Mindfulness Meditation
At one time, doctors strayed away from meditation methods because they didn’t want to be seen as “new age weirdos.” Today there are more than 240 programs in clinics and hospitals across the United States that teach mindfulness meditation, a type of meditation based on stress reduction. The National Institute of Health is currently financing over 50 separate studies testing meditation techniques to relieve stress, soothe cravings, improve attention and treat depression. A 2007 government survey discovered that 1 in 11 Americans (over 20 million) meditated in the past year. It seems that Eastern practices have officially gone mainstream in America.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche comes from a long distinguished lineage of Buddhist meditation masters. “Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible. Just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount,” he explains. To get started, he suggests creating a favorable environment to make it easier to practice. There should be a sacredness about one’s place of meditation. Mindfulness meditation is best undertaken in a place of silence that is not too disturbing. Some people create special alcoves in the home with candles, plants, yoga mats and fountains, where they can be at peace to meditate each day. Others retreat to their gardens, an uplifting place of respite. Another group of people prefer the company of other like-minded individuals at a special meditation center.
In the comfortable place set aside for mindfulness meditation, one should sit upright on a floor cushion or chair. Meditation classes teach us that posture is important to the flow of energy as it courses from the mind down the spine and back up again. Eyes should be open and cast slightly downward, but not staring. “It’s as if you had an overhead light shining over the whole room,” explains Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, “and all of a sudden you focus it down right in front of you. You are purposefully ignoring what is going on around you. You are putting the horse of mind in a smaller corral.”
Relaxation meditation can help people who struggle with addiction, compulsiveness, stress, anxiety, depression, jealousy, negativity and anger. “Each meditation session is a journey of discovery to understand the basic truth of who we are,” explains mindfulness meditation instructor Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. “In the beginning the most important lesson of meditation is seeing the speed of the mind. But the meditation tradition says that the mind doesn’t have to be this way; it just hasn’t been worked with. What we are talking about is very practical. Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible. And because we are working with the mind that experiences life directly, just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount.”
Beth Kaminski is the co-author of Curing Your Anxiety And Panic Attacks which detailed anxiety therapy as well as tips on the various panic disorder medications available at anxietydisordercure.com.