Is meditation beneficial?

[Danielj1]

hashimotoshealing.com/using...

I read a few stores of how meditation has been part of restoring health.

There are many similar commentaries to the attached. Does anyone here use these techniques and get any good results?

Not done this personally.

[Angel_of_the_North]

I've found it useful - esp if adrenals are having a a hard time - like getting another night's sleep in 20 minutes. But mindfulness (Buddhist concentration meditation without the Buddhism) is very hard to do and stick to, Suggest TM (there are independent feachers) or Vedic.

[Gambit62]

I've found mindfulness based meditation very useful in dealing with anxiety and depression.

Just working through a rather comprehensive review of the benefits of meditation by Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson - quite a balanced review - mentioning the negatives as well as the positives which you might find interesting.

amazon.co.uk/Science-Medita...

If you want to try it out I can definitely recommend 'Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world' by Mark Williams and Danny Penman

you can read more about it and sample at least some of the meditations here

franticworld.com/free-medit...

[Treepie]

There are many different techniques .I found TM good but lapsed because of noisy household years ago.

[SuD7]

Headspace app is very good tool for mindfulness.

[SilverAvocado]

I've found it very useful. Initially made a huge difference to insomnia, but it also reduces my pulse, and I'm sure is good for adrenals.

I disagree with the member who said it is difficult to do. I had used the Mark Williams book recommended above (I also strongly recommend. Includes an excellent CD of guided meditations, and the book is a lot about understanding how emotions, anxieties and thoughts work) years before I got sick and meditated sporadically. Then later in my illness I started doing several days a week, then most days a week for a year or two. By then it was so useful to me eventually I missed it on the days I didn't meditate, so now I do it very strictly every day, and I will noticeably feel crappy if I don't. I now dabble in doing longer meditations or twice a day, but only sometimes. I think it's fine to develop slowly over the years, and I wouldn't expect a newcomer to do an exercise every single day until they get to the point where they strongly want to.

That book is the very best way to start, I also recommend the Headspace app that's been mentioned. The free trial is 10 days of meditation and it requires a bit less effort than the book as there's nothing to read or learn. The guidance keeps you very busy for the whole time so you're not left alone with your thoughts for any time.

The book is much more comprehensive. It's an 8 week course but you really only need to do the first two or three weeks for general meditation. It includes very easy but very powerful exercises, like eating a peanut or chocolate bar very mind fully, and explains very very well the ins and outs of doing the exercises. It's very warm and very based on the idea there's no wrong way to do it. I can't praise it enough, really. I have bought many many copies for friends, primarily for the improvements in anxiety and depression, but also for insomnia and the ADD type symptoms of hypothyroid.

There are also several sequels now. I very much enjoy Vidyalama Birch's one which is specifically about illness and chronic pain. But there are at least two more I haven't tried.

[milupa in reply to SilverAvocado]

Thank you for the recommendations, very helpful as I am finally ready to commit to this!

[SilverAvocado in reply to milupa]

Milupa, good luck! I hope you love it

[milupa]

Hi - during yoga teacher training (20 years ago!) I was warned that teaching meditation techniques to someone with mental health problems could be dangerous which scared me so I just tought body mapping and similar concentration and relaxation exercises. Then, when going through very stressful times I tried meditating and felt worse. I now know my adrenals were in a bad state, I was barely functioning.

Recently, looking for something to help my anxious/overexcited dog calm down, I looked into mindfulness meditation. I am at the very beginning of this but both my dog and I are benefitting already. I am now on a small amount of hydrocortisone and my overall health is better, but not good so I will continue with this, just a few minutes a day for now.

[Danielj1 in reply to milupa]

thenational.ae/lifestyle/we...

Will watch what others are doing ...