CANCER SURVIVORS BENEFIT FROM MEDITATION AND MINDFUL YOGA

Having lost my mother and mother-in-law to breast cancer, and my father and father-in-law to other forms of cancer, I have more than an academic interest in the subject of cancer and its treatment. 

The number of cancer patients seeking complementary therapies to deal with their disease has increased steadily in recent decades. Complementary therapies can be helpful to cancer patients because they address some of the pervasive psychosocial difficulties associated with this disease. One mind-body technique is meditation. Another is yoga. There are many others including the use of affirmations and creative visualisation.

The good news the subject of this post is that weekly courses in meditation, mindful yoga and communication can improve the quality of life for cancer patients even years after their diagnosis, according to new data.

The information was presented this week at the 12^th annual meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in Washington DC.

"It's important for doctors to know that their patients may still experience psychological distress and they need to ask about it and have resources available," Dr Ruth Lerman (pictured below), a specialist in breast disease and internal medicine, who led the research at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, told Reuters Health.

"I think that the health value of meditation is remarkable. And it's becoming accepted now in Western medicine," she added.

“Mindfulness is paying attention, on purpose, to what’s happening
in the present moment without judgment,” Dr Lerman says.

Dr Lerman's team randomized 68 female cancer patients (a treatment group of 48 and control group of 20) in September 2010. The treatment group attended weekly two-hour classes for 8 weeks. They learned meditation and communication skills, and practised meditation at home an average of 30 minutes per day.

All patients then rated their quality of life on a questionnaire and stress and symptom lists. The treatment group improved in all respects. Relevantly, participants showed a significant improvement in post-cancer symptoms and quality of life. According to Dr Lerman, herself a two-time breast cancer survivor, the effect sizes were moderate. There were no significant improvements in the control group.

The 8-week wellness program is called “Silver Linings”. The program is designed for women who have survived any type of cancer and includes meditation, yoga, breast awareness/self-exam, mindful listening and expressive writing. The program aims to help cancer survivors explore and heal the physical, emotional and spiritual effects of the disease. Explains Dr Lerman, “Facing life after cancer is challenging. Our unique, eight-week program teaches participants the tools of empowerment.”

"Mindfulness," says Dr Lehman, "is paying attention, on purpose, to what's happening in the present moment without judgment."

Dr Lerman, who also has an interest in alternative forms of healing including various forms of spiritual healing from her Jewish faith tradition, has been requested to submit the study for publication in the Annals of Surgical Oncology.

For more information on the study, click here.

Numerous studies have been done on how mindfulness affects cancer patients. One of the foremost experts, Dr Linda E Carlson, co-author of Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery: A Step-by-Step MBSR Approach to Help You Cope with Treatment and Reclaim Your Life found patients with mixed cancer diagnoses who participated in mindfulness training had lower mood disturbance and stress symptoms after mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and those improvements were maintained at a 6 month follow-up.

Another study by Carlson and colleagues found patients with early-stage breast and prostate cancer experienced improvements in quality of life, symptoms of stress, and sleep quality.

This blog sets out a simple form of mindfulness sitting meditation.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE: See the Terms of Use and Disclaimer. The information provided on this blogspot is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Never delay or disregard seeking professional medical advice from your medical practitioner or other qualified health provider because of something you have read on this blogspot. For immediate advice or support call Lifeline on 13 1 1 14 or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. For information, advice and referral on mental illness contact the SANE Helpline on 1800 18 SANE (7263) go online via sane.org   

DYLAN THOMAS AND THE ART OF LITERARY MINDFULNESS

My two favourite plays are Under Milk Wood and Our Town. Both are wonderful examples of what I refer to as ‘literary mindfulness’ – analogous stream of consciousness writing where the form of the written text presents, in a direct, unmediated and observant fashion, images piled one on top of the other which are neither entirely verbal nor textual.

Dylan Thomas wrote Under Milk Wood in 1954 as a play for radio ... a 'play for voices'. It covers twenty-four hours in the life of an imaginary - but otherwise very ‘real’ - small coastal village in Wales called ‘Llareggub’ [re-spelt, much to Thomas' dislike, in early editions of the play (see below) as 'Llaregyb' so as not to offend]. (Read 'Llareggub' backwards – pure Dylan Thomas!)

It is night. All the citizens of Llareggub are asleep. As you read these opening lines from the play, try to envisage the reality behind the words themselves. Let your imagination move from one image to the next ... ‘noting’ the pleasure or pain of each passing, ever so transient, moment ... pausing just long enough to capture the moment before it disappears into the giant abyss ... always remembering to stay present from one moment to the next.

Alternatively, or additionally, you can listen to the rich, resonant voice of Richard Burton as he reads the lines that follow.

Either way, let it be for you an exercise in mindfulness training, for that is what it is ...

To begin at the beginning:

It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea. The houses are blind as moles (though moles see fine to-night in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows' weeds. And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now.

Hush, the babies are sleeping, the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen and pensioners, cobbler, schoolteacher, postman and publican, the undertaker and the fancy woman, drunkard, dressmaker, preacher, policeman, the webfoot cocklewomen and the tidy wives. Young girls lie bedded soft or glide in their dreams, with rings and trousseaux, bridesmaided by glowworms down the aisles of the organplaying wood. The boys are dreaming wicked or of the bucking ranches of the night and the jollyrodgered sea. And the anthracite statues of the horses sleep in the fields, and the cows in the byres, and the dogs in the wetnosed yards; and the cats nap in the slant corners or lope sly, streaking and needling, on the one cloud of the roofs.

You can hear the dew falling, and the hushed town breathing. Only your eyes are unclosed to see the black and folded town fast, and slow, asleep. And you alone can hear the invisible starfall, the darkest-beforedawn minutely dewgrazed stir of the black, dab-filled sea where the Arethusa, the Curlew and the Skylark, Zanzibar, Rhiannon, the Rover, the Cormorant, and the Star of Wales tilt and ride.

Listen. It is night moving in the streets, the processional salt slow musical wind in Coronation Street and Cockle Row, it is the grass growing on Llaregyb Hill, dewfall, starfall, the sleep of birds in Milk Wood.

Listen. It is night in the chill, squat chapel, hymning in bonnet and brooch and bombazine black, butterfly choker and bootlace bow, coughing like nannygoats, sucking mintoes, fortywinking hallelujah; night in the four-ale, quiet as a domino; in Ocky Milkman's lofts like a mouse with gloves; in Dai Bread's bakery flying like black flour. It is to-night in Donkey Street, trotting silent, With seaweed on its hooves, along the cockled cobbles, past curtained fernpot, text and trinket, harmonium, holy dresser, watercolours done by hand, china dog and rosy tin teacaddy. It is night neddying among the snuggeries of babies.

Look. It is night, dumbly, royally winding through the Coronation cherry trees; going through the graveyard of Bethesda with winds gloved and folded, and dew doffed; tumbling by the Sailors Arms.

Time passes. Listen. Time passes.

The Dylan Thomas Boathouse at Laugharne
 '... an ugly, lovely town ... crawling, sprawling ... by the side of a long
and splendid curving shore. This sea-town was my world.'

 

What craftsmanship! What attention to detail! What imagery! What curiosity! And what good ‘advice’ with respect to the art of mindfulness ... Begin at the beginning ... Hush ... Listen ... Look ... Time passes ...

Your eyes are always ‘unclosed’ in mindfulness ... even when they are closed. You see, you are always watching something ... for you are ever ‘awake’. Bare attention. Choiceless awareness.

Dylan Thomas knew that life –  the one life –  was to be lived from one moment to the next. The wonder and beauty and ‘meaning’ (ugh!) of life is to be found in the minutiae of the mundane and the everyday – in 'this world order, the same for all', in the words of the early Greek philosopher Heraclitus. That is reality ... and reality just is.

So, don’t look afar for what you seek. Stay with the imagery of one image after another ... and, yes, live on the 'surface' for, paradoxically, that is where the 'depth' is to be found. Take, as you find them, the events and occurrences of daily life, and accept any 'meanings' they may present. Seek not any 'hidden purpose' nor any so-called 'ultimate reality' – there are no 'ultimates' as such – other than the one order or level of reality – the one way of being – in which all things live and move and have their being.

Is that not enough for you?

Under Milk Wood: Copyright 1954 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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MINDFULNESS IN THE BIBLE

As a fearless fighter against the pretensions of religious fundamentalism – a wicked ideology if ever there was one – and illiberalism of all kinds, I say that it’s time for freethinkers and libertarians to ... reclaim the Bible!

What is the Bible?

There is no single Bible.

For a Jew the Bible consists only of the Hebrew Scriptures.

As for Christians, they can’t even agree on what the Bible is!

I always use a Catholic version of the Bible comprising 73 books – 7 more than the 'Protestant Bible'. Why? Because Jesus used the Septuagint, which is the oldest Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Now, the Septuagint contains those very same 7 'additional' books – the so-called Apocryphal, more correctly entitled Deuterocanonical, Books. Indeed, more than two thirds of the Old Testament passages quoted in the New Testament are taken from the Septuagint.

The audacity of the Protestant “Reformers” who chucked out those books of the Bible – books that had been embraced by Jesus and his apostles! Don’t believe the silly evangelical Protestant nonsense that those additional 7 books were supposedly added by Rome in the 16th Century. That is simply not the case.

Moving on – Once you free yourself from the notion that just because the Bible says something, it must be true, and true for all time, a whole new world opens for you. The Bible has much in it that is beautiful and inspiring ... and also much that is simply appalling. Do not accept anything that offends against your sensibilities or is contrary to reason.

Today, we are going to look at some Bible passages that touch on certain aspects of life or the human mind that are relevant to the practice of mindfulness.

Mindfulness is not peculiarly Buddhist

Now, mindfulness can refer to a specific type or practice of meditation used as a psychological and educational tool in Theravāda Buddhism (a naturalistic form of Buddhism of which there are a number of different schools) known as Vipassanā Meditation.

However, mindfulness is not restricted to Buddhism, Buddhists or Buddhist meditation. Indeed, there are several different types or forms of Buddhist meditation, and Buddhists do not claim to “own” or have a monopoly on mindfulness and mindfulness meditation.

Also, mindfulness is totally different from all other forms of meditation in that it is something you do throughout the whole day, namely, remembering to stay present, in the present, from one moment to the next. whilst paying attention, on purpose, to what’s happening in the present moment, without judgment. Your whole life becomes one extended exercise in meditative awareness of what is.

Any person can practise mindfulness, irrespective of their religion or lack of religion.

Mindfulness requires an attentive mind – bare attention is the phrase – but also a curious state of mind. What could be more 'curious' than this (and notice also the openness and perceptiveness of the senses) ...

What is that coming up from the wilderness,
   like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
   with all the fragrant powders of the merchant? (Sg 3:6)

So vivid! You can almost smell it in your very own nostrils.

Mindfulness as a calm acceptance of what is

Now, if there is an underlying 'philosophy' to mindfulness it is a calm acceptance of whatever may befall us. Listen to these wonderful passages from the world-weary book Ecclesiastes:

A generation goes, and a generation comes,
   but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun goes down,
   and hurries to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south,
   and goes round to the north;
round and round goes the wind,
   and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea,
   but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
   there they continue to flow. (Ec 1:4-7)

[Hey, those last four lines are pure Zen!]

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace. (Ec 3:1-8)

... the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,^* to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath. (Ec 9:2)

Mindfulness as joy

Don’t get the wrong idea. Mindfulness is not mere Stoicism. There is much joy associated with the regular practice of mindfulness, so beautifully typified in this passage from that naughty book the Song of Songs:

for now the winter is past,
   the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
   the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtle-dove
   is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
   and the vines are in blossom;
   they give forth fragrance. (Sg 2:11-13)

Notice, once again, the non-judgmental bare alertness and attention to detail, and the choiceless awareness of what is ... the flowers ... the sound of the turtle-dove ... the figs on the fig-tree ... the grapes on the vine, and their fragrance. That’s mindfulness in action!

The practice of mindfulness

Listen to this sound advice with respect to your mindfulness meditation:

... ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ (Mk 6:31)

Of course, mindfulness is to be practised from moment to moment ... even in a busy street. I love this passage from Isaiah:

... in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. ... (Is 30:15)

Yes, quietness ... even amidst the hurly-burly of everyday life. The choice is yours, so make up your mind to be open and attentive to whatever is your consciousness ...

You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,
   and light will shine on your ways. (Jb 22:28)

Mindfulness is a non-judgmental state of mind. The Bible constantly advises us not to judge. Maybe life is unfair ...

... for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. (Mt 5:45)

... but, ‘do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment’ (Jn 7:24). So, let us watch our minds and maintain emotional equanimity and right relations with other people ...

Keep your heart with all vigilance,
   for from it flow the springs of life. (Pr 4:23)

One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
   and one whose temper is controlled than one who captures a city.
(Pr 16:32)

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
(Rm 12:18)

Do not worry

The Bible advises us not to worry:

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,^* or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?^* And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God^* and his^* righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Mt 6:25-34)

Mindfulness as a source of strength and power

No matter what happens to you in life, you need not despair:

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; (2 Co 4:8)

for, ‘as your days, so is your strength’ (Dt 33:25). Live from day to day and, even more importantly, from one moment to the next ... and you will have all the power you need!

Mindfulness is about being patient and gentle on yourself. Here is some sound advice from Romans:

Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve. (Rm 14:22)

Finally, mindfulness, which gives us so much insight into ourselves, other people and life generally, is highly transformative. Why else would we do it? I have always loved this passage from Romans:

... be transformed by the renewing of your minds ... (Rm 12:2)

That’s the spirit!

This blog sets out a simple form of mindfulness sitting meditation.

Scripture references are taken from the Catholic edition of The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. The New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition is fully approved for study by Catholics by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. All rights reserved.


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MINDFULNESS FOR A HEALTHY HEART

According to the Australian Heart Foundation, every 10 minutes somebody in Australia dies from heart disease. The leading underlying cause of death for all Australians is reported to be ischaemic heart disease (IHD), contributing to some 18 per cent of all male deaths and some 17 per cent of all female deaths. Heart disease is also the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States of America … and many other places as well.

Joel Dimsdale's 2008 article ‘Psychological Stress and Cardiovascular Disease’ published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, is a metaanalysis of the world's research literature on the unique relationship between stress and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

CVD is not a single disorder but represents over 20 different disease including stroke, various heart diseases (including coronary heart disease), and heart failure. According to the American Heart Association, if all forms of CVD were eliminated, total life expectancy in the US would increase by 7 years. The main cause of CVD is atherosclerosis – the build up of fatty plaque on the inner layer of artery walls. This can lead to blood clots. When a coronary artery or vessel is blocked, it is called coronary heart [or artery] disease, which is the major form of CVD.

Major risk factors for CVD include smoking, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Now, what is clear is that stress triggers events. It is less clear if stress actually causes events. However, Dimsdale has documented overwhelming evidence confirming the ‘deleterious effects of stress on the heart and for the fact that vulnerability and resilience factors play a role in amplifying or dampening those effects’.

The heart and blood vessels are particularly sensitive to acute and chronic stress. With every beat, the heart not only pumps blood, but also transmits complex patterns of neurological, hormonal, pressure and electromagnetic information to the brain and throughout the body.

The heart is uniquely positioned as a powerful communications hub that connects the body, mind, emotions and spirit. Research suggests that there is an elaborate feedback network of hormones, chemicals and nerves that exist between the brain, the heart and centres of thoughts and emotions. The heart sends the brain messages that affect our perceptions, our mental processing and our feelings.

We all know that there is a strong connection between stress and cardiovascular health via multiple pathways including type A behaviour pattern (hostility and anger are the lethal elements), the direct effects of adrenaline on blood vessels and the heart itself (Takotsubo cardiomyopathy), acceleration of atherosclerosis leading to coronary artery disease, abnormal metabolism, insulin resistance and inflammation, and irritability of the heart muscle.

You can help prevent heart disease by quitting smoking, lowering cholesterol, controlling high blood pressure and blood sugar, maintaining a healthy weight and exercising. Oh, yes, I guess I don’t need to tell you - but I will anyway - that there is abundant evidence in the medical and scientific journals attesting to the benefits of meditation – especially mindfulness meditation – as regards personal risk management for heart disease … not to mention so many other kinds of disease as well.

A study examining the effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction found a significant improvement in breathing efficiency and frequency (Robert-McComb et al: 2004), which assists in the management of heart disease. Lowered resting level of the stress hormone cortisol was also observed (cf cortisol-induced hypertension). Higher and more prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream - like those associated with chronic stress - have been shown to have numerous negative effects including hypertension, impaired cognitive performance, suppressed thyroid function, blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia, decreased bone density and muscle tissue, lowered immunity, and inflammatory responses in the body.

We all know that hypertension is a major risk factor for heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. An 8-month study involving 111 teens on the verge of becoming hypertensive adults, found that meditation helps blood vessels relax (Barnes et al: 2004). Two 15-minute meditation sessions led to an average 21 per cent increase in the ability of the teens' blood vessels to dilate. In contrast, the teens who did not meditate experienced a 4 per cent decrease in blood vessel dilation over the 8-month study.

Lead investigator Dr Vernon A Barnes, stated: ‘We know that this type of change is achievable with lipid-lowering drugs, but it's remarkable that a meditation program can produce such a change. This could have important implications for inclusion of meditation programs to prevent and treat cardiovascular diseases and its clinical consequences.’

Another important study shows that mindfulness meditation is associated  with improved glycemic control in type 2 diabetes (Rosenzweig et al: 2007).

Mindfulness is not just an antidote for stress. Mindfulness actually changes things – you! The only 'thing' you can ever change. (You're powerless over everything else.) The regular practice of mindfulness meditation allows you to make the necessary ‘adjustments’ to changing circumstances and unprecedented events. You learn to refine and adjust your expectations (and invent new expectations) and to tailor your ‘responses’ [cf ‘reactions’] to emerging threats as well as general existential uncertainty.

The key elements? I have mentioned these two phrases so many times in my now more than 80 blogs since October 2010 – choiceless awareness and bare attention. Commit them to memory. Better still, commit them to daily practice.

This post sets out a simple form of mindfulness sitting meditation. Also, if you are living with heart disease you may wish to purchase this very good interactive mindfulness audio CD featuring Dr Bob Stahl.

RESOURCES:

Barnes VA, Treiber FA, Johnson MH: Impact of transcendental meditation on ambulatory blood pressure in African-American adolescents. Am J Hypertens. 2004;17, 366–369; doi: 10.1016/j.amjhyper.2003.12.008

Dimsdale JE: Psychological Stress and Cardiovascular Disease. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2008;51;1237-1246 doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2007.12.024

Robert McComb JJ, Tacon A, Randolph P, Caldera Y: A pilot study to examine the effects of a mindfulness-based stress-reduction and relaxation program on levels of stress hormones, physical functioning, and submaximal exercise responses. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2004;10(5):819-27.

Rosenzweig S, Reibel DK, Greeson JM, Edman JS, Jasser SA, McMearty KD, Goldstein BJ: Mindfulness-based stress reduction is associated with improved glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus: A pilot study. Altern Ther Health Med. 2007;13(5):36-38.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE: See the Terms of Use and Disclaimer. The information provided on this blogspot is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Never delay or disregard seeking professional medical advice from your medical practitioner or other qualified health provider because of something you have read on this blogspot. For immediate advice or support call Lifeline on 13 1 1 14 or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. For information, advice and referral on mental illness contact the SANE Helpline on 1800 18 SANE (7263) go online via sane.org