| Is Meditation a Superpower?
Andrew F.B. Campbell, LPC |
"The energy that I’ve found doing meditation, you know, has been there before – only that I could access it only during good days when everything was going well. With meditation I find that it could well be pouring down rain; it is still the same amount." – John Lennon, October 4, 1967
I wonder why more people don’t meditate regularly. Meditation seems to be one of those things that most people agree is a good idea and may have even tried a few times, but don’t incorporate into their lives. As a therapist and regular “stressed out” person, I have made the effort, with surprisingly positive results, to bring meditation into my life, both personally and professionally. This article is an attempt to explore and explain that process in the hopes that other people may be motivated to do so as well.
Just like with physical exercise, meditation seems to offer the “best of both worlds,” resulting in less stress, more relaxation, more calmness, and more energy and vitality. Sometimes the benefits of meditation sound miraculous, almost like it offers a superpower. The list is seemingly endless (try Googling it); reduce stress, control anxiety, lift depression, deepen connection with self and others, lengthen attention span, cultivate creativity, increase immunity, reduce age-related problems, fight addictions, enhance self-awareness, or even just have more energy throughout the day.
Part of the reason practices like meditation may be so important to our current and future well-being is that modern living seems to have produced an environment that is the “worst of both worlds.” We are largely sedentary, moving our bodies much less than is necessary for optimal, or even good, health, and simultaneously experiencing a highly stressful mental environment (traffic, deadlines, social media, etc.) with little down-time or rest for our over-burdened nervous systems. This formula results in high levels of stress, both mental and physical, that our bodies, amazing products of millions of years of evolution in an environment sharing little with our modern world, are ill-equipped to deal with.
And our response to stress, although evolutionarily adaptive, over time, produces some detrimental effects on the body. The sympathetic branch of the nervous system (the “accelerator” of the body) is responsible for what is now known as the fight-or-flight response. When faced with stressful situations our bodies prepare to do battle or flee by increasing heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, blood flow to muscles, and releasing a cascade of stress hormones to gear up for survival. This response to stress has been linked to much of what ails us these days, from physical and medical problems like cancer and cardiovascular disease to psychological issues such as depression and anxiety (although we are more and more seeing this separation of mind and body as artificial and unhelpful).
We know exercise helps to alleviate some of the negative effects of stress, but it turns out this stress response is also effectively counteracted by regular meditation. There is a physiologic state opposite to stress, termed the “Relaxation Response” by Herbert Benson, which is an inducible (as in entered into on purpose) “state of quietude” that is equally essential for survival. This relaxed physiologic state offers the body a chance to heal and rejuvenate by engaging the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system (the “brake” on our minds and bodies) and creating an environment within our bodies where the effect of stress can be mitigated. It is even arguable that the Relaxation Response, and a practice to elicit it, like meditation, is even more important to our present-day survival than the fight-or-flight response.
And yet, there is so much misunderstanding about what meditation is and how to do it. Meditation sounds so “out there,” spiritual, or even mystical. But I have found there is a very practical, simple, pragmatic, and objectively helpful and healthy approach to meditation that is readily accessible to anyone. So how does one meditate and reap these rewards? Great question.
Some of the best known and most widely studied approaches to meditation are traditional Buddhist practices, as outlined by Pema Chodron and Jack Kornfield, Transcendental Meditation (made popular by the Beatles is the 60’s), Herbert Benson’s Relaxation Response, John Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program, as well as more recent developments in psychotherapy and neuroscience such as Poly-Vagal Theory.
The real question is, what actually helps produce all of the health benefits that we hear so much about? From these time-tested and well researched approaches, the most important and effective elements can be extracted and combined into a synthesized, hybrid practice that realizes the benefits of meditation most efficiently and effectively. So the basic instruction goes like this.
First, find a position that are comfortable for you and a place for where you can be calm and relaxed during your practice. This may be someplace safe and quite, sitting on the floor, in a chair, or lying down, anywhere that it is easy for the mind to relax and let go of distracting pulls, sounds, thoughts, or other intrusive sensations.
Secondly, find something simple and repetitive for your mind to do during your meditation practice. This may be counting, following the breath, a mantra, a body scan, or any of the many objects of focus that are commonly used in mindfulness practices. There are many different objects of focus, sometimes called a “homebase,” that will give your mind something to do other than think and plan and worry. Whatever homebase you arrive at, perhaps counting three breaths and then returning to “one” again, or looking up some typical mantras (sounds to repeat silently in your head), start to repeat this object in your mind, staying with it, and then returning to it even when your mind wanders (which it inevitably will). The point of the repetition is to lull, or bore, the “monkey mind” into a relaxed state.
Third, and possibly most important, is cultivating a passive attitude. This means not getting hung up on whether you’re doing it right, doing it long enough, doing it frequently enough, thinking in general, having a wandering mind, or any thing that is critical or judgmental in nature. When you notice your mind has wandered, just notice this and then say “thinking” or “oh, well, my mind wandered again….” And return to your homebase.
And finally, actually do the practice, whatever practice works for you, every day. The general advice is 10-20 minutes 1-2 times a day. This comes from some of the research done with practitioners of Transcendental Meditation and Herbert Benson’s pioneering work in the 70’s as a Harvard cardiologist looking at the physiologic effects of meditation.
Now, to follow this protocol, we bump into a genuine paradox. We are instructed to have a passive attitude and not get stressed out or uptight about our practice, and yet we are also encouraged to bring a level of discipline to the practice. To be loose yet focused, warm and yet firm. Or as Pema Chodron describes it, “gentle and yet precise.” We want to be easy going and compassionate with ourselves and yet disciplined enough to actually do the practice and stick with it when we get frustrated or bump into resistance. This is the part of the practice that takes practice. So, if meditation is all it’s cracked up to be, why again is it not being done by everyone all the time?
Part of my motivation for writing this article is the suspicion that people are not utilizing the benefits of meditation simply because they may just not know about them. If someone told you you could feel better, have more energy, be healthier, even get more work done, and all you had to do was do “nothing’ for a little while every day, it seems there would quickly be more meditation and yoga centers than there are gyms and diet and nutrition centers. So whether you are interested in trying meditation to reach enlightenment and experience “oneness” with the universe, or just want more energy to be able to be present with what is important to you, be that friends, family, work, or play, my hope is that the information presented here will be an encouragement to explore bringing such a practice into your life.
In the end, I have “drank the Kool-Aid” regarding meditation and mindfulness practices for my own life. The most valuable thing I have observed through my experience meditating, the thing that I can’t stress enough, is how much “bang for the buck” meditating offers. Mediation offers mental and physical health benefits on par with exercise, but requiring much less, although a very different kind of, effort. But don’t take my word for it, or that of these published authors and researchers. Try it out for yourself and see what happens with your own mind and body.
As Jerry Seinfeld says of his meditation practice of over 40 years, “It’s like having… you know, your phone has a charger, right? It’s like having a charger for your whole body and mind.” I encourage anyone and everyone to join me in simply “being,” and just resting in mindful awareness as a daily practice. May this practice bring greater health, more and better-focused energy, enhanced health and well-being, and offer greater peace of mind.
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