Mind/Body Practices: Ancient Traditions with Contemporary Benefits

This source helps provide an idea of how mindfulness will play a role in our healthcare today and the future. I want to use this source for that specific reason and to show its role in my own chosen profession of a physician. The article discusses many costs saving measures when mindfulness is applied and there is a potential of billions to be saved.

Almost everyone is preoccupied with happiness but yet the population seems to be increasingly unhappy. As society and human experience changes we can’t help but ask ourselves how can we fix an increasingly unhappy and dissatisfied society? Mindfulness meditation is a progressively popular solution to this issue. Mindfulness meditation stems from Buddhist tradition and is a practice that includes focusing one’s attention. Does mindfulness meditation have real psychological effects? And if so can they help improve quality of life? Many studies have been conducted proving that mindfulness meditation does have real psychological effects and can help individuals live a more meaningful and happy life. This can be proven through research related to neuroscience, depression and happiness.

This paper is about my experience with mindfulness based meditation and scientific inquiry of these experiences. Mindfulness based meditation is describes as technique used to cultivate nonreactive, non-judgmental and stable awareness of the present moment (Garland and Gaylord, 2009). The end goal is to sustain this meta-cognitive state for a long period of time. I practiced non-denominational form of mindfulness based meditation for the first time in my psychology class, which was devoted towards intellectual and experiential examination of meditation. The practice was conducted in a group it was instructed by our own professor and it begun at the end of class. There was one sessions per week and each session was structured meaning it was

A growing body of evidence suggests meditation-based interventions have the potential to reduce symptoms and improve well-being (Marchand, 2013 for review; Mitchell et al., 2014). The Stanford University study entitled Breathing-Based Meditation Decreased Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in U.S. Military Veterans: A Randomized Controlled Longitudinal Study explores the effects of Sudarshan Kriya yoga, a meditation-based therapy, on U.S. military veterans with PTSD symptoms having served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, can be characterized as a gathering of restorative, human services, and healing systems other than those incorporated into health care in the United States. CAM incorporates the perspectives, speculations, modalities, items, and practices connected with these systems and their utilization to treat disease and advance health and prosperity (McKenzie, 2012). Even though heterogeneous, the significant CAM frameworks have numerous normal attributes, including an attention on individualizing medications, treating the entire individual, advancing self-consideration and self-recuperating, and perceiving the otherworldly way of every person. What's more, numerous CAM frameworks have attributes generally found in standard human services, for example, an emphasis on great sustenance and preventive practices. Dissimilar to standard medication, CAM frequently needs or has just restricted trial and clinical concentrate; then again, experimental examination of CAM is starting to address this learning crevice. In this manner, limits in the

The mission of NCCAM is to investigate the “usefulness and safety” of alternative and complementary medicine and the roles they could possibly play in improving health of the nation and our healthcare system by advance research on mind and body interventions,

His study consisted of 68 female cancer patients who were randomly sorted into the intervention group or control group. They were evaluated using symptoms checklist (SCL-90-R) and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EOR TC QLQ-30) and the Symptoms of Stress Inventory (SOSI). The treatment group patients practiced meditation, yoga, mindfulness communication skills and mindful breast self-examination/awareness in 2 hour classes weekly and at a 4 hour weekend retreat that was held on the 6th and 8th week of the program. The patients also practiced daily meditation or yoga for mild exercise at home for 45 minutes per day and kept daily

In a study collaborated between Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Jon Kabat-Zinn, long-term meditators were shown to have more left hemispherical dominance in their baseline than those who didn’t meditate, and that shift in anterior activation was also correlated with an enhanced immune functioning (Davidson et al., 2003; Davidson & Kabat-Zinn, 2004). Davidson & Kabat-Zinn (2004) show that people who engage in mindfulness practice cope healthier with their emotions with approach rather than withdrawal (Siegel, 2007, pp.

This type of meditation has been proven effective at reducing stress, bringing down blood pressure numbers and much more. The class was taught by certified teachers who shared with our residents how they can benefit from transcendental meditation. The practice of this type of meditation has been highly researched by the National

In many studies done Kundalini yoga has proven to improve depression, anxiety, and much more disorder when doing kundalini yoga meditation. Based on the success of treating the disease, “therapies also are expected to address emotional distress that comes with a cancer diagnosis. (Subedi 3). The article demonstrates how kundalini is being studied to treat other medical problem and how it improves person's life when doing these activities. In the article mentions that many scientists have noticed that “Patient that cancer can affect them physically and psychologically, causing pain, fatigue, insomnia, depression or anxiety” (Subedi 3). The author illustrates how in the cancer patient, this problem occurs as for disorder patient too, which allow seeing where cancer patient can benefit from this treatment. Furthermore, Kundalini yoga can be proven to help many patients and to the

Argumentative thesis: Although many people assume medications such as antidepressants are the only way to treat patients with depression, meditation is a better choice of treatment as it prevents relapse in patients that are recurringly depressed, is accepted by a large portion of patients that are typically unwilling to take medication to treat their depression, and rebuilds brain structures affected by the mental illness,

In the pursuit of health and well-being, many Americans along with the world, have used Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) over the past decade. In July 30, 2009, National Health Statistic Reports demonstrated on a test conducted in 2007 “that about 38.3% of adults (83 million persons) and 11.8% of children (8.5 million children under the age of 18 years) have used Complementary and alternative medicine” (NHSR, 2009). In this paper, I will define the terms alternative medicine, complementary medicine, and integrative medicine and clarify how these terms differ. I will also describe how

Meditation can be used in most treatment protocols, however there are some populations that require caution when utilizing this therapy. Patients that

In today’s environment, many people are suffering with the stress and anxiety of day to day living and are finding themselves unable to cope with life’s little emergencies. Prescription drugs are on the rise due to the increasing need for people to deal with their stress and anxiety. However, many people are searching for ways to be less stressed and live a happy and healthy life without drugs. If stress and anxiety are getting the best of you, then think about grabbing a mat and giving yoga and meditation a spin. With that in mind, this paper will take a look at the benefits of yoga and meditation to create a more peaceful and healthy lifestyle.

The results of this study showed significant improvement in quality of life, anxiety, and blood pressure in the meditation group. While in controls, quality of life deteriorated and there was no improvement in blood pressure.