Just Press The Pause Button: The Expert Explains The Benefits Of Meditating And How To Get Started

Just press the pause button: the expert explains the benefits of meditating and how to get started Hands of young beautiful woman practicing yoga indoors It has been proven that meditation can reduce stress.

That many complaints are caused by stress, too. And yet meditation is not prescribed as medicine. In fact, it is quickly seen as floaty or alternative. But is that right? We spoke with Jutta Borms, meditator, general practitioner and author of the books The new doctor and After the crash.

What Exactly Does Meditation Entail?

 Jutta Borms: 'When you meditate, you press the pause button for a moment. It is a way of uniting your mind with your body. Feel your feelings without judgment and let them go. Some people think that you shouldn't think anything when you meditate. But that is incorrect: everyone has thoughts, it has been researched that we have 60,000 thoughts a day, even the gurus in temples in India! When you meditate, you let those thoughts pass by, like clouds in the sky. Conscious breathing is actually the most important thing. Your body is a container of thoughts, emotions, baggage from the past, thinking about the future, patterns, beliefs, attachments. When you meditate, you empty that container for a moment. There are thoughts, but you are not your thoughts. If you can focus on breathing for a moment, then you have already meditated.

How Can You Keep Meditating? 

“I meditate every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to sleep. So for me it's a fixed time of the day. For some it helps to set an alarm clock: for example, every day at 8 o'clock you take fifteen minutes for yourself. There is a Chinese saying that I like very much: 'if you have time, meditate for half an hour. And if you don't have time, do it for an hour.' But even three minutes a day will help you. If you can't even take three minutes to yourself, how bad is it?'

How Did You Get Started With Atternative   Medicine? 

'I prefer to say additive rather than alternative. I want to add something to mainstream medicine, not necessarily do something instead. I myself had a severe whiplash, in which regular medicine did not help me enough and the heavy anti inflammatories only gave me stomach pain. I then 'coincidence' ended up with a holistic doctor. He treated me with puncture where you inject a herbal medicine into certain pressure points. After a few sessions I was rid of my whiplash. I also decided to study puncture and neural therapy, where you remove blockages by injecting a local anaesthetic.'

Meditation Was Added Later ?

"Yeah, I've been there before. My practice was really booming, I tackled chronic fatigue complaints in a plant-based way. There were many people looking for a holistic approach to medicine. My agenda was always packed half a year in advance. Good for my ego, but I suddenly realized that a good doctor is one without patients. If people kept coming back, was I doing it right? I got a serious burnout and stopped my practice completely for a while. At that time I was training to become a yoga instructor. Through yoga I also came into contact with meditation. I was immediately blown away by it. It brought me so much mentally and physically. It really changed my life.”

How?

 “I am better able to deal with or respond to stress. Meditation and yoga make me feel clearer. You just see it when someone meditates, I think. People are beaming. Once I started it, I wanted more. It's a good habit, which in my case ensures lasting happiness.'

Is There Scientific Evidence For That?

 “Meditation has been proven to help lower your blood pressure, lower your heart rate and slow down your breathing, which is the stress coping that improves. There is also a study that proves that stress-related inflammation symptoms improved by meditating. Neuroscientist Steven Laureys has written an entire book of scientific evidence: The No-Nonsense Meditation Book. It has really been researched many times.'

Why Do You Think people Find Meditation So Woolly?

 ‘What may play a role is that people find it unproductive or lazy to do nothing for a while. But that's exactly what it's about. The goal is to stop and rest for a while. Meditation is also something unknown to many and that always inspires fear. The first people who proclaimed that the earth was round were also burned at the stake, right? I think: if it doesn't help, it won't hurt. Try it and see what it can do for you. It is of course easy for me to talk: I have been learning for 25 years and I have a very solid scientific basis. I just know it works. That gives me great confidence.'

So People Don’t Trust Meditation?

“There is a lot of weight about meditation. People are sometimes afraid of it, afraid that they are going to change. That they go crazy or 'floaty'. It can also be frightening: if you stop for a moment, you are sometimes confronted with a lot of emotions. Deep frustration, or deep sadness. But if you can feel and live through those emotions without judging yourself, you will feel much calmer. I think it could all be much more accessible. That is why I founded No minuten together with Evi Hanssen and Hilde Debaerde maeker, in which we recorded guided meditations of nine minutes. So just sit in silence for five (or nine) minutes and give it a try.”

Last Question : Do You Think Meditation Can Replace Regular Medicines?

“Almost all illnesses, I believe, are psychosomatic, a physical manifestation of a psychological cause. Unless you break your leg sometime. You can opt for a classic medicine, an alternative medicine or look for the medicine within yourself: sleep a lot, drink water, slow down, look for softness and silence. I had a patient in my yoga class who took all possible inhalers for lung complaints. After a year with me she was off all that medication. I want to be cautious, but I dare say: yes, sustained meditation of at least five minutes a day can replace regular medication in some cases.'