Medical advice, mole-watchers and Marmite
This did not stop me from spending another five years soul-searching through all kinds of mysticism, only to find the basics of meditation had been encouraged every week in my Orthodox upbringing — Shabbat, the day of rest.
The Western world has decided to adopt the asana (or posture) practice of yoga, not realising these postures are to encourage the body to rest for meditation, for a moment of stillness where we can be at one with ourselves and each other, simultaneously. Through the postures — or alternatively our weeks — we learn to withdraw from our senses, to observe and find samadhi (bliss).
Tadaka, a meditation process that involves staring into a candle before closing ones eyes to seal the feeling in the body, parallels the lighting of the Shabbat candles, welcoming the neshama yeteira, the extra soul and thus becomes the practical meditation that begins Shabbat.
When lighting the candles, take one moment longer than normal and rest on the end of the breath (breath is neshima in Hebrew — close to the word neshama). Resonate on the closeness between your soul (neshama) and this neshima. Know you are the person welcoming this moment of pause into the household and your responsibilities for the week have all been met by now.
On each exhalation, pause and feel the stillness; allow the noises to melt away and inhale vitality. Use this moment as a reference point for the next day, the pause.
For children, Shabbat can be experienced through smell, a meditation in itself. Encourage them to sniff the aromas in the kitchen before lighting the candles, let the house fill with all the familiar scents that both put us to sleep and wake us up. After all, Shabbat ends with the smells of havdalah. We can always close our eyes and return to these smells, the scent of calm, of home, of Shabbat, often familiar and recognisable whatever house one is in at the time.
It is easy to read about meditation, easy to travel the world trying to find inner peace while being away from a more grounded physical home. Perhaps all of this seems mundane? I, too, spent years of my life wondering why no-one had worked all this out. Twelve years of yoga later (500 hours of teacher training), 20 years of being vegetarian, the expense of it all... to learn my grandparents were right — all you need is Friday-night chicken soup.
Ruby Silove Lanesman is a practising architect who offers regular free meditation classes in north London. Ruby.silove@gmail.com
FINDING ACCURATE information about health matters can be tricky. In 2015, Jewish Care launched its Health Insight events in partnership with the JC. The talks brought leaders in their field to the community to explain the causes, effects and prevention of conditions ranging from dementia and Parkinson’s to strokes and cancer. This month sees the launch of the third series — four new free events, two in Golders Green and two in Redbridge, focusing on issues from genes, mutations and cancer to obsessive compulsive spectrum disorder. For further information, see jewishcare.org/events or call 0208 922 2900 (Golders Green events) or 0208 551 0017 (Redbridge).
ROYAL FREE, HERTS
The new Hadley Wood Hospital in Hertfordshire has opened its imaging department, offering a wide range of diagnostic and interventional radiological imaging for adult patients, using advanced technology. These encompass x-ray procedures, CT scanning, MRI, general ultrasound and ultrasound-guided injections.
Every consultant at the hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Patients are seen between 8am and 8pm on weekdays, with same-day appointments often available. The hospital also provides a second-opinion service for patients or their referrers, anywhere in the world.
MRI KEEPS PACE
The Chenies Mews Imaging Centre in London’s Bloomsbury has brought hope to patients usually unable to benefit from MRI. In the past, cardiac pacemakers and other medical devices for the heart have prevented patients from having MRI due to the risk posed to the patient’s device by the strong magnetic field of the scanner. But at the Chenies Mews centre, “when we receive a referral for a patient who needs an MRI scan and happens to have a cardiac pacemaker, our specialist team will obtain all the relevant information about that patient’s device,” says Peter Sutton, radiology services manager. “When the patient attends for the scan, our cardiology staff use their specialist equipment to interrogate the pacemaker and make adjustments to it so that it can be placed inside the MRI scanner safely.”
SPINAL SAVIOUR
Melissa Ingalls, 47, from north London has become the first patient in the UK to have a revolutionary implant through surgery, to alleviate long-term back pain. Bob Chatterjee, consultant spinal surgeon and part of a new group called Total Orthopaedics, operated on Ingalls at Highgate Private Hospital, using the TOPS (Total Posterior Spine) system.
The keyhole version of TOPS was developed by Premia Spine, in Israel, with the help of Chatterjee. The surgery stabilises the spine segment by introducing a flexible cage. This can maintain motion in the spine — something a traditional lumbar fusion, which uses rods and screws to fix vertebrae together, could not. The procedure takes an hour less than fusion surgery and patients make a full recovery in six to 12 weeks, compared to eight to 16 weeks with the standard operation.
Free events cover issues such as OCD and gene mutation
NEW BOWEL CANCER TEST Preventicum, a specialist screening centre in west London, has a new test for colorectal cancer. Septina-9 is a blood test and does not require the two days of bowel preparation, including laxatives, needed for MRI colonoscopy, nor does it involve stool samples, as with the faecal occult blood method.