Meditation

[GeneChing]

The notion of a meditation binge is funny.

My Meditation Binge, in a Nutshell
On Wellness
By ALAINNA LEXIE BEDDIE APRIL 25, 2016


Hosted by District Vision at the Standard Hotel earlier this month, the Indian yogi and mystic Jaggi Vasudev, known as Sadhguru, discussed being “High on Life.” Credit Kelly Taub/BFA.com

In a city full of fitness and wellness tribes, it can be seemingly impossible to break into a new one — but not when it comes to joining the growing group of meditators. Last week, a New York Times article explored the “mainstream business practice and a kind of industry in its own right” that meditation has become. And though inclusive — it’s hard not to feel welcome at a group meditation — the movement is quickly becoming associated with millennials and start-up companies.

Of course, mindfulness is not new in Manhattan. A certain set of New Yorkers has been meditating their whole lives — or, at least, careers. The Michelin starred TriBeCa chef Marc Forgione, for example, has a Native American spiritual guide, and has brought in the Buddhist author and meditation teacher Lodro Rinzler to teach his staff how to meditate — a handy tool, surely, in a bustling kitchen. And in L.A., where New Age gatherings are as commonplace as happy hour, a guy called Gabriel Heymann discovered a love for transcendental meditation — which led him to embrace a healthier lifestyle, and ultimately brought him to New York, where he recently launched Smart Beer, the city’s first organic brew. (He still practices meditation.) But meditation is no longer a behind-the-scenes part of a successful person’s lifestyle — it’s at the forefront of many new brands.

Chef Forgione’s friend Rinzler, for one, co-founded MNDFL, a boutique meditation studio that opened late last year in Greenwich Village. At MNDFL and a handful of similar new studios, like at any fitness class, visitors pay in advance and book a spot — a meditation cushion — online (for as little as $10). And because the world is small, one of the studio’s instructors, Eric Spiegel, officiated the wedding of Marissa Vosper — whose cult underwear line Negative Underwear is as minimal and uncluttered as the regularly meditated mind. When Vosper, who grew up meditating (her parents are practicing Buddhists), invited a small group of friends and editors to her SoHo office earlier this month to a meditation led by MNDFL, it would be safe to say that no one thought twice about the invitation. Gathering in groups to get quiet is just what we do these days.


Inside Negative Underwear’s SoHo office, where the brand recently hosted a group meditation led by MNDFL. Credit Courtesy @victoriaalewis, via Instagram

At the time, Vosper’s event was one of very, very many mindful-oriented invitations in my inbox. There were too many to choose from — discuss Dharma with a Buddhist monk, find quietude in a sold-out sound bath, chill out with Waris Ahluwalia’s chai tea and an Indian mystic — so I did them all.

I first flexed my mind muscles at Medi Club. Founded by Jesse Israel, it’s a safe haven for like-minded “modern meditators” to gather monthly and meditate, discuss what’s new in their community and prepare for an event called the Big Quiet — mass meditations in Central Park and Lincoln Center. When I arrived at the Medi Club meeting at And & And Studios (the very chic owners of Calliope/Sub Rosa lend the space), I found what looked more like a frat party than a meditation event: 20- and 30-somethings were queued up outside the front door, and three young girls armed with iPhones (to check in guests) guarded the entrance. They had somehow lost my reservation but would accept a donation of $20 — “and can you please remove your shoes?” Inside, everyone seemed to know each other — or want to know each other. I felt like I was at a singles event and overheard one girl asking another what brought her to Medi Club for the first time. (She read about it in a New York Times article.) The meeting was ironically really loud for a club organized around quietude. (When Israel began playing Jeremih’s “Birthday Sex” to shout out birthdays, I knew I hadn’t quite found the right place to quiet and harness my thoughts.)

The next day, I sought the comfort of my favorite workday escape: OmFactory, a crunchy yoga studio (by New York standards) that offers an afternoon Flow & Meditate community class — at half the price of Medi Club’s suggested donation. The combination of yoga (to wring out the body’s toxins) and meditation (to flood the mind with stillness) felt infinitely more organic than Israel’s gathering — the focus was actually on the body. (If you’ve never meditated, the act of mindful meditation is very physical in nature: In order to clear your mind of other thoughts, you focus it on your breath, each inhale and exhale, and on your body.) The class calmed and prepared me for the adventure I’d embark on the next evening: a weekend meditation retreat in Rockaway Beach.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

A scene from Buddhist Insights’ meditation retreat in Rockaway Beach this month. (The writer and T’s online managing editor, Alainna Lexie Beddie, is pictured at far right.) Credit Beth Perkins

Free and open to the public, and led in part by a Buddhist monk called Bhante Suddhaso, the weekend was organized by the new nonprofit Buddhist Insights. Between rounds of meditation Suddhaso discouraged idle chatter. The resulting environment was drastically different from the clubby Medi Club, and our group — which consisted mostly of neighborhood locals ranging from teenagers to grandparents — ate most of the home-cooked organic meals together, gratefully and in silence, by an old wood-burning stove.

Even on the retreat, in the beachy neighborhood of Queens, it was impossible to ignore mindfulness’s enduring appeal to young entrepreneurs. Buddhist Insights was founded in January by Giovanna Maselli, a 30-something former fashion features editor at Elle in Milan, to connect enlightened monastics with jaded New Yorkers. The retreat’s location, the three-year-old Rockaway Retreat House, is owned and operated by another 30-something: Maselli’s neighbor across the street, Jaime Schultz, who cooked all our meals, led a guided meditation on the first night and separately has a full-time job in real estate. Maselli’s and Schultz’s community of like-minded and similarly aged friends and neighbors all pitched in for the weekend: Miriam Kwietniewska provided sweet treats from her one-year-old paleo desserts company M.U.D. (Mindfulness Using Desserts), and led a grounding workshop to help connect us to our bodies (and the Earth); Lena Roca came in from her donation-based yoga studio down the street to lead daily yoga classes; Michelle LaDue, the local doula, acupuncturist and herbalist behind Moonflower Healing Arts, was a steady presence, pitching in whenever needed during the retreat.

On the retreat, we all brought with us our biggest baggage — loneliness, loss, unrequited love — and left grappling with Suddhaso’s Buddhist belief that at the root of all of our unhappiness is desire. Because we want something to be different, we are unhappy. Because I’d always rather be catching a big fish in Virginia and drinking ice-cold micheladas, I am unhappy that I am actually sitting on a cold floor in Rockaway, not catching a fish. (Killing living things, I also learned from Suddhaso, isn’t great.) You can’t change the past (so it doesn’t matter, forget it), and you can’t control the future (it hasn’t happened yet, don’t sweat it).

At the Standard, East Village hotel a few days later, I sat in front of an Indian yogi and mystic Jaggi Vasudev, known as Sadhguru, for a talk called “High on Life.” The new sports and well-being eyewear label District Vision, hosted the event, where Sadhguru shared his wisdom. (This is also where Ahluwalia served his tea.) Some of Sadhguru’s most memorable quotes on mindfulness from the evening include:

“Everybody has their own drama going.” (You are not special. Stop acting like it.)

“We are trying to fix the world for our needs instead of trying to fix ourselves for this world.” (You can’t change what happens around you, so just focus on yourself.)

“People are just lost in the mud of their thought and emotion.” (If you can control your mind, and clear it, you will be less burdened by unnecessary worries and feelings.)

And, my favorite: “If you had a choice for yourself, is it to be blissful or miserable? Hello?” (Hello?)

But I learned that actively dispelling thoughts, especially notions of desire, is hard: It’s true what they say about achieving mindfulness, that the mind is a muscle you have to flex in order to train it. So my biggest disappointment in meditation was that it was not what I hoped: an endless savasana (the pose at the end of yoga where you lie on the ground in silence, and sometimes even doze off).


Jessica Caplan hosts monthly sound baths at Pure Yoga.

Except that is exactly what I stumbled onto the following weekend at Pure Yoga. Since it can be hard to focus on our own bodies, the use of lights and sound (even, a guide’s voice) are sometimes used to help lead us. And healing sound baths are the drug of choice these days to achieve both heightened awareness — and utter relaxation. (The notion has even gone mainstream, and sound baths are an integral element of treatments at luxury spas like the Mandarin Oriental in New York.) Each month, Jessica Caplan hosts Sonic Saturday at Pure Yoga, where she is also a yoga instructor. At her April class, she prefaced the meditative soundscape with a disclaimer about snoring: It’s fine to do it, even expected, but you may feel a tap on the shoulder and a nudge to move onto your side so that you don’t disrupt your neighbors. Finally, the hourlong savasana of my dreams — set to the beautiful melodies of Caplan and her guest sound healer on that day. As we lay around the room on yoga mats, the duo sang over and around us, to the tune of exotic instruments. They chanted and they chimed. They transported us from the outside world — and ultimately, in my case — into deep slumber. My mind melted. And I emerged from the experience as from a luxurious nap: renewed, and totally, as they say, in my body.

I hope meditation is genuinely trending. That would be great for all.

[David Jamieson]

Why are these things always packed with women? I find that fascinating.
I also find it fascinating when someone says they need to "find themselves".
Being of the mind that really, focus should be on creating the self.

In keeping with continuing Ch'an practice. Be. Do.

do be do be do.

[Jimbo]

Why are these things always packed with women? I find that fascinating.
I also find it fascinating when someone says they need to "find themselves".
Being of the mind that really, focus should be on creating the self.

In keeping with continuing Ch'an practice. Be. Do.

do be do be do.

I've taken part in some alternative (non-religious) spiritual practices, and I've always found that the overwhelming majority of participants are women, although there's often a few men as well. I couldn't tell you why. Perhaps there are more women than men who are interested in and open to these types of things, and thus actively seeking them out?

As for people seeking to 'find themselves', I think the phrase itself has become a cliche to most people, but it does have a deeper (potential) meaning behind it than the purely self-indulgent concept that most people associate it with. Meaning, to rediscover one's true self beneath all the artificial, egotistical trappings that one accumulates over a lifetime that obscures who they (we) are at the soul level.

[David Jamieson]

I've taken part in some alternative (non-religious) spiritual practices, and I've always found that the overwhelming majority of participants are women, although there's often a few men as well. I couldn't tell you why. Perhaps there are more women than men who are interested in and open to these types of things, and thus actively seeking them out?

As for people seeking to 'find themselves', I think the phrase itself has become a cliche to most people, but it does have a deeper (potential) meaning behind it than the purely self-indulgent concept that most people associate it with. Meaning, to rediscover one's true self beneath all the artificial, egotistical trappings that one accumulates over a lifetime that obscures who they (we) are at the soul level.

Indeed.

Being and Doing, or fetch water, carry wood are excellent paths of discovery and knowing.

[GeneChing]

BEAUTY
This Victoria’s Secret Model Has a Simple (and Stylish!) Trick for Staying Calm
SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 9:58 AM
by ESTHER ADAMS ACHARA


Photo: Courtesy of Elsa Hosk

There are a number of reasons running enthusiast and Victoria’s Secret model Elsa Hosk is taking up lotus position on a meditation blanket in the picture above. One: the intricately woven covering launches online today as part of eyewear label District Vision’s expanded repertoire of tools that aim to improve runners’ mental states, and in turn elevate their performance. Hosk is a fan (and she also happens to front the label’s eyewear campaign and date its cofounder, Tom Daly). And two: Hosk is a sometime meditator who genuinely believes in practicing the art of mind over matter.
“I would love to have a daily practice but I’m not quite there yet,” Hosk admits. “But when I do meditate, it always changes my mood drastically and makes me feel more grateful.” With studies suggesting that just five or 10 minutes a day is all it takes to reprogram a hyper-stimulated, stressed-out mind, investing in a beautiful, supportive measure like this one is a no-brainer. The blankets come in five different prints and are handwoven by indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico—the place where founders Daly and Max Vallot conceived of the vision for their label three years ago—and cost just $40 each. “The dense construction offers solid support during seated meditation or reclined yoga poses,” says Vallot. “And stacking two or three on top of each other is perfect for those just starting out.”
The blankets launch alongside yoga mats and blocks, and, starting next week, District Vision is offering a six-week series of free meditation classes at Sky Ting for those prepping for the New York marathon. But back to those blankets. Not only are they easy to wash (just throw them in your machine), but consider, also, Hosk’s argument that, even on non-meditative days, hers doubles as a “great beach towel or beautiful head wrap” and it’s hard to find a reason to resist.
Available from today, Arthaya meditation blanket, $40; districtvision.com

I'm not sure why this popped up on my newsfeed but I'm grateful and feel absolved for all the times I randomly plugged MartialArtsMart.com here.

[GeneChing]

We Tried 3 Local Meditation Boutiques. Here’s How They Compared
WRITTEN BY CAROLINE CUNNINGHAM | PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2017



The boutique wellness trend knows no bounds. We’ve seen everything from boutique indoor cycling to boutique boxing to boutique squash. Now there’s boutique meditation.

It was only a matter of time before the trend crept down the coast from New York City, where the meditation studios Mndfl and Inscape opened in 2015 and 2016, respectively, following the West Coast trendsetter, Unplug Meditation, which launched in Los Angeles in 2014. Given that DC’s studios started appearing in Washington right around the close of the 2016 election, it seems that local boutique owners have hit the timing right—opening just as a stressed-out Washington is seeking relief.

No matter your motivation for giving it a try, these new boutiques are open for beginners and experienced meditators alike. Here’s how they stack up.

Recharj
1445 New York Ave., NW; 844-334-6627; recharj.com

Ambience: Like glamping. The floor is covered in artificial turf; the walls are draped in white cloth, with the exception of a bark-covered accent wall; and soothing blue lighting shines from above. Because it’s in the windowless center of an office building, it’s blissfully quiet.

Little extras: A free tea station and a corner with lotions, succulents, and T-shirts for sale.

Class I tried: Mindfulness, which “teaches techniques and methods for systematically developing awareness.” Also on the menu: Sound Bath Immersion, Visualization, Movement, Deep Rest, Breath, Mantra, and more.

The experience: I settled into a comfortable position on floor cushions. The instructor struck a gong, then led the class of three through a roughly 15-minute session, directing us to focus on breathing and different parts of the body—such as the space between where the palms of our hands rested on our legs. There weren’t many moments of silence—the instructor kept up a continuous stream of directions. I found this ideal as a beginner because the instructions helped keep my mind from wandering. After the first 15 minutes, the instructor rang the gong, briefly discussed the experience with us, then led us through a second 15-minute meditation.

Exercise to steal: Count the beats as you breathe in, then breathe out to twice as many beats as you inhaled.

How I felt after: Relaxed, rested, and energized.

Price: $15 for a single class.

Take Five Meditation
1803 Connecticut Ave., NW; 202-588-5198; takefivemeditation.com

Ambience: Like a salon. The marble countertop on the front desk and the light-wood accent wall in the lounge area help make the space feel a little more luxurious. The classroom itself is fairly blank—bare walls and gray carpeting—with the exception of a large gong. A big window overlooks the street, but the shades were drawn.



Little extras: A free tea station and a bookshelf with journals for sale.

Class I tried: Mantra, which is “a form of vibrational healing that works from the inside out.” Also on the menu: Chi; Crystal Bowl; Mindfulness; Moving; Creating Joy; Clarity, Connection and Purpose; Relax and Replenish; and more.



The experience: After settling in with as many cushions as it took to get cozy, we learned about different mudras—ways to position your hands—and mantras that can be used during meditation. This class, with four participants, was a bit more instructional than the other two and focused more on teaching than on doing. The mantras we practiced were the Sanskrit words lam and vam, which, when repeat-ed aloud, create certain vibrations in the lips and down the spine that we were told to focus on.

Exercise to steal: Repeat vam aloud and feel how the vibrations move through you.

How I felt after: A little less tense than before class, but the session itself wasn’t particularly relaxing because it required more engagement.

Price: $15 for your first class.

Just Meditate
4928 St. Elmo Ave., Bethesda; 301-312-8080; justmeditate.studio

Ambience: Like a school. Cubbies near the door and a long hallway with two classrooms labeled Studio 1 and Studio 2 in blue block letters lent a bit of a kindergarten feel. Inside the studio were mats with floor chairs in rows, further adding to the classroom vibe. (The legless seats have backs, for those who can’t handle sitting unsupported on a cushion for 30 minutes.) One big downside to the space was the creaky wood floor and thin walls—when someone walked down the hall, you could hear every step.

Little extra: A cooler with cups for water.

Class I tried: Just Enough, an abbreviated version of the 45-minute Just Meditate class, which is a “mash-up of modalities such as breath, body scan, compassion, and mindfulness.” Also on the menu: Just Breathe, Just Mindful, Just Word, Just You, and Just Kids.



The experience: This class had less instruction than the other two, so it might be good for those who have more experience and can stay focused throughout one 30-minute session. The instructions, when they came, primarily addressed breathing. One exercise involved focusing on the top of the spine where it meets the skull and trying to feel all the way down the vertebrae. A hand-held chime was used to start and end the class, and each participant—three in all—had the chance to strike it before the session concluded.

Exercise to steal: Ring a gong or bell, then try to keep the tone in your ear for as long as possible after it’s faded away.

How I felt after: Calm and happy.

Price: $22 for a single class.

This is trending enough to copy it off our general Meditation thread into an indie Meditation Boutiques thread.

[GeneChing]

10.13.17
VOL 53 ISSUE 40
Historians Discover Meditation Spread From Ancient China By Annoying Monk Who Wouldn’t Shut Up About How It Changed His Life


Artworks of the period depict the monk irritatingly recounting how even after just a few days of meditation, he was already feeling more present in his own mind.

NEW YORK—In a groundbreaking new study published Friday in The Journal Of East Asian Studies, a team of leading historians has proved that meditation originally spread from ancient China because a single, highly annoying monk went around telling everyone how much it had changed his life.

Analyzing documents uncovered across the Eurasian continent, researchers determined that the monk, who lived in the seventh century A.D. and learned rudimentary breathing and visualization exercises from a group of Mahayana Buddhists, traveled widely and talked constantly about how practicing meditation for only a week had fundamentally altered his personal outlook. From the Korean peninsula to the Central Asian steppes, he is believed to have aggravated people everywhere he went, inevitably shifting every conversation to the importance of mindfulness and being centered, even when it was clear no one was interested.

“Our research shows that from Mongolia all the way down to Java, everyone hated this smug *****.”

“There are mentions of an unbearably irritating monk in many texts from the period, and once we realized they were all referring to the same person, we were able to conclude that much of the Eastern world learned about meditation from this one sanctimonious *******,” said study co-author Sheila Ryan of New York University, explaining that contemporary accounts indicated the monk would travel the Silk Road via merchant caravan, nagging his drivers about the value of observing one’s negative thoughts without resistance or judgment. “For example, scrolls from Asuka-period Japan indicate the island nation’s first exposure to the practice was this monk droning on and on about all the insight he’d gained from a weekend spent meditating in Tibet.

“Our research shows that from Mongolia all the way down to Java, everyone hated this smug *****,” Ryan added.

In the fragments that remain of their written correspondence, traders who traveled the same routes as the monk remarked upon how every time a person said something negative, the exasperating little **** would invariably chime in with unsolicited advice about how they just needed to accept their worries for what they were and learn to appreciate the present moment. Three separate diaries found far apart from one another in present-day Cambodia, Bhutan, and Afghanistan independently verify that whenever the monk bragged about his morning meditation routine, people secretly wanted to punch him in the face.

According to the historians, the evidence they amassed has allowed them to confirm that a figure who appears in several gombi-style paintings from the period is in fact this same monk. In one typical depiction, which places the monk in the ancient city-state of Srivijaya around 680 A.D., he is seen sitting on a mat and meditating in the middle of a busy market square as visibly annoyed passersby shuffle past, many of them appearing to shake their heads, roll their eyes, or stare at him in quiet derision.

To this day, scholars have observed, oral histories passed down for centuries in remote parts of rural China tell of a monk who pestered the **** out of everyone he could find until they reluctantly agreed to attend his ****ty introduction to mindfulness course.

“In his extensive travelogues, the Tang dynasty writer Yi Jing describes an episode in which a man we now believe to have been this monk continually disrupts a hard-at-work blacksmith with lectures about how the mind is a muscle that must be exercised just like any other,” Ryan said. “Apparently, the only thing this pain-in-the-ass ever talked about was how spending 10 minutes a day focusing on his breathing had made him more relaxed and productive. He kept badgering everyone to let him lead them through a guided meditation so they could see how great it was. Some people even tried it just to get him to shut the **** up.”

“Our findings suggest he spread meditation to as much as 40 percent of Asia,” she continued. “He might have kept going, too, but after the monk told the Khmer emperor Jayavarman II that his empire would be much larger if he just tried a few simple stress-reduction techniques, he was beheaded on the spot.”

I just couldn't resist posting this here.

[Scott R. Brown]

I'm waiting for someone to teach meditation on the toilet. Good for your bowels, good for your spirit.

[GeneChing]

Anyone in the 'meditation community' knows this. Some people meditate on psycho stuff.

MEDITATING EVERY DAY DOESN'T MAKE YOU A BETTER PERSON
BY MELISSA MATTHEWS ON 2/6/18 AT 2:40 PM

Meditation has been credited with lowering stress, encouraging compassion and generally making us all around better people. “If every eight-year-old in the world is taught meditation,” says a quote attributed to the Dalai Lama, “the world will be without violence within one generation.”

European researchers looked into whether these claims about meditation are supported by scientific evidence. Most studies of meditation have focused on its psychological and physical benefits. This time, a group of scientists wanted to know whether the activity could be used to foster compassion, altruism and social connections.


Mass meditation at a festival in Los Angeles. A new study says the activity does not make you a better person.
MARK RALSTON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The purpose of the study goes beyond debunking or bolstering claims. As the researchers write in their paper, if widespread meditation really could curb—or end—violence, then the act of meditating could be used to diffuse conflict in schools, prisons and possibly even politics.

Meditation typically involves focusing on your breathing or thoughts in a quiet location without outside distraction. Researchers at Coventry University in the United Kingdom, Massey University in New Zealand, and Radboud University in the Netherlands, reviewed more than 20 studies that researched whether this practice had any bearing on mindfulness, kindness or positive social sentiments.

They found that meditation did not significantly reduce aggressive or prejudice behaviors. Further, the practice didn’t help make people more socially connected. The team determined that most of the studies had weak methodologies. Specifically they found that studies on which the meditation teacher was a co-author produced more positive results, hinting at biases and weaknesses in the research.

“None of this, of course, invalidates Buddhism or other religions' claims about the moral value and eventually life changing potential of its beliefs and practices,” said study co-author Miguel Farias of Coventry University in a statement. “But our research findings are a far cry from many popular claims made by meditators and some psychologists.”

They note that studies that eliminate researcher bias are needed in order to obtain a true look at the benefits of meditation.

"To understand the true impact of meditation on people's feelings and behavior further we first need to address the methodological weaknesses we uncovered—starting with the high expectations researchers might have about the power of meditation," Farias said in a statement.

While the National Institutes of Health does not advise foregoing traditional medical assistance, the organization does indicate meditation could be used to lower blood pressure and help manage pain. The NIH is currently funding studies on using the practice to deal with headaches, stress reduction and post traumatic stress disorder.

[GeneChing]

This new study is making the rounds and eliciting some pop news reports. I'm curious about the measures involved.

Mind-body practices and the self: yoga and meditation do not quiet the ego, but instead boost self-enhancement
Gebauer, Jochen, Nehrlich, A.D., Stahlberg, D., Sedikides, Constantine, Hackenschmidt, D, Schick, D, Stegmaie, C A, Windfelder, C. C, Bruk, A and Mander, J V (2018) Mind-body practices and the self: yoga and meditation do not quiet the ego, but instead boost self-enhancement. Psychological Science, 1-22. (In Press)

Record type: Article
Abstract
Mind-body practices enjoy immense public and scientific interest. Yoga and meditation are highly popular. Purportedly, they foster well-being by “quieting the ego” or, more specifically, curtailing self-enhancement. However, this ego-quieting effect contradicts an apparent psychological universal, the self-centrality principle. According to this principle, practicing any skill renders it self-central, and self-centrality breeds self-enhancement. We examined those opposing predictions in the first tests of mind-body practices’ self-enhancement effects. Experiment 1 followed 93 yoga students over 15 weeks, assessing self-centrality and self-enhancement after yoga practice (yoga condition, n = 246) and without practice (control condition, n = 231). Experiment 2 followed 162 meditators over 4 weeks (meditation condition: n = 246; control condition: n = 245). Self-enhancement was higher in the yoga (Experiment 1) and meditation (Experiment 2) conditions, and those effects were mediated by greater self-centrality. Additionally, greater self-enhancement mediated mind-body practices’ well-being benefits. Evidently, neither yoga nor meditation quiet the ego; instead, they boost self-enhancement.

Text Gebauer et al. 2018 Psych Science
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Accepted/In Press date: 3 February 2018
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Local EPrints ID: 420273
URI: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/420273
ISSN: 0956-7976
PURE UUID: fddff633-c628-428b-8c58-c51cfe7695de
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Date deposited: 03 May 2018 16:30
Last modified: 04 May 2018 04:01

THREADS:
Meditation
Yoga

[GeneChing]

Best application for meditation that I've seen in years.

FILE - In this handout photo released by Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center, Thai rescue teams use headlamps to enter a pitch-black cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach went missing, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, Monday, July 2, 2018. The group was discovered late July 2 after 10 days totally cut off from the outside world, and while they are for the most physically healthy, experts say the ordeal has likely taken a mental toll that could worsen the longer the situation lasts. (Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center via AP, File)

Buddhist meditation may calm team trapped in Thai cave
BY TASSANEE VEJPONGSA AND GRANT PECK
Associated Press
July 05, 2018 07:28 PM
Updated July 05, 2018 07:29 PM

MAE SAI, THAILAND
At a gilded temple in Thailand's mountainous north, Ekapol Chanthawong honed a skill that will serve him well as he sits trapped underground in a dark cave: meditation.

Before the 25-year-old was a coach to the young boys on the Wild Boars soccer team — 12 of whom are trapped alongside him — he spent a decade as a saffron-robed Buddhist monk. He still stays at the temple from time to time and will meditate with the monks there each day.

"He could meditate up to an hour," said his aunt, Tham Chanthawong. "It has definitely helped him and probably helps the boys to stay calm."

More than 288 hours have passed since Ekapol and the boys got trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non cave by monsoon floodwaters on June 23 after they went exploring. The group was discovered July 2 after 10 days totally cut off from the outside world, and while they are for the most physically healthy, experts say the ordeal has likely taken a mental toll that could worsen the longer the situation lasts.

"It's very likely that while the boys were in the cave but not yet discovered by rescuers that they experienced various degrees of anxiety, fear, confusion, vulnerability and dependency, and perhaps hopelessness," said Paul Auerbach, of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University's medical school.

Videos taken inside the cave show the boys, aged 11-16, and their coach interacting with Thai navy SEAL divers, who have been sent in to supply them, provide medical care and to keep them company. Though they are visibly skinny and weak, the boys and their coach appear to be in good spirits, smiling for the camera as the SEALs crack jokes.

Still the group is unable to leave and there is no timeline for their extraction. The only way out of the cave at this time would be for the boys to dive through the same complicated route of narrow passageways that their rescuers entered, something that is extremely dangerous even for expert divers let alone children with no such experience. Yet it is something being considered with storms on the way that could worsen the floods.

Cave rescue experts have said it could be safest to simply supply the boys where they are for now, and wait for the water to go down either naturally or by pumping. That could take months, however, given that Thailand's rainy season typically lasts through October.

"Being discovered was a moment of elation," Auerbach said, "but that is now followed by the reality that a difficult technical rescue might be necessary, which carries with it disappointment for the boys and a new set of fears."

Experts say the Wild Boars come into their situation with some advantages, including their youth, their group identity and, yes, their coach's experience with meditation.

"Adolescents are especially social creatures, and having friends with them as well as their coach would be a tremendous help," said David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University's medical school.

The boys and their coach are known to be a tight-knit group who go on adventures, including swimming in waterfalls, cycling trips through the mountains, river rafting and cave exploring.

Experts say Ekapol's meditation — a mainstay of the Buddhist faith — likely served the group well.

"I'd speculate it could be helpful — even if it functioned solely as a way for the children to feel like their coach was doing something to help them," said Michael Poulin, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. "Feeling loved and cared for is paramount."

Spiegel agreed that meditation could help those trapped manage their mental state, "allowing their fearful and negative thoughts to flow through them like a storm passing, rather than fighting their fear."

Aisha Wiboonrungrueng, whose 11-year-old son Chanin is trapped in the cave, has no doubt that Ekapol's calm personality has influenced the boys' state of mind.

"Look at how calm they were sitting there waiting. No one was crying or anything. It was astonishing," she said, referring a video that captured the moment the boys were found.

Omar Reygadas, who spent 69 days trapped underground in Chile in 2010 with 32 other miners, said faith and prayer, as well as humor were very important to the miners at times when they doubted they would get out.

"They shouldn't be ashamed to be scared," he said of the boys. "Because we were scared, too. Our tears also ran. Even as adult men, we cried."

If safety concerns force the boys to stay in the cave for an extended period, it will be important to their mental health for there to be organization and daily routines, said John Fairbank, a psychiatry professor and co-director of the UCLA-Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress.

He said that could include "daily hygiene routines, regular meal times, age-appropriate cognitive activities, regular physical exercise to the extent feasible in limited space, religious/spiritual practices, and specific times for daily briefings on their situation and for communicating with their families."

All the experts agreed that the group will continue to face challenges even after they make it out of the cave.

Thailand's Department of Mental Health said hospitals are making preparations to care for the boys' and will monitor them until their mental health is fully regained. They are also working with the families to prepare for how to interact with the boys once they get out, such as not digging for details about what they endured.

"Their re-entry into the world outside the cave will predictably be one of massive attention from family, friends and the media," Auerbach said, noting it could be overwhelming. "The world soon loses interest and moves on to the next story, so it is extremely important that these survivors not be forgotten and be closely monitored so that they can receive the best possible support."


Rescuers lay telephone cable from a cave where a young soccer team and their coach are trapped Thursday, July 5, 2018, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand. The group was discovered July 2 after 10 days totally cut off from the outside world, and while they are for the most physically healthy, experts say the ordeal has likely taken a mental toll that could worsen the longer the situation lasts. Sakchai Lalit AP Photo

[GeneChing]

What Meditation Can—and Can’t—Do for Your Health
Mindfulness meditation is one wellness trend that shows no signs of disappearing. But what does the science say?


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Brain

You know you should meditate. You’ve probably had plenty of friends tell you so and seen plenty of headlines about the benefits of meditation. It makes you happier, healthier, calmer, glowier, smarter, younger, nicer—a generally better human, or so you’ve heard. Maybe you've even dipped your toe into meditating once or twice, downloading Headspace after a stressful day, and couldn't really motivate yourself to make it stick. Or, hey, maybe you are one of those people who actually sets aside 30 minutes a day to meditate.

Considering society's fleeting attention span when it comes to wellness advice, it's impressive that meditation—which has roots in a variety of ancient Eastern traditions like Jainism and Buddhism—has achieved this status as a pillar of well-being.

But is meditation’s ubiquity based on rock-solid scientific research? Or are there other factors to thank for its staying power? What exactly is meditation capable of, and should we all be doing it? We spoke to several experts behind the growing body of research on the health effects of meditation to hear more about what the science tells us—and what we have yet to learn.

What is meditation?
“Meditation is generally used as a broad umbrella term that covers a wide array of contemplative practices, many of which are drawn from Buddhist traditions but have often been adapted and secularized for application in Western society,” neuroscientist Wendy Hasenkamp, Ph.D., science director at the Mind & Life Institute and visiting professor of contemplative sciences at the University of Virginia, tells SELF. “[It is] a broad set of practices that seek to use the mind in specific, intentional ways.”

Although the goals and methods vary widely depending on the type of meditation, at the core of several is a quality called mindfulness. “We still don’t have any single authoritative definition or source that defines mindfulness in a way that’s accepted by all researchers in a contemporary context,” David Vago, Ph.D., research director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and director of the Contemplative Neuroscience and Integrative Medicine Laboratory at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, tells SELF.
When you think of mindfulness, you probably think of being present or focusing on the current moment, and that’s the gist of it. The most widely accepted definition of mindfulness today is attributed to Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., a molecular biologist, meditation teacher, and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS). Kabat-Zinn once described mindfulness as an “awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, nonjudgmentally.”
In 1979, Kabat-Zinn developed a program called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at UMMS that, as Vago explains, would help bring the principles and practices of mindfulness meditation traditions, largely rooted in the Buddhist Dharma, into a mainstream medical setting for clinical application and scientific study (work that continues today at the school’s Center for Mindfulness.
So, mindfulness meditation is the practice of experiencing and cultivating this quality of mindfulness “by a steady practice of attending to the breath, body sensations, thoughts, feelings and even awareness itself,” Susan Smalley, Ph.D., professor emeritus of psychiatry at UCLA and founder of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center, tells SELF.
This is sometimes called open monitoring or open awareness, says Vago. At the center of a variety of mindfulness meditation practices is “learning how to let go of distractions as attention is pulled away, and to do so with a gentle or kind quality,” Smalley says.

As Vago explains, “You open your mind and your attention to any object that arises, and you gently note and label whatever arises and passes, without following those thoughts or feelings down the rabbit hole, so to speak.”

All of this might sound familiar if you’ve ever tried this yourself, maybe while lying in Savasana at the end of yoga class. You focus on the sensations of your rib cage rising and falling as you inhale and exhale; then your mind wanders to thoughts of dinner prep or shopping, before you redirect your attention back to the present moment, focusing again on your breath. That is, in essence, mindfulness meditation.

Today, mindfulness meditation is the practice for which the most convincing body of evidence exists.
Many clinical trials still adhere to Kabat-Zinn’s official curriculum for MBSR, which has two main components that make up an eight-week intervention program: in-class group instruction by a highly trained teacher for two and a half to three and a half hours, once a week, and at-home practice for about an hour, six or seven days a week, to apply those learnings independently. The at-home practice includes both 45 minutes of formal mindfulness practices (including sitting meditations, body scan meditations, walking meditations, and hatha yoga) and five to 15 minutes of informal mindfulness practices (such as being aware of your thoughts, behaviors, emotions, reactions, and sensations during regular daily activities). There is also an all-day retreat during week six.
Other studies use regimens modeled after MBSR in principle and practice, which are grouped under the label mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), Vago says. (The degree to which they adhere to the original structure varies; they may be shorter, for example, or focus on certain practices but exclude others.) There is one MBI designed specifically for the treatment of depression known as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)—a mix of MBSR and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)—that is now regarded as scientifically valid as MBSR.
Obviously, mindfulness meditation looks very different outside of the clinical world, and practices can vary from person to person—from the kind of meditation they practice, to how often they do it, and for how long. The majority of people who meditate aren’t following a formal program with an hour of practice every day plus weekly group classes with specially trained teachers personally coaching them and researchers keeping tabs.

But the scientists conducting research need to be able to compare apples to apples when they’re studying meditation, and these formalized programs are a way to control that variability and ensure that researchers are looking at the effects of the same active ingredient in their studies.

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[GeneChing]

You may have already read dozens of articles with flashy headlines about meditation.
There are one-off studies looking at meditation’s potential effects on nearly every aspect of physical or mental health. The stories those kinds of studies produce might grab your attention, but they’re pops of color when what we’re looking for is the big, real-world picture.

The explosion in the field over the last few years has led to an overwhelming number of one-off studies about the effects of meditation on just about any health-related issue. According to PubMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s database of biomedical papers, there are nearly 8,000 papers on mindfulness or meditation today, more than half of which were published since 2014. (There were fewer than 800 in 2000.)
With the thousands of studies out there, “You will find data that supports that it’s good for everything,” Vago points out. As a result, the benefits of meditation have, in many cases, been overblown thanks to headlines harping on awesome-sounding but unsubstantial studies. (Several leaders in the field, including Vago, voiced these concerns and many others earlier this year in a critical paper titled “Mind the Hype.”

As with many other areas of medical science, the most sound evidence emerges from meta-reviews and meta-analyses. These are rigorous, large-scale papers that aggregate data from a bunch of individual studies (all meeting a given set of criteria) and perform statistical analyses in order to identify the most consistent, reliable findings in the field. This prevents fluke findings from slipping through the cracks and any one study receiving undue weight. In science, replication of findings is key; the more studies that point in the same direction, the more confident scientists feel about that path of discovery.

The experts we spoke to agree that, when looking at the science on the benefits of mindfulness meditation, there are three conditions with a strong and convincing body of evidence to support its effects: depression, anxiety, and chronic pain.
Although the research still is not definitive, the positive effects of mindfulness meditation on these conditions “is holding up to the strongest, strictest standards of research” in well-designed, well-powered trials, Vago says.

Many of these rigorous studies are randomized controlled trials (RCTs), in which participants are randomly assigned to either receive the treatment being tested (in this case, a mindfulness-based intervention) or be in a control group, to which the treatment group is compared at the end. The people in the control group may receive no treatment, a placebo, or a different kind of treatment. Often, the control group will receive an evidence-based therapy (EBT)—a well-studied conventional treatment for certain conditions, such as antidepressants for depression. Researchers can also get creative to control for placebo effects, using “sham mindfulness meditation” or psychological placebo groups (such as taking educational classes about depression), to control for such factors as the expectation of getting better, getting attention from a professional, or group support, and isolate the active ingredient, e.g. mindfulness meditation.
Vago points to a heavily cited meta-analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2014 that evaluated the strength of evidence for several different meditation practices in improving a variety of “stress-related outcomes” related to both mental and physical health. The strongest evidence they found was for MBSR, MBCT, and MBI in improving depression, anxiety, and pain.
Here’s what the research tells us about meditation’s effects on depression and anxiety.
The authors of the JAMA study determined “moderate evidence” exists to support that mindfulness meditation programs can help reduce depression and anxiety over eight weeks, and that the effects lingered to a degree three to six months later. Now, “moderate evidence” may not sound super exciting, but when evaluating something as vague and multifaceted as meditation and mental health, it’s impressive.

“Moderate evidence is exactly what it sounds like,” Vago explains. “Results are positive using [the] most rigorous standards.” In looking at the effects on depression, for instance, in the JAMA study, “The effect sizes are comparable to what you would expect to get from taking antidepressants over eight weeks,” he explains. “That’s huge.” (Participants receiving MBIs also fared better than participants getting no treatment and those in a psychological control group.)

A February 2018 meta-analysis in Clinical Psychology Review that assessed 142 clinical trials, with a total of more than 12,000 participants with a variety of mental and behavioral health conditions, reached the same conclusion. Researchers found that MBIs were generally just as effective as evidence-based therapies (EBTs)—such as standard first-line treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or antidepressants—for people with depression and anxiety, both immediately post-treatment and in follow-ups.
MBCT in particular has been found to be effective for those with depression, especially recurrent depression, neuroscientist Gaëlle Desbordes, Ph.D., a radiology instructor at Harvard Medical School and researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, tells SELF. One 2016 meta-analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry found MBCT reduced the risk of depression relapse in people with recurrent depression as well as antidepressants did.
Desbordes, who is currently conducting a clinical trial on this very topic, says that although some people in the field hoping for more dramatic results were initially disappointed that MBCT didn’t outperform antidepressants, these kinds of analyses show that MBCT actually works. “This means that [MBIs] could be tried as an alternative to antidepressants for people who are hesitant or want to avoid the side effects of those medications,” Hasenkamp says.

Exactly how mindfulness meditation could help improve somebody’s depression or anxiety is not totally clear yet, but it might have to do with rumination.
Scientists believe there is a link between mental illnesses like depression and ruminative thinking (revisiting the same thoughts over and over and over again, often about yourself, usually about the past or future, and often without your choosing to do so). This kind of thinking seems to happen in our Default Mode Network (DMN), which is exactly what it sounds like: the network our brain defaults to when it’s not actively engaged in doing something else.
One intuitive theory is that people can apply the judgement-free thought-awareness (e.g. observing thoughts and letting them pass by) and attention-directing (choosing to guide their attention back to the present moment or the breath) they practice in mindfulness meditation to their habitual, depressive thinking. In other words, they can recognize and step outside their own “mental ruts.”

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[GeneChing]

To that end, people with recurrent depression who practice MBCT may be better equipped to recognize the negative thought patterns, feelings, or sensations that precede a depression relapse. They may also be better trained to shift their focus away from ruminative thought patterns that could otherwise cause a relapse. In other words, mindfulness meditation allows them to observe their own thoughts instead of automatically buying into them, and direct their focus away from the kinds of thought patterns associated with depression.
Research is also gradually establishing a link between decreased activity in parts of the neural network of the brain associated with mind-wandering or rumination (the DMN) and reduced levels of rumination in people with depression who meditate. Some evidence suggests that meditation could increase connectivity between the DMN and the networks engaged when we’re focused on tasks. “The [research] suggests that rumination is a key factor in moderating how mindfulness reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety,” Vago says. “It’s likely that the more someone meditates, the less they’re going to be ruminating. And that decrease in rumination may be directly or causally linked to the improved symptoms in depression and anxiety.”
Here’s what we know about meditation’s effects on chronic pain.
There is decent evidence that people suffering from chronic pain may benefit from mindfulness meditation, says Desbordes, such as the 2014 JAMA paper that found moderate evidence to this effect.
A 2015 meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials, published in the British Journal of General Practice, concluded that people with chronic pain linked to a variety of conditions (including fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic musculoskeletal pain) may benefit from MBIs. Interestingly, mindfulness meditation had its effects not on pain intensity, but on perceived pain control—not how much pain the person physically felt, but how well they felt they coped with it.
Hasenkamp says there is work being done to develop theories about the specific mechanisms based on the various brain regions activated during MBI-induced pain reduction—but this hasn’t yet been nailed down. Recent research shows what’s not happening, though: A double-blind, randomized study published in the Journal of Neuroscience in 2016 demonstrated that mindfulness does not reduce pain through the body’s natural opioid system (that is, by producing endogenous opioids, like endorphins, that bind to opioid receptors in the brain). Rather, mindfulness meditation may help you interact with your sensory experience of pain differently via multiple complex cognitive processes—a “meta-cognitive ability to acknowledge and let go of arising sensory events [that] engages a unique, self-facilitated pain modulatory system,” the researchers wrote. This theory seems to line up with the mindfulness meditation practice of observing thoughts (“my back really hurts”) and sensations (like feelings of pain), and letting them pass by without reaction or judgement.
A 2016 paper co-authored by Vago similarly suggests that mind-body practices like mindfulness meditation may “teach patients to self-regulate their respective experience of pain directly with a present-centered and acceptance-based focus.”
Although the moderate evidence here is far from definitive and needs to be replicated across different populations with different conditions, scientists are impressed with the findings so far, given how many people could benefit from alternative ways to manage pain without the aid of potentially addictive drugs.


Outside of the Big Three (depression, anxiety, and chronic pain), the benefits of meditation become less clear.
There are many health issues that meditation could possibly help, with the weight of evidence sitting somewhere along the spectrum from flimsy one-off study to rigorous meta-review. Just eyeball the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) page on meditation to see all the areas that hold promise: PTSD, headaches, menopausal symptoms, ADHD, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, insomnia, smoking cessation, blood pressure, and quality of life in cancer patients.
While the field is going in many interesting directions right now, the research is preliminary, and the experts we spoke with are hesitant to express anything more than cautious optimism (which is understandable, given how often mindfulness meditation findings have already been overhyped in media coverage).

“It’s still a very young field,” says Desbordes. “All of these things have been measured in different studies, but when you put all the studies together, the big picture is still not convincing. We’re not there yet.”


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With that in mind, there are a few lines of investigation that the researchers we talked to are most excited about—in part because the research has been conducted in clinically sound ways or has been replicated, and in part because of its far-reaching implications.
There is an intriguing cluster of studies forming around the potential benefits of mindfulness meditation for a couple of other stress-related health issues that are just as universal as depression, anxiety, and pain: inflammation and aging. If meditation can decrease stress—as evidence suggests it does in not just those with certain conditions but healthy populations—then it would make sense that it may be able to somehow lessen or limit the inflammatory and aging processes that are associated with increased stress (such as cardiovascular disease.
Some early meta-analyses are bearing this out. For example, when it comes to inflammation, Vago says, “There seems to be some data showing [meditation] can improve inflammatory markers or decrease inflammation in the body.” A 2016 meta-review looking at mindfulness meditation’s impact on immune system biomarkers across 20 RCTs and 1,600 participants found that “mindfulness meditation appears to be associated with reductions in pro-inflammatory processes, increases in cell-mediated defense parameters, and increases in enzyme activity that guards against cell aging.” And a 2017 meta-review of 18 studies and 846 participants found evidence that “suggests that MBI practices may lead to a reduced risk of inflammation-related diseases.”
“The evidence for mindfulness meditation practices on stress specifically have been very promising,” Vago says. “And whenever you’re able to decrease stress, you’re going to improve markers of inflammation and cellular markers of aging.”

As for aging, Hasenkamp is interested in a small but growing number of studies looking at the effects of meditation on telomere length, which is a biological marker of cellular aging. Telomeres are affected by many lifestyle factors, such as stress, and shorten as we age. According to Hasenkamp, “Shorter telomeres are associated with many bad health outcomes”—including aging-related diseases like cancer, heart failure, diabetes, and coronary heart disease—“and meditation seems to help preserve or lengthen telomeres.”
One study found, for instance, that participants in meditation retreats experienced telomere lengthening or an increase in telomerase activity (which mediates telomere growth) that also correlated with psychological benefits.
This research is in very early stages, Hasenkamp points out, but so far “agrees with several other lines of investigation showing that meditation may help slow the aging process.” That includes evidence suggesting meditation may protect the brain from normal cortical thinning (a sign of cognitive aging) and improve cognitive performance in elderly people. Smalley agrees, saying, “While brain studies remain small and many more are needed, there is increasing evidence that meditation might be a simple practice to protect the brain from stress.”
Neuroimaging studies are helping to pinpoint a few of the regions and networks of the brain that meditation seems to affect, though that still doesn’t tell us how meditation impacts these regions.
“There are many [neuroimaging] studies that show the brain changes—both structurally and functionally—in response to meditation practice,” Smalley says. These structural changes are indicated by increases or decreases in cortical thickness (how thick the cortical tissue is in a given area of the brain), while functional changes are indicated by increases or decreases in activation (how much tissue is being used in a given area of the brain). Meditation may also increase connectivity between different networks.
There are a lot of brain areas touched on in these studies that play a role in a slew of brain processes, including the way you process information, direct your awareness, feel emotions, sense what’s going on in your body, learn new things, and think about yourself. But in general, Hasenkamp says, “Meditation impacts brain systems that relate to attention, emotion, and self—not surprising, considering the nature of these practices.”

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