Pradeep K Chadha is a psychiatrist who specialises in helping patients with meditation and imagery using little or no medication. He is the author of The Stress Barrier-Nature's Way To Overcoming Stress published by Blackhall Publishing, Dublin. He is based in Dublin, Ireland.His website address is :www.drpkchadha.com
In my psychiatric practice, I have recommended meditation to many clients who have been taking psychiatric drugs. In almost all of them, after feeling relaxed for a short while, they start to feel depressed or anxious or paranoid. Their symptoms become worse than before. There is limited information on this aspect of meditation. In the medical field. Meditation is supposed to make EVERYONE feel better.
There is a catch in this statement. Not EVERYONE is going to feel better initially on doing meditation. Before we appreciate (or ‘understand') this aspect of meditation, we need to be aware of a simple law of Nature.
The law of Nature is this- Release and let go of what you have once it has fulfilled your need.
If, for example, you are blessed with wealth, then Nature would like us to give a part of it to others who are less fortunate than ourselves. If you are blessed with knowledge, you need to give it away to benefit others. There is an old saying that ‘knowledge is something the more you give the more it grows'. Recently, I read somewhere-‘ Giver never lacks'. So according to this law there is no point in holding on to anything that has outlasted its usage. Whatever has fulfilled its role is meant to be released, including emotional tension.
On the same note, when we meditate, the body relaxes. In this state of relaxation, it starts to release our fears, our grief and our traumas. In reality, Nature is doing us a favour by letting us experience these feelings. It is only by permitting ourselves to ‘feel a feeling' that the emotions can be brought to an end. This results in our suffering coming to an end too.
Strangely, when you meditate and start to feel ‘worse', you go to a family physician or a psychiatrist and they start putting you on medication. They see this emotional distress as an ‘illness'. This is what they are trained to see -illness. From Nature's perspective, the emotion has already served its purpose and so has to be released. The doctor is not doing a favour by helping you suppress these emotions. They are helping you become dependent on psychiatric drugs. Because the moment you reduce your medication, you will start to feel low or depressed or anxious or paranoid or obsessive again.
You could then join millions of people on this planet who are on medication and who believe they cannot come off medication. Experiencing emotional distress following meditation is a physiological phenomenon. Any person who is withholding trauma or grief or fear or anger WILL be experiencing these emotions when they meditate. The body is simply getting rid of the tension associated with the emotions so that the individual can be happy.
- Related Videos
- Related Articles
- Ask / Related Q&A
- Meditation-Can Make You Emotionally Distressed
- Centerpointe Make Meditation Easy
- How to Meditate
- End Emotional Eating and Stress Eating Today
- Instruction of Yoga and Meditation
- Psychiatry-Meditation Or Medication -That Is The Question
- Unemployment Blues: The Mixed Emotions Of Finding A Job
- Internal Meditation Can Also Make Your Heart Happy…
SPIRITUAL LOVE
By: HARISH KUMAR HITESHI | 29/12/2009My spiritual love is spontaneity living moment to moment without any pre-fabricated or pre-planed discipline .Because if we know already where we are going, we are dead then life runs in a mechanical way or in a stereo type manner. I think life should be a flow from the known towards the unknown. Because only the unknown liberates and known bounds.
Total Astral Projection
By: Russell Symonds | 27/12/2009What is Astral Projection and What Are the Best Conditions for this Strange Experience? Astral projection also known as the out-of-body experience and as "soul travel" by some groups, can happen to anyone at any time in one's life. Astral projection is often confused with lucid or vivid dreaming and most skeptics would say that what most people would experience as an out-of-body experience is just a dream.
How Do We Transcend the Everyday Limitations of Time?
By: Russell Symonds | 27/12/2009Learn how to free yourself from selfishness and the urgency of time with self-realization. For as long as history existed there was always a struggle between dark and light, evil and goodness, ignorance and wisdom, urgency (stress) and relaxation. There are countless aspects to the complex human individual. I am going to put all these complex parts under the general categories of dark and light, and as the divided self verses the whole self, the hurried, impatient self verses the timeless Self.
Are Sex And Spirituality Connected? - 4 Facts That Would Change The Way You Think About Sex!
By: Vijay Kumar Raisinghani | 27/12/2009Sex has been portrayed as one of the best mediums for achieving ultimate delight and pleasure. Hardly is it considered as an expression of spirituality. However, taking a deeper look at the sexual phenomenon and reconsidering the potentialities of this divine gift will go a long way in broadening and deepening our spiritual dimensions.
Transcending Sex: Discover The Easy Way on How You Can Go Beyond Sex And Live Blissfully!
By: Vijay Kumar Raisinghani | 27/12/2009Sex is a natural instinct that we all are born with. It is nature's way of procreation and is among the biggest mysteries for man. We all are enchanted by its overwhelming power and the influence it exerts on our life. In this article, discover how you can easily transcend sex and achieve a blissful life.
Meditation and Enlightenment
By: Kevin Duffy | 23/12/2009How does meditation relate to attaining enlightenment? How does meditation pertain to here and now awareness and spiritual experiences? How difficult is it to experience enlightenment through mediation? If you want to learn more about enlightenment go to the website http://www.awakentothehereandnow.com
3 Meditation Tools for Beginners - Enhance Your Experience Now!
By: Tasha Enright | 18/12/2009When beginning a meditation practice, you may not be aware that there are certain items that can be used to help strengthen your focus, increase your relaxation and ultimately improve the quality and depth of your meditation. Here are 3 meditation tools for beginners that will enhance your experience immensely.
Affirmation Software: How To Attract What You Want Even Faster
By: Fred Hopkins | 18/12/2009A phrase that you repeat describing what you want to happen in life or what you'd like to change in your life is called an affirmation. These positive affirmations can be phrases about your state of being that will change your life.
Anger- Signs Of Its Effects In Everyday Life
By: Pradeep K Chadha | 23/05/2006 | Stress ManagementAnger is a gift to us by Mother Nature. Its objective is to aggressively deal with any threat and then let it go. As society became more civilized, anger was suppressed for the sake of civility. So generations of people have been taught to refrain from letting go of anger. As a result, instead of being expressed gradually and regularly, it is held back. This affects the perception, thinking and the behaviour of the person. The author describes here signs that he has picked up in his practice that show that a person is holding unexpressed anger.
Grief- Signs of Closure
By: Pradeep K Chadha | 23/05/2006 | WellnessGrief is a familiar human experience. From Mother Nature's perspective, grief is a gift that enables a person to conclude their association with the departed person (as in bereavement) or in break-up of relationships. Grief is more of a physiological experience than a psychological one. This article describes the signs when grief ends.
Grief- Why Do We Grieve?
By: Pradeep K Chadha | 23/05/2006 | WellnessDuring the loss of a relationship or that of a near and dear one, we go through a process of grief. Experiencing emotional distress at this time is a physical event. Though there is emphasis in literature on the psychological impact of grief, there is a physiological explanation of why grief happens.
Meditation-Can Make You Emotionally Distressed
By: Pradeep K Chadha | 23/05/2006 | MeditationMeditation is practiced and taught in various forms throughout the world. It is a relaxing activity. But when the body relaxes too much, it starts to release emotional energy that is experienced as emotional distress. In some people it can be experienced as depression and in others anxiety is experienced. In this article, the author outlines his observations.
Crying Is A Healing Activity
By: Pradeep K Chadha | 22/05/2006 | AdviceCrying is discouraged in many societies because it is associated with sadness. In order to be happy one is expected not to cry in adverse situations. Nature has given us tears with a purpose. Crying is a relaxing activity. Stressed out people cannot cry. The reason behind this observation is physiological. This article explains the healing aspect of crying
Confidence and Self-Esteeem- two sides of the same coin?
By: Pradeep K Chadha | 22/05/2006 | Self HelpWhen a person looks confident, that person may be having a low self-esteem. This article describes how outer confidence and inner confidence or self-esteem are related and different.
Psychiatry-Meditation Or Medication -That Is The Question
By: Pradeep K Chadha | 22/05/2006 | Alternative MedicineIn many parts of the world, psychiatry still relies on medication alone. Psychiatric illnesses occur due largely to traumatic events that are stressful. Stress creates a turmoil in the hormonal and endocrine systems in the body. Psychiatric drugs block the chemical systems causing an emotional numbness in the body. Meditation relaxes the body, allowing the emotions to be cleared. This reduces the need for psychiatric drugs.
The Unconscious- How It Operates?
By: Pradeep K Chadha | 22/05/2006 | Self HelpSigmund Freud made the Unconscious famous. For many decades, the Unconscious was a mystery. Recent developments in neurosciences have allowed us to know that there are anatomical and physiological roots to it. Though considered ‘primitive' , its function is more than simply assuring the survival of the individual. It affects our thinking and our perception too.