I once read an article based on the idea that centuries were defined by specific illnesses. Regarding recent history, it claimed that pneumonia was the plague of the 19th century and cancer the plague of the 20th. The article led me to wonder about the 21st century—what medical struggle would most mark our society?  Then it occurred to me that as physically comfortable as most people in the information age are, worry and stress may yet be killing us.

There is an ever-growing awareness among doctors and patients of the close relationship between mental and physical health. An unhealthy body may lead to a frail mind, while mental problems may give rise to physical illness.

Many mental diseases are created either by dwelling on the past or by having overly high expectations for the future: fear is produced by the belief that certain kinds of experiences will always be bad, based on past negative experiences; shyness is an emotional obstacle caused by incidental failures and the anticipation of their reoccurrence. As a result, mood management specialists and psychotherapists endeavor to promote the view that the present takes precedence. After all, what’s done is in the past and can’t be changed, while the future doesn’t yet exist outside the imagination. An applied understanding of this truth creates a sort of mental freedom.

Freeing our thoughts is an important factor in mental health; it allows us to avoid the limitations of set ideology. This is normally a highly beneficial tool, as it is often true that excessive attachment to any one system of thought prevents awareness of our own inner-workings. As a result, learning to “let go” is an exceptionally important process.

Meditation encourages practitioners to live in the “now,” as one of the primary goals of the practice is present mindfulness (正念): to be at ease with the present, dwelling neither on past nor future. In extension, practitioners normally acquire greater awareness of self and their surroundings. By these means they may break away from unsupportive patterns directed by the unconscious mind—it is a path of constant self-exploration and gradual transformation.
 
Unsupportive thought patterns evolve very quickly and naturally, as most people have a tendency to organize the world into manageable chunks by creating categories for everything that they encounter in life. Events, objects and people then tend to be artificially divided into polar opposites—good and bad, right and wrong, beautiful and ugly. This imposed classification encourages discrimination and judgmentalism between people and groups, quickly promoting conflict. Conflict then gives rise to negative emotions and situations which can encourage greater discrimination. The process is perfectly circular, negativity spawning negativity.

As a simple example of the judgmentalism I’m referring to, imagine that “Frank” grows jealous of “Al” because he’s taller. Frank feels inadequate even though the emotion does nothing to change either Frank’s height or Al’s: the unneeded feelings of inadequacy benefit no one. This jealousy lingers in Frank and affects his interactions with both Al and other people. Remarkably, there is nothing wrong with Frank’s height… or at least there wouldn’t be if he didn’t believe there were. His belief that Al’s height is “better” is based on assumptions that limit Frank’s thinking and cause him unhappiness on many levels. It is likely that Frank is unaware of the real root of these assumptions—that they are founded in the subconscious. Meditation would make him aware of them and therefore give him the control over them—he would then be free of the potentially damaging emotions he endured due to those assumptions.

Social anxiety is another commonly unsupportive emotion. It often comes from the assumption that any interpersonal interaction will end with hurt, based on previous emotional wounds—past bad experiences can lead one to believe that all future social activities will be unenjoyable or end poorly. This pattern of thought can cause emotional or physical withdrawal from the world until such a time as the misperception “all social interaction must lead to pain” is altered.

The power of meditation is in how it clears the mind of misperceptions—that is, it shows the phantasms of the external world as the illusions they are. This process is a critical component of freeing oneself from self-destructive tendencies, or letting go. Once there is clear-sightedness and a certain kind of emotional detachment, joy follows of its own accord.

During highly effective meditation sessions, practitioners engage in deep introspection; rhetorical questions are usually adopted in teaching meditation, as they may encourage that introspection. The useful quality of this form of reflection is a non-judgmental self-analysis, which allows for the recognition and transformation of “self”… eventually leading to the transcendence of it. Thus, many negative states can be disarmed through meditative practice.

It has been noted that meditation alters the way the brain works. Furthermore, research conducted as far back as the 60s and 70s suggests that people who practice meditation have relatively focused minds. Combined with the fact that meditation is also an effective treatment for many mental conditions (e.g. attention deficit disorder, depression, hyperactivity and stress), meditation seems something like an all-purpose mood management solution (insert catchy jingle here)!

There is yet another facet to all of this that makes for an excellent final consideration: when people reach a place in which they feel mentally and emotionally at peace, they are in a much stronger position to help others or create beneficial change in the world. That being so, taking up meditation can be a first step toward offering greater health to the world at large. There would certainly be a lot less to worry about then… and I for one would love it if we were remembered as the generation that beat the plague.