Meditation helps war vetern

Some one in six Iraq veterans suffer from post-traumaticStress disorder (PTSD), some of them are taking a different path to healing:Meditation .

At a recent retreat at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, Vietnam vet Claude Anshin Thomas taught fellow veterans to confront their trauma by "waking up to how we've been affected" and applying full consciousness to the present moment. "What I'm attempting to do," says Thomas, "is create a safe space where that information will start to become accessible to them."

There may be more at work here than a spiritual centering. Dr. Tana A. Grady-Weliky, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, explains some of the science behind meditative practice. "Mindfulness meditation practice, in which one focuses on 'staying in the present' during meditation as well as other activities, appears to play a role in positive mood and attitude," Grady-Weliky writes. "Interestingly, imaging studies of individuals during meditation show higher activity in the left prefrontal cortex, which is the brain area associated with positive mood and attitude."

In the late 1980s, Thomas discovered meditation, and the practice enabled him to deal with difficult memories and feelings. He became a Zen monk in 1995.

Despite Thomas' Buddhist ties, Piasecki writes, his retreats are less about religion than mindful awareness of life, which helps the vets and others accept and integrate their traumatic pasts.

Meditation for terminally ill UK

Dr Sibani Roy is aiming to set up one of the first companies in the UK to offer
Meditation to the elderly and terminally ill.

Bengal-born Dr Sibani Roy, who now lives in Rhos-on-Sea, runs an elderly people's sheltered housing block and her own company, the Swanlake Project. She wants to bring meditation to the terminally ill to help boost wellbeing.

She said, "My aim is to inform medical professionals and the general public about meditation for wellbeing and to raise awareness of living well and dying consciously, which is less distressing and more dignified for the patient.

"Many countries around the world such as America, Australia and large parts of Europe use meditation extensively to help people in palliative care and the elderly but it is less common in the UK."

The Ethnic Business Support Programme helped Dr Roy set up the Swanlake Project.
The Swanlake Project will offer a service to anyone interested in meditation, not solely the terminally and the elderly.

KEITH McDONOGH has been appointed by the North East Wales NHS Trust as a non-executive director.