Meditate Before You Have To Medicate
eldom will you find a pharmacy dispensing recommendations on meditation, but I firmly believe that if we as a society become more mindful, we will not only reduce stress and chaos in our lives, we will make a tremendous impact on our health, reducing the need for medications.
S Meditation is one of the most power-
ful tools for your health and wellbeing. Meditation is easy, free, feels great, comes with no drug interactions, has shown pro- found success in preventative medicine, as well as a perfect complement to any course of medical therapy. Meditation can be as easy as breathing
exercises, repeating an affirmation or mantra, even incorporating visualization techniques. Plus, with the convenience of smart phones you can download medita- tion apps to further guide you into a pro- gram that fits you best.
Meditation can be done in as few as
five or ten minutes, or however long you would like. There is an old Zen saying, "You should sit in meditation for 20 min- utes a day, unless you're too busy; then you should sit for an hour." Given the state of stress in our culture, there is something about this statement that is profoundly true.
If the history of yoga in the United 20
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States is a sign of where meditation is go- ing, we are looking at a bright future for the health and wellness of our society. Think about it. Even though Hindu monks introduced yoga to the West in the late 19th century, it did not begin to gain steam until the late 60's and 70's. For many, it still seemed like it was too far out, some- thing only hippies and the spiritual folk do, although social consciousness contin- ues to evolve about yoga. Now we are seeing a similar embrac- ing of meditation as it is taking a main- stream role in people's health, wellness, and as a stress reduction practice. What was once promoted by monks in robes and reluctantly accepted by the mass popu- lace, meditation is gaining acceptance spurred by the promotion of scientists and practitioners in white lab coats as the body of scientific evidence on the health ben- efits of meditation continues to grow. The military is experimenting with meditation to make soldiers more resilient, as well as helping with the treatment and management of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and related issues such as substance abuse. Corporate America has begun incor-
porating meditation into wellness pro- grams, such as General Mills creating meditation rooms in their corporate of-
fices. Google has begun their own in- house mindfulness program called "Search Inside Yourself" and has created a labyrinth for employees to practice walking media- tion.
Meditation is witnessing thought with-
out judgment. Meditation is about finding silence, stepping back from being lost in random, incessant thoughts which waste our time, creativity, mood, and energy. When you give yourself the chance to step back, you familiarize yourself with the present moment, also known as mindful- ness, not re-living the past or worrying about the future. Research has shown that we have over 50,000 thoughts a day. A Harvard study has shown that the average person is lost in random thought about 47% of the time. Essentially we have become a society of chaotic, thought factories. Much of the growth of meditation and mindfulness practice is based on stress reduction, and for good reason. In our over-connected lifestyle and culture of chaos where technology has practically built a wall separating ourselves from peace of mind, meditation has proven to calm the mind of over incessant chatter, the worrying about tomorrow while reliv- ing the past. The benefits do not stop at a calmer,
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