Searching For the Waters of Antiquity

Like a snake in the Garden of Eden, terrorism is slithering down the path once more. Many dates live on in our memories, and the last is looming on the horizon as the anniversary approaches, a date that we as Americans will always remember. Another date that I remember is April 19, 1995, marking the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing. I remember it because I was there on my way to work at a nearby hospital health clinic.

Many of us in the profession volunteered at the large church, a make shift holding area, giving comfort to family members for hope against hope that a loved one would be found.

We live in a world where terrorism intimidates and threatens to strike at the heart of our communities once again. Where world peace eludes us, and keeping up with our stressful daily lives, we find ourselves conditioned to live on the edge of stress and anxiety. Fear is all around us, be it international terrorism, corporate or environmental disaster, or personal tragedy. A day after British ID suspects in terror plot we see more evidence that we lack control, and that even frightens us more.

We juggle between our need to know what is going on, and the constant assaults from the media that create its own havoc with our lives. Where is the peace and joy in living, how do we get control back over our lives? (more…)

Sometimes the best things in life are free… Researchers studying meditation show that stress is a vicious cycle: Unchecked stress turns into anxiety; anxiety turns into depression, which over time turns into a hormone that plays havoc with the internal organs of the body, producing a variety of illnesses and disorders.

Meditation can turn that around, reducing anxiety, depression, and the hormones that damage our body. Both adults and children are using meditation to control feelings and behavior. When you look at how our children interpret the body’s responses, these feelings are externalized as both bodily dysfunction and behavior issues. We are seeing that all of these complaints are endemic in our country and in the world.

Viewed from a hormonal level, meditation can counteract the fight-or-flight response that floods the body with a stress hormone which also shuts down the parasympathetic system. This hormone normally restores order after the fight-or-flight response alert is over. Overtime when it doesn’t restore the system, the hormone reacts with a vengeance on it.
Taking a closer look on a molecular level, meditation slows metabolism in red blood cells and suppresses the production of proteins associated with the kind of heightened immune response often seen in stressed-out subjects. In one study, meditating a mere 15 minutes twice daily reduced doctor visit over a six-month period saving this health-care system $200 a patient.

Now let’s be honest, maybe we are not so concerned with saving the health care system a lot of money. But aren’t we concerned with how we feel on a daily basis and wouldn’t we want our health care costs lower? I think most of us would agree with these outcomes right? So if 15 minutes twice a day can do that for us, would it be worth your time? I would think so, and if proper breathing and some time can do that, it might be well worth the short commitment. See, sometimes the best things in life are free!