"May the stars carry your sadness away. May the flowers fill your heart with beauty. And may hope forever wipe away your tears." -- Chief Dan George.
Continuing our series on mind-body medicine, here's a little information about Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. whose multiple works on mindfulness meditation are mentioned frequently in the field. (See Patience Mason, etc.)
---
Back in the early 1990s, journalist Bill Moyers (pictured, left) had a great series on PBS, followed by a book of the same name, called "Healing and the Mind." It was a fascinating look at the way non-medical aspects of healing could come into play and help restore people to health and vitality. The series was really the first of its kind to talk about these far-ranging subjects to a mainstream American audience, and many people achieved a measure of fame and prominence by being highlighted by Moyers and this series.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., trained as a molecular biologist at MIT, was one such person. According to Wikipedia, which happens in this case to be right, "Kabat-Zinn is the founder and former Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also the founder (1979) and former director of its renowned Stress Reduction Clinic and Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School." Mindfulness Meditation is Kabat-Zinn's specialty, and he's had great results teaching it.
Other luminaries in the field of mind-body medicine, of which Kabat-Zinn's work is a part, include James S. Gordon, M.D., Dr. Bernie Siegel, Rachel Naomi Remen, and John Sarno, M.D, among others.
I wish I could remember, at this remove, what the point of Kabat-Zinn's work at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center's Stress Reduction Clinic was - but I think it had something to do with heart disease in men, and whether leading patients through mindfulness meditation exercises would have some beneficial effect on the men's stress levels and heart health. My memory is that it did, and "Healing and the Mind" featured some compelling stories of how much the men's lives had changed who practiced mindfulness meditation with Kabat-Zinn.
There's a whole semi-wiggy at first but highly interesting concept that's been put forth by several leading lights in the medical arena that "hearts" are where men store "stress," in the form sometimes of sadness and depression -- possibly over all they've experienced in their lives, but have not had the benefit of sharing openly (it's not a guy thing ;-). If I remember from that program, lo these many years ago, I think it mentioned something about how men who had undergone open heart surgery often suffered severely from post-operation depression, and lives were being lost AFTER operations had been successfully, because the predominantly male patients had not learned better ways of coping with stress, sadness and depression, and would succumb, in a weakened state. My memory is that when Kabat-Zinn invited some of these very sick patients to class, over a short amount of time they learned to process their needed grief and pain and regret, but still move on with their lives, thanks to the techniques of mindfulness meditation, as taught by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.
It's interesting to note how many others have turned to this same "technique" to deal with some of the horrors they've experienced, like PTSD.
Editor's note: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.'s most famous books are: Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditations in Everyday Life, andFull Catastrophe LIving: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness.
