and desires by making us aware that they are arising, and by revealing that they are truly unwholesome. The temptation only ceases when the concentration we obtain from meditation results in greater happiness than sensual pleasures can ever provide. While the satisfaction gained from sensual pleasures is fleeting, the clarified, focused state of mind of the meditator accumulates into a constant tranquil state. Only when we have stilled the mind’s incessant wandering and momentarily abandon the attraction to sensory experiences can we become truly aware of our hidden motivations and unconscious feelings that shape our thoughts and behavior. It is also necessary for changing our views of the world and ourselves. Through confronting these delusions, desires, and feelings we are able to renounce them. “During meditation we learn to drop from the mind what we don’t want to keep. We only want to keep in mind the meditation subject. As we get more and more skilled at it, we start to use the same faculty in our daily lives to help us drop thoughts that are
Mindfulness is just one type of meditation. It is the act of focusing on the present moment. Normally, human beings are constantly thinking about what they plan on doing, who said what, the past and where they want to go tonight. With mindfulness, the entire goal is to focus on existing in the present moment. Because of this, you can do mindfulness at any time. If you are drinking tea, focus entirely on the scent, taste and tactile sense of drinking tea. If you are doing yoga, feel exactly the sensations of your body without thinking about the future or
In today in America we live in a fast pace society where people take on a lot of responsibilities. Taking on too much can lead to stress and physical illnesses. There are a number of things people can do to reduce stress like exercise and eating healthy. Practicing meditation can be influential on both a person’s physical and mental health.
The studies showed that while meditated, the subjects showed signs of thought processes slowing down and changes occurring in the brain. The purpose of meditation, and mindfulness meditation as mentioned in this course, is to increase awareness while calming the normal thought processes that often overcrowd the mind with ideas that are deemed not-true by Buddhism. These brain scans clearly show that the purpose of meditation is achieved in doing so.
The “empty mind” for example is an extremely common misunderstanding concept of the meditation. Just to be clear right now. You can not empty your mind. Never. Ever. There will always appear ideas and other contents to your mind, including straight thoughts, intentions, opinions, plans and will arrive more subtle phenomenons like feelings. Moreover, don’t forget that when you meditate, you are using your mind. Probably you don’t let yourself to think about the tasks what are waiting for you, but you are paying attention to your senses, to your breath, or in some meditations to your thoughts as well!
...biology of Meditation and its clinical effectiveness in psychiatric disorders. Biological Psychology, 82(1), 1-11. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2009.04.003
Western medicine has recently discovered the powerful affects of meditation, by allowing doctors to treat the body and the mind. In reality, the mind is a very misunderstood and unexplored region of the human existence. Modern science knows more about the composition of the earth than it does about the mechanics of the human brain. Yet, meditation thwarts all notions of modern medicine with its shocking ability to to take obscure visualizations and create physical responses in the body. Mahayana Buddhism, found mainly in the autonomous region of Tibet, has become the main reference and standard for meditation practices in the west. Tibetans have used meditation for centuries as treatment for illness, and now, modern medicine of the western world is just beginning to reap the benefits of this unique and unconventional treatment for a variety of physical and mental ailments. Once a practice reserved strictly for Buddhist monks, meditation has become a worldwide phenomenon. Simply enter “Buddhist meditation” into the any Inter...
Meditation is a private devotion or mental exercise consisting of a number of techniques of concentration, contemplation, and abstraction to heighten spiritual awareness. It has also been defined as, “Consciously directing your attention to alter your state of consciousness.” Meditation has been practiced around the world since the ancient times. It was used back then and still used today for spiritual growth (becoming more conscious). Meditation is mostly concerned about your attention, where it is directed to, and how it alters or changes a person’s consciousness.
Mindfulness meditation is a growth of person`s perception at the present time and some people think is a unique way to overcome anxiety and discover greater wisdom in our minds. A person who practices this meditation tries to get rid of any unwanted thoughts, concentrate on present ones, focus on attention and breathing. Some contemporary psychotherapists suggest that we can train our mind by practicing mindfulness meditation. Often almost all people catch themselves on thoughts that transfers from the present to the past and future. This is called mind wandering. This can be very distracting when a person tries to focus on certain task. Naturally, people who experience less mind wandering demonstrated greater mindfulness, and previous studies showed that practicing mindfulness meditation even for eight minutes can increase and mind wandering will decrease (Hafenbrack, 2013).
To begin with, mindfulness is when someone can pay attention to the present moment “without being devoted to different points of view” (Martin, 1997). Along with staying focused on the present moment, mindfulness is when the particular person does not judge the current experience as the person tries to comprehend the present situation. Mindfulness makes a person reflect on one’s self by not only figuring out one’s thoughts, but also the feelings that go along with it. The complex nature of mindfulness demonstrates that it has multiple purposes that cultivates a person into realizing the potential of the brain (Davis & Hayes,
Apart from the role compassion plays in the advancement of the path to Enlightenment, compassion meditation practices have been found to impact physiological pathways which are modulated by stress and are also relevant to disease development and progression. Examples of these types of compassion practices include loving-kindness (metta)...
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). (2010). Health info. Meditation: An introduction. Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm
In the past two decades, many philosophers, spiritual leaders, and psychological transitions have accentuated the importance of the quality of consciousness for the maintenance and enhancement of well-being. One of the characteristics of consciousness that has been discussed in relation to well-being is mindfulness. In concentration with the psychology discipline, mindfulness meditation practices have been increasingly used to treat a majority of pain, stress and anxiety-related conditions and also, increasing well-being. The ideology of mindfulness meditation has core roots in Buddhist philosophy and other pensive traditions where awareness and conscious attention are actively cultured (Brown, Kirk Warren,2003).
Meditation is not a time devoted to thinking or reflecting about oneself, but a time to redirect one’s thoughts and emotions away from the outside world and onto something simple, such as the wind or one’s own breathe. By learning how to meditate, an individual can learn how to react appropriately to “the circumstances one finds oneself in, i...