Last year, I was fortunate enough to be referred to the Maple Ridge Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centre by my counsellor at Mental Health and Addiction Services in our local hospital.
My nightly routine at the treatment centre was, upon exiting the elevator in the basement level, to walk toward a sign at the end of a long hallway. On a rectangular piece of white bristle board, scribbled in black marker, were two arrows pointing in opposite directions.
Beside the one arrow, written in large neat letters with lucid intention, was the word “medication.” The arrow pointing in the other direction had the word “meditation” written in the same bold font.
To the left was the medication dispensary where a kind, friendly nurse waited and, in the right direction there was a room, full of comfortable cushions and pleasant smells, reserved for meditating.
Almost nightly, I smiled quietly to myself as I turned left and walked past the cardboard sign that was carefully taped to the white cement wall. The words looked and phonetically sounded so similar, but, their meanings seemed so very different.
I suppose I found quiet humour that figuratively, and literally, I had to choose a certain direction during my stay at this outstanding drug and alcohol treatment centre. However, I’ve since begun to learn the effects of the two methods of helping an unwell mind and soul were startlingly similar, a bit like two different paths to the same destination.
My nightly ritual of medication to treat debilitating anxiety and depression was, and is, helping me greatly. In fact, my prescribed medications were a central reason for getting me to this kind and instructive place.
However, as I adjusted to my new home, and 60 or so roommates, I became curious to see what benefits meditation might have for me. One evening, I needed to choose the arrow that pointed right. At least, check it out and see if meditation could be a possible tool to use on a road to getting well in my mind and, consequently, my body.
It turns out that the benefits of meditation in helping patients with mental health and addiction issues are many and profound.
Tibet’s leader-in-exile, the Dalai Lama, looks like an extremely happy man, always sharing a large smile. It is with disciplined, daily meditation that his holiness and other Buddhist monks achieve a nirvana-like state.
Buddhism has instructed its practitioners to become calm and mindful with mediation for 2,500 years but, now, there is neuro-science and brain imaging technologies such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) that can prove the health benefits of meditation and mindfulness.
The Maryland, USA-based National Center for Biotechnical Information, through years of studies, has found there are “structural brain modifications in expert meditators.” Expert meditators have increased grey matter throughout their brains, including in the medial temporal lobe, hippocampus and the brainstem.
Buddhist monks are like Olympic gold medal athletes of the neuro-physiological world and they train for hours and hours to achieve such a feat.
I’m finding out it takes a lot of work on the path toward health and happiness.
There are many directions you can take on that road. Medication will work for some, while meditation will be more effective for others. Or both might be best.
For certain, there are many qualified, caring people to help point us in the right, or left, direction.
Robert Skender is a Powell River freelance writer and health commentator.
