Meditation and mindfulness is promoted as a power to help people put stress out of their minds and live for the moment to reduce fear and anxiety, while allowing the practitioner to be more aware of their space and impact on the world and those around them. The treatment can itself trigger mania, depression, hallucinations and psychosis, psychological studies in the UK and US have found. one in 14 of them suffered ‘profoundly adverse effects’, according to Dr Miguel Farias, head of the brain, belief and behaviour research group at Coventry University and Catherine Wikholm, a researcher in clinical psychology at the University of Surrey.
He said: ‘The
assumption of the majority of both TM [transcendental meditation] and
mindfulness researchers is that meditation can only do one good. ‘This shows a
rather narrow-minded view. How can a technique that allows you to look within
and change your perception or reality of yourself be without potential adverse
effects?
The answer is that
it can’t, and all meditation studies should assess not only positive but
negative effects.’ minfulness bias
If you don't want to
know more about this perhaps the ideal of mindfulness could use a bit more
work, if you are selling the idea then it is a good time to determine your
qualifications to do so. Dr Deepak Chopra is a proponent of TM and mindfulness,
there is nothing better, he suggests, than letting your mind go into that blank
space of nothingness, he is qualified to aid you in discovering that place, he
has teams of specialists at his disposal and more than that, over 40 years as a
doctor in his experiential bag, but does he leave everything to the meditative
solution? the answer is no he does not, he encourages that you discover what
you need within but also provides guidance, a listening ear to help with the
discoveries and himself sells recorded guided meditations that direct you to
live with a greater belief in yourself.
Self diagnosing on
the net and then self prescribing with free youtube resources can bring its own
problems as when you are in that depressive space or stressed out to the max,
you may not be the best person to select treatment, it is easy to go for what
appears to be the quick fix and completely miss the point. As an hypnotherapist
i love meditation techniques and of course the process of hypnosis, the results
are truly dynamic, it has to be said that many times after consultation, I am
the one choosing both the target and most effect program due to the natural
desire of the client to reduce symptoms. From my perspective those symptoms
will disappear once you have eliminated the cause, I am comfortable saying that
many failures with hypnosis are purely about not seeking the right target. I
can remember a lovely man who came to me for smoking cessation, as we started
his induction he suddenly sat up in the chair and asked me to hold his hand,
when i asked him why he said, " my dad used to light a cigar after a good
day and let me sit on his knee, this didn't happen often, only when he was
celebrating success." Clearly he was not going to stop smoking if I used a
toxicity technique as in his early years he could identify smoking with both success
and love, it was time to find a new target to achieve what this man desired.
Even with Energy
Therapy when a client is in pain, I find myself encouraging them to focus on
the big picture and not use the energy like a painkiller (and yes this does
work) as it will only be a success in the short term, that over a matter of
weeks the pain will return, Energy does not know where to go as so many love to
say, it goes in your body, where you direct it. If you consciously want a
particular result or have a mistaken idea of what the core issue is, you won't
get elimination, you will feel much better for a while though. This
specifically is why entering a single directed program can have more benefits
than you can possibly imagine, whether you are trying to evolve an already okay
life, heal the past or rejuvenate a flagging body it is worth seeking out the
professional who can provide what you need and guide you through the pitfalls,
one of which is being in an ongoing cycle of trying to heal yourself.
When I first started
meditating on a regularly basis, I had no plan it just happened and for the
next 12 months i was meditating for somewhere in the region of 6 hours a day,
not all at the same time you understand, first thing in the morning when i woke,
periods during the day while the kids were at school and at night to fill my
evening after the children were in bed. It was an accelerated learning period
for me, but it was painful. There were times i refer to as 'the cringe', these
were those raw moments where i recognized my own behaviours in full detail,
they were genuinely horrible. There were times when I heard huge cracks like
lightening just a few inches from my body, and still others where I experienced
smells, sounds and feelings from another time. These would sometimes take days
or weeks to come back from so I would meditate some more. There were times i
was exhilarated and others in ecstasy. sometimes there were mind blowing
creation realities and yet others where the sorrow of my own life overwhelmed
me. Over time my days became freer and I was on top of the world, and then the
bubble would burst open and reality of the world beyond would challenge my new
found emotional freedom. I personally believe everyone can benefit from being
guided through the relevant areas of this but I only had inadequately trained
spiritual advisors, mediums, seichim and reiki masters, who could not answer my
questions about my experiences, who had not warned me of the potentials of such
deep and committed introspection. I fumbled my way through learning about
energy, and then fumbled for a few years doing readings and energy work, until
the realization dawned, that I was not particularly interested in helping
others to have a 30 minute wow, but preferred the idea of a deep and abiding
life change that could enhance the life experience. The energy work had already
pushed me to do an anatomy and physiology course but I was drawn to something a
bit deeper following the drive to train in Clinical Hypnotherapy and to learn
the effect of language, both the language I use with clients, but also hearing
the words they use to explain themselves or ask for help. Reading the aura and
seeing energy changes in the body as a person spoke to me was a bonus as I had
discovered over the years, that if you did not know how to interpret that back
to your client in an effective way, you could not help them progress. nyehh
enough about me.
Before engaging on a
program of meditation and mindfulness, make sure you have the help you need,
not only in finding the right balance and target but also in being able to
relate the experiences you have back to someone who can help you to deal with
them. Go in open eyed and ready to take a few blows to your inner belief in who
you are or the story you have been selling, and then don't let yourself sit
there, giving up because it is too hard, push on through the pain to gain the
rewards you are seeking. Don't lie to yourself, a solid meditation practice can
improve your attitude, your health and your lifestyle, but it doesn't fix your
life, it doesn't remove lifelong triggers and behaviours when you are
challenged. You can relax yourself with a 15 minute self-hypnosis or
meditation, you can change your mind set for an interview later, but you will
not have done enough to make those changes permanent if you haven't addressed
the underlying issues. I know we live in an age where everyone wants everything
for free, but it is still true that you get what you pay for, even if you want
to do it all on your own, you will benefit from having a professional to talk
to (not casual others in an online chat), about what you are going through, or
even someone to help diagnose and direct you to finding what is suitable for
you. Do beware of bad freebies, there are plenty out there that not only don't
work, but inroad your belief in your ability to make any necessary changes. It
may not be that meditation or hypnosis don't work for you but that those who
produced the one you chose were either not good at it, or the one you chose was
not the right one for you.
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