Meditation? Facts versus fiction

WHAT IT IS NOT

Meditation is not about trying to control your mind or stop thought. This is impossible.
 

WHAT MEDITATION IS:

Meditation is the process of learning to be focused and present while watching your mind’s thoughts.
 

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

Let’s give you an example: many times your mind is constantly thinking and you are identified with thoughts. When this happens, you will react and act on them. Therefore, creating a life with less control over yourself. An undisciplined mind creates mental suffering which can lead to bad habits, health issues, and lower quality of life.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), the scientific name for a meditation program to help people suffering from chronic conditions, was developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical School by Jon Kabot Zinn in order to address the self-induced suffering many chronically health challenged patients develop. Contact our Mansfield chiropractor today for more information.

HOW DO YOU MEDITATE THEN?

● Find a quiet & comfortable place where you can sit.

● Get into a posture that will keep you alert yet relax

● Set a timer (a good starting point for beginners is 5 minutes)

● Focus on the most obvious feeling of breathing in your body

● Close your eyes and focus on the breath moving in and out.

● When you become aware of a thought taking your attention then, without judgement return to focusing on the breath

● Continue this process for all the allotted time

● Repeat daily; consistency is greater than daily duration.

WHY DO WE CARE?

Using Meditation can help with people who have chronic conditions like headaches. And many other conditions like fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s, Pelvic pain, Back pain, and Neck pain. Meditation can also be used for the more elusive conditions like depression, addiction, and anxiety. Because many conditions create a pain-tension cycle. We all make our symptoms worse, when we constantly think about them. It becomes a pattern of reinforcement, a vicious cycle of pain, your reaction to the pain, and the creation of even more pain. This is the cycle we seek to disrupt by using Mindfulness Based Meditation.