Meditation

Meditation and the Restful Awareness Response

By Dr. David Simon

An agitated body/mind system generates entropy, decay and aging. A rested body/mind system fosters creativity, renewal and reversal of aging. Since the body and mind are one, when the mind is deeply rested the body is also deeply rested. We know from common experience that our mind is rarely in this rested state. In fact, most of the time it is in the fight/flight mode. The fight/flight or stress response occurs when we feel threatened in any way. The stress response creates physiological changes that damage your body and accelerate aging. You are surely familiar with how it feels to be in a stress mode, but you may not be familiar with what is happening in your body. The physiological changes that accompany the fight/flight response are as follows:

• Your heart beats faster
• Your blood pressure rises
• Your consume more oxygen and expel more carbon dioxide
• Your heart pumps more blood
• You sweat
• Your adrenal glands pump out stress hormones
• Your blood sugar level rises
• You reduce the blood supply to your digestive organs and increase the blood supply to your muscles
• Your immune system is suppressed

The Fight/Flight Response was first described by an early twentieth century American scientist named Walter Cannon. He wanted to understand why some people became ill and others even died under stress. He discovered that when you encounter a threatening situation, a part of your involuntary nervous system becomes instantly and automatically activated. The nervous system triggers rises in blood pressure and heart rate and stimulates the adrenal glands to release adrenaline. If the threat and the neurological response are severe and unrelenting, damaging bodily changes can occur.

Exploring the stress response further, another scientist, Hans Selye, found that in addition to the changes that take place in the nervous system, many important hormones jump into the fray. These hormones affect every aspect of the body, including the heart, stomach, liver, sex organs and immune system. If the stress is long and drawn-out, the entire physiology becomes exhausted, the body is unable to maintain balance, and something eventually breaks down.

Prolonged stress can make you sick and can accelerate aging. Over time, the stress response can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, stomach ulcers, autoimmune diseases, cancer, anxiety, insomnia and depression. This may lead you to ask, "If the fight/flight response is so damaging, why did nature create it?" The original purpose of the fight/flight response was to help us survive in a threatening situation. If a ferocious animal was about to eat you, the only way to survive was to either fight back or run away. Considering that human beings do not have thick hides, large canines or big tusks, our ability to react quickly to a threat helped us survive in a dangerous environment.

Today, this response is still occasionally useful, as when a fireman goes into a burning building to rescue a child, or when you leap out of the way of a reckless driver speeding on a residential street. Most of the time, however, the fight/flight response no longer serves us very well. You may activate the stress response when your are stuck in rush hour traffic or facing a critical work deadline, but neither fighting nor running away is a viable option. The pressure to do something without a way to release it causes harm. The long-term consequences of an activated stress response speed up the aging process and make us susceptible to illness.

The opposite of the Fight/Flight Response is the Restful Awareness Response. Restful awareness is the state when your body mind system is in deep rest, but your mind is awake. Restful awareness occurs during meditation and related techniques. The subjective experience of the restful response is relaxation. The physiological changes that occur are as follows:

• Your heart rate slows
• Your blood pressure normalizes
• You consume less oxygen and expel less carbon dioxide
• Your heart pumps less blood
• You perspire less
• Your adrenal glands produce less stress hormones
• Your immune function improves

Restful awareness is a natural mind/body response, as natural as the stress responses. The bodily changes of restful awareness in meditation are almost the exact opposite of the fight/flight response. During meditation breathing slows, blood pressure decreases, and stress hormone levels fall. The consumption of oxygen during meditation falls almost twice as much as during sleep. What is fascinating about these physiological changes is that even as the body is resting deeply in meditation, the mind is awake, but quiet. Brain wave studies show improved coherence between different parts of the brain during meditation. These changes in body and mind are not seen during wakefulness or sleeping. The unique combination of physical relaxation and an alert yet quiet mind explains the term "restful awareness," and distinguishes this state from restful sleep.

People who regularly experience restful awareness develop less hypertension, heart disease, anxiety, and depression. They find it easier to give up life-damaging habits such as cigarettes, excessive alcohol and drugs. They also show improvements in their immune function and reduced susceptibility to infections. Research on people who meditate demonstrates wide-ranging health improvements and a reversal in many biomarkers of aging.

Studies have shown that the longer people are practicing meditation, the younger they score on tests of biological age. For example, long-term meditators show biological ages almost twelve years younger than their chronological age. Other studies have shown that certain hormonal changes usually associated with aging can be slowed or reversed through regular meditation.

The Restful Awareness Response is an important way to improve your health. Although you may wonder how you can find the time to meditate, we strongly encourage you to make meditation an important part of your life. It will actually create more time for you, because you will be much more efficient when your mind is calm and centered. We recommend twenty to thirty minutes of restful awareness (sitting meditation with your eyes closed) twice a day. The best times to meditate are shortly after awakening in the morning, and again in the later afternoon or early evening. The morning meditation starts your day with a fresh, calm mental attitude. The late afternoon or evening session helps freshen your mind after a day's activity.