Therapy? There’s an app for that, soon.

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Counseling people are starting to use apps for use between sessions to help people get better.

The jury is still out as to whether or not someone would rather do a therapy app or play Angry Birds, but some things are on the horizon, according to this article from the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/health/feeling-anxious-soon-there-will-be-an-app-for-that.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all.

So far, I haven’t seen too many apps that I use in my practice, however, there is one of note for those of my clients whom I teach meditation to: Insight Timer, by Spotlight Six Software. Info on the iPhone version is here: http://www.spotlightsix.com/iphone-meditation-timer/. An Android version is here: http://www.spotlightsix.com/android-meditation-timer/. This is a meditation timer using singing bowl tones, which are less jarring that standard alarm ringtones. It also offers the opportunity to find community among other meditators, although for that I’d recommend face to face contact instead.

Hope you find these useful.

A good definition of meditation

The basic definition of meditation is “having a steady mind.” In meditation, when your thoughts go up, you don’t go up, and you don’t go down when your thoughts go down. Whether your thoughts are good or bad, exciting or boring, blissful or miserable, you let them be. You don’t accept some and reject others. You have a sense of greater space that encompasses any thought that may arise.

— Chögyam Trungpa, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

Change your brain by using meditation

Believe it or not, you can change critical structures in your brain by adopting a regimen of meditation. 8 weeks is enough to make some changes. These structures are associated with empathy, stress, and attention.

While the article doesn’t say it, it is possible that the act of prayer (if not the prayer itself!) could also have the same changes occur.

For more info, look at this NYT article:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/how-meditation-may-change-the-brain/?ref=health

Kabat-Zinn presentation

This is a video of a presentation by Jon Kabat-Zinn on mindfulness (think being very present-oriented).  It includes some time meditating with him and exploring ways that mindfulness can be helpful with stress reduction.  Worth 72 minutes of your time.

A couple of BS-bombs, but very good overall.

Quotes of the day

Meditation is an act of love.

…

Meditation:  It’s not what you think.

–Jon Kabat-Zinn

Deep breathing is helpful for reducing stress.

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A big part of the therapeutic approach I have is the use of meditation with clients for stress reduction and thought detachment.  The style of meditation I teach is breath work–that is, becoming aware of your breathing when you are doing deep breathing.

Here is an article from NPR.org on the benefit of deep breathing.  Enjoy reading it–it’s short.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131734718/just-breathe-body-has-a-built-in-stress-reliever&sc=fb&cc=fp

No, I don’t make my clients pant like a doggie.  Just deep breathing.

NPR article on one of the founders of mindfulness psychotherapy–Jon Kabat-Zinn

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=7654964&m=7655313

Above is a description of mindfulness therapy as practiced by Kabat-Zinn, who has been running a clinic on pain management for decades.  This is important because he is one of the founders of mindfulness therapy.  Good stuff.

Staycation vs vacation

Now that I’ve enjoyed my time away, I’ve been pondering what to say about the current trend of going on staycations.  Staycations, if you don’t already know, are vacation periods where you stay at home or local to home.  Vacations are now being thought of as time away from home.  I would take a staycation if I worked around the house for 2 weeks, a vacation if I went to Disney World, far away from southeastern Pennsylvania.

I think that the question of whether or not a vacation is better than a staycation is moot.  The real purpose of a stay/va/cation is to set apart a period of time for re-creation. that is the re-birth of the person.

What matters is not whether or not you go on a staycation or a vacation, but HOW you go on a staycation or a vacation.

Merriam-Webster defines a vacation this way:

• Main Entry: ¹va·ca·tion
• Pronunciation: \vā-ˈkā-shən, və-\
• Function: noun
• Usage: often attributive
• Etymology: Middle English vacacioun, from Anglo-French vacacion, from Latin vacation-, vacatio freedom, exemption, from vacare
• Date: 14th century

1 : a respite or a time of respite from something : intermission
2 a : a scheduled period during which activity (as of a court or school) is suspended b : a period of exemption from work granted to an employee
3 : a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation <had a restful vacation at the beach>
4 : an act or an instance of vacating

From this we can determine that there are two kinds of time:  time at work or activity, and time apart (vacationing) with one goal, which is to re-create.  Thus when you are on vacation or a staycation, it is critical to do two things:  set aside time with a beginning and an ending, and do something productive to re-create yourself as a person.

The best vacations I have are ones in which I go on retreat with a bunch of friends on a yearly basis.  We gather to work on our spirituality and set aside time for this purpose by going to retreat centers (some of which are within a short distance of my home, some of which are not).  What makes this time better than a trip to Disney World or puttering around the house is that I’m not idling time away.  I’m working on ME by setting aside time and by focusing on my spirituality.

This year I had a good vacation in Myrtle Beach, but the people I went with (as well as my friends on the net) were wondering why I decided to work on “work” during my vacation.  Well, I find myself currently between jobs (I start the new one on Monday), and I am in a place where the part of me that is re-creating is vocational in nature.  So, I focused on getting a good tan, hanging out with the family, and reading up on the population affected by my new work, the elderly.  Do I feel relaxed?  Yes.  Do I feel energized?  Yes.  Why?  Because I set aside time with a beginning and an ending and had a purposive activity in mind to re-create myself.

So, what can YOU do to spice up your next vacation?  Mark it with a beginning and ending, and do something to further yourself as a person (whether it be for yourself or for others).

Here are some ideas:

• Go to a retreat house for a day of reflection.  Many retreat houses offer this as an option.
• Volunteer to work at a homeless shelter for a day.
• Pick a book to read that has to do with an area of your life that you want to develop and read it in a new place, e.g. the beach.
• Google “volunteer” and your zip code and see what comes up.
• Take a class on meditation (or just read my earlier post on meditation) and devote a regular period of time each day on your vacation to meditating.
• Teach your child fishing or hunting (something where they learn the peace of quiet).
• Learn a new skill in an area you want to develop.
• Learn a new skill in an area you know absolutely nothing about and are just curious about.
• Don’t putter around the house throughout your whole vacation.  Celebrate accomplishments in the house.
• Vacation with a theme (Civil War battlefields, learning about interesting places in your state, etc.)
• Make sure that the greatest number of purposive activities you do during a day is 3.  No more than 3, and no less than 2.

And have fun!

What are the best vacations/staycations you have had, and why?

So the dog woke me up at 4am.

And what did I do?  I couldnt go back to sleep, so I got up and decided to make my blog post of the day.

Today’s topic is meditation.  No, I’m not talking about prayer temples, fancy robes, and incense.  Just a simple technique with many benefits.  I found a website which lists 100 benefits of meditation, including:

Physiological benefits:
1- It lowers oxygen consumption.
2- It decreases respiratory rate.
3- It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
4- Increases exercise tolerance.
5- Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.
6- Good for people with high blood pressure.
7- Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
8- Decreases muscle tension
9- Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.
10- Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
11- Helps in post-operative healing.
12- Enhances the immune system.
13- Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress
14- Enhances energy, strength and vigour.
15- Helps with weight loss
16- Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage
17- Higher skin resistance
18- Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.
19- Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.
20- Decreases the aging process.
21- Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)
22- prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases
23- Makes you sweat less
24- Cure headaches & migraines
25- Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning
26- Reduced Need for Medical Care
27- Less energy wasted
28- More inclined to sports, activities
29- Significant relief from asthma
30- improved performance in athletic events
31- Normalizes to your ideal weight
32- harmonizes our endocrine system
33- relaxes our nervous system
34- produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity
35- Cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation).

Psychological benefits:
36- Builds self-confidence.
37- Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behaviour.
38- Resolve phobias & fears
39- Helps control own thoughts
40- Helps with focus & concentration
41- Increase creativity
42- Increased brain wave coherence.
43- Improved learning ability and memory.
44- Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
45- Increased emotional stability.
46- improved relationships
47- Mind ages at slower rate
48- Easier to remove bad habits
49- Develops intuition
50- Increased Productivity
51- Improved relations at home & at work
52- Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
53- Helps ignore petty issues
54- Increased ability to solve complex problems
55- Purifies your character
56- Develop will power
57- greater communication between the two brain hemispheres
58- react more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.
59- increases one’s perceptual ability and motor performance
60- higher intelligence growth rate
61- Increased job satisfaction
62- increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
63- decrease in potential mental illness
64- Better, more sociable behaviour
65- Less aggressiveness
66- Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction
67- Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills & pharmaceuticals
68- Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
69- Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia
70- Increases sense of responsibility

71- Reduces road rage

72- Decrease in restless thinking
73- Decreased tendency to worry
74- Increases listening skills and empathy
75- Helps make more accurate judgements
76- Greater tolerance
77- Gives composure to act in considered & constructive ways
78- Grows a stable, more balanced personality
79- Develops emotional maturity

Spiritual benefits:
80- Helps keep things in perspective
81- Provides peace of mind, happiness
82- Helps you discover your purpose
83- Increased self-actualization.
84- Increased compassion
85- Growing wisdom
86- Deeper understanding of yourself and others
87- Brings body, mind, spirit in harmony
88- Deeper Level of spiritual relaxation
89- Increased acceptance of oneself
90- helps learn forgiveness
91- Changes attitude toward life
92- Creates a deeper relationship with your God
93- Attain enlightenment
94- greater inner-directedness
95- Helps living in the present moment
96- Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love
97- Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
98- Experience an inner sense of “Assurance or Knowingness”
99- Experience a sense of “Oneness”
100- Increases the synchronicity in your life

The steps for meditation are really simple.  I usually recommend that it be done once or twice a day, or whenever you need a break (or have trouble sleeping).

1.  Picture your breath coming in and going out from a spot below your belly button.

2.  Focus on your breath.

3.  You will be distracted, naturally.

4.  Casually notice that you are distracted, then tell that which you are distracted by that you are focusing on your breath right now and that you will return to it later if needed.

5.   Return to focusing on your breath.

That’s it!  I’ve just saved you lots of money on meditation tapes, CDs, books, etc.  Of course, there are more advanced methods, both practical and spiritual.  But this method is free, simple, and can be brought anywhere.  So give it a try!

Some people don’t like meditation for spiritual reasons because of a fear of outside evil entities invading one’s mind.  For that I usually suggest lectio divina (an example coming from my personal spiritual tradition), or simply praying a prayer of protection before starting.

I’d be interested to know if you have tried meditation and/or what your thoughts are about it.  Feel free to comment.