Therapeutic meditation
Meditation is dull, boring, annoying, or it is actually complicated… so many popular reasons not to practice meditation, and yet some studies appear to prove the opposite.
Andy Puddicombe, in a Ted Talk video, explains how meditation works, on a practical level. We are a generation so distracted, all the time, by thoughts, technology, and everything. As a matter of fact, we are not present in the world we live in. But meditation’s aim is to understand how not to be lost in our thoughts, to learn how to be present here and now. With just ten minutes per day, we can transform our way of functioning, stepping back, not avoiding thoughts, but facing them, seing it without judgements. It’s a balance between allowing a thoughts to come and go without the usual involvements. Ten minutes of practice everyday, focusing on our breath for example, seeing our thoughts which will come naturally, and just focusing again on our breath, without judgements, quietly, and repeated as many times as necessary.
It is easy, and it is useful.
Furthermore, severals studies compare brain activity of meditative population, and non meditative population, from 24 to 77 years old. People who were meditative presented a less advance brain aging than non meditative people. In fact, « the brain of meditation expert show less signs of decline in parts of the brain which are most vulnerable to aging, equally in terms of anatomy than functioning. »
It’s seems to prove that meditation is a protection factor for old people. Actually, meditation impacts the frontal cortex, limbic structures and the insula which are the first parts to be impacted by the aging of people and by some diseases like Alzheimer and Parkinson.
Moreover, to practice meditation in a medical way gets you not to use pharmaceuticals, and to reconnect with your self. To add a last idea, meditation impacts positively stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia and others factors of cardiovascular risks.
To conclude meditation is an activity which deserves to be more known by the ordinary population and more studied by psychologists, neurologists and all kinds of scientists.
Words I have learned :
- Aging : vieillissement
- Thoughts : pensées
- Actually : En effet
- Aim : le but, l’objectif
- Dull : ennuyeux, monotone
Bibliography
Magazine. (2017). La méditation thérapeutique. Cerveau et psycho, (94), 43-65.
Puddicombe, A. (2012). 4 scientific studies on how meditation can affect your heart, brain and creativity. [Vidéo en ligne]. Repéré à https://blog.ted.com/4-scientific-studies-on-how-meditation-can-affect-your-heart-brain-and-creativity/