Ep. 4: The health benefits and magic of meditation

Today I talk about a very simple and free health practice that is accessible to all of us.  You can do it anywhere, anytime and you don’t need any special tools or props to do it. It is such an important tool for maintaining health and is so effective, that not only has it stood the test of time in a range of Eastern health traditions, but we are now also seeing it prescribed by Western med practitioners, from GPs to orthopaedic surgeons and cardiologists. The magic health tool that I am talking about is meditation! In this episode, we will talk a little bit about meditation, and answer some of the common questions that I get asked about it. I’m going to share with you some exciting research that shows just how powerful this practice is – and the measurable physical outcomes that can be observed in our health as a result of integrating it into our lives. We will finish up with some easy guidelines and an intro to starting your meditation practice, which will lead up the accompanying bonus episode to this one, which is a short, guided 5 minute meditation to ease you into the benefits of the amazing practice! So let’s get into it! Show Notes Transcript Today, I'd like to talk about a very simple and free health practice that is accessible to all of us. You can do it anywhere, anytime, and you don't need any special tools or equipment to do it. It's such an important tool for maintaining health and is so effective that not only has this practice stood the test of time in a range of Eastern health traditions, but we are now also seeing it prescribed by Western medicine practitioners from GPs to orthopaedic surgeons and cardiologists. The magic health tool that I'm talking about here is meditation! Today I'd like to talk a little bit about meditation and answer some of the common questions that I get asked about it - I'll talk about why it's important and how we can benefit from it. I'm also going to share with you some exciting research that shows just how powerful this practice is, and talk about the measurable physical outcomes that can be observed in our health as a result of integrating this practice into our lives. We will finish up with some easy guidelines and an intro into starting your own meditation practice, which will lead us up to the accompanying bonus episode to this one - a short, guided five minute meditation that will ease you into the benefits of this amazing practice. So let's get into it. So what is meditation? There are many different schools and traditions of meditation, but if we are talking about it from an umbrella perspective, meditation is the act of bringing our awareness to the present moment, and gently observing what is going on for our mind and body in this moment - without getting attached to it. To assist in anchoring our attention in the present, we might choose to focus on various anchor points - this might be the breath, it might be a sound or a chant, it might be a body sensation or a feeling - and these are just some examples of different focus points that we can come back to. Part of being human is our active minds: you might have heard the term "monkey mind", or "mental chatter", and it's very normal for our minds to wander during a period of meditation. When it does go off on a wander, however, these focus points of breath, or sound or sensation, can help to remind us to bring our mind gently back to the task at hand. I like to imagine a curious puppy as our mind, and it keeps escaping it's basket. It's in the puppy's nature to go off and wander and explore and create adventures for itself. But we can also gently and repeatedly guide the puppy back to their resting place. And over time the puppy, like our mind, can develop the ability to stay in one place for longer. Meditation is a cumulative skill that develops with time and training. So in the same way that we wouldn't expect to be able to run a 10 kilometre run without any training, we can take the pressure off ourselves with respect to meditation also and be gentle with our expectations around it - particularly when we're starting out. I still have days where my mind is determined to go off in all different directions, and that passes with time - it's important to not get frustrated about that wandering, because it's a very normal part of the experience of our human mind. A wandering mind is common, it's a very human aspect of ourselves, but it's up to us what we choose to do when we discover it's wandering during our meditation. Another analogy that I like is that of a computer desktop that is cluttered with open windows, and all of the open windows are clamoring for our attention. So how do you feel when you think of that situation? I know for me it doesn't feel very clear, and instead I feel foggy and heavy in the head. The act of bringing our minds to a single-pointed focus through meditation has the effect of closing all those open windows down for a while. It gives our minds and nervous systems and much needed rest - it gives them some breathing space so that they can refresh their focus and we can refresh our clarity of mind. Common to many schools of meditation is this intention to bring the mind to a single, or soft, focus - and to quiet down all of that chatter and all of those different tangents that the mind goes off into. Part of that soft focus or attention is to also allow the mind to come back to the present moment. I'd like to talk a little bit about the importance of the present moment and the importance of it to meditation and our general health, because the present moment (when we think about it) is the only time that is real or that truly exists, the past has gone. It's already behind us. And not only that, but it's also often distorted by the subjectivity of our memories and the strength of our emotions. A good example of this is when we ask different people about their experience of the same situation, you might get wildly different answers. Meanwhile the future is yet to come, yet despite this, despite the fact that it's not here yet, many of us might spend a vast majority of our time and headspace either thinking, reflecting, or reliving the past or projecting, worrying and racing ahead into the future while ignoring the precious moment right now that we're living in. That's not to say that we can't reflect on the past and learn from our experiences, or that we can't plan and hope and daydream about the future, but also it's very important to bring our awareness to the present moment because then it allows us to have a soft awareness of what is going on for our mind and body in that moment. Again, this going off into the past and into the future is a very human thing to do - it's what keeps us safe, by being able to learn from our experiences and plan and adapt for potential similar situations in the future. We've been blessed with these beautiful minds that give us so many benefits and advantages, yet at the same time, they can also work to our detriment if they're exhausting us by consistently rambling all over the place and thinking about a million things at once. I'm definitely speaking from personal experience here! All of that Yang and busy-ness and activity are wonderful thing, but like everything in life, we need to balance it out with the opposing energy, which is the Yin, that calm, that quiet time. I know for myself, if I go too hard on that busy-ness and mental activity without the balancing Yin time, then my health feels the effects of that on all levels - I might feel more emotionally reactive, or digestion might not work as well, or sleep might suffer. And for all of that thinking, I actually find that I have much more clarity of thought after meditating, and after actually closing down that activity, or calming down that overactivity for a little while. Part of what happens when we're in that hyper-stimulated mental state - when we're overwhelmed by all the open browser windows and the mind is having a good old chatter - is that the stress and strain of juggling all of that activity can start to cause stress for the body. When we're stressed, our body can start to release stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) and it can come with other changes in our body that are part of the sympathetic nervous system, or the fight or flight nervous system. This might be things like elevated heartbeat, or an increase in blood pressure. This is an adaptive processes -the fight or flight system is an adaptive system that helps us to be primed to escape from danger. That's why our heartrate goes up, our blood pressure goes up, more blood is pumped to the heart and lungs and the limbs so we can make a quick escape from danger. Now because we need all of our resources to escape danger, or what the body perceives as danger, we shut down any non-essential functions - so anything that's not immediately relevant to our survival, like digestion, healing of tissue or any injury repair, balancing our hormones, and all of our biochemicals and molecules of information that are doing all sorts of important work in the body. All of that gets put on the backburner while our body focuses on the immediate stress - or threat - at hand. Like I said before, this is an adaptive and helpful process if it's used in the short term or when appropriate. But in the course of our modern life, we're faced with many situations and triggers that might cause us to feel repeated or chronic stress. When this happens, the body can end up in a state of chronic inflammation, which as we touched on in last episode, has been implicated in many - if not most - diseases today. In light of how detrimental that chronic inflammation can be for our health and wellness, our vitality and energy levels, any health practice that is going to drop those inflammation levels and keep them under control is going to be beneficial for us on many levels. A health practice that offers that is meditation. And therefore,...