"Science Finally GETS Meditation, Do You?"

“Science Finally “Gets” Meditation, Do You?”• 1. “Have you tested “mindfulness-meditation”? You seem to know that you hate it, and it’s a waste of time.”

• 2. “Sure, a dozen times, and it gives me a headache, and seems like it’s a way to take a nap when you should be working.”

• 3. The University of California, Davis, Johns-Hopkins School of Medicine, and the journal, Health Psychology, (March 28, 2013), say meditation reduces the stress hormone, Cortisol. That a serious physical indication of its usefulness.

• 4. The result of regular meditation is more bang-for-the-buck. Even ten-minutes of “Mindfulness Meditation” results in serious mental & physical improvements in our functioning at school & career.

• 5. “What kinds of benefits, “touchy-feely”, or something that offers career growth?”

• 6. “It improves our learning of facts, both information and knowledge, procedural skills, and memory and associations links. Physically, it helps lower your heart rate, improves your immune system, enhances respiration, and sharpens your five major senses.”

• 7. A majority of people have heard of meditation as a non-medical procedure for deep relaxation. The University of California, Davis in a report dated, March, 2013, is the first research to establish the reduction of Cortisol, the stress hormone.

• 8. This is physical evidence, not subjective statements or psychological reports based on a limited sampling.

• 9. What is “Mindfulness” meditation? It is relaxation with closed eyes, and an attitude of NOT judging the thoughts that occur. It is awareness and observation without analysis. We focus on our breathing process, and give our attention to the nature of consciousness.

• 10. Sounds too easy to have any value? It is critical to maintain your attention on the present-moment, stay in the here and now, & not on reliving emotions & behaviors from the past, or what we’ll do in the future.

• 11. The results indicate a link between a “high score for mindfulness”, & a decrease in the Cortisol hormone. Please get this: chronic-stress (high-cortisol) is involved in the Big Three Killers: Heart Disease, Cancer & Stroke.

• 12. How to meditate? First, trigger your Willpower. How?Point your dominant index finger 2-inches above your left-eyebrow. Where?

• 13. It’s located at your left-dorso-lateral-pre-frontal-cortex. Activate it with a 10-second mental-movie of one Goal to control your consciousness.

• 14. It is your thoughts and emotions that create your mind-set, mood & attitude. Tell your brain what you DO want, not what you want to avoid. It’s baby-easy.

• 15. Anxiety, angst, worry, fear & panic lead to chronic-stress. A consistent time-line of negative, anxiety-ridden consciousness, raises the production of the Cortisol by your Adrenal Gland. Disease is a predictable result over time.

• 16. Step One: sit down, close your eyes, and let go of your present thoughts. In ten-seconds your brain shifts from Beta to Alpha cycles per second (brainwaves). It’s measured by an EEG (Electroencephalogram). Your Electro-Magnetic Field production creates your Attitude & decision-making.

• 17. Step Two: Take a deep diaphragmatic-breath from your nose, and on exhaling through your mouth, repeat four times, the sound, “HUM-m, Hum-m, Hum-m, and Hum-m.

• 18. Deep breathe again, three-more times, for a total of sixteen Hum-ms. Keep your hand on your belly-button and feel it rise & fall. That’s “diaphragmatic-breathing.

• 19. Diaphragmatic breathing causes switching from your Sympathetic to and its reliance on the fight-or-flight response, using adrenaline & Cortisol, to your Parasympathetic Nervous System, and its deep relaxation using Acetycholine. Which is your healthy choice?

• 20. Focus your attention on inhaling through your nose and exhaling from your lips. We use a “Mantra” a meaningless word or sound, to keep track of our breathing. “Mentally” repeat on inhaling - “Be-e”. Now exhale and mentally-repeat, the “mantra, “Di-vine”.

• 21. Step three: please maintain a Smile on your face while meditating. There are two-kinds of smiles: one is showing your teeth only, and the other consists of your eyes (crows’ feet on sides of each eye), and showing your teeth.

• 22. Smiling deeps your meditation for relaxation & self-improvement. Oh yeah, it permits you to become a Speed Reader for life.

• 23. Step four: with your eyes closed, intentionally BLINK your eyes opened and closed, five-times. Why? It “washes” (moisturizes) your eye lenses, located behind the IRIS (the colored area of your eyes).

• 24. Intentional-Blinking exercises your extra-ocular (six ciliary muscles in each eye), and keeps them flexible and “oiled”. We do not Blink enough at the computer, causing Dry-Eye and blurred-vision over time.

• 25. A ten-minute meditation of not judging what your consciousness produces, and merely observing, creates a deep relaxation that lasts up to four (4) hours. Nice ROI.

Endwords

It is our thinking, which creates emotions, & decision-making. Cortisol, the Stress hormone, is a product of our mind, and can be controlled by our Willpower.

These ten-minutes of “Mindfulness” (non-thinking), by just observing without reacting & judging, is an example of “mind-over-matter”, and cause-and-effect. Take control.

Our goal is Stimulus (mental-movies) without Response. Your “take-away” from meditation is self-growth, health, & success in school & career. Do a “mind-experiment”, & you be the judge.

See ya.
Copyright © 2013, Bernard Wechsler

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