Meditation opens path to inner peace

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

When stress is high, meditation can ease tension, produce mental clarity and create a climate of tranquility in your life, instructors and practitioners say.

Some use the practice to help relieve anxiety, pain, depression, stress, insomnia or physical or emotional symptoms of chronic illnesses.

“People who need to slow down, who are very stressed and overworked, can benefit a lot,” said Carol Crenshaw, co-director of the Inner Peace Yoga Center in Indianapolis, where meditation is routinely practiced with yoga.

Those looking for something in life they haven’t found — a spiritual experience — also are drawn to meditation, said Crenshaw, long-time meditation and yoga instructor.

“It’s a practice that helps you during personal difficulties to keep yourself centered, focused and grounded,” said Connie Tellman. She practices alone, in her house, escaping to the solitude of her grown daughter’s former room.

“After a good session, my mind is not focused on past or future concerns but the present moment,” she said. “I’m ready to face the day with a new awareness of what’s before me.”

Many types of meditation exist, but most originated in ancient Eastern religious and spiritual traditions. Yet you don’t need to practice those religions to meditate.

A 2007 government survey of nearly 24,000 adults found that 9.4 percent had used meditation in the past year, compared with 7.6 percent in 2002.

Considered a mind-body practice, meditation generally uses certain techniques — a specific posture, regulated breathing and focused attention.

More than 400 U.S. instructors teach Transcendental Meditation, derived from Hindu traditions, which also involves silently repeating a mantra. The practice is known for its stress-releasing properties.

“It’s not a panacea and doesn’t prevent you from experiencing the ups and downs of life,” said Diane Patton, who practices TM. “But you can recover from them more completely.”

Meditation, like physical exercise, requires dedication and produces the best benefits when done regularly — daily, if possible, or even twice a day, for 10 to 20 minutes. To sit still and learn to meditate deeply is challenging, yet worth the time and effort, say practitioners.

“If it didn’t help me every day, I wouldn’t do it,” said Patton, 52, a nurse who first learned TM at age 16. She has practiced different types of meditation over the years, but now does TM each morning and evening.

“It mellows me out,” she said. “It gives me a sense of being in control of my life and my emotions and less reactive to things around me, like work stress. I’m more kind and patient.”

Rich Neate, a 20-year TM instructor, teaches people to practice TM on four consecutive days, two hours each day.

“You meditate to make your daily activity better,” said Neate. “The whole idea of TM is for you to be successful at what you do.”

When practicing TM, Neate said, as you dive deeper into the mind while repeating a mantra, the body becomes extremely settled, the breath is softer and shallower. You experience a decrease in oxygen greater than during deep sleep. Eventually, your mind talks to itself less and less.

“Calmness, clarity of mind and energy of the body — if you practice for a while, those effects stay with you,” Neate said.

Another longtime meditation teacher, Rose Getz, said the longer someone experiences that peaceful feeling that comes with meditation, the more they can bring that feeling into their consciousness during the day.

Getz said meditators are better prepared to handle daily stress and aggravation.

“You take a breath, relax the body, and pull yourself back from the situation,” she said. “You feel that stillness within.”

Gannett News Service