Meditation: Clarifying Priorities

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Everyone benefits:

• Improve Personal confidence
• Learn "No regrets"
• Non-judgmental regarding yourself and others
• Calming/ Peaceful interactions
• Mindfulness- paying attention, improving memory
• Helping kids and adults focus, prioritize
• Interconnecting muscles, sensory, and movements, with mental focus

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Many Meditation techniques:

• 1. Forgiveness:
  
  • I ask for forgiveness from others
  • I forgive others
  • I forgive myself
• 2. Sending good will and peace:
  • To myself
  • To people in my household/ office/ this meeting
  • To those around us: restaurant staff, patrons
  • To neighbors
  • To teachers/ classmates/ friends
  • People in my community/ Every being in this city
  • My fellow country women and men
  • To others around the world
• 3. Imagery:
  • Imagine tranquil places, images
  • Imagine flower blooming, dot becoming larger
  • Colors getting softer or stronger/ Changing colors
• 4. Body sensations:
  • Locating each part of the body and how each area feels
  • Contract/ Relax each body area
  • Observing breath
• 5. Emotions and thoughts:
  • Observe breath
  • Acknowledge when thoughts are racing, come back to breath observation
  • Observing emotions, go back to breath
  • Observing pain/ itching/ feeling on skin
  • Slows down reaction to senses/anger- keep self in check
• 6. Moving Meditation:
  • While eating, walking, sitting, driving
  • Walking: observe steps, pressure each foot
  • Eating: How many chews, jaw moves R/L, tongue, swallowing
  • While working/ driving: Ergonomics, body alignments
  • Sports body movements

We all need quiet meditative time. Read how noise is affecting physical and mental health in adults and children

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References

National Institute of Health

• Barrett B, Hayney MS, Muller D, et al. Meditation or exercise for preventing acute respiratory infection: a randomized controlled trial. Annals of Family Medicine. 2012;10:337–346.
• Brewer JA, Mallik S, Babuscio TA, et al. Mindfulness training for smoking cessation: results from a randomized controlled trial. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2011;119(1–2):72–80.
• Brook RD, Appel RJ, Rubenfire M, et al. Beyond medications and diet: alternative approaches to lowering blood pressure: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Hypertension. 2013;61(6):1360–1383
• Carim-Todd L, Mitchell SH, Oken BS. Mind-body practices: an alternative, drug-free treatment for smoking cessation? A systematic review of the literature. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2013;132(3):399–410.
• Chen KW, Berger CC, Manheimer E, et al. Meditative therapies for reducing anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Depression and Anxiety. 2012;29(7):545–562.
• Cherkin DC, Sherman KJ, Balderson BH, et al. Effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction vs cognitive behavioral therapy or usual care on back pain and functional limitations in adults with chronic low back pain: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2016;315(12):1240–1249.
• Cramer H, Haller H, Lauche R, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for low back pain. A systematic review. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2012;12(162):1–8.
• Dakwar E and Levin FR. The emerging role of meditation in addressing psychiatric illness, with a focus on substance use disorders. Harvard Review of Psychiatry. 2009;17(4):254–267.
• Desbordes G, Negi LT, Pace TW, et al. Effects of mindful-attention and compassion meditation training on amygdala response to emotional stimuli in an ordinary, non-meditative state. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2012;6:1–15
• Fang CY, Reibel DK, Longacre ML, et al. Enhanced psychosocial well-being following participation in a mindfulness-based stress reduction program is associated with increased natural killer cell activity. Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2010;16(5):531–538.
• Gaylord SA, Palsson OS, Garland EL, et al. Mindfulness training reduces the severity of irritable bowel syndrome in women: results of a randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Gastroenterology. 2011;106(9):1678–1688.
• Goldstein CM, Josephson R, Xie S, et al. Current perspectives on the use of meditation to reduce blood pressure. International Journal of Hypertension. 2012;2012:578397.
• Goyal M, Singh S, Sibinga EM, et al. Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2014;174(3):357–368.
• Greeson JM, Webber DM, Smoski MJ, et al. Changes in spirituality partly explain health-related quality of life outcomes after Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 2011;34(6):508–518.
• Jedel S, Hoffman A, Merriman P, et al. A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction to prevent flare-up in patients with inactive ulcerative colitis. Digestion. 2014;89:142–155.
• Lakhan SE, Schofield KL. Mindfulness-based therapies in the treatment of somatization disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2013;26;8(8):e71834.
• Luders E. Exploring age-related brain degeneration in meditation practitioners. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2013;1307:82–88.
• Luders E, Kurth F, Mayer EA, et al. The unique brain anatomy of meditation practitioners: alterations in cortical gyrification. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2012;6:1–9.
• Nidich SI, Rainforth MV, Haaga DAF, et al. A randomized controlled trial on effects of the transcendental meditation program on blood pressure, psychological distress, and coping in young adults. American Journal of Hypertension. 2009;22(12):1326–1331.
• Morgan N, Irwin MR, Chung M, et al. The effects of mind-body therapies on the immune system: meta-analysis. PLOS One. 2014;9(7):1–14.
• Ong JC, Manber R, Segal Z, et al. A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation for chronic insomnia. Sleep. 2014;37(9):1553–1563.
• Reiner K, Tibi L, Lipsitz JD. Do mindfulness-based interventions reduce pain intensity? A critical review of the literature. Pain Medicine. 2013;14:230–242.
• Rosenkranz M, Davidson RJ, MacCoon D, et al. A comparison of mindfulness-based stress reduction and an active control in modulation of neurogenic inflammation. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 2013;27(1):174–184.
• Rubia K. The neurobiology of meditation and its clinical effectiveness in psychiatric disorders. Biological Psychology. 2009;82(1):1–11.
• Tang Y-Y, Tang R, Posner MI. Brief meditation training induces smoking reduction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2013;110(34):13971–13975.
• Westbrook C, Creswell JD, Tabibnia G, et al. Mindful attention reduces neural and self-reported cue-induced craving in smokers. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 2013;8(1):73–84.
• Zeidan F, Adler-Neal AL, Wells RE, et al. Mindfulness-meditation-based pain relief is not mediated by endogenous opioids. Journal of Neuroscience. 2016;36(11):3391–3397.

Meditation References Relating to Pain:

• Mindfulness Meditation-Based Pain Relief Employs Different Neural Mechanisms Than Placebo and Sham Mindfulness Meditation-Induced Analgesia.
  J Neurosci. 2015 Nov 18;35(46):15307-25. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2542-15.2015.
  Zeidan F1, Emerson NM2, Farris SR2, Ray JN3, Jung Y4, McHaffie JG2, Coghill RC5.
• Mindfulness meditation-related pain relief: evidence for unique brain mechanisms in the regulation of pain.
  Neurosci Lett. 2012 Jun 29;520(2):165-73. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2012.03.082. Epub 2012 Apr 6.
  Zeidan F1, Grant JA, Brown CA, McHaffie JG, Coghill RC.
• Meditation awareness training for the treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome: A randomized controlled trial.
  Br J Health Psychol. 2017 Feb;22(1):186-206. doi: 10.1111/bjhp.12224. Epub 2016 Nov 25.
  Van Gordon W1, Shonin E1, Dunn TJ2, Garcia-Campayo J3, Griffiths MD1.
• Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Usual Care on Back Pain and Functional Limitations in Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
  JAMA. 2016 Mar 22-29;315(12):1240-9. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.2323.
  Cherkin DC1, Sherman KJ2, Balderson BH3, Cook AJ4, Anderson ML3, Hawkes RJ3, Hansen KE3, Turner JA5.
• Mindfulness and bodily distress.
  Dan Med J. 2012 Nov;59(11):B4547
  Fjorback LO1.