Empathy, care for a patient, altruism, love, compassion has always been in
very good reputable all Hospitals from Pamplona, Spain which are well know to
all high standard up Professional in the medical field in Europe . strangely
enough those hospitals happen to be in its majority in the hands of OPUS Dei
and catholic church (or at least they were) . The real mystery here is once
again in the heart. And no matter who embodies that heart. Nothing at all is
possible without the heart. If mindfulness is show in a scientific way the
outcome will be a disaster
--- On Wed, 20/10/10, Rose P <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Rose P <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Zen] Positive neural changes in the brain due to meditation?
To: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday, 20 October, 2010, 12:21
This was a really interesting article Ed. The bit that really stood out for me
was 'Years of meditation cultivates a natural non-reactivity to experience.' It
made me wonder whether, once everything else is stripped away (the words, the
concepts, the debates, and indeed the 'wondering'...), is non-reactivity to
experience the essence, the key, the aim of the practise....
Rose
--- On Wed, 10/20/10, ED <[email protected]> wrote:
From: ED <[email protected]>
Subject: [Zen] Positive neural changes in the brain due to meditation?
To: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 6:48 AM
Mindfulness: Meditation Vs. Skill Set
October 7, 2010By 4u Articles
As a long term yogic and vipassana meditator, and a mindfulness-based
psychotherapist who regularly teaches meditation practices to my patients, I
find the growth of mindfulness as a clinical intervention very timely. Last
year, I attended two conferences focused on the use of mindfulness as a
clinical intervention: Meditation and Psychotherapy at Harvard Medical School
and Mindfulness and Psychotherapy at UCLA.
Interestingly, the conference at Harvard featured a greater percentage of
presenters who do not use meditation as an intervention in their clinical work.
For them, mindfulness is a teachable skill set, extrapolated from a way of
viewing life gained from sustained Buddhist meditation practices.
These presenters included: Steven Hayes, founder of ACT, Lizbeth Roemer, U Mass
GAD researcher and clinician, Tal Ben-Shahar, Harvard Lecturer on Positive
Psychology, and Jayme Shorin, LICSW, sensorimotor trainer. The fact that the
organizers of the Harvard conference felt it necessary to devote over half of
the presentation time to methodologies that do not include meditation was, for
me, significant.
Though this might be expected at a Mindfulness and Psychotherapy conference, in
fact the UCLA conference featured more presenters discussing the use of
meditation and compassion practices as a clinical intervention.
These presenters included: Thich Nhat Hahn, Vietnamese Buddhist monk and
meditation teacher, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Harriett Kimble Wrye, and Trudy
Goodman, all psychologists and meditation teachers, and Dr. Daniel Siegel &
Harvard neuroscientist Sara Lazar presenting the neurobiology of meditation.
Due to the continuing trend in mental health toward brief, CBT [Cognitive
Behavior Therapy] methods and away from depth-oriented, psychodynamic
therapies, one can easily see how a reduction of mindfulness to an easily
deliverable skill set would be a natural outcome of the environment in which it
is delivered.
But is the doing away with meditation practice psychotherapeutically wrong or
ineffective? Not necessarily.
Even in the East, Karma Yoga is an example of a path to liberation which
eschews formal meditation practice in favor of a commitment to the work one
does in the world as spiritual practice.
Also, with neuroscience showing significant brain changes from long-term
mindfulness meditation, one can easily see how a researcher like Steven Hayes
could create mental exercises that simulate, through active questioning of the
validity of language, the realization of the contextual nature of the self.,
i.e., Am I really these thoughts and beliefs that my mind continually comes up
with?
Years of meditation cultivates a natural non-reactivity to experience. But why
wait years, when simple instructions for distress tolerance, like those
featured in DBT can be dispensed to patients suffering from emotion
dysregulation? Following in the footsteps of ACT is Acceptance-based
psychotherapy which focuses on delivering skills for realizing and accepting
here and now experience with compassion; something vipassana meditation and
metta practices are well documented at cultivating in long-term practitioners.
Yet again, why practice meditation at all when mindfulness skills can be
learned and behaviors changed?
Additionally, it must be acknowledged that most psychotherapists will not want
to learn and commit to a daily mindfulness meditation practice, or be trained
to teach mindfulness meditation. Therefore, it may be more desirable and
practical in clinical settings to deliver a CBT-like mindfulness skill set
rather than teach meditation
In light of all these benefits, what do we lose in clinical practice when we
allow instruction of vipassana/mindfulness meditation to fall into disfavor or
become outmoded? The following list is my best guess at an answer to this
question:
1.The long and short term stress-reducing physical effects of meditation
2.The plethora of profoundly, positive neural changes evidenced in the brains
of long term vipassana/Tibetan Buddhist meditators
3.The deep emotional healing that comes from metta/forgiveness/compassion
meditation practices
4.The benefits of setting aside time in our busy lives for silence, meditation
and contemplation
5.The cultivation of peacefulness
6.The deepening of connection with and respect for our planet and all living
things upon it, which naturally arise from sustained meditation practice
7.The shared joy of a community of meditators; whether traditional sanghas or
8-week mindfulness-based groups like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR),
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression Relapse Prevention (MBCT),
or Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for addiction recovery (MBRP).
I have seen patients experience radical change from incorporating mindfulness
meditation and mindfulness skills into their daily lives and I am excited to
offer MBRP, a mindfulness-based intervention for addiction relapse prevention
in San Jose, CA in March 2008. Please contact me for more information.
http://www.4u-2.com/health/health-meditation/mindfulness-meditation-vs-skill-set/
