Coping with post-tsunami stress through meditation

BY SHYAMALIE de Silva

MODERN living has not only brought various means of comfort but also ever-increasing demands which cause stress.

According to recent findings of the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN's health agency "mental and neurological disorders ranging from depression to Alzheimer's to epilepsy currently strike 400 million people globally and are set to surge in the next two decades.

Unless things change dramatically, depression will jump to become the second greatest cause of death and disability worldwide, following ischemic heart disease by 2020."

Every day we are confronted with worries and difficult situations. We are constantly required to make decisions and choices that affect us now and in the future.

Sometimes we have to balance many different interests and situations that cause us stress and anxiety and, at times, things may become overwhelming and we may find it difficult to deal wisely with our daily situations.

Stress is a psychological and physical reaction to certain events or situations in one's life. There are two types of stress, eustress and distress. Eustress is when stress is converted to positive energy and becomes motivating. Distress is when there is too much stress and when nothing is done to eliminate, reduce or counteract its effects.

The increased stress-level is the result of growing confusion and complexity in everyday life and hectic schedules. It is important to know that the distress condition is very harmful. Stress can affect various parts of the body. Many mental and emotional problems may also be caused by stress.

Stress may be caused by social, physical or psychological factors or chemical imbalances in the brain. Among them, death of a spouse, divorce, marital separation, death of a close family member, personal injury or illness, loss of employment etc.

Now is the most important time for us to think of stress since Sri Lanka was the second largest tsunami victim. We are already living with approximately 232 677 tsunami affected families in various ways.

Among them: some victims have lost their spouses, parents, children, all of their relatives, whole families etc. Apart from that the loss of family, a considerable number of victims have lost all their wealth earned throughout their life. All these factors leading to distress condition.

Symptoms of depression vary and could be a depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy and low concentration, increased blood pressure, increased sweating, headaches, back-ache etc., which may result in risks of accidents, increased labour turnover, alcoholism, drug abuse etc.

However, in extreme cases, stress can even lead to a nervous breakdown. Prolonged stress can also weaken the immune system. Minimizing stress is, therefore, important as its cost of negative impacts on individuals, as well as society, ultimately is a national issue.

Happiness is a state of mind and the real source of happiness must lie within the mind, not in external conditions. If our mind is pure and peaceful we will be happy, regardless of our external circumstances.

Stress, anxiety and depression arise not from an external situation but from our response to it. Therefore, the key to improving our lives is to change our mind. Meditation is a method for changing and developing our mind.

Around the world most stress managing researchers have identified meditation as the best approach for conquering stress in life. Meditation is a powerful method for calming and focusing the mind, bringing deep inner peace and a sense of physical and mental well-being.

It is also a method for bringing about a change in attitude and to develop a more positive way of living. Further, meditation is regarded, by its practitioners, as a self-help method, using nothing more than your own powers of concentration to control your thoughts and calm yourself.

Studies have shown that meditation lowers the breathing rate and decreases the levels of lactate, a chemical associated with muscular tension. Moreover, meditation makes the body less responsive to the stress hormone, adrenaline.

In Sri Lanka, and other parts of Asia, meditation has been practised for thousands of years as a way of achieving spiritual enlightenment.

Meditation requires concentration, persistence and about 10 to 20 minutes of a day. Most people can learn to meditate without difficulty. The question that troubles many beginners is how does one actually meditate.

Some may prefer to sit and repeat a chosen word silently, while others lie down and try to still their minds by being totally calm and at peace.

The goal of meditation is to empty your mind effortlessly. It is helpful to relax each body part. The slower and deeper rhythm of breathing and the reduced oxygen consumption that occur during meditation are beneficial to people with chest complaints.

Combined with the relaxation of muscles, meditation is good for asthmatics as well. Insomniacs who meditate will not necessarily sleep longer because their need for sleep will be partially satisfied by meditation itself.

It is best not to eat or drink at least half-an-hour before meditating.

Choose a quiet room where you will not be interrupted. Some people lie down and close their eyes but many practitioners say that you should sit upright in a comfortable position with your eyes open and hands resting on your lap.

In this way, you can relax and, at the same time, remain alert and controlled. Lying with eyes closed, your mind may wander or you may fall asleep. If thoughts intrude do not focus on them.

Merely acknowledge their intrusion and then resume concentration on your object of focus. Meditate for ten minutes or more. As you become adept at meditation you will be able to do it almost anywhere, on a train going to work, between chores or at your desk during lunch break.

When you finish meditation, exercise your muscles gently for a minute or two before you stand up, otherwise you may feel giddy because of lowered blood pressure.

You may also keep stress at bay by these methods: exercise such as simple brisk walking helps in relieving stress to a large extent; good sleep is also very helpful in providing relief from stress (there is absolutely no substitute for a good sleep, the quality of sleep matters more than the length); taking a regular break from your work (a short rest period during the day will help to relieve pressure and refresh your mind); taking a vacation also helps; being a positive thinker with an optimistic outlook can also boost your energy levels; humour is one of the best stress-busters available (a good laugh relaxes the muscles and lowers blood pressure).

But meditation, which is something you can do for five minutes every day can give you more than that. Through meditation we can transform our approach to situations in our lives and become more skillful and creative in dealing with difficulties. Gradually our mind becomes more peaceful and positive.

According to Kelsang Gyatso, an internationally renown meditation master, "the purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we shall be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we shall experience true happiness." We can cultivate positive states of mind only through meditation.

Thus, through meditation, we will experience happiness and our daily life will become peaceful and very meaningful. Happiness comes from inner peace.

Meditation is basically a method for working on the mind. First, we learn how to identify our different positive and negative mental states, and then we apply methods for eliminating negative states and cultivating positive ones.

As our mind becomes more positive we learn to react constructively to situations in our daily lives, from dealing with traffic to facing difficult problems in our relationships. Our actions become positive and effective and our overall experience of life becomes more satisfying and beneficial to ourselves and others.

In Sri Lanka, traditionally, there are two main approaches. The first is calm (or samatha) meditation. The purpose of this is to calm both body and mind and to bring the latter into a state of perfect concentration. The meditations taught in this tradition are Buddhist meditations and you do not need to be a Buddhist to practise them.

In Samatha, one concentrates on one's breathing, following the breath as it flows in and out of one's body or concentrating on the feeling as air touches the nostrils.

By concentrating in this way, there is no room left for those obstructive mental inclinations known as 'the five hindrances' - sensual desire, ill-will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and skeptical doubt. When these are removed, calm meditation of this kind can lead to joyful states or self-confidence known as jhanas.

But inside meditation or vipassana is a deeper way of having strong understanding. This approach is aimed at developing within us a perception of the world as it really is.

In short, this means realizing that suffering and impermanence are inherent in all things and that there is no such thing as a permanent self of soul. The insight approach can be summed up in the word 'mindfulness,' The insight method asks us to be mindful (or aware) of what we are doing at the exact moment we are doing it, no matter how mundane that activity might be.

This is simply a matter of making a mental note moment by moment. If one is brushing one's teeth, for example, one might make the mental note 'brushing teeth.' If one can feel anger rising, the mental note might be 'anger rising.'

Another meditation method that is frequently practised is loving-kindness (or metta). The aim of this is to remove feelings of ill-will and to foster a kindly and caring approach to others.

Like many Buddhist practices, the method is approached by progressing through a number of clear stages, by generating one's feelings of loving kindness to (1) oneself; (2) a respected person; (3) a loved one; (4) a neutral person; and (5) a person one feels hostile towards.

Meditation improves our mind enormously for calm and peaceful handling of situations and happiness. While it helps to control leading causes distress, it also can help in reducing the number of death causing illnesses such as cancer.

The impact of meditation in terms of reducing stress on the individual and, ultimately, society cannot be accounted. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the advantages of meditation from a young age to develop a peaceful, healthy and productive personality.

We are now faced with more than 200,000 victims of the tsunami who are a more vulnerable group to many kinds of distress conditions. As such, we are more open to long term negative impacts throughout society.

Therefore, the importance of controlling stress has to be given greaterprominence. We should, therefore, be alert to use meditation to prevent or overcome the many negative impacts that we will face in the future as a result of depression.

(A discussion with Ruwan Kanchana Silva, Counselling Psychologist and Executive Council Member of Sri Lanka National Association of Counsellors).