Teresa Hale: Welcomes You All!

 

Dear readers,

I would firstly like to thank you all for joining my Meditation Blog.

My name is Teresa Hale and I am the Founder of The Hale Clinic in London’s Regents Park.

I have been practicing and teaching Yoga and Meditation for over 30 years with great success.

The purpose of this blog is to share my experiences and knowledge with you all, as well as giving you some insight on the benefits Meditation can bring to your life.

I will be offering you tips and techniques that you can use in your everyday life to ensure that you are at your optimum, or at least trying to reach your optimum.

With the stress and strain that life can bring, and the ever increasing pace and demands that are being thrust upon us, our mind and body struggle to keep up. Meditation can act as a tool in which you can utilise anywhere at any time to bring you back to your centre as well as give you a moment of peace and clarity to be able to deal with the challenges at hand.

This blog is a platform for all of us to share our thoughts and experiences and find a way in which to help each other in resolving them.

I look forward to hearing from each and every one of you, and hopefully providing you with beneficial support and guidance.

Warmest Wishes

Teresa Hale

It’s time for your meditation

More than just an aid to wellbeing, the ancient discipline could soon be used to treat conditions from obesity to multiple sclerosis

When Chris Brown used a laser to create repeated pin-pricks of pain in the arms of volunteers, he made a curious discovery. Half the men and women felt the pain was less unpleasant than did the others. And scans of their brains showed that areas that are involved in anticipation were far less active.

The two groups of people were identical, except that those for whom the pain sensation was less unpleasant were all men and women who practised meditation. And the longer they had practised, the lower the sensation.

The research by Dr Brown and pain specialists at Manchester University gives fresh insight into the way that meditation may work to ease symptoms in conditions as diverse as chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and irritable bowel syndrome.

“It seems to work by reducing the anticipation of pain and reducing the negative view of pain, rather than distracting attention away from pain sensation itself,” he says. “When people meditate they focus on their breathing or on other body sensations, and learn how to experience these sensations with attitudes of acceptance, openness and curiosity. This appears to reduce negative thinking about sensations such as pain.”

Meditation’s origins date back thousands of years, and there are many different types, including Samatha, mantra, Zen Buddhist, yoga, Sahaj Marg, and the two that are more widely used in the west, transcendental and mindfulness meditation.

Many of the origins of mindfulness meditation are in Buddhism, and in one of the most widely used forms, users are taught to focus on the sensation of breathing in and out. They are taught to focus attention on what is being experienced in the present, rather than the future or the past. In this way, it’s suggested, meditators learn to experience thoughts and emotions in their everyday life with greater balance and acceptance.

Transcendental meditation has its roots in Hindu traditions, and uses a mantra – words repeated silently – to block distracting thoughts. Its goal is to achieve a state of relaxed awareness.

Hundreds of studies have looked at the effects of meditation on health, and many have found benefits. But it is difficult to carry out gold-standard placebo-controlled trials for meditation therapies. Many studies have simply compared the outcomes in those who had meditation with those who did not, but it is difficult to design trials that control for everything that might contribute to a placebo effect, which is likely to be high in this kind of therapy.

Another way to help validate the effectiveness of the therapy would be to tease out the mechanisms by which it could work, and many researchers are looking at just that. At the Human Pain Research Group, University of Manchester, researchers carried out pain perception tests on 27 men and women, half of whom practised meditation. The volunteers were exposed to flashes of pain from a laser over a five-minute period.

“We found from brain scans that the meditators had less activity in the areas of the brain associated with anticipation. They also had a reduction in the sensation of pain compared to the other people,” says Dr Brown. “We believe that in meditation, focusing attention on breathing, for example, anchors the individual in the present and not the past or the future. When the individual experiences pain, they do not block it out, |but deal with it in a less negative way. In this way, meditation should reduce the emotional evaluation of pain or other stressful events by withdrawing attention away from anticipating their unpleasantness.”

It has also been suggested that meditation might work by affecting the autonomic or involuntary nervous system, which regulates many organs and muscles, controlling functions such as heartbeat, sweating, breathing and digestion. It consists of the sympathetic nervous system, which prepares the body for action and the “fight-or-flight response”, where heart and breathing rates increase and blood vessels narrow, restricting the flow; and the parasympathetic nervous system, which causes the heart and breathing rates to slow, and blood vessels to widen, improving, blood flow. It is thought that meditation may reduce activity in the sympathetic nervous system and increase activity in the para-sympathetic system. More than 50 clinical trials are under way looking at the effects of meditation in various conditions, or at how it may work.

Depression

Mindfulness meditation may rival medication at preventing relapse in people with depression, according to a report in the Harvard Mental Health Letter of a study involving 160 adults who had experienced at least two episodes of major depression. In the first phase of the study, the patients took antidepressants, and after eight months, 53 per cent were in remission and went on the second phase where they either continued with antidepressants at a lower dose, had a placebo pill, or had mindfulness-based therapy. During this period 38 per cent of patients having mindfulness therapy relapsed, compared with 46 per cent on medication, and 60 per cent on placebo.

Irritable bowel syndrome

A study at the State University of New York showed meditation reduced symptoms. Significant reductions were noted for abdominal pain, diarrhoea, flatulence, bloating and pain. “It appears continued use of meditation is particularly effective in reducing the symptoms of pain and bloating; and it is a beneficial treatment for IBS in both the short and the long term,” say researchers.

Obesity

Mindful meditation may help in |losing weight, according to a study at Oregon Research Institute, which involved six weeks of training, focusing on mindfulness meditation, mindful eating, body awareness and triggers to overeating. Results show the obese people had significant decreases in weight, binge eating, depression and stress. “This study provides preliminary evidence that an eating-focused, mindfulness-based intervention can result in significant changes in weight, eating behaviour and psychological distress,” say researchers.

Social anxiety

Mindfulness-based stress reduction could work for social anxiety disorder, according to a study at Stanford University. Brain scanning showed that during breath-focused work there were changes in brain activity. “These changes might facilitate reduction |in social anxiety behaviour, clinical symptoms and emotional reactions to negative self-beliefs,” say researchers.

Pain

Just four days of mindfulness meditation training can reduce pain intensity. In a US study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, men and women were exposed to experimental pain. Results show that meditating reduced pain unpleasantness by 57 per cent, and pain intensity by 40 per cent.

Chronic diseases

Symptoms in a number of chronic conditions can be improved with mindfulness-based stress reduction. Researchers at La Trobe University in Australia analysed results from 15 studies, which looked at the mental and physical health, wellbeing, and quality of life of people with conditions including fibromyalgia, chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome and cardiovascular conditions. “Participation [in meditation] is likely to result in coping better with symptoms, improved overall wellbeing and quality of life, and enhanced health outcomes,” they say.

Insomnia

Chronic insomnia can be helped by mindful meditation, according to a study at the University of Minnesota. Patients were given mindfulness training over three months. Results show it reduced the time taken to get to sleep by an average of 8.9 minutes and provided evidence for meditation as a viable treatment for chronic insomnia.

Menopausal symptoms

Mind-body therapies can reduce menopausal symptoms, according |to a review of research at the West Virginia University School of Medicine. Eight of the nine studies of yoga, tai chi, and meditation-based programmes showed improvements in overall menopausal symptoms, including hot flushes and night sweats. |Results also show that breath-based and other relaxation therapies may be effective for alleviating menopausal symptoms, say the researchers.

Multiple sclerosis

Quality of life, and symptoms of depression and fatigue improve after mindfulness training, according to a trial at the University Hospital Basel with 150 patients. Results show that those who had the training – an eight-week programme – saw improvements that were still evident six months later.

To read more from The Independent click here

Depressed? Meditation ‘better than happy pills’

Meditation techniques are apparently more effective in fighting depression than conventional drugs.

After trials on the long-term depressed, 47 per cent using the new approach suffered a relapse, compared with 60 per cent for those on anti-depressants.

Depressed? Turn to meditation

‘Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy’ helps people focus on the present instead of dwelling on the past or planning the future.

‘While drugs are very effective in helping reduce the symptoms of depression, when people come off them they are particularly vulnerable to relapse,’ said researcher Prof Willem Kuyken.

‘MBCT teaches people skills for life,’ said the expert from Exeter University’s mood disorders centre.

Because it is a group-based technique, it is a cheaper alternative and could shorten NHS waiting lists, he added. About 3.5million people suffer depression in Britain, said Prof Kuyken.

The findings appear today in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Read more at Metro Online

Thought for the Day

The end of wisdom is to dream high enough not to lose the dream in the seeking of it.
William Faulkner

Thought for the Day

Unrest of spirit is a mark of life; one problem after another presents itself and in the solving of them we can find our greatest pleasure.
Kal Menninger

Can Meditation Help you to get Pregnant?

The joy of having a bouncing baby is something that many people long for, but struggle to achieve.

The stress and pressure we put on our mind and body during this process can often prevent us from conceiving. It is true that stress can cause infertility, but it may not be the only cause; and it may not be the cause of your infertility.

Many women and their partners struggle to grasp why their bodies are unable to house a baby. We follow the advice of our Doctor, often change our diet and map out our most fertile period, like a military operation. We work in unison with our partner to achieve the common goal; to bring a baby into the world.

However no matter how hard we try we still find that all the tools we put into place do not seem to pay off. We find ourselves beginning to question those tools, often getting frustrated with ourselves and our partner. The relationship can often become strained as the overwhelming pressure becomes too much to bear. Infertility can take us through a range of emotions, from hope, to despair, frustration to anger, stress and anxiety and sometimes chronic depression

These emotions breed toxins into our mind and body, preventing us from creating a nurturing environment for a baby. We are often not educated that the process of conceiving is not for one person alone, and better still it is not a “process” but rather a journey. Both parties have to be in the right frame of mind and with a healthy body, in order to successfully take flight in that journey.

Meditation for infertility is about removing the pressure and urgency we put on “getting pregnant” and creating a strong foundation for ourselves first. In order for us to be able to create something as beautiful as a baby, we must first create the right structure to house the baby.

As future parents, we would never want to bring a baby in to the world without ensuring we could provide love, security and a safe haven for our child. In creating a safe, secure and loving environment for ourselves, we are in turn creating a safe, secure and loving home to fertilise an egg. We must begin by nurturing ourselves, going back to the core of our being, and truly understanding who we are.

Taking time to make ourselves truly happy, removing emotional and physical attachment to situations beyond our control, understanding how to best manage our environment and the negative catalysts within it, appreciating those around us, and removing the pressure placed upon having a baby, and the pressure we place on ourselves.

The purpose of Meditation in times of infertility is simply to allow the mind and body to reconnect in a positive way. Meditation allows not only the mind but also the body to release the toxins held. These toxins can prevent a positive environment from being created. Meditation allows you to prepare emotionally for the arrival of a baby; developing the tools within yourself to successfully manage your environment and your emotions.

Meditation is being adopted by many women, and who now tribute Meditation as the reason for successfully conceiving. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen believes passionately in Meditation and credits it with keeping her healthy, especially during her pregnancy with her son. It may even have helped with pain control during her natural water birth. – Telegraph

Meditation is a simple tool which can have a huge positive effect. Teresa Hale Founder of The Hale Clinic in London’s Regents Park has practiced Meditation for over 30 years. She teaches us how to successfully create a positive mental and physical environment within ourselves, through addressing toxic elements past and present and developing a different thought process when dealing with life and the challenges we often face.

Meditation does not change the environment around you; however it does allow you to change yourself in order to better manage your environment.

Meditation alters how you view obstacles, challenges and conflict and allows you to flourish into the person you already where, but never knew you could be.

Along with Meditation, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Nutrition, Acupuncture and Reflexology can also prove beneficial when trying to conceive.

School teaches boys to Meditate to reduce stress

Health Editor Sam Lister of The Times Newspaper, looks at how Meditation is being used to reduce stress in school boys.

 

Pupils at a leading public school are to receive weekly 40-minute classes in meditation and stress relief in a ground-breaking addition to the school curriculum.

Schoolboys aged 14 and 15 at Tonbridge School, in Kent, were given their first lesson yesterday as part of a course designed with psychologists from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

The project — the first to introduce meditation skills as a regular subject on the curriculum — has been designed specifically for adolescents and comes after the success of a pilot study at the school last year.

The “mindfulness” course for Year 10 pupils will last for eight weeks. It is designed to develop skills in concentration and to combat anxiety, showing teenagers the benefits of silence and helping them to identify and escape corrosive mindsets that could lead to mental health problems such as depression, eating disorders and addiction.

 

 

The course develops other exercises to help to improve attention — rather than allowing the mind to be “hijacked” by emotional issues, regrets, worries about the past and future and other distractions. This can be done in a number of ways, such as by focusing on breathing, parts of the body or movement.

Mindfulness originated in Eastern meditation traditions such as Buddhism but is now an established secular discipline. A growing body of research supports wider use of the approach to address transient stress and deeper mental health problems, including recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence that it be offered on the NHS to patients suffering from depression.

The project is a collaboration with staff at Charterhouse and Hampton schools — with both institutions planning similar schemes — as well as the Mindfulness Centre at Oxford and the Wellbeing Institute at Cambridge.

Richard Burnett, a divinity teacher and housemaster at Tonbridge who is leading the course, told The Times that the course demanded a “culture change” in the perceptions of silence for teachers and pupils.

“One of the things about schools is that silence is associated with power — the teacher tells the pupils to be quiet. What you need to do is convey the idea that silence is a positive activity to be savoured and enjoyed,” he said.

He said that while some children involved in the trial had been sceptical, most had embraced the challenge that it posed in the classroom. The pupils said that they hoped to use the mindfulness in the future to help to battle anxieties and to put things in perspective. They also said that they found it helpful for getting to sleep and becoming less nervous about school cricket matches.

Mark Williams, director of the Mindfulness Centre at Oxford, said that Tonbridge was the first school to introduce a full meditation course in a practical rather than academic context.

Professor Williams said: “This is not about converting people to Buddhism, but showing there is scientific evidence that these practices are useful. So why deny them from being used?”

In March Tonbridge is to host a conference, with Professor Williams as a speaker, that aims to encourage mindfulness uptake in schools.

Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said that mindfulness training also offered the chance to take proactive steps to avoid depression and anxiety in later life.

“These problems have their roots in early life, so if you can learn techniques when you are young you might never have a breakdown,” he said.

Staying focused

• The first lesson, being run this week, is described as “puppy training” — comparing the mind with a puppy that needs to learn how to “stay” and focus on one thing, rather than running around in a distracted fashion

• Other stages of the course include establishing calm and concentration; recognising rumination; developing present-moment awareness in the everyday; slowing and savouring activities; stepping back from thoughts that hijack you; allowing, accepting and being with difficult emotions; reflection and making it personal

• It uses figures from popular culture to help to explain the benefits of mindfulness, including rugby player Jonny Wilkinson, who uses meditation techniques to help his concentration when kicking for goal, and Po, a lethargic panda who transforms his attitude in the Dreamworks’ film Kung Fu Panda

• Each class has one 40-minute lesson a week, with a weekly MP3 file of mindfulness exercises that they are encouraged to listen to before evening homework

To read more from The Times, click here

Thought for the Day

There is no royal road to anything. One thing at a time, all things in succession. That which grows fast, withers as rapidly. That which grows slowly, endures.
Josiah Gilbert Holland