We all know that meditation is good for us. Really, really good. Neuroscience research has come out with study after study showing the benefits meditation has on our sleep, our immune systems, depression and anxiety, brain health, and more. So…why doesn’t EVERYONE meditate? Well, here are the two most common reasons given by non-meditators:
1. I can’t quiet my mind – it doesn’t work for me
2. I don’t have enough time
If you fall into one of the above camps (or both!), listen to Episode 2 of the Broken Brain podcast and hear Vedic meditation teacher Emily Fletcher explain how to easily move beyond both issues so that you too can receive the incredible healing benefits of meditation.
Meditation Doesn’t Work For Me. I Can’t Quiet My Mind.
There is a common misconception that meditation should be calming, enjoyable, and that we should be able to simply flip the switch on our mental chatter and enjoy 20 minutes of silent bliss. And when it doesn’t work like that, we give up and say, “Meditation doesn’t work for me. I can’t quiet my mind.”
“We shouldn’t expect bliss during our meditation any more than we expect bliss while sitting under
a large plastic dryer with foil in our hair at the hair salon.”
As Fletcher so cleverly explains, we shouldn’t expect bliss during our meditation any more than we expect bliss while sitting under a large plastic dryer with foil in our hair at the hair salon. We don’t cut and highlight our hair at the salon because we love the two hours of sitting in public looking like a wet hen trying to pick up a radio signal. We spend those two hours because of how it will make our hair look for the following two months.
And it’s the same with meditation! We spend the twenty minutes concentrating on breathing techniques, mentally chanting mantras, and gently bringing our wandering mind back to center not because of how we feel during those 20 minutes, but because of how it makes us feel afterwards! And maybe not even immediately afterwards…..but how it makes us react in less stressful ways to our work deadline later that afternoon or to our moody spouse later that evening. Don’t expect the clear and focused mind during meditation. That is a result that comes to your every day life as a result of meditation.
I Don’t Have Time To Meditate
And for those who say they don’t have enough time to meditate, Fletcher says what they really mean is, “I don’t yet understand exactly what stress is costing me.” She states that the average American spends $11,800 a year dealing with the effects of stress and fatigue, including coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, therapy, sleeping pills, and depression / anxiety medication. And that’s only the financial cost. The cost to our health and longevity is immense.
“The average American spends $11,800 a year dealing with the effects of stress and fatigue,
including coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, therapy, sleeping pills, and depression / anxiety medication.”
Fletcher explains that our afternoon coffee or chocolate craving is actually our body telling us that we are fatigued (likely as a result of the chronic stress in our daily lives). We mask those messages from our body when we reach for the coffee or the sugary snack and power through the day. Instead, she says to find a place to sit for 15 minutes with your eyes closed and do a quick meditation. That will give your body a rest that is five times deeper than sleep, obviously a better choice than masking your brain’s fatigue.
Stress and Your Brain
“Stress makes you stupid, sick, and slow. There’s a reason you can’d find your glasses when they’re on your head.”
“Stress makes you stupid, sick, and slow. There’s a reason you can’d find your glasses when they’re on your head.” Fletcher goes on to explain how chronic stress (i.e. late for work, boss is mad, fight with spouse, got laid off, kids are screaming, etc) uses so much of the body’s and the brain’s energy that they don’t have all their faculties for the task at hand. Hence, stupid, sick and slow.
Chronic Stress and the Body
So how does meditation solve the issue of chronic stress? We first have to understand how chronic stress affects the physiology of the body. Tens of thousands of years ago, stress meant being chased by a tiger or something worse. This is a moment of acute stress and the body was designed to respond in a way that would maximize its chance of survival. All unnecessary bodily systems slow down so that all energies are applied to fighting back or getting the h*ll out of there. Your immune system, digestive system, and reproduction system essentially go off line because none of those is important if you’re going to be a dead in a few moments. Cortisol, adrenaline, and other stress hormones flood the body. This is the “fight or flight” response that we have all heard about.
“Since our stress is now chronic and we feel it all day, every day, our bodies live in a
sub-optimal state where digestion and immune response and reproductive health take
second fiddle to the stress hormones surging through our bodies 24/7.”
That “fight or flight” response in the body was very appropriate thousands of years ago when being chased by a tiger. Fast forward to today and we see that the body’s physiological response to stress has not changed. Those chemical reactions and system shuts-downs continue to happen, but our stresses have changed. Instead of short periods of acute stress with periods of actual life and death danger, our stress today is now chronic stress with work, spouse, kids, finances, health, environmental toxins, food contaminants, etc. Unfortunately our bodies have not adapted and they react the same way they did in periods of tiger stress. Since our stress is now chronic and we feel it all day, every day, our bodies live in a sub-optimal state where digestion and immune response and reproductive health take second fiddle to the stress hormones surging through our bodies 24/7. Along with these stress hormones comes a more acidic pH level in our bodies (let’s not even talk about how unhealthy food is affecting pH too!), and that acidic pH level leads to inflammation. And what’s the leading cause of nearly 90% of all chronic disease? Yes … inflammation. And where does inflammation come from? Yes … chronic stress in the body. And how can we reduce the stress in our body and go from a constant “fight or flight” state to a “rest and repair” state? Yes … meditation.
How Does Meditation Stop Chronic Stress?
“Meditation shuts down the unnecessary windows / applications running on your brain’s computer.”
So … back to the original question … how does meditation solve the issue of chronic stress? Fletcher’s analogy is perfect: Meditation shuts down the unnecessary windows / applications running on your brain’s computer. She explains that meditation releases the stresses of the past (which we constantly replay and therefore relive over and over in our minds and in our bodies). Fletcher says that each time we enter a fight or flight response, which is in the millions by the time an average American reaches age 20, it leaves a marker or an “open window” on our brain’s machine (the scientific term is ‘premature cognitive commitment’). Continuing with this analogy, when we meditate we give the body a deep rest and the opportunity to close down the old irrelevant windows running in the background. This give us more energy and more processing power for the current moment. One of my unwavering beliefs is that the body heals itself. I believe Fletcher is saying that the body will heal the imprints of those previous fight or flight stress responses when we give it proper time and rest through meditation.
Latest Science and Research on Meditation
“Meditation can reverse your body age by somewhere around eight years.”
In order to make the time commitment to meditate, most people need to understand the return on investment in terms of their time and health. Understandable! Fletcher references conclusions from three recent scientific studies:
- Meditation thickens and strengthens the corpus callosum which is the bridge connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain. As Fletcher points out, this is literally the bridge between your critical mind and your creative mind and it’s the thing that allows you to come up with all those witty comebacks in the middle of a fight with your partner or allows you to come up with a great idea when your boss is freaking out.
- Meditation can reverse your body age by somewhere around eight years. Fletcher states that some studies are staying up to 15 years but the majority are saying eight years.
- Mindful meditation can reduce your pain receptivity by 44% which is double the effect of morphine. More information was published in this Time Magazine article from Nov 2015.
There is even more valuable information from Fletcher’s podcast that we don’t have the space to address in this already lengthy post, like the difference between mindfulness and meditation. You can also learn how to meditate from Fletcher either in person in New York or through her online classes. You can find her at www.zivameditation.com.
Do you have a story about how meditation changed your life? We’d love to hear it!
Please leave a comment below and share your experience!