Psychotherapy And Meditation

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Any word is, first of all, a word, and only then, very distantly, it is the key to an idea, feeling or object, while not being the very idea, feeling or object.

Let me ask you to introduce your hand. Close your eyes for a moment and conjure up the image of your hand. Now think of something else, like a big, juicy, green apple. Since our mind functions in such a way that it can concentrate on just one thought at a time, the moment you recall the image of an apple, the image of a hand will go away. Does this mean that your hand no longer exists? Of course not. Here she is, fingers combing a fluffy cat.

The example above demonstrates that thoughts and words evoke visual images in us, and often emotions associated with objects, but are not absolutely identical with these things (otherwise, these things would literally disappear, should we concentrate on another object). Based on the experience of interaction with objects and abstract concepts, we have the ability to reproduce them in memory for a variety of purposes.

Besides the external form, any experience of an object or idea is subjective. My table image is not your table image. It's simple here. We don't think about whether we love tables or not. Lack of personal interest gives us the opportunity to interact with the mental picture of the table without getting entangled in the haze of emotions that add a positive or negative connotation to the image of the table. In the same way, my ideas about psychotherapy and meditation may differ from the ideas of my colleague, but here it becomes much more difficult to operate with ideas: first of all, for the reason that most ideas that do not have a single monolithic manifestation in our world evoke in each of us positive or negative associations. Such associations are fueled by personal experience.

I observe that in the professional circle of scientifically oriented psychotherapists the word "meditation" has a connotation of distrust due to the impossibility of empirically confirming or refuting its effect. At the same time, the subjective sensations of people taking part in social surveys and having direct experience of meditation in the sense that they themselves put into it can be combined with the concept of “positive” rather than “negative”. And while the placebo effect has been a documented scientific phenomenon for years, meditation is suspicious of super-rational minds for the reason that it is a form of being in non-thinking, thereby denying any method that involves the need to think.

One might get the impression that the refusal to rationalize the primary sources of obsessive and depressive states threatens the decline of Western psychotherapeutic thought. The threat to professional and personal safety (“I am a psychologist, I do my job in a certain way, and if something threatens my work, then it also threatens me …”) can incapacitate even the most sophisticated specialists. This distrust of meditation is due to the reluctance to dig deeper into it, since according to the ministers of material science, everything the effect of which cannot be proved objectively cannot be applied in consultation. At the same time, the specialist can (or chooses) to forget that the human mental sphere is more subtle than the sphere of atoms and molecules. Accordingly, it requires multifaceted consideration and a flexible, personalized approach.

At the same time, such a rejection of the effectiveness of meditation may be based on the fact that “it is not clear at all what it is”. Fundamentally speaking, meditation is the practice of focusing on the present moment. It has many variations and helps to free the mind from anxiety - while many analytical techniques only add fuel to the fire and make the mind work in an enhanced mode, driving terabytes of thoughts in a vicious circle.

If the porridge is too salty, would you try to sweeten it by adding more salt? Likewise, obsessive thoughts cannot be cured by thoughts. More than once in my practice, I have come across patients who, after finding out the causes of anxiety, have driven themselves into a wheel of excessive rationalization in an attempt to further prevent anxiety - which grew into even greater anxiety. The very understanding of the mechanism of work of psychotherapy can render a person a disservice by driving him into a “trap of thinking” - that is why it is useful to combine classical techniques with techniques that imply calming thoughts and going beyond rationalization.

The very word “meditation” can frighten off a client who is tuned in to measured, scientifically backed progress. Therefore, when working with clients who are constantly anxious, it is reasonable to use the term "awareness", "conscious breathing", "conscious resolution of life's ups and downs." The essence is the same. The choice of terms for the psychotherapist should dictate the desire to help the person deal with his situation, and not the desire to strengthen his professional ego on each occasion.

Taking into account the above, it can be assumed that the concepts of "meditation" and "psychotherapy" do not contradict each other. Rather, the concepts are complementary. They should be applied judiciously, without blaming - or encouraging - overtones. Mindfulness work is able to take a person beyond the limits of his problem, give him the opportunity to look at the situation from a distance - and find the most effective solution.