In-Depth: Motivated to Meditate

MINNEAPOLIS - You've seen me do some extreme things for stories. Go through the ice, ride a motorcycle, but now something on the extreme opposite end of the spectrum. I take an eight week class of meditation. Can a person find peace in eight weeks? Let's see.

From my early morning workout, to my late night combination of meal prep and teen study sessions, my life is a study in escalation and juggling. To survive is to multi-task. To multi-task is to develop what is sometimes called monkey mind.

“Our minds are just racing with thoughts that just whip right out right after another," Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN, Director of the Center for Spirituality and Healing said.

Or, maybe your mind feels something like my teacher, Terry Pearson calls: thought, thought, thought. 

“There comes a time where we say this is not the way I want to live my life," Pearson said. "I'm not as happy. I don't feel at peace or at ease. This is too hard. So our life has to change.”

Change is coming for anyone who walks into the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing. The class is a mindfulness based stress reduction class. Science speak for meditation. Among those taking the class are several doctors:

“I think the doctors are coming because there is so much research now that shows meditation does actually calm the brain." Pearson said.

There is also a nurse, the director of a poverty program and me. Terry Pearson has been teaching at the U’s program for six years.

“It's just so interesting and exciting to see people change," Pearson said.

We'll measure change in a couple of ways.

Meet Jesus Vega. His mom is the director of the poverty program. I ask him why his mom took the class.

“She said it would calm her down.” he said.

And if this class makes a difference he'll notice it. In my case we will actually try to document whether any real change happens. I take two surveys, one a quality of life questionnaire that asks if I tend to overreact. I say yes. It asks if I tend to be judgmental of my own flaws and inadequacies? Yes, I answer who isn’t?

And it asks if I fixate on what's wrong. Again, the answer is yes. The other is a mindfulness survey to see how well my mind focuses on one thing at a time. I'll retake these tests at the end of the eight week course. Which of course, has me wondering: what does breathing possibly have to do with all these things?

Breathing, it seems is just the beginning.

Kreitzer says, “Focusing on the breathing is just a way to help us slow down and help develop a point of concentration. It's just a way to center. Using our breath as an anchor, we train our minds to let go of thoughts racing around our heads. It's hard, really hard.”

Kreitzer says, “I think mental training can be every bit as hard as physical training and requires the same kind of focus and discipline.”

I practice at work, tuning out newsroom noise. I practice at home, shutting out distractions. Kreitzer says, “With meditation having consistent daily practice is really important.”

But it's the internal distractions that I really struggle with.

“It's just recognizing that that is just a thought and letting that thought, releasing that thought and let it go away.”

Yoga and and qi gong meld the mind, breath and body These ancient practices can no longer be ignored by modern western medicine.

Meditation simply makes people feel better. It can lower a person's blood pressure. It can reduce anxiety, depression and treat sleeplessness. But the most stunning research has shown that meditation physically changes a person's brain. This is the part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex.

Kreitzer says, “I think as important is the discovery that for many people it not only has those direct health benefits but it gives them a way of showing up in the world that's different.”

So do those of us who take this class actually show up in the world differently? Aloida Zaragoza, the poverty program director, says, “I will tell you this, during very stressful times I am more calm. I work at it.”

It's a difference even a boy can measure. Jesus says, “Before when we'd be in conflict, she would react more, she would show me a reaction.”

But now, he says, not so much. “It would surprise me when she didn't really show that much reaction.”

I ask, “Can meditation make people happier?” The experts reply, “I think there is some evidence that meditation can make people healthier as well as make people happier and maybe it makes sense.”

In my case, this is the first time in my life I have sat still. I have focus on what's happening right now instead of worrying about what's already happened or what's to come. I also have been remembering the names of people I meet. Something I could never do before.

My instructor says she sees a change in me. Which may be why, and this may be the most important question of all, the ranking I gave my own quality of life jumped more than ten points over 8 weeks.

My instructor sums it up, “Do we want to be present right now in this life? Because we don't know how many moments we have or days or years. But we have right now. This is all we have”

We have included several short meditations led by my teacher. So sit back and try it out. See how it feels.

Video: 3 Short Meditation Sessions

U of M Center for Spirituality and Healing
http://www.csh.umn.edu/programs/Mindfulness_Based_Stress_Reduction_MBSR/home.html