Meditation and its Mental Health Benefits

Discuss health, wellness, fitness, nutrition and food.
Post Reply
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Meditation and its Mental Health Benefits

Post by Winston »

Here is a UCSF lecture by a psychiatrist about how mindfulness meditation can help with depression and mental health. This is amazing. I thought psychiatrists only cared about dissing out drugs. I didn't know they cared about meditation.



A guided meditation on dealing with depression.

Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne


Meet Loads of Foreign Women in Person! Join Our Happier Abroad ROMANCE TOURS to Many Overseas Countries!

Meet Foreign Women Now! Post your FREE profile on Happier Abroad Personals and start receiving messages from gorgeous Foreign Women today!

User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Post by Winston »

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/04 ... meditation

Even Beginners Can Curb Pain With Meditation
by ADAM COLE

Image

Signs of pain disappeared from MRI images of the brain when freshly trained novices meditated.

Meditation has long been touted as a holistic approach to pain relief. And studies show that long-time meditators can tolerate quite a bit of pain.

Now researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have found you don't have to be a lifelong Buddhist monk to pull it off. Novices were able to tame pain after just a few training sessions.

Sounds a bit mystical, we know, but researchers using a special type of brain imaging were also able to see changes in the brain activity of newbies. Their conclusion? "A little over an hour of meditation training can dramatically reduce both the experience of pain and pain-related brain activation," Fadel Zeidan, a neuroscientist and the study's lead author, tells Shots. That finding's a first, Zeidan says.


In the study, a small group of healthy medical students attended four 20-minute training sessions on "mindfulness meditation" — a technique adapted from a Tibetan Buddhist form of meditation called samatha. It's all about acknowledging and letting go of distraction.

"You are trying to sustain attention in the present moment — everything is momentary so you don't need to react," Zeidan explains. "What that does healthwise is it reduces the stress response. The feeling of pain is a very blatant distraction."

So how did the researchers gauge the effect? They administered a very distracting bit of pain: A small, thermal stimulator heated to 120 degrees was applied to the back of each volunteer's right calf. The subjects reported both the intensity and unpleasantness of the pain. If pain were music, intensity would be volume. Unpleasantness would have more of an emotional component, kind of like how much you love or hate a song.

After meditation training, the subjects reported a 40 percent decrease in pain intensity and a 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness. And it wasn't just their perception of pain that changed. Brain activity changed too.

Primary Somatosensory Cortex

Notes
This depiction of the body, the cortical homunculus, was first developed by Wilder Penfield. Each body part maps to a specific spot on a cross section of the brain's sensory processing region, the primary somatosensory cortex. The larger the feature, the more brain space devoted to it.
Source: NPR
Credit: Adam Cole, Nelson Hsu
Every part of the body is mapped to a specific part of the brain called the primary somatosensory cortex. "If I touch you on your left hand right above your left knuckle, there is an area in the brain that corresponds to that specific area in your hand that will be activated," Zeidan explains. "When you are in pain it is much more activated — more intense and more widespread."

This activation shows up on MRI brain scans. When subjects experienced the heat stimulus under normal conditions, the "right calf" part of the primary somatosensory cortex lit up. But after the subjects were trained in meditation, the activity in this region was not even detectable.

Brain images also show that meditation increased activation in areas of the brain related to cognitive control and emotion — areas where the experience of pain is built. What's more, better meditators (those who scored higher on a standard scale of mindfulness) tended to have more activation in these areas and a lower experience of pain.

But can you achieve similar results by just approximating meditation, or believing you are in control of your pain tolerance? Zeidan says probably not. In this study, subjects who paid attention to their breathing to mimic meditation saw no significant change in pain. And, in a previous study, subjects given fake training failed to see meditation's effects, even though they believed they were actually performing mindfulness meditation.

Zeidan says he will run some more studies to get at how meditation relieves pain. He hopes meditation can soon be applied clinically, perhaps to help patients cope with pain after surgery or chemotherapy.

"You might not need extensive training to realize pain-relief benefits," Zeidan says. "Most people don't have time to spend months in a monastery."
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
Shelley
Freshman Poster
Posts: 5
Joined: June 26th, 2014, 1:50 am

Post by Shelley »

Meditation is an ideal exercise for the mental health.
It's recommended for the mental relaxation and to deal with the different mental illnesses. It plays an important role to deal with the stress, depression, and anxiety.

Maitland Boot Camp
Adam Prowse Personal Trainer,
2/539 High Street Maitland,
New South Wales 2320, Australia
johnponting74
Freshman Poster
Posts: 29
Joined: July 26th, 2014, 10:23 am

Post by johnponting74 »

They used a very annoying bit of pain: A little, heat activator warmed to 120 levels was used to the back of each volunteer's right leg. The topics revealed both the strength and unpleasantness of the discomfort. If discomfort were songs, strength would be quantity. Unpleasantness would have more of an psychological element, type of like how much you really like or dislike a songs.
Our dentist in Cancun provide superior quality dental care at affordable prices. Our highly trained bilingual Cancun dentist have extensive experience
User avatar
MrPeabody
Experienced Poster
Posts: 1788
Joined: April 13th, 2008, 11:53 am

Post by MrPeabody »

The meditation teacher I first learned meditation from specialized in teaching pain control. He would teach techniques to HIV patients. At that time, he also got into American spirituality and actually participated in a Sun Dance. At the end of a Sun Dance they hang you from a tree by two knives in your breasts until the knives cut through your skin and you fall to earth. He meditated in a monastery in Japan for about 10 years so has obviously developed a high capability to eliminate pain.

Here is a talk on his techniques.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac4TUSU4u4Y
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meditation and its Mental Health Benefits

Post by Winston »

Good article about why meditation is so important and tips on what you can do if you don't like to meditate or are too impatient to sit and mediate.

https://www.healthline.com/health/enlig ... meditation
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meditation and its Mental Health Benefits

Post by Winston »

Deepak Chopra explains how to relieve stress if meditation and yoga aren't for you, and how to relieve the tension during the lockdown.

Deepak Chopra: Easy ways to relieve stress if meditation and yoga aren’t for you

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/12/deepak- ... r-you.html
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meditation and its Mental Health Benefits

Post by Winston »

A great new documentary on meditation.

A Joyful Mind | Meditation and Mindfulness Documentary

Today, the accelerating pace of life poses real challenges to our wellbeing. At the same time, new understandings about meditation are shedding light on how its transformative powers can improve our daily lives. A Joyful Mind pulls back the curtain on what it means to meditate, on what modern science reveals about its benefits, and on how meditation and mindfulness can be used in workplaces and schools. This groundbreaking film serves to clear up the confusion around meditation perpetuated by the media. It features the experiences of both novice and master meditators, highlighting Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, whose teachings have touched people around the world with their clarity, wit and personal insight into how meditation can have a positive impact on our daily lives.

Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meditation and its Mental Health Benefits

Post by Winston »

Another good documentary on meditation that you can download.

On Meditation (2016)

https://thepiratebay.org/description.php?id=36126210

On Meditation is a compilation of portraits that explores the deeply personal practice of meditation in all of its myriad forms. Practiced for thousands of years, meditation is at once profound and simple: the focused attempt to move beyond conditioned thinking into a deeper state of awareness.

Yet, what does that path — one of the inner journey, which is above all a private, interior one — really look like? On Meditation conveys first-hand experiences of those who have developed meaningful practices and are willing to share their experiences. From teachers to everyday people to celebrities, the subjects of On Meditation offer a rare glimpse into the private insights and rituals of its subjects.

Trailer:
https://www./watch?v=Q1_g5F_mp14

http://imdb.com/title/tt5135868/

https://www.gaia.com/video/meditation-6
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meditation and its Mental Health Benefits

Post by Winston »

Meditation is great. However, most people don't do it right and it doesn't work for many people. This wise Indian guru named Sadhguru explains why and what to do about it.



Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meditation and its Mental Health Benefits

Post by Winston »

Hilarious brutally honest meditation called "f**k that". lol. Very unique. Includes cuss words and New Age music. lol

Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Health, Fitness, Nutrition, Food”