Thoughts On Meditation

Those With Mental Illness Can Benefit From Meditation

Many forms of meditation are helpful to everyone, those with Mental Illness included. Often, people with Mental Illness symptoms feel like their thoughts are racing, or their thoughts have taken a 'scary' turn, or have gained some other discomforting manner. This can cause greatly heightened symptoms of agitation, fear, disorientation, and other uncomfortable stresses in the mind.

"Agitation" and "Agitated" are fairly common terms for either the feelings that people with mental illness experience (agitated, nervous, restless, fearful) - or else the behaviors that others witness (agitatation, jitters, restlessness, fidgeting) from people suffering with mental illness. Sometimes a person exhibiting symptoms won't be aware that their mental process is leading to certain telling behaviors, but others can take note of their symptoms. In many instances, meditation can help reduce 'agitation' symptoms, even if the affected person is caught up in a mental process where he or she doesn't seem 'to feel' bad or nervous. (Often, a manic person will feel 'exhilaration,' or 'extreme elation' and will show behaviors that are out of the ordinary, which look like agitation to others).

But meditation isn't JUST FOR people with Mental Illness. Meditation is available and is effective for reducing stress and promoting good mental health in everyone. Some people claim that meditation doesn't help them or that meditation has, on some occassion, made their mental health/illness symptoms worse. In cases like this, it is highly possible that - with all the TYPES OF meditation available, some people who have not gained benefits with meditation have selected a type not suitable for them.

Some techniques are helpful to allow people to focus with great intensity on body feelings and things that are directly in contact with the senses (sound of a heartbeat, temperature in the room, feel of the shirt against your skin, sound of a clock ticking, etc). This type of meditation may not be helpful for someone who is having a panic attack which involves certain symptoms like heart palpitations - unless, of course, there is a 'helper' closeby to help 'guide' the meditation away from suggestions about body sensations that are troublesome. A person whose panic attacks revolve around heart palpitations probably should not be 'tuning in' to the sound of their heartbeat, unless guided in meditation by a professional who can 'talk the person down' to hearing their heartbeat slow down.

By contrast, someone who is having some sort of mental episode involving their beliefs about reality (I have had panic attacks where symptoms include body numbness, so a technique like this is helpful for me, personally - particularly during a panic attack), might benefit from the intense focus type of meditation where body sensations are brought into consideration in minute detail. When I have had previous panic attacks with 'numbness' symptoms, it has helped to mindfully meditate on heartbeat, then pulse feelings, then clothing contact, and gradually, I can feel the room temperature in the limbs I once thought were 'numb.' Consequently, by this time, the 'panic attack' symptoms have dispersed and the attack is usually over.

In any case, meditation, in general, is a very safe, effective, easy-to-perform, and inexpensive way to relax and promote most peoples' levels of better mental health.

With today's hectic lifestyles, you have to realize that 'the norm' of rushing around, fitting appointments into full-time school and work schedules and all the rest of the activities that society deems are necessary, 'the norm' is really not healthy at all.

Don't settle for just one meditation, particularly if you have felt uncomfortable with the process of meditating a certain way in the past. There are dozens and dozens of meditative methods for you to try. Also, some meditations improve and bring added benefit with 'practice.' You can hone your skills at meditation so that you can use a certain technique almost anywhere.

I can meditate when I am walking to a dentist appointment that I am feeling nervous about. This helps me to make it to my appointment instead of taking off on the first bus heading the other way - which is usually what I want to do as soon as I leave my apartment to go for my dentist appointments! I meditate while in the dentist office and chair. My dentist has said I am one of the most calm patients he has ever witnessed. He has checked to see if I am 'awake' during certain procedures. Practicing meditation, in my case, alleviates any need to use 'anxiety' medications, like a lot of people do when they go to the dentist. Surviving the dentist's chair without the use of drugs is definitely a big part of my mental wellness program!

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