Superhealing: Engaging Your Mind, Body, and Spirit to Create Optimal Health and Well-Being (ARC) (14 page)

duces the set of physiological changes known collectively as the
relaxation response
. During the 1970s, Harvard University researchers, led by noted cardiologist Herbert Benson, documented that meditation causes a state of profound rest by instigating a calming effect on the human body.13 Meditation facilitates psychological coping

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and superhealing through relaxing the body and other physiological changes that are governed by the hypothalamus.

One of the most memorable studies Dr. Benson did became the

subject of an ABC documentary in 1985.14 He videotaped Tibetan

monks in a monastery in the mountains of northern India drying

cold wet sheets with their body heat. The loincloth-wearing monks

sat quietly in a cold room where the temperature was only a few

degrees above freezing. Using a meditation technique known as
g
Tum-mo
, they entered a state of deep relaxation and meditation.

Other monks soaked three-by-six-feet sheets in cold water (forty-

nine degrees Fahrenheit) and wrapped them across the shoulders of

the meditating monks.

Even when wearing clothes, most humans experience uncontrol-

lable shivering at this temperature. It can quickly cause hypothermia, a condition in which the body’s temperature is too low to support

organ function, and it rapidly causes death. Because of their meditation training, however, the monks didn’t shiver. I couldn’t believe my eyes! A thick cloud of steam rose from the sheets that required the cameraman to repeatedly wipe off his camera’s lens in order to continue filming.

The Dalai Lama permitted Benson and his team of researchers

to measure the monks’ physiology while in the deep states of medi-

tation. They were astonished to find that these monks could lower

their metabolism by 64 percent. Dr. Benson noted, “Buddhists feel

the reality we live in is not the ultimate one. There’s another reality we can tap into that’s unaffected by our emotions, by our everyday world. Buddhists believe this state of mind can be achieved by doing good for others and by meditation. The heat they generate during the process is just a by-product of g Tum-mo meditation.”15

In our society, meditation is commonly used to reduce stress,

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cope with illness, and enhance overall health and well-being. Various meditative practices have been linked with positive outcomes,

including improved functioning in the areas of mood, compassion,

self-control, self-esteem, academic achievement, concentration, and memory.16 Research findings also indicate a positive correlation with reductions in stress, anxiety, depression, headaches, pain, blood

pressure level, and more. Researchers at the University of Massa-

chusetts and Massachusetts General Hospital, found that those who

meditated approximately half an hour per day during an eight-week

period reported at the conclusion of the study that they were bet-

ter able to function with heightened awareness and non-judgmental

observation, more empathy, introspection and the ability to consider the viewpoint of others.17

How Meditation Works

Today we know that the relaxation response can be stimulated

by various techniques that cause relaxation: meditation, visualization, biofeedback, hypnosis, progressive relaxation, and controlled breathing. All of these trigger the relaxation response by interrupt-ing our normal thought patterns to focus on something else—the

breath, a word, a phrase, a prayer, an object—while easing our on-

going involvement with our stream of thought. The components of

meditation are a self-induced state of physiological relaxation, a shift of awareness, self-observation, and concentration.18 Meditation is effective because relaxation is a result of the sympathetic nervous system’s reduced activity and the parasympathetic nervous system’s increased activity.19

Molecular biologist Jon Kabat-Zinn the founder of the Mindful-

ness-Based Stress Reduction Program at the University of Massachu-

setts Medical Center, teaches an approach to meditation based on

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incorporating mindfulness, or moment-by-moment nonjudgmental

awareness. Various techniques are used to help the participants become more aware of their bodies, thoughts, and emotions in the present moment. These include scanning the body, letting one’s thoughts arise and pass, and being aware of the taste and texture of the food one is eating.20

Research indicates that in addition to reducing stress and its physical symptoms, mindfulness meditation leads to positive emotions and improves quality of life. Practicing this meditation affects your mind, brain, body, and behavior in ways that promote whole-person health.

The benefits of a mindfulness practice include an increase in the body’s ability to heal and a shift from a tendency to use the right prefrontal cortex to a tendency to use the left prefrontal cortex. This shift is associated with relieving depression and anxiety and enhancing relaxation and well-being.21

There is also a relationship between the amount of time we spend

practicing meditation and the intensity of the positive effects it has on our mental and physical health.22 In other words, the more you

do it, the healthier you become. Many religions utilize meditative techniques such as contemplation, affirmation, and prayer. Research shows that when we combine such practices with faith-based beliefs, it intensifies their positive effect on our health and well-being.23

Some researchers have argued that certain meditative practices are more effective than others. The good news is that they are all effective. Although some do affect brain functioning differently and may offer particular cognitive benefits that kick in after years of practice, all provide similar health benefits.24

For the purpose of your own superhealing, feel free to choose

whichever type of meditation you prefer—you can even use more

than one technique, if you like.

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Superhealing Meditation Engagement Suggestions

In my medical practice, I encourage my patients to take simple

steps to meditate, and I teach several basic meditative practices. (Find a free healing meditation to begin with at my website, http://www.

drelaine.com/healingmeditation). Some patients choose to focus on

breathing, others select a word or an object to focus on, and still others simply let the mind rest. Whatever you choose, focus and awareness are the key elements.

According to the National Center for Complementary and Al-

ternative Medicine, most types of meditation have four elements

in common: a quiet space, focus, a comfortable posture, and open-

mindedness.25

It is important to set aside a time to meditate and disconnect from the world. First thing in the morning is a good time because your

mind has not completely returned to its normal waking state. Turn

off your phone, television, radio, computer, and so forth and find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted. Some people create a meditation room or corner in their home. You can choose to meditate in silence or put on some gentle, meditative music. Just do what is comfortable for you.

SUPERHEALING MIND ENGAGEMENT

TECHNIQUE #3: VISUALIZATION

“The soul . . . never thinks without a picture,” Aristotle said. Visualization, the use of mental imagery to induce physiological changes, is another ancient technique that has reemerged in the contemporary world as a powerful healing tool.26 This superhealing technique has gained acceptance among psychologists, teachers, athletes, and businesspeople and has filtered into mainstream modern medicine

in the same way that meditation has. Often used in conjunction with

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prayer and meditation, visualization has been practiced in cultures around the world—in Africa, the Americas, China, Tibet, India, and Europe—since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs.27

Visualization is the act of imagining a reality through creating

mental pictures. But it is not only visual; imagery includes every other sense as well: physical sensation, sound, smel , and taste. It’s an internalized experience that encompasses emotions, words, sounds,

and even subtle bodily sensations. It also includes imagery through storytelling and metaphor. Everyone visualizes, and constantly.

Whenever we think about anything, whatever we’re imagining in-

volves imagery. In one-fourth to one-third of the population, how-

ever, the imagery is so fleeting that the person is not even aware it’s occurring. Yet even though it can be outside our range of conscious perception, it is the natural way that our minds code, store, and express information.

Visualization has been used for more than a century in the field

of psychotherapy. In the 1920s, daydreams began to be used in therapy.28 Carl Jung referred to the technique of visualization as the directed waking dream, the active imagination, and guided affective

imagery.29 There are two ways to visualize: in a normal state of mind or in a meditative state. Visualizing while meditating is deemed

more effective. Either way, visualization includes generating a stream of thoughts you can hear, see, feel, smel , and taste. These thoughts are an inner, and often symbolic, representation of your experience or your desires. Purposeful visualization can be a doorway to your inner self and a way of observing your own feelings, ideas, and emotions. But it is more than that: it is a means of achieving well-being, of transforming and releasing yourself from mental distortions that may unknowingly be guiding your behavior and affecting your

health.30

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Imagery is a natural language and a major part of the nervous sys-

tem. Since the 1980s, many clinical studies have determined that visualization is an effective component in the treatment of a vast range of illnesses.31 Visualization can assist you in developing positive emotions and expressing spiritual qualities, such as hope, courage, patience, perseverance, love, and others that can help you cope with, transcend, or recover from almost any illness.32 Imagery can help

whether you have a headache or a far more serious condition. While engaging imagery, you can invoke the relaxation response and use

it to reduce, modify, or eliminate pain. Imagery will also assist you in changing lifestyle habits that may be contributing to poor health.

Fifty years ago, two doctors and a psychologist developed a pro-

gram for cancer patients using imagery to promote healing. They

proved that the immune system could be enhanced by visualizing

stronger white blood cel s attacking and consuming cancer cel s. In their first study of 160 patients, 19 percent had their cancers entirely eliminated, 22 percent went into remission, and those who eventual y died lived twice as long as their predicted survival times.33

Guided imagery has been used by athletes in training to enhance

motor (muscle) functioning. Research has found that thinking about moving a part of the body specifical y stimulates the nerves in the muscles of that area.34 Harvard Medical School neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone conducted a recent study in which he instructed a group of people to practice a five-finger piano exercise as fluidly as they could while trying to keep to a metronome’s sixty beats per minute. For five days, they practiced for two hours a day. At the end of each practice session, a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) test was conducted: a coiled device was placed on the crown of the head to measure the activity of the nerves located beneath the coil in the motor cortex region of the brain.

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The TMS mapped how much of the motor cortex controlled the

finger movements for the piano exercise. The scientists found that after the five days of practice, the part of the motor cortex that was devoted to the finger movements took over the surrounding areas.35

This finding was in line with a growing number of discoveries that the greater use of a particular muscle causes the brain to devote more area to it.

The experiment was then extended by having another group of

volunteers merely think about practicing the piano exercise. They

played the simple piece of music in their heads, holding their hands still while imagining how they would move their fingers. Then they too sat beneath the TMS coil.

When the scientists compared the TMS data on the two groups—

those who actual y played the piano and those who merely visual-

ized playing—they discovered a revolutionary idea: the ability of a thought to alter the physical structure and function of the brain. The TMS confirmed that the region of brain that controls the piano-playing fingers also expanded in the brains of the volunteers who merely imagined playing the music—the same way it had for the players.36

Visualization causes the reorganization of the brain and can even

change the brain’s physical structure. This type of research is a meaningful continuation of the studies reported during the 1980s and

1990s that confirmed the capacity of the mind to control and direct a wide variety of physiological responses.37

Guided imagery can be used to affect the particular functions

of the white blood cel s that play a significant role in the immune system’s response to invading organisms. In a 1983 study at Michigan State University, the student volunteers learned to control very specific functions of certain white blood cel s using visualization.