In our previous column we mentioned that one of the keys to managing stress effectively is to be able to turn it off, allowing you to find inner peace and a way to take stock of your life. 

We reported on METI’s encouraging experience with Life Skills Training to community groups in 20 villages as a way to prevent and control Family Violence. The training includes practicing mindfulness meditation techniques taught in the Mindfulness Stress Reduction program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn Ph.D. at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the USA, where it is used as part of complementary and integrative medicine. 

One-pointed concentration, loving kindness and compassion meditation are some of the more powerful means to turn around individuals, who – in their own words – had been devoured by chronic anger and resentment for years and changed into more tolerant and forgiving beings. 

(As one of our participants, a young farmer casually remarked: ‘Before this training I used to beat up my wife every day; now, when we have a difference, we sit down and review each other’s point of view…’)  

One of the most exciting findings in neuroscience has been the discovery of what have been called ‘mirror neurons’. These parts of the brain fire when doing an action or observing an action performed by another person. Mirror neurons help explain on a physiological level what Daniel Goleman calls ‘emotional contagion’: the tendency of one person to catch the feelings of another, particularly if strongly expressed. 

Have you ever watched a group of babies? If one starts crying, they all start crying! And when you smile at a baby, after a while it will smile back… This may be one of the mechanisms by which compassion and forgiveness training are so powerful: not only for the recipient but also for the giver.

When we act in ways that are loving, compassionate, and altruistic, it helps us as well as others. To put it differently, our emotions resonate with those of other people – for better or for worse. Your anger may raise your wife’s blood pressure as much as yours and cause the arteries to your heart muscle to constrict leading to a heart attack. 

Conversely, your loving feelings may lower your wife’s blood pressure as much as yours and protect your heart! When we help others, we also help ourselves. As Dr Dean Ornish puts it: ‘the most ‘selfish’ thing we can do for ourselves may be to act towards others in ways that are loving, forgiving, altruistic, compassionate and nurturing, for that is what helps free us from suffering, disease and premature death. When we help others, we also help ourselves’. 

New research is finding mindfulness exercises (in short ‘meditation’) useful for a variety of health problems — including easing chronic pain... reducing gastrointestinal symptoms... and lowering blood pressure and stress to protect the heart. Over the last twenty years, especially with the development of powerful imaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists can now observe and study activity in every part of the brain. As a result, there is now proof that meditation changes your brain — enlarging areas of brain tissue that help us think and learn... while decreasing areas that cause us stress and anxiety. 

Meditation has also been found to readjust our mood by activating various parts of the brain: turning down our sympathetic nervous system (responsible for that stress feeling), while turning up our parasympathetic nervous system (the system that quiets your body and returns your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing to normal.) 

It is beyond the scope of this column to go into the details of the METI Life Skills Training course but as we promised we will describe succinctly how you could start the practice of meditation. We will focus on what is called ‘one-pointed concentration’, like mindful breathing.  

The purpose of this exercise is to help you to stay focused in the present moment.  Taking full slow breaths helps you stay focused and will also relax you. It is a perfect exercise for you to practice if you are overwhelmed by emotions.  Initially, practice for about ten minutes per sitting. 

As a beginner, it is to be expected that during this exercise you will eventually become distracted by your thoughts, memories, or other sensations. That’s OK. That happens to everyone doing this exercise. Just notice that your mind wanders, let the thoughts go without getting stuck on them and return your focus to your breathing. 

When practicing mindful breathing, some people feel as if they become ‘one’ with their breathing, meaning that they feel a deep connection with the experience. If that happens for you, great! If not, that’s OK, too. Just keep practicing. To practice, find a comfortable place to sit in a room where you will not be disturbed. If you feel more comfortable, you may close your eyes.  

Try to sit cross-legged on a mat or on a chair with your back straight. Now slowly inhale through your nose and exhale through your nose or mouth. Feel the breath moving in across your nostrils, and then feel your breath blowing out across your nostrils or across your lips. 

As you breathe, notice the sensations in your body. Feel your lungs fill up with air. With each breath, notice how your body feels more and more relaxed. If you have some difficulty concentrating on your breathing, when your mind begins to wander and you catch yourself thinking of something else, return to focus on your breathing. 

Try NOT to criticize yourself for getting distracted. It might help with your concentration to begin counting your breaths each time you exhale – do this silently. Count each exhalation until you reach ‘4’ and then begin counting at ‘1’ again. Keep counting your breaths, and with each exhale, feel your body relaxing, deeper and deeper. Keep breathing until the 10 minutes are up. Then slowly return your focus to the room you are in. Do this exercise once or twice a day starting with approximately ten minutes at a time.  (Check your watch or the clock in the room from time to time.) 

As you become more familiar with this technique, gradually expand it to 30 minutes’ sessions, once or twice a day. Dr Dean Ornish, one of the pioneers of the Lifestyle medicine movement, recommends that patients with heart disease should try and meditate for one hour a day to bring down their blood pressure and be protected from a heart attack. 

In our next column we will give details of another meditation practice that will change and protect your life. We invite you to visit METI’s Healthy Living Clinic at House No. 51 at Motootua (across from the Kokobanana Restaurant) and become acquainted with METI’s whole food plant based diet and Lifestyle Change program. Or call us at 30550. Learning how to follow these Programs might be your ‘game changer’!