By Joseph
It’s hard to get a fix on how much the global population are taking medication. A recent census in America estimates 70% of the population are on prescription meds. Pretty staggering right?
The reason why can be near and far, ranging from depression, high blood pressure, cholesterol, metabolic conditions, ADHD and a myriad of other conditions to which have no perceivable end in sight.
It’s getting worse. I am worried, I really am.
You know what’s interesting though, is that I don’t believe that people do not know the answer to a lot of basic health related problems.
This isn’t going to be a post about how you need to drink more water, exercise more, eat less sugar and more vegetables. People already know this.
The trouble with consistent healthy actions like these, it’s that there’s so many barriers to overcome, sometimes we even need to get out of our own way!
Behavioural Habits – like a computer program we play the same routine of actions over a subsequent day. The same eating habits, the same drinking habits, the same exercise (or lack there of) habits. We get so good at these patterns they go unconscious throughout the day, I mean can you really remember everything you consciously ate and drank today?
Doesn’t quite ring of the tongue.
What if I told you that a lot of our health related problems are predicated on our inability to sit alone in a room.
To get out of that unconscious pattern and sit still for just 10 minutes.
To close our eyes, journey inwards. To be present with ourselves. Not just to hear ourselves, but to listen.
Sounds an easy fix?
I challenge you to do this for just 5 minutes without squirming for your phone – let’s see how you get on.
Medication is a Mask.
Back to medication.
You see medication takes our attention away from the source, the root of the problem. It masks the symptoms without any consideration for why it is present in the first place.
Prescribing Medication is also easy. Sadly, the why it is needed is hard; and It’s also not profitable.
$1.05 trillion not profitable.
These pharmaceutical companies profit on your symptoms, then profit again when you come back with side effects for the initial prescription.
I mean it’s clever, wickedly clever:
Supply an easy solution for a problem. Check.
Easy solution creates a new problem. Check.
Supply an easy solution for new problem. Check again.
It’s a vicious, never ending, cash creating circle.
Like a reoccurring prescription for depression, people can circulate Prozac for years to no avail. This gives no consideration of energy towards the origin of the problem, it only numbs and dulls the pain.
The thing is we need pain – we need to feel pain.
Pain commands our attention, directs us inward towards ourselves.
Pain makes us listen.
I mean, would you muzzle a screaming child in pain?
Then don’t do it to yourselves.
Meditation is your Attention.
I think that a lot of people get put off by the concept of meditation because it is ascribed to the typical lotus, crossed legged position, perhaps atop a snowy mountain with bald monks in orange robes.
Though there is no dispute that this can be attributed towards meditation in the more traditional sense, I like to make known of meditation as a training your attention and awareness.
Mindfulness is often a term that accompanies this practice, which is simply being aware of your inner state, the inner dialogue of thought and feeling that you experience day to day. Just observing them objectively, with no attachment, no judgement.
We are missing this inner attention. The cultivation of how thought and feeling transpire in ourselves when we do certain things.
You see, meditation is in all these things we do.
It is in the unwavering attention in how we run. How we feel the impact on gravel and vibrations beneath our feet in the stride. In the clean, cold air we inhale to lungs. To the pounding in our chest, the blood pounding and pulsing in our head and the cold chill of the breeze on our sweaty skin.
It is in the walks in nature, alone on a Sunday morning. Experiencing the mystical colours of dawn, like a dazzling painting, splashes of reds, oranges, yellows and blues staining the inky skies, finally clashing against the tops of the dark green forest trees. Hearing the rustling and creaking of branches, ebbing and flowing to the cold wind splashing about your face.
It is in the undivided attention in how we converse with people. How we make eye contact, how we not only hear – but listen to another point of view. How we openly accept, appreciate and consider a different perspective. Meditate on the words they say, experience that openness.
Our Wisdom.
Depression is not something I take lightly, and I would not find confidence in sharing this matter if I did not possess wisdom.
Without the meditation of moving, nourishing and being mindful of my inner-self, I found my thoughts sporadic, erratic, ungrounded, misplaced and a danger to myself and others. Only drugs held me together and I realise, like the stats that preface this article, I am likely speaking to someone who feels similar. Held together through drugs.
From someone that has come this place, I realised that I have a choice in where I place my attention and my energy.
You can come to realise when you meditate on a productive task, when your attention is so intent on an objective, when you are truly present and undivided in how you approach something, you unable to think and give that energy to elsewhere, especially neurosis.
And just like a muscle, if you train attention – you, like I, will find your pain melts away in the pursuit of something greater.
You will find the freedom of choice and energy to listen to yourself.
When’s the last time you spent time with yourself and really listened to what your body needed?
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Grateful for your presence,
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I loved this post! And I agree 100%
Glad to hear that!
Completely agree. I think that medications CAN’T possibly go to the ROOT of the problem. You can’t just pop a pill and think that whatever medical condition you developed through a lot of time would heal in a day.
Gee..if it were that easy to think away the pain, then I feel sorry for all the psych doctors who are going to be out of a job. What about those of us who has it cause of a chemical imbalance caused by who knows what? I get so tired of people telling me to just think it meditate to make myself happy. I’ve been meditating for 35 years, hasn’t done me any good. Why, I am trying to fight this stigma and to tell people it’s not that simple. Sigh😡
Meditation would sure help cure a lot of problems.
I am sure meditation can be good for people, but medication is in many cases necessary. The more people say that it is something that is just a patch or something that could be replaced by meditation or some such thing, the more that increases the stigma that people feel when they can’t just meditate their way out of problems…
As for other medical conditions, there are definite benefits to treating the cause as well as the symptoms, but there are some conditions that need medication. It is not a “big pharma” conspiracy, there are some conditions (physical and mental) out there where people would die without medication. Try asking a type 1 diabetic to “treat the cause and meditate” and see how far you get, or someone with a brain tumor, or bi-polar disorder…
Thanks for that great information , with healthy pure food and meditation our health will be great. As they say ‘ people who are depressed are not really depressed they just have the unique ability to see the state of the world for what it really is ‘ unknown
I meditated every morning for 3 months last year and it did absolutely nothing for me 🤷
What a great article!
I’ve learned to be wary of anyone who claims to possess wisdom.
thanks for the motivation to try meditation. I’ll take a shot at the 5-minutes of peace and quiet later today. I am sure it will be the highlight of my day!
I really enjoyed this
Loved this post! You’ve got yourself a new follower, Joshua.
Sorry, Joseph!😳
Interesting post – having been clinically depressed at one time and also using medication to cope, there is no one easy answer. I would not be here without medication, and I would not be healed except by GOD.
After 12 strokes, I know that I would’ve been dead by now were it not for medication. Certain things we just need to have.
But things like ADHD, depression, etc., cannot be diagnosed with a lab test. Worse still, is that diabetes symptoms get treated with happy pills. While Prozac won’t necessarily hurt, the patient may suffer organ failure. Therein lies the danger.
We first need to discern between real and imaginary conditions.
Yeah I definitely agree it depends on what the illness is as well as what the cause is.
I once had a bit of “depression.” It was cured the instant I was aligned with God’s Will. Being out of that state of peace can make people depressed. As can diabetes and food intolerances. Happy pills often are the wrong solution.
Yeah it’s much better to get to the root of the problem and see what’s causing it.
It doesn’t help to put elastoplast on cancer. Cure the cause, not the symptom. Too many health professionals can’t see diabetes if it walks in the door.
Yes exactly well said!
👍💖
Both are good but everyone is different
Definitely!
Too many people get sucked into the pharmaceutical trap. And the way that society/politics is heading, sooner or later there will be a breakdown in the supply chain and a lot of people are going to suffer unnecessarily.
I really liked this post !
🙌✊️
Great article. Meds are many times about big pharma money.
Absolutely glad you enjoyed the post!
I enjoyed reading this, thanks. I suppport a combination of both to get the best out of life but I think we probably could do with more meditating than medicating!
Absolutely!
Great post! I’m a longtime meditator and mindfulness practitioner, and I can’t praise both these skills enough for their mental health benefits. They ripple into physical health benefits too as we become more aware of our bodies and more conscientious of how we take care of ourselves. Beautifully written. Thank you for posting!
I have struggled with Anxiety my whole life, and as an adult depression has gone hand in hand. Determined to not end up dependent on medication I spent years trying to figure out the source of my trouble and find natural ways of coping. At one point things were so bad that I had trouble leaving the house, and I would have such low lows, but in time things got better. I learned that nature was therapy and movement through yoga meditative & focusing. It’s true, there are so many ways to discover mindfulness. I have come so far in my own healing, and I owe it to that journey of self discovery.
I’m so glad you were able to come so far with your anxiety and I feel the same way. Nature, yoga and meditation has helped me more than anything.
This reminds me of Einstein’s quote, “A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.” The pharmacy companies are clever in trying to solve our problems. We can be wise in avoiding them by living in a healthy manner.
Loved this post and the mindset that we can take our meditation practice and use it in any situation.
So glad you enjoyed the post and I couldn’t agree more!
Loved this. Nature therapy is certainly powerful as well! Thank you 🌈
I definitely agree!