Not Controlling but Also Not Succubming: Meditation and Equanimity

Every so often, I get overwhelmed by the myriad events of life. Those times, non-rational thoughts and feelings of victimization often arise, no doubt from the pre-reptilian part of my brain. Despite all the knowledge gained from readings in psychology, self-help, philosophy, tai chi, spirituality and meditation, it still takes me a lot of effort to stop myself and realize that those thoughts are just that--thoughts and not reality. No one is attacking me; my lot in life is not harder than anyone else's; and all I have to do is take a deep breath, notice what is happening, and I can settle myself down and devote my attention to what's needed.  It sounds so easy, but I often forget, and find myself wasting energy tilting at windmills in my mind.

This week, I started listening to a book called "Emotional Alchemy" by Tara Bennett-Goleman.  She applies Buddhist psychological principles of mindfulness to her practice as a therapist.  We are to face life's crises with equanimity and serene composure.   Being without reacting is a theme that comes up, again and again, which resonates with the principles of Taoism I've been reading about, for example verse 12 of the Tao Te Ching:

Colors blind the eye.
Sounds deafen the ear.
Flavors numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires wither the heart.

The Master observes the world
but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.

Our habits and thoughts actually become hard-wired into the neural pathways of our brain.  To change, we have to practice new thoughts to lay down new pathways.  Our pre-frontal cortex is the most recently evolved part of the brain and is what allows us to take all those chaotic feelings and emotions from the older, reptilian part of our brain, and act in ways that are appropriate.

This might sound mumbo-jumbo to some, but Bennett-Goleman cites the work of John Kabat-Zinn and Richard Davidson who have demonstrated the effects of meditation on the pre-frontal cortex.  It turns out that mindfulness and meditation has a physical effect on our brains.  The left pre-frontal cortex specifically generates positive feelings and dampens negative feelings.  They looked at brain activity of those who practiced meditation and mindfulness and saw more activity in the left prefrontal cortex.  The meditation actually made the subject stronger at controlling negative emotions.

A psychologist up the street at the Shambala Center in Washington, DC, told us in a meditation class recently, that it takes about 6 weeks for the beneficial effects of meditation to take effect, which coincidentally is how long it takes the average anti-depressant to take effect.

Which would you choose?