Pause...Slow Down to Speed Up!

Pause! Take a deep breath. But in our hectic schedules who has time to pause and relax for a few minutes?  Our busy life does not allow us to plan time to pause and do nothing, which is actually a form of an activity and exercise. For example, the pause in a piece of music is not lack of music; rather it is an integral part of the composition. Similarly, with mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion of our fast-paced life requires us to pause and take a deep breath.  The phrase “Slow down to speed up,” is more true than before. With the complexity surrounding our everyday lives, mental and emotional clarity is often hard to achieve. Millions of individuals are recognizing this persistent stress that is causing permanent damage to one’s mental and physical health. Individuals are starting to recognize the significance of imbibing “pause” in one’s life.  Hence, people are turning towards the ancient yogic discipline of meditation to attain that “pause” in their lives.  From Vedic times, Hindu Sanatan Dharma advocates implementing meditation/yogic practices in one’s life as a means to calm oneself from anxieties, gain better clarity of thoughts, increase one’s focus and concentration, and progress in one’s spiritual path. This ancient eastern practice is gaining popularity in the western world as a means to not only deal with stress, but latest research also suggests its beneficial role with conditions such as depression, health disease, sleep problems, substance abuse, high blood pressure, asthma, allergies, etc.

Dr. Thomas Lyon succinctly presented his research that showed positive correlation between mindfulness and meditation to treating drug and alcohol abuse—benefits of meditation that go beyond stress management.  These findings presented by Dr. Lyon are further reinforced by a recent article, Examining psychometric properties of distress tolerance and its moderation of mindfulness-based relapse prevention effects on alcohol and other drug use outcomes, published in the journal, Addictive Behaviors, in 2013, that discusses how individuals with “lower ability to withstand negative psychological and/or physical states” who were treated with mindful meditation relapse prevention strategies had fewer days of Alcohol and other drug use days.  The effectiveness of mindfulness and meditation stems from its ability to help individuals suffering from alcohol and drug abuse “develop awareness and acceptance of thoughts, feelings, and sensations, particularly those involving urges to use alcohol and other drugs, and utilize these skills as a coping strategy in the face of high-risk situations, such as interpersonal conflicts and elicit negative affect.”  These benefits of mindfulness meditation can be further understood by understanding the neurophysiology of meditation. With advances in the brain imaging techniques, more information and knowledge about how mindfulness meditation affects the multiple brain structures is now better understood. Dr. Lyon pointed out some of the brain structures that are affected by meditation, which includes prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, functional networks, to name a few.  Few other studies have found how mindfulness meditation enhances activity in the prefrontal cortex, right anterior insula and right hippocampus, and it also increases grey matter density in hippocampus and cerebellum.  Furthermore, the research study describes how mindfulness meditation actually works. According to the mindfulness theory, “being able to observe and approach psychological distress with acceptance is associated with tolerance.” Therefore, the greater mindfulness one has, the greater distress tolerance an individual can have. The comprehensive view of both the neurological and psychological affects of mindfulness meditation explains how mindfulness meditation proves beneficial as drug and alcohol abuse treatment.  Dr. Lyon’s research findings, as well as this journal article, provide a glimpse into the workings of mindfulness mediation. However, this is just a brief insight; a lot of research awaits to discover the mysterious workings of this ancient technique on our brain functions.

Hence, mindfulness meditation does not just provide benefits for stress management, but it also helps with many other physical conditions. 

Sources:

Hsu, SH, SE Collins, and GA Marlatt. "Examining Psychometric Properties Of Distress Tolerance And Its Moderation Of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention Effects On Alcohol And Other Drug Use Outcomes." Addictive Behaviors 38.3 (2013): 1852-1858. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.