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Friday, November 20, 2009

In-Depth: Motivated to Meditate

Thursday, 19 Nov 2009
Trish VanPilsum

MINNEAPOLIS - You've seen me do some extreme things for stories. Go through the ice, ride a motorcycle, but now something on the extreme opposite end of the spectrum. I take an eight week class of meditation. Can a person find peace in eight weeks? Let's see.

From my early morning workout, to my late night combination of meal prep and teen study sessions, my life is a study in escalation and juggling. To survive is to multi-task. To multi-task is to develop what is sometimes called monkey mind.

“Our minds are just racing with thoughts that just whip right out right after another," Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN, Director of the Center for Spirituality and Healing said.

Or, maybe your mind feels something like my teacher, Terry Pearson calls: thought, thought, thought.

"There comes a time where we say this is not the way I want to live my life," Pearson said. "I'm not as happy. I don't feel at peace or at ease. This is too hard. So our life has to change."

Change is coming for anyone who walks into the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing. The class is a mindfulness based stress reduction class. Science speak for meditation. Among those taking the class are several doctors:

"I think the doctors are coming because there is so much research now that shows meditation does actually calm the brain." Pearson said.

There is also a nurse, the director of a poverty program and me. Terry Pearson has been teaching at the U’s program for six years.

"It's just so interesting and exciting to see people change," Pearson said.

We'll measure change in a couple of ways.

Meet Jesus Vega. His mom is the director of the poverty program. I ask him why his mom took the class.

"She said it would calm her down." he said.

And if this class makes a difference he'll notice it. In my case we will actually try to document whether any real change happens. I take two surveys, one a quality of life questionnaire that asks if I tend to overreact. I say yes. It asks if I tend to be judgmental of my own flaws and inadequacies? Yes, I answer who isn’t?

And it asks if I fixate on what's wrong. Again, the answer is yes. The other is a mindfulness survey to see how well my mind focuses on one thing at a time. I'll retake these tests at the end of the eight week course. Which of course, has me wondering: what does breathing possibly have to do with all these things?

Breathing, it seems is just the beginning.

This is page one of a two-page article. Please click on "external source" for the entire article; and on Page two, there are some links to meditation videos.

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