Body Scan - A treatment for Insomnia

BODY SCAN FOR SLEEP

• Begin by bringing your attention into your body, close your eyes.
• Notice your body wherever you’re lying down, feeling the weight of your body on the floor.
• Take a few deep breaths.
• And as you take a deep breath, bring in more oxygen enlivening the body. And as you exhale, have a sense of relaxing more deeply.
• You can notice your feet on the bed, notice the sensations of your feet touching the bed. The weight and pressure, vibration, heat.
• You can notice your legs against the bed, pressure, pulsing, heaviness, lightness.
• Notice your back against the bed.
• Bring your attention into your stomach area. If your stomach is tense or tight, let it soften. Take a breath.
• Notice your hands. Are your hands tense or tight. See if you can allow them to soften.
• Notice your arms. Feel any sensation in your arms. Let your shoulders be soft.
• Notice your neck and throat. Let them be soft. Relax.
• Soften your jaw. Let your face and facial muscles be soft.
• Then notice your whole body present.
• Repeat.

Modified from https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/body_scan_meditation  

(audio included in above link)

Can tardive dyskinesia be treated with BAM?

Saw a patient today with tardive dyskinesia, disabling, permanent and uncommon condition caused by long-term use of antipsychotic; he suffers continuous and involuntary movements in his mouth and face.  He also suffers insomnia. His med had been decreased due to the side effects. I told him I could help him. (I tend to say yes first and make it work) I said, “Two things to do. First, 400 grams of non-starchy vegetables to provide substrate for the brain to heal.  Second, meditation (BAM) that will increase your ability to pay attention and “quiet” the injured part of the brain that is causing the facial movements and allow healing to begin”. That all seemed quite logical, at least to me. He also seems to liked the ideas, perhaps out of desperation.  His wife added at this point that he is already more energetic from eating more greens since the last time we talked. She said, “He even shoveled the snow”. I encouraged them both to reach the daily “therapeutic” vegetable target of 400gm. Then I wondered how I would teach BAM to him; mindful of his incessant and involuntary facial movements.  I didn’t want to ask him to pay attention to his upper lip (customarily the first target of attention in BAM). So I said, “hold your palms together and pay attention to how the two opposing thumbs; then wait and when you notice the natural breath appears, switch your attention to the opposing index fingers; then once again wait and when the natural breath appears again, switch your attention to the opposing middle finger...” we continued the exercise for sometime and I finally opened my eyes.  I noticed his wife was staring at us in astonishment. She eagerly asked him if he was able to do it. He said, “yes”. She then said to my great surprise “his face stopped moving during the entire meditation”.

So we parted and agreed to meet in 2 weeks.  They will eat the greens three times a day; and he will practice BAM three times a day.

Mini vipassana day 5: BAM

A participant new to meditation.

Broke up the session to two halves for the newcomer.  The first segment seemed slightly longer than the second segment.

I realize BAM is not easily accessible to certain individuals.  The ability to follow the simple instruction of having the mind “wait” just long enough for the body to take the next “natural” breath can at first seem impossible for some individuals.  It is also difficult for those who have little trouble with BAM to appreciate how difficult it is for those who can’t.  It would be like describing colors to a person blind from birth.

Attention deficit disorder helped by meditation

Single mother in my practice had been coming to attend our “Stress reduction” groups.  In one session she teared up as she shared her story.  She believe in the benefit of meditation and had started and persisted to meditate with her son (who has ADHD) every night using the “Butterfly meditation”.  One day while she was driving her son to school, he began having one of his usual emotional outburst in the back seat.  Except this time was different.  He decided on his own to meditate and was able to self-regulate and calm down.

Try Google: Butterfly meditation for kids.

Psychosis, Schizophrenia and BAM

I have two patients who are brothers. The both have mental health conditions.  Both have severe anxiety.  One has auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions.  Both were able to learn BAM.  The one suffering schizophrenia, through meditation classes, became aware that the voices and delusions are just his hyper-imaginative thoughts and are not real, even before starting olanzapine.  He improved with practice of BAM and was able to talk to store clerks when shopping; use drive through for the first time; talk to girls for the first time.  He was able to work and deal with situations.  He stopped coming to groups and stopped meditation.  The olanzapine was started after his first admission to hospital for psychosis.  He is now better on olanzapine.  He still has symptoms; and still knows the voices and delusions are only thoughts but find the meds helpful.  He came back to see me recently.  He agreed to restart meditation and resume his practice of BAM and Eat Well Plate.  His brother elected to start fluanxol and practices BAM regularly.  His brother has since asked to be promoted from washing dishes to the more interactive role of cooking at the the restaurant where he works.

Instruction for BAM: Breath Awareness Meditation

Instructions for BAM

The body breath naturally.  Let’s call this the natural breath.
My mind can tell my body to breath or hold the breath.  Let’s call this the intentional breath.
In BAM, the instructions is simply to wait and pay attention to the happenings of the natural breath.
In doing so the mind is yielding to the natural functioning of the body and for an instant I can experience a gap in my train of thoughts.  BAM is the practice of patiently waiting with curiosity for each natural breath to happen and simply taking note of the newness of each breath.  With practice this gap in the stream of thoughts will gradually widen and allow an increased ability to still and redirect thoughts to fully experience the vividness of each moment and new perspectives.

The result is a gradually increased ability to pay attention to the here and now.  In my opinion, the ability to pay attention to self-management is the most important factor in the prevention and management of most chronic physical and mental conditions:

Infections, Inflammations, Intestinal conditions, Obesity, Diabetes, Hypertension, High cholesterol, Heart attacks, Strokes, Kidney failures, Arthritis, Neurological conditions, Eye conditions, Memory loss, etc. )
chronic mental conditions (childhood attention deficit disorders, behaviour disorders, eating disorders, self-harming behavior, anxiety, OCD, depression, etc.)
chronic pain conditions (neck pain, back pain, myofascial pain syndromes, fibromyalgia, etc.)

BAM (Breath Awareness Meditation) is the key

Imprecision are the walls.

Habits are the guards.

Attachment is the narcotic.

Suffering is the doorway to the inner infinity.

(BAM is the key.)

Instructions for BAM

The body breath naturally.  Let’s call this the natural breath.
My mind can tell my body to breath or hold the breath.  Let’s call this the intentional breath.
In BAM, the instructions is simply to wait and pay attention to the happening of the natural breath.
In doing so the mind is yielding to the natural functioning of the body and for an instance I can experience a gap in my train of thoughts.  With practice this gap will widen and allow an increased ability to redirect thoughts and space to experience new perspectives.

Mini Vipassana day 1 at Ajax Harwood Clinic

Finished day 1 of Mini Vipassana; will meet again Tuesday 8-9.

I am aware of a need to commit a time to meditate and started a “Mini Vipassana” series for 2019.
The instruction is Breath Awareness Meditation:
Pay attention to the sensation of the autonomous breath.
It will be every Tuesdays and Thursday.  It should start promptly at 8:00 am and finish at 8:45 am.
Everyone welcome!

Finished day 1 of Mini Vipassana; will meet again Tuesday 8-9.