Breathe easy to combat anxiety

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The mind tricks that can alleviate symptoms
 
London, UK -- More than 870,000 Britons suffer from anxiety, a condition that triggers unnecessary feelings of uneasiness  and worry.

Increasingly, mindfulness – a psychological therapy with roots in Buddhist meditation – is being used by the NHS to help alleviate the symptoms.

Here, in the final extract from his book The Mindful Manifesto, DR JONTY HEAVERSEDGE explains how it can help.

Increasingly, mindfulness - a psychological therapy with roots in Buddhist meditation - is being used by the NHS to help alleviate the symptoms of anxiety

Before directing your mind towards the anxiety you are experiencing, focus on your breathing – the sensation of air slowly flowing into your nostrils, streaming down the back of your throat and into your lungs. Feel the beating of your heart and imagine how it pumps oxygenated blood around your body. Continue until you’re ready to meditate.
Now, shift your attention to your anxious thoughts. What thoughts are present in your mind right now? Are there many moving quickly or does each one remain for a while? Consider the thoughts objectively rather than reacting to them emotionally.
There’s a myth that when you meditate, you should have a blank mind. But thoughts are  not the enemy and trying to stop them will only lead to more struggle. Treat the thoughts during meditation like having a radio on in the background – you can hear it, but your main focus is elsewhere. In mindfulness, you’re paying attention to the fact that you have a thought but you are not buying into what it is saying. Try not to judge the thought  as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Cultivate an attitude of equanimity to whatever goes through your mind. Watch your thoughts with curiosity and kindness and they will become easier to bear.
Whenever you notice  your mind is wandering, acknowledge that it has meandered and gently bring your attention back to observing your thoughts.
Continue working with your worries in this way for the period of time you have chosen. Working mindfully can be challenging, so it’s good to practise for short periods at first.
You may feel dizzy when you start but that’s because you’ve suddenly stopped spinning around in circles. In the stillness of meditation, it can also seem as if you have more thoughts than usual but this is not so: it is just that you are becoming more aware of them. The more you practise, the more your mind can deal with worries in a less panicked way.

The Mindful Manifesto, by Dr Jonty Heaversedge and Ed Halliwell, Hay House, £10.99

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Mindfulness meditation found to combat loneliness

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LOS ANGELES, CA (USA) -- A new study finds that mindfulness meditation can help older adults battle feelings of loneliness while also boosting health.
The study, published in the journal Brain, Behavior & Immunity, shows that eight weeks of training in mindfulness meditation (a total of 2.5 hours a week) is linked with decreased loneliness.

<< Older adults reported reduced feelings of loneliness after taking part in an eight-week training on mindfulness meditation.

The study included 40 participants between ages 55 and 85, some of whom participated in an eight-week training programme (a total of 2.5 hours a week) called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, which was established by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the US.

“We always tell people to quit smoking for health reasons, but rarely do we think about loneliness in the same way,” said study lead J. David Creswell said in a statement dated July 24.

“We know that loneliness is a major risk factor for health problems and mortality in older adults,” he said, adding that the research suggests that mindfulness meditation training could be “a promising intervention for improving the health of older adults.”

Using the blood samples collected, the researchers also found that the older adult sample had elevated pro-inflammatory gene expression in their immune cells at the beginning of the study and that the training reduced this pro-inflammatory gene expression, which the researchers said could “reduce older adults’ inflammatory disease risk.”

Aside from alleviating loneliness, mindfulness meditation has also been shown in recent research to have positive effects on the brain – linked with brain changes that may even have effects against mental illness.

Another recent study also found that mindfulness meditation, along with moderate exercise, was linked to a reduction in the severity of colds and flu during winter.

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Thai society rediscovers the values of the Buddha to combat materialism and economic crisis

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Bangkok, Thailand -- In June, celebrations were held to commemorate 2600 years of illumination of the "Awakened One". In a conference, hundreds of faithful, monks and nuns discuss the value of faith and the challenges of modernity. The risks of globalization, promoting an education system capable of forming good citizens.

Against the materialism prevalent in society, the obsessive search for money, worldly possessions and the pervasive spiritual crisis, Thai Buddhists state that "the path to enlightenment" indicated by the "awakened" is the only way to create "a world of peace."

Coinciding with the celebrations for Buddha's enlightenment 2600 years, better known as "Buddha Chayatee (BC)," the faithful wanted to promote meetings and events aimed at reinforcing the centrality of faith and religion in the life of the nation. Even Thailand, in fact, in recent years has promoted a politics focused on economics, personal success, while neglecting the spiritual and religious element.

The scandals that have hit some monasteries and leading figures of Buddhism has emphasised local fractures and increased dropouts. For groups and individuals that seek to raise the value of religion, the teachings of Buddha are still essential for peace and harmony locally and internationally.

From June 4 to 30 across Thailand events and commemorations of the 2600 remember the enlightenment of Buddha were held. On the final day, the "Public Stage" movement opened a meeting at Buddhamondhol Buddhist Center in Bangkok, attended by hundreds of people, including monks, nuns and faithful.

At the heart of the encounter, the value of religion past and present, along with ways to encourage and promote Buddhism in Thai society. The role of schools and educational establishments need to be stepped up however, called to promote among students the teachings of the Buddha and their value for contemporary life.

62.8 million people live in Thailand, of which 10 million are concentrated in Bangkok. The vast majority, almost 95% profess Buddhism, while 4% are Muslims (especially in the south) and 1% Christian, of which 300 thousand Catholics. For this reason the country is still considered the world centre of religion, with over 33 thousand monasteries and institutes across the area, even if it is going through a period of deep crisis in vocations and practice of worship.

For famous columnist Somchai Preeechasilp the cause lies in a growing materialism, combined with the severe economic crisis. Globalization, he said, poses challenges to the principles of Buddhism, to the values and morals that people should use concretely strengthen their spirituality.

Prapapatra Niyom, director of the Buddhist Path School (BPS), explains that the institutions are responsible for developing all aspects of the person in the students: physical, mental, emotional and social. It has launched a pre-school for children, with the aim of forming children who are educated and formed and able to best represent the future of the nation. From an early age pupils are called to recite morning prayers, meditate on the teachings of the Buddha for at least five minutes a day and use it as a maximum in the resolution of everyday problems.

As is the case with little Saifon, whose name means "drop of rain", blind since birth, but who has wanted to be "illuminated" by following the example of the "master". A college student named Yarnapatra Yodkaew finally remembers that every good Buddhist faithful must develop three characteristics: discipline in preserving the teachings of the enlightened, the search of solitude for personal meditation and intelligence to understand the way forward when called to address a problem or a challenge.

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