Mindfulness Therapy: Big Gain, No Pain
15 Jan 2009
We get sick when we fall out of harmony with nature. We fall into a state of vibratory chaos that I call “dis-ease”. It occurs when the systems of life shift out of synchrony with each other. Dis-ease can be caused by physical, mental and spiritual factors.
Dis-ease causes a huge amount of stress and makes it difficult for us to make wise decisions. A destructive cycle can be set up where stress causes more dis-ease, which causes more stress, and on it goes. This is one of the main ways that we suffer.
Fortunately, there are new techniques that offer a way out of the stress. Foremost among them is mindfulness therapy, known formally as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. It is being used in progressive medical centers in North America and Europe to give patients a new tool to raise the quality of their lives. It is also being studied extensively by scientists.
A recent study of people with fibromyalgia, for instance, showed that after a brief training in mindfulness therapy, patients reported significantly lower levels of pain, anxiety, and depression than similar patients who did not get the training. The training took place in 8 short weekly sessions.
The study found that 3 years after the training the improved pain, anxiety, and depression measures persisted with the group who had learned to meditate, versus those who had not. This is consistent with the findings of other sudies. They show that the pay-off of mindfulness therapy is huge compared with the effort that it takes to learn it, plus it is virtually free.
Mindfulness therapy was developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. You can easily find out where to learn mindfulness. UMASS maintain a worldwide list of mindfulness therapy centers at their Center for Mindfulness .
