I recently began receiving cognitive behavioral therapy for my CFS. I told my therapist that I had started meditating, and that so far, it seemed to really be working pretty well. That is, I don't feel cured, but when I'm able to effectively remove distressing thoughts from my mind, and simply live in the present for 15 minutes or so, I really do notice a decrease in symptoms (anyone else experience this?). Combined with my taking Wellbutrin, I feel, for the first time in over a year, like I'm getting better and not worse. Anyway, she recommended a book called "The Relaxation Response," which I then picked up last week.
The book talks a lot about the science behind meditation-- how it's been proven to lower blood pressure, etc etc. I didn't know this before I read the book, but the effects of meditation basically counteract what we know as the "Fight or Flight Response." Whereas the former relaxes us, the latter is induced when we're under stress-- and both responses, according to the book, take place in the hypothalamus (the region of the brain that regulates hormones, body temp, etc etc). Those constantly under stress, according to the book, are overactivating their fight or flight response, and can really benefit from spending just 20 minutes a day in meditation. So, anyway, what I thought was interesting was how closely this seemed to tie into what Teitelbaum says about the hypothalamus: http://www.smart-publications.com/artic ... albaum.php
This makes a lot of sense for my story. My first relapse, which felt exactly like mono, came after going through a lot of physical stress (I was a college rower at the time) combined with a fair amount of emotional stress (which I won't go into...). Of course, almost all of us feel worse after exercise, which is a physical stressor, but I've noticed that I also react really poorly to anything that makes me nervous or worried. I haven't tried the Gupta program, but from what I've heard, its methods sound pretty similar to all of this.
Anyway, for anyone who thinks they might be the sort of person who could take to meditation, I really recommend it, and I recommend the book as well. Maybe we all just need to let our respective hypothalamuses (hypothalames?) chill out for awhile. And as I'm fairly new to meditation, I'd love to hear from anyone out there who's been trying it or finding success with it.
Site map
SitemapIndex