MENTAL FITNESS
By Karen Ziegler, B.S.
June 13th, 2013
Body, Mind and Spirit
Introduction
What is Mental Fitness?
What are the Benefits of Mental Fitness?
Research Studies Demonstrating Healing from
Mental and Spiritual Focus
Exercises/Activities that Improve Mental Fitness
Summarization
References
Mental Fitness?
Olympic athletes train daily
challenging their physical skills in an exhaustive
attempt to be the best of the best at the Olympic games.
Olympian Mental Fitness is a process that involves training the
mind to be at its best. This systematic inner development involves
challenging ourselves on a daily basis in an effort to master the
ability to eliminate chatter and find a stillness within that can
empower us with no limits. Training our mind involves
taming the mind so it can be still, without chatter,
and then transformed into a permanent state
of exceptional inner health.
There ARE limits to how physically fit our bodies can
be but there is NO limit when developing the
qualities of the mind (Dacher, 2006).
BENEFITS OF MENTAL FITNESS
 Eliminating chatter allows better focus on tasks and problem solving.
 A calm mind works with the body to enhance better health.
 A controlled mindset helps us be non-reactive using intentional actions.
 Mental fitness helps us see the world clearer.
 It gives us inner peace which grows with loving-kindness and wisdom.
 It allows us to see what relationships are of quality and to let go of the others.
 It helps us “become the change you want to see happen in the world.”
(Ghandi from Dacher, 2006)
 Our mind can give us optimum health and eliminate illness and disease.
THE LUTZ STUDY
The Lutz study, by Antoine Lutz, was conducted using a group of
scholars and a control group of students to measure a certain
type of brain wave called the gamma wave. The authors, through
the use of EEG, evaluated each group prior to, and after, the
meditation. The scholars had 15-40 years of meditation practice
where the students were given only one week of introduction
(Quantum Consciousness, 2012). The groups were asked to
create a compassionate mental state. The scholars were found to
have remarkably higher brain activity which was present even
before the study but showed much synchrony during the study.
This result suggested that a trained mind can function at a higher
more organized level because of the measured increase in
organized gamma wave movement. It was pointed out that
mental training may work for short-term as well as long-term
training of the mind (Dacher, 2006).
Dr. Peter Schnall Stress Study: 1998
Midlevel business managers that worked in stressful work
environments were studied to examine the health status of each worker
noting their perceived workload. Those who felt overwhelmed
developed disturbing emotions and were also found to have chronic
hypertension and enlarged hearts (Dacher, 2006). Dacher points out
that this study showed those who had feelings of “helplessness &
powerlessness,” also had disturbed emotions.
This study, and many related studies, show us that stress does
affect our mind and body and our perceptions are part of the coping
needed to remedy these detrimental effects. When I was told my high
diastolic blood pressure was due to stress I immediately started listing
my stressors and dealing with each individually in a desperate attempt
to calm down. This information helped me eliminate the perception
that I had a clogged artery or anything related to cardiovascular disease
which had been an ongoing fear of mine.
Dean Ornish Study in 1980
Dean Ornish, and a fellow student in their second year of medical school, came up
with the idea of taking 10 heart subjects and putting them on a life-style changing
program, housed in a hotel, for 30 days. They injected thallium which served as a
tracer so that they could track the blood flow to the heart. The results were
favorable as the patients subjectively felt better.
After both doctors graduated they organized the same study on 48 heart patients and
found a significant improvement in the patients following their program. The control
group got worse and the patients on their program completed it with lower
cholesterol levels by 40% and this was only after 3.5 weeks! There was a 91%
reduction in chest pain! There was improved blood flow to their hearts! The buildup of coronary artery blockages reversed (Dacher, 2006)!
This is an amazing study, to me, since the timeframe was under one month. Ornish
states, in Dacher, that stress is not just what you do, it’s how you react to what you
do. Ornish spent much time with these patients over the course of many years and
he states that “many of them had something else in common: an emotional or
spiritual heart disease” (Dacher, 2006). His observations included “loneliness,
isolation and alienation”. Stress is truly an extremely damaging psychosomatic cause
of illness affecting both the mind and body.
A Visualization: Meeting Asclepius
Find a private setting in a quiet room and plan on approximately 15 minutes for the
session. Sitting comfortably in an upright position, with eyes closed, visualize the image of
a wise person for whom you have utmost respect. This person doesn’t need to be living.
Feel their presence and reflect on his/her love, compassion, warmth, wisdom…
When your focus is settled in on him/her visualize a strong white beam of light coming
from his/her head. Allow this beam of wisdom to enter your mind and receive this energy
so that it becomes one with you. Slowly allow this transformation to settle in as you
acquire all the wisdom from your wise friend.
Visualize a second beam of light that comes from his/her throat and receive it into your
throat. This beam brings with it wise and soft speech which you receive and it allows you
to speak from a platform of wisdom. Take your time as you receive this power to speak
wisely.
A final beam of light begins to glow from the heart of the wise one and it reaches out and
enters into your heart. This beam carries love and kindness with compassion all being
shared from the wise one. You receive this pure unconditional love.
You can now focus on the wisdom that you have received into your mind, throat and heart
as you become the wise person. Allow the wise friend to become a bright white light as
his/her entire body enters your body through your forehead. Let this beam of wisdom fill
your entire body and become you as you continue through life’s journey. Allow your friend
to fade away leaving you with powerful wisdom.
Recognize this wisdom was within you all along.
Subtle Mind Exercise
This 30 minute exercise takes us from a witnessing mind, through calm
abiding and ultimately into unity consciousness. It begins with 10 breaths taken in
and out while relaxing and concentrating on the breaths. The mind follows the
breathing so if we “still the breath we still the mind” (Dacher, 2006). When
distractions appear acknowledge them bringing your focus back to the breathing. As
the exercise proceeds you’ll find that less focus is on the breathing and more on the
mind which randomly moves between objects and thoughts. As you leave each
thought alone it dissolves. This is called “taming the mind” (Dacher, 2006). Each
session will bring you closer and faster into calm-abiding and ultimately into unity
consciousness. This exercise takes time to fully evolve as we relax and find the
stillness of our mind and we’re able to re-center or ground our thoughts. When you
feel you have finished open your eyes and slowly observe your surroundings and
your sense of calm.
Dacher points out that it’s important to observe your ability to stabilize
your mind. Some people meditate better after a meal or exercise. Some must have
a quiet room where others prefer music or soundscapes. Perhaps it’s aromatherapy
that assists with your relaxation. The goal is to quiet our mind, through practice, so
that we can stabilize it and move into the human flourishing of unity consciousness.
This new calm becomes our base. This process is different for everybody and if
obstacles appear the remedy is found within each of us.
Summarization
There are many studies available showing the connection between
mind and body and the fact that the two cannot be separated. In this
presentation we touched on the coordinated gamma wave movement
acquired by experienced meditation, the effects of perceived stress on
mid-level management and the results showing the importance of lifestyles changes in heart disease patients. However, there are many
studies available showing the connection that makes it easy to
understand how human flourishing requires we train both the body and
the mind.
There are many exercises available that do not require physical
movement. Meditation is one “taming of the mind” that may help
many eliminate, or at least control, chatter that can lead us toward
inner stillness. Exercising physically is a popular stress reliever but the
West has ignored their psychological health. Calming our mind can be a
walk around the yard, sitting on the beach, or talking to God but
ignoring it’s power to balance our overall health is a grave mistake.
REFERENCES
Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach,
CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
Quantum Consciousness, (2012). Retrieved June 9, 2012 from
http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/EEGmeditation.htm