Meditation could be useful!

I found an archived news article on the BBC about meditation. I find the tone of the article curious, and a little funny. I have accepted meditation into my life for the last twenty years as a matter of fact, and although I don’t do it every day any more, I know it focuses my brain, lowers my stress and blood pressure, and can increase my immune function. Since all this is ingrained in my mentality, I find it humorous to read an article written for a different audience; one that does not believe mediation could help anyone. It’s called:

Meditation ‘Good for the Brain’ BBC News, Feb. 5, 2003.
(imagine someone using air quotes when they say Good for the Brain, and rolling their eyes!

There was a small scale study comparing two groups of people; those who were just trained in mindfulness meditation and those who never meditated. After eight weeks, the meditators had more activity in their frontal lobes, and more antibodies after a flu shot. So the doctors say…

“There is increasing evidence that meditation is a useful and, for some people, a powerful therapy…”

This statement is like saying that getting rest is good for you when you have a cold, or that scientists have finally validated that cranberries really do help with urinary tract infections, or that doctors now finally believe that vitamin c can boost your immune system.

People have been meditating for thousands of years. There are as many types of meditation as there are variations of tea. You know, there is chamomile, black tea, green tea, bancha tea, earl grey, english breakfast, lemon zinger, rose hip, matcha tea, and so on. Just like you take an immunity tea when you feel a sore throat coming on, you can do a different form of meditation for your different moods or phases in life. Those who want to lose the ego usually start with transcendental meditation, but those who need to lower their blood pressure may try mindfulness meditation; a form of thought dropping. You can use meditation as a tool in your life to help you get where you need to go. That includes lifting depression, reducing your blood pressure and stress, reducing anxiety, reducing cholesterol, and solving your problems with more creativity!

If you want to read more articles about meditation in the news, I have a page dedicated to that:

Meditation and your health in the news