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Mental Health and Meditation
It’s rampant and its everywhere. It’s a topic no one likes to talk about, and few have answers to help. No, I’m not talking about politics, weather or sports — but about the research, data out of the University of Wisconsin that shows “symptoms of depression” can be “cured or alleviated” through meditation. It’s a bold statement, but it’s science. Richard Davidson at the University has pioneered the study, out of that study came the term “mindfulness” because people were uncomfortable saying the term that spawned the study; “Meditation.”
Med means measure in Latin. It’s not contemplating a navel, although that can help — it’s about using an ancient tool to assist modern medicine. Not “the only thing” to use — but a tool nonetheless. I heard Davidson speak at UCLA some years ago, to a packed house of LA psychiatrists, trying to find alternatives to SSRI drugs (Prozac etc) that had caused a “spike” in ideation of self harm or harm of others in teenagers. (The NIMH had issued a warning as well).
Davidson showed the data, the graphs and charts that showed a “single session” of meditation could “change the shape of the amygdala.” (The regulator of serotonin in the brain, which is what the “serotonin inhibitors” work on. (Aside from the reports that a certain percentage of people…