Meditation and Healthy Aging

Background• Meditation is one of the oldest and most widely

practiced mind body therapies

• Meditation practices support

An understanding of subjective experiencesAn improved quality of lifeAn understanding of psychosocial factors that play a central role in health and healing

• Research has examined relationships between meditation and clinical treatment for conditions such as cancer, depression and anxiety, and heart disease

Issues for Elders

Life stressesdecreasing physical and mental abilitiesincreased dependence within their living situationschanging family dynamics

Underlying view of meditation gives caregivers and elders perspectives that address impermanence, death and dying

Old age is a naturally contemplative time of lifeSlowing down and attending to details that characterize old age are analogous to the practice of meditation

A contemplative view may be incorporated into hospice and palliative care where elders and caregivers face loss and change

Benefits of Meditation

“Relaxation response” different from that induced by physical exercise

Psychological balance that allows the experience of emotions while maintaining perspective on them

Integration of physical being, emotional impulses, and conscious thoughts

Can be practiced concurrently with existent religious beliefs

Practice of Meditation

Meditation practices Breathing or a mantra as focal point Nonjudgmental awareness to see repetitive patterns of behavior Allowing thoughts and feelings to occur without invoking patterns of response so that insight is gained into involuntary habitual reactions

“The practice of mindfulness is inherent in all human beings. In meditation we are continuously discovering who and what we are. We begin to discover our basic mind and heart. Often we think about meditation as some kind of unusual, holy spiritual activity. As we practice, that is one of the basic beliefs we try to overcome. The point is that meditation is completely normal; it is the mindful quality present in everything we do.”

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

MindfulnessPlacing attention on the breath to stabilize the mind and rest awareness in the present momentCultivates a nonjudgmental state of openness and relaxation that can be maintained throughout daily activity

Transcendental Meditation (TM)Sitting with eyes closed for 20 minutes and attending to a syllable or word (mantra)Whenever thoughts or distractions arise, attention is directed back to the mantraHerbert Benson used TM with other therapies to reduce heart rate, blood pressure, metabolic speed, and alleviate stress

Meditation in Medical Settings Evidence that the mind has a meaningful role in health maintenance and disease recovery has fueled interest in meditation as a treatment in medical settings:

As a primary therapy to treat specific diseasesAs an injunctive therapy in comprehensive treatment plansAs a way to improve quality of life for those with chronic illnesses

Meditation teaches patients how to cope with stresses of illness and treatment, as well as gives an increased sense of control and spiritual experience

Studies of Physiological Effects

Pain and Fibromyalgia

Reductions in present-moment pain, negative body image, inhibition of activity by pain, symptoms, mood disturbance, and psychological symptoms

Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease

“Relaxation response”

Decrease in exercise-induced cardiac ischemia

Regression of coronary artery stenoses

Cancer

Addresses psychological disturbances and stress experienced during treatment

Psychology of Meditation

Dealing with a stressful medical condition may be subsumed into the larger goal of coping with the stresses of life

Meditation practices support coping with distress and disability in daily life, as well as addressing depression, anxiety and affective disorders

Meditation decreases stress through Reducing overall psychological symptomatology

Increasing a sense of control in one’s lifeIncreasing one’s spiritual experiences

Loss and Change

Meditation practices may help to give perspective to life as elders’ physical and mental abilities operate at a slower pace

Elders often feel marginalized by the rapid pace of our society, and struggle to “keep up” producing chronic stressors

There may be fear and hesitation to directly face inevitability of impermanence, loss, and disorientation

Grieving process, dissolution of familiar patterns must be acknowledged

Resolving Hopes and Fears

Deeper goals of meditation include developing a sense of harmony within the universe and increased compassion

These values may be increasingly important to elders as they work to understand physical declines, impending death, and the loss of friends

Through the non-judgmental acknowledgement of thoughts, hopes and fears, meditation practice provides a context where anxieties about physical and mental functioning may be faced, felt, and understood

Memory and Mindfulness

Elders and their caregivers often face concerns of memory loss and inability to concentrate

Mindfulness practices aim to bring enhanced awareness to ordinary day-to-day events

For example, support development of mental strategies to address misplacing glasses

Langer (1989) Through mindfulness exercises, a group of nursing home residents were able to improve memory and attentionElders engaged in mindful learning were more active, alert, and happy

Working with Sterotypes about Aging

Even for those not acutely ill, there is often an unarticulated awareness of diminishing abilities

As ordinary as not being able to driveDependence on others for help in activities of daily living

Meditation practices may help elders free themselves from stereotypes our culture holds about the aged of being frail, infirm, and chronically ill

Elders often require support to be able to grieve these smaller functional losses, as well as to work through larger issues of sickness and death

Spiritual and Emotional Support for Elders

“The challenge of old age is to allow the dissolution of form, to open to that. Elders cannot do it alone, our

culture is so unsupportive, people go to pieces in despair”

Elders often struggle to articulate meaning and value as physical and mental abilities change

Meditation provides an environment which allows elders

To experience their physical and mental impermanenceTo develop a larger view of their lives beyond the fear of loss of control or dying

Issues for Caregivers

Caregivers focused on addressing elders’ problems often neglect self-care issues

Meditation practices may address Burnout and compassion fatigueWorking with death and dyingEstablishing mindful home care or palliative care environments

Conclusions Utility of meditation practice has been generally well established

Most current research in effects of meditation have not focused on elderly age groups

Anecdotal evidence shows that meditation practices are able to give elders insight into their losses and grieving by allowing conflicting emotions to surface

More formal research investigating the outcomes and mechanisms of how meditation works with elders and caregivers is needed

Buddha’s Teaching at the Time of His Death

O bhikshus! Do not grieve! Even if I were to live in the world for as long as a kalpa, our coming together would have to end.

You should know that all things in the world are impermanent; coming together inevitably means parting. Do not be troubled,

for this is the nature of life. Diligently practicing right effort, you must seek liberation immediately. Within the light of wisdom,

destroy the darkness of ignorance. Nothing is secure. Everything in this life is precarious.

Always wholeheartedly seek the way of liberation. All things in the world, whether moving or non-moving, are characterized by

disappearance and instability.

Stop now! Do not speak! Time is passing. I am about to cross over. This is my final teaching.

Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka

Shambhala Buddhist Meditation Center, Baltimore, Maryland