What is mindfulness meditation? Or by its other name, Listening Meditation, Awareness meditation, Insight? Each of its Hebrew names has a different bold nuance, but it might also be appropriate to mention simply the English term, mindfulness - that is, mindfulness meditation.
As its name implies, it is a type of meditation aimed at focusing the consciousness in order to train it to observe reality as it is. Much emphasis is placed on awareness of the bodily sensations that arise and are observed during practice. This meditation brings the person to observe the bodily sensations, the pain, the fear and the physical and mental suffering caused by the habits of unconscious daily reactions. The practice teaches how to stop these habits, teaches to accept body sensations, body reactions, thoughts and feelings as they are, and teaches how to let go and experience peace and calmness.
In order to be precise, the literature presents so many positive results of meditation practice, to the point of raising suspicion. These benefits do not appear immediately or after a few times of "meditation" meetings, but are the fruit and product of regular meditation habits, the cumulative result of which comes after quite a while. Some results can be noticed after a few days, while others will come after months and sometimes years of regular practice. The recommended duration is from twenty minutes a day to one to two hours a day (divided between morning and evening), depending on the method – says Dr. Paul Greene from the Manhattan Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (2020).
I will review some of the salient health benefits of practicing meditation, which are based, among other things, on the work of Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman (Mindfulness for Health, 2013, Piatkus Publishing, English).
Thousands of scientific articles show that mindfulness meditation has far-reaching effects on reducing pain, improving physical well-being and that it helps people cope with the stresses and distresses of daily life. Some of the findings are mentioned here. All of the findings mentioned are research-based, and for the sake of briefness I will only mention a few (I. Schreiner, J.P. Malcolm - Behaviour Change, 2008, Handbook of Mindfulness: Theory, Research, and Practice edited by Kirk Warren Brown, J. David Creswell, 2015, and P. Charoensukmongkol - Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 2014). Mindfulness meditation (sometimes called awareness meditation, for example in the Hebrew language) can dramatically reduce the pain and emotional response that accompanies it. The most recent studies indicate that the "unpleasantness" of chronic pain can be reduced by up to 57% in new practitioners, while in experienced practitioners the reduction is up to 93% (see also The Mindfulness Solution to Pain: Step-by-step Techniques, Jackie Gardner-Nix, Lucie Costin-Hall , 2009).
Clinical trials show that mindfulness meditation improves mood and quality of life in conditions of chronic pain such as fibromyalgia and lower back pain, in chronic dysfunction such as irritable bowel syndrome, as well as in conditions of multiple sclerosis and cancer. It improves active memory, creativity, attention span and speed of response. It strengthens mental and physical resilience and improves emotional intelligence (see Benefeits of Meditation, Li-Chuan Chu, 2009 ).
This meditation is an excellent and powerful "antidote" against anxiety, stress, depression, exhaustion and irritability. It turns out that regular and experienced meditators (practitioners) are happier, more content, and much less likely to suffer from mental distress. It is as good as treatment or medication in cases of clinical depression. One of the programs, called MCBT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) is currently one of the preferred methods recommended by the British National Institute of Clinical Excellence.
The mindfulness method reduces addictive behavior and self-destruction, and among these is the use of illegal drugs and excessive alcohol consumption. It improves and strengthens brain function, increasing the number of gray cells in the brain associated with self-awareness, empathy, self-control and attention. It soothes the production of stress hormones and builds the areas in the brain that contribute to improving mood and promoting learning abilities. It even reduces brain degeneration in special areas caused by the natural process of aging (K.F. Felsted - Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 2020).
It improves the immune system (see David S. Black and George M. Slavich, NYAS, 2016) . People who exercise regularly are much less hospitalized as a result of cancer, heart disease and a large number of infectious diseases. It inhibits cell-level aging by improving chromosomal health and resistance. Mindfulness meditation improves blood sugar control in type 2 diabetes (J.A. Gregg, G.M. Callaghan, S.C. Hayes, Journal of consulting, 2007).
Finally, meditation improves heart health by lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of high blood pressure. Mindfulness reduces the risk of getting and dying from vascular diseases and lowers their severity when they appear. Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman (Piatkus, 2013) offer a special meditation program for successfully coping with pain and suffering especially with regard to chronic pain. Their method is practical and is accompanied by gradual, very simple exercises that require an average of twenty minutes a day, without any preparations or special means.
As Dan Harris, an American ABC correspondent, wrote in his award-winning book "Ten Percent Happier" (Second Edition, 2019), practicing this meditation gave him a ten percent better life, yet it made a significant difference in reducing the personal stress he experienced, calming the "voices" bothering his head. , Improved his sharpness of thought and quality of life. Sounds worth it to me!
Finally, something on a personal note.
As a person, I am convinced, and try to practice as much as I can (and by far never enough). When I do so, I feel a better person, a calmer, more focused professional.
As a coach, I find brief mindfulness meditation techniques extremely helpful for myself and for my coachees in creating awareness, which is the basic ingredient for any change process that we encourage during the sessions and processes engaged in. Lately I found even greater inspiration and encouregement to use these impactful short termed techniques, sometimes as short as two to five minutes, based on the concept of Positve Intelligence suggested by Prof. and coach Shirzad Chamine of Stanford University (Positive Intelligence, 2014). Earlier in 2021 I attende a full seven week program led by Shirzad, where I experienced at first hand the effectiveness of these short meditations on my own well being, calmness and clarity of thought.
My clients also enjoy those and report a feeling of incresed focus and clarity, besides the other aspects of the program (finding out your mental "Saboteurs", inside "Judge" and more - but on that I will discuss in a next opportunity, as it deserves separate treatment.