Senin, 14 Mei 2012

The 8.15 train to Nirvana: How you can meditate your stresses away... even on the daily commute

The 8.15 train to Nirvana: How you can meditate your stresses away... even on the daily commute

By Marianne Power

PUBLISHED: 16:20 EST, 12 May 2012 | UPDATED: 01:56 EST, 14 May 2012


Last summer I bumped into an old colleague.  We hadn’t seen each other for years and it transpired that in the previous 18 months, her mother had died of cancer, her father had moved in with her and she had been made redundant.

Yet she seemed remarkably calm. How on earth was she coping? After joking about the healing power  of gin, she admitted her secret: she had learned how to meditate.

We have all read about the healing powers of meditation. Medical research has found that it can reduce the risk of everything from heart disease to strokes, depression and insomnia â€" but this was the first time I had seen its benefits up close.

Down time: Marianne Power meditates as she waits for a Tube train in London

Down time: Marianne Power meditates as she waits for a Tube train in London

Soon I was meditating twice a day, too, even learning to fit it into train journeys to work or sneaking a few quiet minutes in a bathroom cubicle at the office.

Before I bumped into my colleague I was running on empty. By day I was stressed by silly things that made me snap at people.

By night I would try to unwind with too many hours of television and too many glasses of wine before lying awake in bed stewing over all my worries.

I was run-down, got every cold going and at my very lowest points was prescribed antidepressants.  My friend recommended Transcendental Meditation, which is different from other forms of meditation.

Instead of focusing on your  breathing, you are given a Sanskrit  word, known as a mantra, that you  repeat in your head. The idea is that  the repetition of the sound calms your mind.

The practice was made famous by The Beatles, who became devotees after meeting its founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in the Sixties. Since then everyone from Clint Eastwood to William Hague and Nick Clegg has become a fan.

Latest research from Oxford University’s Department of Psychiatry has shown that meditation brings about neurological changes. After  a few months of meditation, the parts of the brain with a tendency to worry are switched off.

Clinical trials have proved that as a standalone treatment it can  prevent relapse of depression and is effective alongside medication.

Benefits: Medical research has found that meditation can reduce the risk of everything from heart disease to strokes, depression and insomnia

Benefits: Medical research has found that meditation can reduce the risk of everything from heart disease to strokes, depression and insomnia

But I was most interested in its effects in counteracting stress. And I can say that learning to meditate has changed my life.

At my first lesson I was given my mantra, which you don’t share with anyone, and told to close my eyes and repeat it again and again in my head. Straight away I was hooked. 

There’s something about the sound vibration of the mantra going over and over in your mind that lulls you into a kind of trance. The repetition of the sound is like a lullaby.

You go into your own world and yet you are still aware of your  surroundings. You’re neither awake, nor asleep, nor dreaming â€" just beautifully relaxed. It’s like a warm bath for your brain.

After that first lesson, I felt calm and focused and that night I enjoyed a longer, deeper sleep than I’ve had since I was a child. And I’ve been sleeping well ever since.

The more I meditate, the less I seem to be bothered by things.  Situations that would once have sent me into a tailspin no longer have the same effect.

My heart doesn’t race in the way it once did; I have become more calm and rational; my concentration at work has also improved.

Transformation: Learning to meditate can change your life, says Marianne Power

Transformation: Learning to meditate can change your life, says Marianne Power

I think this is primarily because I am better rested and less stressed, but scans have shown that meditation actually increases the size of your hippocampus â€" the part of the brain associated with memory and learning. I also feel healthier.

I have had only one cold in the past seven months. And then there are the less tangible changes, the ones to your personality and relationships.

Friends have commented on the fact that I seem more relaxed. I  certainly feel more content, less inclined to snap or overreact.  

So is this a miracle? Am I now the perfect person? Hardly. Like most of the good things in life, it takes work. Like going to the gym or eating well, you have to keep doing it even on days when you tell yourself you are too busy.

I meditate for 20 minutes morning and night. After breakfast, and then at 4pm â€" and on days when that’s not possible, on the train or in a taxi. Every little helps. It doesn’t matter whether I clos e my eyes for two minutes or 20, when I open them I feel better.

I have yet to experience the so-called ‘bliss’ that devotees talk about but I’m just so happy that I’ve found a tool that helps me perform well in the day and sleep better at night.

I wish I’d been taught this at  school â€" it’s the best life skill I’ve ever learnt. But it’s not cheap.

When I turned up for the first open evening at my local TM centre (they’re all over the country), I was told that fees were charged according to income. I would have to  pay £490.

But I did it â€" and it was the best money I’ve ever spent.

  • t-m.org.uk

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In many ways, the human mind is like a computer. Every once in a while it needs a reboot. Long term memories are stored during the sleep cycle and that's why dreams can appear to be so jumbled at times. TM was the attempted commercialization of these techniques. Meditation is recommended by many fields of medical science as it aids the body to fight off infections, heart attacks and strokes. (Got above info from reading Science Daily dot com for the last 10, or so, years.) I got into meditation during my teen years. I suffered from sever bouts of depression linked to insomnia and I started reading self help books. I started with self hypnosis and soon learned how to clear the mind from all the day's foibles. There are medical studies that validate the value of meditation as it relates to health. BTW, the key is in focusing the mind. If mumbo jumbo works for you, that's cool but I see it as another form of self hypnosis. Didn't we all daydream in school ?

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You will get more from prayer. With this meditation, you are opening your mind to satanic influences. bernie, I don't know about TM and I suspect you also know little, but in most meditation techniques it's about silencing the mind. It's exactly the same as prayer, just silent.

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So-called 'TM' just adds enough mumbo-jumbo to con people into thinking they need to pay through the nose to be taught it. Exactly! Meditation traditionally has always been free and there are many centres around the UK -- such as the Ramakrishna Vedanta centres or Buddhist centres -- where you can learn free techniques. No need to give it a special name such as TM. I have never paid a penny, and I had the very best teachers.

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You will get more from prayer. With this meditation, you are opening your mind to satanic influences.

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Meditation is wonderful and very basic to learn (it's the practice that's difficult!) So-called 'TM' just adds enough mumbo-jumbo to con people into thinking they need to pay through the nose to be taught it.

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Hey Katka, TM can't be learned from a book as it involves a teaching ceremony that is perhaps the most important part and is enjoyable in and of itself. Treat yourself to the real thing as you might learn from a book, be disappointed and conclude it's rubbish which would be a shame if you are interested in meditation.

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OM G

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TM is worth doing, but there is no need to pay so much money: there are books which explain the technique very clearly.

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Meditation is magnificent. I've been doing it for 40 years and at 60 I'm at my peak; it has given me a completely new perspective on life, so that as my bodyages my mind gets younger, freer, sharper. I don'd do TN; there are other methods and I question whether it is the best, but if it helps beginners, then why not? It's just a pity that for so many decades people (in the West) who meditate have been mocked and pitied and sneered at. In the end, we will have the last laugh.

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