Stress Reduction: Meditation, therapy, yoga, herbs, medication

Stress Reduction

Q.Can meditation help to reduce stress or to manage depression?
A.Yes. When you are fearful or sad, you can feel consumed by stress or depression. Meditation helps you to witness your mind, placing your fears and disappointments in perspective. Fears and disappointments, however vast, are temporary, like dark clouds in a vast sky. By observing the clouds, you begin to realize that the clouds are your own thoughts. The thoughts arose from your own mind. You can experience your own nature as peaceful, calm and quiet, like the sky on a still day. By paying less attention to your troubling thoughts you can experience power and peace.

Q.Are there different kinds of meditation?
A. Yes. Different people benefit from different kinds of meditation and different relaxation techniques. It is important that meditation be consistent with your religious beliefs and with your disposition. People may meditate whether they are atheists, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Moslem, Hindu, or Ba'hai. If you choose a form of meditation that requires repetition of a prayer or mantra, that phrase must be compatible with your beliefs. Some forms of meditation are compatible with all beliefs, like meditation with music as a focus or use of the Holosync technique, a modern technology designed to produce deep relaxation.

Q.Is meditation a complete answer to stress?
A.For some people, the practice of meditation is the only thing they need to to relieve their stress. However, meditation works best if you are also working to have a healthy, active body. You can feel stressed and depressed and can have insomnia because of drug dependency, including prescription drug dependency, or from withdrawal from drugs. Too much caffeine also can cause stress.

So, to reduce stress, do not abuse drugs. Eat right. Get proper nutrition. Stretch your limbs, much as the Yogis have done. Stretching relieves tension and keeps the body supple and responsive. It also helps to develop the ability to sit quietly while feeling alive and comfortable.

Q.Should I also consider therapy or Meditation Therapy Weekends?
A.Meditation is very helpful. However, all of us developed unique ways of seeing the world as we grew up. Some of those ways are no longer helpful to us as adults. Therapy (especially meditation therapy and Meditation Therapy Weekends can be very helpful in gaining insight into patterns that do not work and in making changes in those patterns. For some, meditation may in time be all that is needed. Therapy can speed up the process..

Q.How should I stretch?
A.One excellent way is to practice Hatha Yoga. These are time-tested stretches. If you use other stretches, please try to stretch muscles in different plains and directions. Two-dimensional stretches do not limber up the whole body.

Q.Do I need any other exercise?
A.Yes. Do some aerobic exercise, like walking, ice skating, bicycling, swimming, using a treadmill, or using a health rider. Do not do too much. The test of a good workout is that you feel good when you finish. Do not get too tired. Do not get too sore. If your body feels good, you will keep exercising. You will also want to eat right in order to keep feeling good. You will not want to stuff yourself and end the good feeling of fitness.

Q.Is medicine ever helpful to relieve stress?
A.Yes, definitely. Some people may require psychiatric medicine because they have a genetic deficiency or a neurological condition. Abnormalities may be caused early in life, even while the child is being carried in the womb.

Other people may be suffering from situational depression. This may be addressed by Chinese herbal remedies or by accupuncture. In the winter, many people become depressed because of "seasonal affective disorder." Put simply, they become depressed from the short days and the long, dark nights. Not surprisingly, this kind of depression is relieved by using bright lighting in the home, particularly in the areas you use when you first wake up in the morning. Bright lighting may be obtained from Home Depot or any comprehensive department store. Obtain the new technology in which flourescent tubes are used to replace incandescent bulbs. Add additional lamps if necessary. The fixtures last longer than other fixtures, are color-balanced and are brighter, and use less electricity.

If a depression problem is temporary, medicine may only be needed for three to six months after which they may be discontinued. For mild depression, you may take St. Johns Wart, which is sold at health food stores and over-the-counter. Medicine requiring prescriptions include prozac, zoloft and paxil. For complicated psychiatric conditions, anti-psychotic drugs may prove to be very helpful. The more serious the condition, the more necessary it is to see a psychiatrist to find out which medicines work best for you.

Q.Should I meditate while I am taking psychiatric medicine or herbs?
Yes. Psychiatric medicine may be helpful, but your long-term solution is meditation. Meditation completely changes your relationship to stress and your basic attitude. A meditative life is joyful and energizing. Even if you have never experienced joyfulness, meditation has the power to open up this road of living.

Become committed to regular meditation. Be patient. You will not regret it.

Q.I find meditation hard and even boring. How can I become committed to meditation anyway?
A.There are several helpful suggestions.

Study the free meditation manual.
Enjoy a Meditation Therapy weekend or find a retreat center that suits you. Examine the meditation links at the top of Many Great Links.
Investigate the Holosync technology, which uses audio tapes and stereo headphones to induce very deep meditative states in most people. I began using this technology in October 1998 and I found that it induced a deeper meditative state than I had achieved in ten years of practice.
Associate with people who meditate. Find a local meditation center.
Visit an ashram, such as the one you may find from the first Siddha Yoga link near the top of the Many Great Links page.
Visit a monastery or another retreat center, using Many Great Links.
Find a therapist who helps you to feel safe and to examine your behavior and attitudes in depth, for the purpose of making lasting changes in your life.
Pray for a closer relationship to God.
Read holy scripture and reflect on it. Apply scripture to your own life.
To help with relaxation, find a massage therapist recommended by people whom you trust or purchase the ultimate massage therapy.

Q.I have insomnia. What can help me?
A.First you may want to find out more about insomnia by visiting the excellent discussion offered as the Mayo Clinic's answers about insomnia. For insomnia, there is a useful proven technology. A complete diagnosis of the cause of insomnia can be obtained from a reputable sleep laboratory, maintained by a hospital or a group of doctors. Regular meditation may be helpful. If you meditate regularly, you may find it useful to use a different kind of meditation to go to sleep. For this purpose, meditate in bed on your back. Have the intention of falling asleep. Focus on your breath or on your mantra or prayer. Let yourself grow drowsy, as you would not if you were meditating at another time. Use meditation to relax you and help you fall asleep.

Q.I am depressed or anxious and I wonder whether smoking, caffeine, prescription drugs or other substances may be helping to cause my problem.
A.Many substances can seriously affect mood. Check out the substance abuse information on the web. Caffeine, found in coffee, cola drinks and some other soft drinks, is generally a safe substance; however if you are a heavy user (over 350 milligrams a day) then caffeine can make you irritable and you can have withdrawal symptoms when you go for a period of time without consuming coffee or another source of caffeine.

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