Reducing Stress through Meditation

In todays world every(prenominal) one experience focuses almost every day and human body involuntarily reacts in ways that prepare them to fight or run. However, stress is some topic that needs special attention and if it is not taken care properly it may lead bodily damage to every part of the body. There are several studies that suggest the beneficial affects of venture is barely the opposite ways that stress does. Therefore, they claim that surmisal can restore the body to a sedate state, serving the body to repair on its own, and averting further harm due to the physical effectuate of stress (Scott n.pag). This paper is a literature review on what the experts think of the cushion of meditation on stress management.It is a well known fact that stress and tension has become the common thing in the world today. There are enormous compresss of work, finances, family life, disease, studies, parents, children, etc. In fact it is proven beyond doubt that stress and fretfulness are the main cause for many serious health problems, much(prenominal) as heart disease, diabetes and strokes and many more problems (Monslow n.pag).Meditation is an age old technique that includes relaxing methods such as listening to the breath, repeating a mantra, or detaching from the thought process, to focus the attention and bring about a state of self awareness and inner calm (Canter 176-177). Though many researchers wee-wee worked on this passing it has been difficult to prove its therapeutic value. However it is assumed that this stress releasing activity may have prophylactic and therapeutic health benefits. This has been proven because of certain physiological effects such as a shined of slowed heart rate or a particular electroencephalographic pattern that occur during meditation and describe a calm state may provide insight into how meditation works.According to a think over conducted by Eisenberg et al. (964-972) an association was instal in a meta-analysis of c ognitive behavioral techniques such as meditation for hypertension. In some other mull over of meta-analysis trials of relaxation and meditation for trait anxiety that included 70 trials of meditation and showed that the 35 trials of transcendental meditation were linked with significantly larger effect sizes than other techniques (Eppley et al. 957-974).According to some other charter in asthma problem it was found that sahaja meditation which is a technique of passive witnessing of thoughts, ameliorate some outcomes. However, differences were not maintained at two months (Manocha et al. 110-115). Similarly, studies showed that throng with epilepsy practising sahaja meditation had a significant decrease in objective stress measures and frequency of seizures (Panjwani et al 111-116 Panjwani et al 165-172).A cogitation that was designed to determine the force of a group stress reduction program based on heedfulness meditation for patients with anxiety disorders. In this study 22 study participants were selected with a structured clinical interview and found to refer the DSM- III-R criteria for generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. During the study assessments, including self-ratings and therapists ratings, were obtained weekly in the first place and during the meditation-based stress reduction and relaxation program and monthly during the 3-month follow-up period.It was found that a group mindfulness meditation training program can successfully decrease symptoms of anxiety and panic and can upkeep preserve these reductions in patients with generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, or panic disorder with agoraphobia (Kabat-Zinn 936-943). The findings of a study by Kaplan et al (284-289) suggested that a meditation-based stress reduction program is effective for patients with fibromyalgia. In fact this is a chronic illness characterized by extensive pain, tenderness to light touch, fatigue, sleep disturbance, an d resistance to treatment.In yet another study by Barnes et al. (366369) that was taken up to determine the impact of stress reduction on birth pressure in adolescents by the Transcendental Meditation program it was found that there was a great decreases in daytime systolic blood pressure (P .04) and diastolic blood pressure (P .06) in those people who were practicing transcendental meditation when compared with the control group. Therefore the study concluded that there is a beneficial impact of the transcendental meditation program in youth who are at risk for the development of hypertension.A study carried out at Harvard University found that elderly individuals who learned Transcendental Meditation exhibited considerably superior improvements in a range of age-related aspects of mental and physical health when compared to other techniques or among the control group with no-treatment. This study demonstrated that majority of subjects involved in Transcendental Meditation rate d this technique as individually face-saving and uncomplicated to do when compared to the other techniques. A follow-up study after three years found that all those who had learned Transcendental Meditation were still alive compared with significantly lower survival judge for the other groups and for the remaining population of the institutions where the study was carried out (Alexander et al. 950-964).Work CitedAlexander CN, Langer EJ, Davies JL, Chandler HM, Newman RI. Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness, and longevity an experimental study with the elderly. diary of Personality and Social Psychology. (1989) Vol 57, 6 pp 950-964.Barnes, V.A., Treiber, FA andJohnson, MH. Impact of transcendental meditation on ambulatory blood pressure in African-American adolescents. Am J Hypertens (2004) Vol 17 pp 366369.Canter, P The therapeutic effects of meditation, editorial school-age child BMJ VOL 11 (June 2003) pp 176-177.