Question:
Hey all you who meditate, and are helped by it - can you tell me what kind you do, what works best for you?
Answer:
During the time I was bedridden (4.5 yrs) I stated to meditate. I heard
that it was beneficial for a healthy person to meditate 20 min once or
twice a day and for those who are ill to meditate 3 times a day. Being
bedridden and not able to do much, it fit in to my schedule pretty easily.
I can't say I noticed alot of difference in my CFS as I was very ill. It
may have helped me to not get worse. What I did notice a big difference in
with the meditation was a decrease in my level of frustration, anger and
depressive feelings resulting from being ill and practically
non-functional. It helped alot to reduce stress.
There is a very well-known book "The Relaxation Response" by Herbert
Bensen, MD on meditation and its benefits. Another well-known writer on
meditation is Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD. He runs the stress reduction clinic at
the UMASS medical center, has written several books on it, and has been
profiled on NBC's Dateline and Bill Moyer's Healing and the Mind series. He
has an 8-wk program (which is outlined in his book "Full Catastrophe
Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and
Illness) and folks with all kinds of illnesses are referred to his program
by their drs. He uses "mindfulness" meditation. There are other kinds of
meditation such as TM which is ayurvedic/Indian I believe, and there are
Buddhist meditations. I don't know which are more effective. You could look
into the different kinds and see what what suits you.
An adjunct to meditation is visualization...visualizing a peaceful scene,
being well, light healing your body, energy/qi flowing thru your body, etc.
Meditation and visualization are self-help techniques which are easy to
learn and can be easily integrated into one's current regimen. The more
one practices it, the easier it is and the more beneficial it is.
