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ОглавлениеThe Principles Behind the Silent Healer
Meditation is the single most powerful self-help tool that assists recovery from disease and leads to a life of maximum health. It provides all the basic ingredients. It has direct physical effects ranging from relief of physical tension to reactivation of the immune system. Meditation reliably leads to a calm and clear mind, the ability to think clearly, to make good decisions, and to see them through to completion. On top of this, meditation aids the development of emotional and mental poise, generates a positive attitude, and most important, leads automatically and effortlessly to a heightened level of well-being.
Currently, more than six thousand scientific studies published in the medical and scientific literature around the world attest to meditation’s capacity to positively affect physical and psychological health and well-being. Little wonder then that it has enjoyed such a rise in popularity as a self-help technique! When coupled with dietary considerations and active efforts to utilize the benefits of positive thinking, it forms the pillars upon which to build our capacity for healing and total health.
In the past, meditation has been used by most major religions as one part of a complex process intended for developing a heightened level of consciousness. Today the word “meditation” is used to describe many different processes. The specific form of meditation that interests us here, with its emphasis on being used as a therapy, relies on learning how to relax profoundly in body and mind. We call it mindfulness-based stillness meditation (MBSM). This form of meditation is disarmingly simple to learn and apply in our daily life, and has played a major part in transforming the health and lives of many people I have known.
My initial introduction to this form of meditation, and its therapeutic application, came through the great Australian psychiatrist Dr. Ainslie Meares. Interested in pain management, Dr. Meares first became interested in meditation as a means to relieve pain. However, he soon realized meditation had much more to offer and he began to experiment with meditation as a means for helping people to cope with anxiety and stress-related symptoms such as phobias, high blood pressure, allergies, nervous tension and pain intolerance. Then he wrote the world’s first book on the therapeutic benefits of meditation, Relief Without Drugs, in 1967.
One of Dr. Meares’ major contributions has been that he recognized the importance of stillness. A still mind, in a still body. He suggested that in this stillness, the body has the opportunity to return to its natural state of balance. He also observed that when meditation was practiced regularly, this refound state of balance persists throughout the day, helping the person to return automatically to that condition of balance we call health! Just as a cut finger heals itself automatically without us dwelling upon it, so meditation can reactivate natural healing mechanisms that operate automatically and have profound effects. It is to his great credit that Dr. Meares was able to perceive this and then devise a simple and quick technique that leads to that point of stillness and balance without, say, twenty years of rigorous concentrated study and practice of Zen discipline.
To understand why meditation is so helpful for so many health conditions, and for cancer specifically, we need to understand the role stress plays in our lives, in our health, and in our capacity to heal. This will then provide us with vital clues as we plan our self-help program.
Meditation, Stress, Anxiety and Relief
To understand how stress does affect us, let us look at the simple case of what happens when we get a sudden fright. Suppose that a bolt of lightning were to hit the ground near where you were standing. Your body would react very quickly, almost instantaneously. With a gasped “Oh!” you instinctively would take a sharp breath in and your muscles would contract with a jerk. Your body chemistry would change almost immediately as an array of hormones was released. Adrenaline would flow and cortisol levels rise. Your heart would race, your blood pressure would increase, and your blood would be diverted to the muscles of action. You would have been readied for immediate action, thanks to the automatic changes produced by what is called the fight-or-flight response. In our example, if you were quick, you may have dove under cover. But then, also quite quickly, you would have realized that the big bang really was just lightning, it had missed you, and everything was all right. “Ah!” would have come the response. The tension would be released and you would relax.
The events in this sequence are very important. The challenge gave rise to a bodily reaction that immediately prepared you for physical action. In the normal course of events, a period of physical activity would follow, which in turn would be completed and be followed by release. The sequence can be summarized:
1. Challenge
2. Bodily reaction with changes in body chemistry
3. Appropriate physical action with a clear beginning and end
4. Release and relax
5. Body chemistry returns to its usual, daily balance
This is a perfectly healthy sequence that was developed in earlier times when life was simpler and very physical in nature. The fight-or-flight response was then, and remains to this day, a vital aid for self-preservation. So if, for example, in older times, a saber-toothed tiger came charging over the hill toward you, intent upon making you dinner, the threat was very obvious! That threat produced rapid changes in your body chemistry and you were immediately prepared for action. This would lead to your doing the appropriate thing. If you felt you had a chance, you stood your ground and fought it out; if not, you ran. Either way, the challenge was resolved by a period of intense physical action that was followed through to a definite conclusion. You would then be free to relax, either licking your wounds or basking in success.
This sequence flowed with the rhythm of a simple life and it left no adverse aftereffects. Any fears that did remain were healthy ones based purely on instinct and self-preservation. Such fears did little to lessen the quality of life or lead to any physical symptoms. Animals in their natural state still demonstrate the appropriateness of this fight-or-flight response in a physically oriented world.
However, for us humans living in modern times, things are no longer so simple. The challenges we face now are rarely of a purely physical nature and frequently are complex indeed. Most, if not all, of our challenges nowadays are emotional or mental in their origins. However, an even greater problem is that frequently they are difficult to resolve.
So when the boss is overbearing and demanding, or the neighbor disturbs our sleep early on Sunday morning with his lawn mower, we react in the same old way. We take that short little gasp and tense our muscles. Our body chemistry changes rapidly, preparing us for action. But can we punch the boss’s nose or wrap the neighbor’s lawn mower around his ears? Not if we want the paycheck that we need to meet our commitments; not if we want to remain socially acceptable in our community! Often then, taking the action we might feel inclined to take instinctively is inappropriate and so our response is stifled. Worse still, we can have the situation where we do act reasonably, we do take what seems to be the appropriate action, and yet, even so, the challenges in our lives remain unresolved. We do all we can to reduce the mortgage, but it still remains, nagging away and causing us fear and worry.
When we do have an unresolved challenge, people tend to react in one of two general ways. The first is to accept the situation, let it go, and get on with life. No problem. The other is to stew on it, hang on to it, worry over it. Big problem! Common problem!
If we are one of the many people who do stew on things, then the problem is that every time we face that same situation or even think about it, the physical changes in our body chemistry are reinforced. Feeling that there is no obvious resolution or conclusion to our problems, having no way of finding an adequate release, there is no return to our basic, healthy body chemistry. We are locked into a situation where the fight-or-flight changes in our body chemistry persist.
A crucial point here is that the changes in body chemistry we are discussing and that are associated with the fight-or-flight response are fine in the short term. They are an appropriate preparation for a short period of intense activity. Where they are not appropriate is when they persist for long periods.
This brings us to another important point. Some people who are intent on de-stressing and getting well worry if they get an occasional fright or a even a brief moment or stress. Let us be really clear about this. In the short term, the fight-or-flight response is no problem and, in fact, can be quite helpful. It is when the biochemical changes that accompany the response become chronic and stay with us long term that we develop real problems.
If the changes in our body chemistry persist, we experience what is known as destructive stress. This type of stress is a challenge that leads to a prolonged untoward effect on a person. Stress occurs when there is an inability to take appropriate action in response to a challenge and so release it. Therefore, stress is an unresolved challenge.
It is easy to appreciate that stress is a very personal thing. It is really determined by how we respond to a challenge, rather than by the nature of the challenge itself. What may be an easily resolved challenge for one person may produce profound stress for another.
Stress and Cancer
The next key is that persistent stress affects the body chemistry in such a way that the body’s immune system is depleted. It is the changes in hormonal levels particularly that reduce the body’s immune function, along with its ability to maintain and repair itself. And so, with time and other factors such as poor diet, stress leaves the way open for many diseases to precipitate. The American Academy of Physicians states that stress-related symptoms lead to two-thirds of all visits to American family doctors. Stress is a major contributor, either directly or indirectly, to absenteeism, coronary heart disease, lung conditions, accident injuries, cirrhosis of the liver, suicide and a host of lesser ailments. I am convinced that stress is a major causative factor in cancer.
Virtually all the many thousands of cancer patients I have asked believe stress was a major factor in the development of their disease. Most recognize that first there was a chronic level of stress in their lives. But, more important, they generally identify readily with a psychological profile common to cancer patients. In about 95 percent of patients asked, this profile involves one particularly severely stressful experience precipitating a drastic drop in their well-being. The stressful event invariably occurred well before the cancer was diagnosed but its untoward effects continued. This highly significant factor will be discussed in detail in the chapter dealing with the causes of cancer (chapter 15).
Recognizing Stress
For the moment, though, how do you know when stress is a problem? If it is not patently obvious, as it often is, muscular tension is a good guide. If you suffer from stress, one of the body changes it will produce is physical tension. Your body can be your guide. If you are free of muscle tension, feeling relaxed and well, then you almost certainly have no problems! If your brow is knotted, your jaw clamped shut, if you have a persistent knot in your stomach, your shoulders are rigid or your hands clenched tightly, if you feel physical tension—beware! It is a warning signal. However, with appropriate action we can transform this, avoid future problems and generate healing.
Relieving Stress With Meditation • The Theory
Understanding the stress cycle makes it easy to understand how to deal with stress. It is not necessary to avoid stress totally, just deal with it appropriately. What we need is a means to release it. All successful people who cope well with potentially stressful situations have their personal means of finding release, of relaxing, of letting go.
But based on more than thirty years of experience assisting people with cancer, the easiest, the safest and the most reliable method—the best method for relieving muscular tension and stress—is the specific meditation technique we call mindfulness-based stillness meditation (MBSM). Because this type of meditation concentrates on a profound relaxation of the body and mind, it provides the opportunity for release—it allows us to let go! It allows us to regain a healthy balance in our body chemistry.
To learn how to achieve this, we begin by meditating formally and learning how to relax body and mind. The release found in these initial periods of meditation soon flows on to become an integral part of our life. As we return to a more relaxed state, we return to that healthy balance of body chemistry that is essential for promoting healing and maintaining good health.
Moreover, once we understand the stress cycle, we can understand why meditation for healing needs to be so simple and so uncomplicated. We can understand why it needs to begin with the relaxation of body and mind, and advance to include the release that comes with inner stillness.
For it is by entering this state of simple stillness that we enter a state of profound rest. When we are still, everything comes to rest—profoundly! And in that state of deep rest, we return to a natural state of balance. It is this state of balance we call good health. Good health is a state where we are in balance—a state where balance involves body, emotions, mind and spirit.
For many people, then, meditation has been enough in their quest for sustainable good health. Practiced regularly, meditation frees them from the bondage of stress, allows them to relax, to regain balance, and so enjoy life to the fullest. Do use this basic self-help technique and make it a part of your life. The benefits will repay the initial effort.
The Traditional Role Of Meditation
As we seek to adapt this ancient technique into a modern context, and apply it specifically in a therapeutic setting, it may well be helpful to understand meditation in its historical context, to consider and be informed by some of its traditional techniques.
Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years in all major cultures and traditions, primarily as a major tool on the spiritual path. It has been well said that meditation provides a reliable means through which we can come to know our own minds more fully. Meditation is an ideal technique to call upon when we are interested to examine the question of who we really are, and delightfully, history tells us that reliably it does lead to satisfying answers. Appendix C offers an insight into the traditional role of meditation and some of its key techniques. The book I cowrote with my colleague Paul Bedson, Meditation—An In-depth Guide,7 is a good reference point.
Personally, I feel very grateful for having close contact with and learning from a wide range of extraordinary meditation teachers over many years. Initially there was Dr. Meares, and more recently Sogyal Rinpoche, an authentically trained Tibetan master of meditation who has provided me with the rare opportunity to access ancient and authentic wisdom teachings that marry so well with modern needs. Then, too, I have learned so much from the many thousands of people who I have taught to meditate over the years. What I can offer here is a testament to all these great teachers.
What Does Meditation Offer to those with Cancer?
I had been fortunate to develop my cancer at a time when Dr. Ainslie Meares first contemplated the use of meditation for people affected by cancer. I had an emerging interest in the traditional forms of meditation and felt that these principles should be able to restore the inner harmony I felt I had lost. I believed if I could regain that inner harmony, it would be reflected on the outer physical level. Dr. Meares’ idea was that the meditation would relieve anxiety and stress. This would lead to a reduction in the levels of cortisone in my body and so allow my immune system to operate normally. Then my body would remove the tumors itself. It would return to normal. Putting it all together sounded good to me!
As I have practiced meditation more and come to see others benefit from it too, there do appear to be two broad areas of benefit. Meditation increases quality of life and quantity of life. In my experience, people who meditate regularly do feel better, and they do live longer.
Considering quality of life first, we see benefits on all levels of human experience. There are physical, emotional, mental and spiritual gains.
Physical Benefits
Chronic physical tension is a symptom of stress that we know inhibits the body’s natural function. Meditation relieves physical tension. Many people are struck by how good their body feels once this tension is removed. They realize just how much tension they had before learning to meditate in this way. While previously they had come to accept the tension as normal, now they realize just how unpleasant it really was.
Athletes have found meditation can increase their performance and certainly most people find their general efficiency in day-to-day tasks goes up extraordinarily once they begin to meditate. Consistently, heart rates go down, and even severely elevated blood pressure can return to normal. A typical example was Dr. Colin, who joined our group not with cancer but as an interested observer, and found much to his surprise that meditation and diet brought his severely elevated blood pressure back to normal within two months.
Emotional Benefits
Emotionally, our own level of ease is greatly improved through meditation. People find that they feel better about themselves. They feel more able to accept their limitations and to use their strengths positively. In so doing, they are more able to relate to other people in an open, honest and meaningful way.
Any cancer patient knows that being just that—a cancer patient—has its problems. Before cancer was diagnosed, you may have been a doctor, a teacher, a housewife, whatever. So often after diagnosis, to your friends you are now a cancer patient first and foremost, and everything else comes a poor second. This can cause much awkwardness and can become quite a cause for anxiety in itself. However, it is remarkable how meditation reliably leads to an acceptance of the situation and an openness that is infectious, putting everyone at ease.
Also, many people find meditation reduces any feelings of guilt and negative emotion they may have. As a consequence, they develop a greater capacity for loving. While this often results in an improved quality of sexual love, it also improves that more erudite, selfless love and compassion for all. People find they are able to feel good about themselves to a higher degree and, in doing so, give of themselves more safely and freely, and to be of more help to those around them.
Mental Benefits
Mental anxiety, if present, hinders all aspects of our being. Its causes are endless, often unidentifiable. Frequently, psychiatrists have spent long hours raking over the traumas of the past in a quest for the elusive cause of present anxieties. From the womb, to birth, the formative years, adolescence and beyond, all manner of incidents can be identified as potential causes for anxiety and stress. Even if the cause is identified, treatment often remains difficult.
Here is a vivid example. The Lancaster bombers of World War II had their rear ends protected by tail gunners. These men climbed into the tail section of the plane via a ladder. They lay down in the cramped fuselage and then had a Perspex bubble slammed tight around them. Their only communication with the rest of the crew was by headphone. They then set off on an incredibly rough ride with little to dwell upon except their solitary machine guns and the fact that on average they could expect to survive about two missions. An extreme and obvious cause for anxiety. It was not surprising then to find that after the war those who did survive frequently felt great tension when they were confined in small spaces. Many of these men found great difficulty in relaxing enough to urinate when in the narrow confines of a toilet! Frequently they knew the cause of their problem as did all who tried to relieve their anxiety. What happened? The problem remained and invariably they needed to leave the toilet door open!
There are two principles operating here. First, just knowing the cause of a problem is not necessarily enough to relieve it; an appropriate technique is also important. Second, if those men could not have related their inability to go to the toilet to their wartime experiences, they would have felt a great deal more anxiety and suffered greater distress.
Actually, it was with these very tail gunners that Dr. Meares began his foray into the realm of stress and anxiety. He found the standard psychiatric techniques of the postwar period were of little help to these men, but that hypnotherapy brought rapid relief. Dr. Meares went on to become a world authority in hypnotherapy and it was through this interest he came across meditation and pioneered its therapeutic use.
What he realized was that in seeking health, we need to understand as much about our situation as possible, as well as having appropriate techniques to deal with it. We benefit greatly from our own realization of what a constant effort it is to live with the pressure created by persistent anxiety. It is like trying to keep the lid on a pressure cooker all the time. It tires us physically, emotionally and mentally. However, once that anxiety is relieved, we feel benefits all through and our physical symptoms soon respond.
Perhaps Dr. Meares’ greatest contribution has been to show that meditation reliably treats stress and anxiety regardless of cause, and, more important, it works even if what caused it is unidentified. Meditation is so effective because it short-circuits the stress cycle. It provides a reliable means of moving quickly and easily from those changes in body chemistry that are an integral part of the physical effects of stress. Releasing stress in this natural way heralds a return to normal function and health.
This rationale explains further why we benefit from starting the meditation technique with relaxing the physical body and why the “release,” or the relaxation of body and mind, promotes a return to normal health. Once we trigger that state of release, the body chemistry returns to normal and the normal state means health. What we really need to do quite simply is to let go!
Spiritual Benefits
Spiritually, many people find meditation leads to a peace of mind they had not imagined possible. A member of our group, Cathy, recently told me that her body had never been worse but she had never felt so good! Her face was shining, full of enthusiasm and she said she was experiencing a quality of life she had never known before.
This peace of mind comes at a level so fundamental that it becomes in reality a true, direct experience. Many people who have firm religious beliefs to begin with are surprised by the depth of this experience. While some are apprehensive that meditation may conflict with their beliefs, the usual experience is that it leads to a heightened appreciation of their particular religious tradition and a greater level of personal joy.
This experience is often even more noticeable in people with no fixed religious views. I am sure that we all would like confirmation that there is more to life than just this mortal coil. In the past, most people seem to have relied on the word of others that this was or was not so. By contrast, in modern times there has been a common disenchantment with formal religion and an urge to seek direct experience. Frequently, however, as the immediate material world is explored more fully, it is found to be exciting, but lacking. There has to be something more. Meditation often leads to a direct experience of that something more. You only have to see the smiles on the faces of many of the people I have known who have learned to meditate to realize that this is a fact.
Does Meditation Lead to Survival?
How long am I going to live? That question can lurk in the recesses of our minds to catch our breath whenever we are unaware. If we are a cancer patient, that question can be a constant nagging fear unless we reach acceptance, unless we regain our peace of mind. This does happen.
There is plenty of evidence from recent research that lifestyle factors do extend how long we live, as well as how well we live. Regarding meditation specifically, there are many studies confirming the quality-of-life benefits. Remarkably, while meditation has been shown to be therapeutic for many illnesses and enhance or lead to recovery from them, to date there have been no good outcome trials with meditation and cancer. What we can say is that many long-term survivors greatly valued their meditation and believe it to be a major factor in their recovery. My own case attests to this and so do the stories of many of the people in the book Surviving Cancer.8
There is no doubt in my mind that these techniques work. I am consistently surprised by the large number of people who tell me their lives are the better for having had cancer and responding to it in the way they have. Speaking personally, I now feel my whole quality of life to be vastly better than before I had my leg amputated. I meditate because I want to. Meditation is a regular part of my day. As Judy, another person with cancer, said recently, “Cancer changed my life for the better. It has taught me so much and I have gained so much through it. I cannot imagine myself having done it all without the prompting cancer gave me.”
A Summary
Meditation is so important because it leads to
1. A clear mind This enables us to think clearly and to make good decisions.
2. A calm mind This frees us from stress and reestablishes balance in body, emotions, mind and spirit. Inner peace and contentment follow, along with a quiet confidence in all we do.
3. Healing This flows naturally from the balance we experience in deep, natural peace.
4. The truth of who we really are As we relax deeper and deeper, our awareness opens in such a way that we experience our inner essence, the truth of who we really are. Now the confidence and the smile come from deep within, and they last throughout the ups and downs of life.
