For ultimate cynics who can’t bear the thought of
sitting cross-legged — and probably spend too much time sitting anyway — or
those who are already struggling with cognitive decline, walking meditation is
powerfully effective and very simple.
Just going for a walk can be a powerful meditative
activity that allows the brain to rest and restore. Stick to the same route and
work to minimise distractions and interruptions.
Starting at one point and ending at another creates
a sense of regimented activity — which forms the groundwork for meditative
thinking.
When you walk a familiar circuit the
problem-solving part of your mind can go offline which helps you instantly feel
more relaxed. Walk at an easy pace. Feel the ground beneath your feet, the
tensing of your leg muscles and the swing of your arms.
If you find your attention wandering, label your
steps — one, two or left, right — to keep your head clear.
Turn to your free magazine which was given away in
Saturday’s paper (if you don’t have one, call 0808 272 0808 and we will send
you one straight away), and focus on the main sources of stress in your life,
and possible ways you could mitigate them.
We encourage our patients to work towards
eliminating, as much as they can, any situations in life that make them feel
stressed, and taking steps to avoid the difficult and awkward relationships
that make them uncomfortable.
We urge them to make sure they give themselves time
in each day to relax (this is very important!) and to find a way to reduce the
constant distractions of mobile phones, computers and TV (you might think this
is just background noise, but it can put your brain in a permanent state of
unrelenting alert).
For our part, we managed stress levels by keeping a
close eye on our schedules. We now cancel meetings and events at night to allow
time to decompress after a busy day.
When we travel, we allow a day at home to eat well,
exercise and sleep soundly before returning to our work routine.
Four times a day we practise mindful breathing
(left) for five to ten minutes a time, and spend lunch hours walking the same
path around the hospital where we work (exercise and relaxation combined).
When we are at home you’ll hear classical music
playing at a low volume, and, when they are around, one of our children will
put on a dance song every hour or so and we have a rule that we all have to get
up and dance, (which is great fun and another effective form of stress relief).
THE BENEFITS OF MEDITATION
Like many people, we used to get uncomfortable when
someone mentioned meditation — it hadn’t entered textbooks when we were
studying medicine.
But it is such a buzzword in California, where we
work, and many of our healthiest patients were such great advocates, that we
set out to research its scientific benefits.
To our surprise, we found many studies that, over
the years, really have convinced us of the powerful relaxation benefits of
meditation.
Beyond stress reduction, meditation has been shown
to either increase the brain’s volume or slow the rate at which the brain loses
volume through age — particularly in the crucial parts of the brain that govern
attention. This means regular meditation really could help enhance memory.
Continued tomorrow
MailOnline, Dr Dean Sherzai and Dy Ayesha Sherzai
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