Try Mindfulness Meditation

Observe your thoughts, emotions, sensations, memories without getting drawn into them

Sadhana* was concerned about her husband Ravi, a corporate chief, due to retire soon. “I dread the day... He must always have his way. He is busy at work, so I’ve survived so far. Once he retires no one will give him the time of day. I’m afraid he’s going to follow me around and make my life miserable as he will have no one else to order around.”

I called and asked Ravi if he could come and give me some pointers to help Sadhana “cope with her menopause.” Ravi readily agreed and started off by telling me about his achievements, of the many thousand people who worked under him, and of the subordinates he regularly counselled.

Realizing it would be futile to even try talking to him about issues at hand, I thought that perhaps what I couldn’t do, the Buddha could. “Could you sit with Sadhana while she listened to an online course on mindfulness and did some guided meditation?” I asked, for a start, adding, “Help her focus and confirm to me that she understood the teachings properly.”

Ravi had some doubts about mindfulness meditation till I told him that it can be very helpful for relieving anxiety, mild depressions, even pain. I told him how for the last three decades Dr Jon KabatZinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School had been running a mindfulness-based stress reduction ( MBSR) clinic for patients with a wide range of disorders. It has been found to be so useful that other clinics across the world adopted MBSR. I suggested they read Kabat-Zinn’s book, Full Catastrophe Living, to learn mindfulness. If you don’t already know about it, mindfulness meditation is a way of developing a non-judgemental awareness of the contents of consciousness: thoughts, emotions,