Meditation and Scleroderma

This could just as well be titled Meditation and ______ (pick a disease) because meditation has been proven to be effective in the treatment of any number of chronic diseases, arthritis  being the most studied.  Jon Kabat-Zin is undoubtedly the best known researcher in this field and has authored several books on the topic as well as founding The Center For Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts.

On a more personal level, I have been meditating for about twelve years and I am convinced that this practice has been instrumental on both the psychological and physical levels.  Firstly, it has been the most important tool I have for stress reduction.  Of course I'm stating the obvious when I say that having a chronic disease such as scleroderma can be extremely stressful.  Meditation can help by making you more aware of your emotions.  The more you meditate the more you are able to see negative emotions as soon as they arise and, like the proverbial  snowball rolling down the hill, it's easier to stop emotions at the early stages before they grow into something that's harder and harder to control.  Meditation accomplishes this through the practice of watching and quieting the mind.  There's nothing mysterious or mystical about it. At the simplest level, it's sitting quietly, paying attention to the breath, watching distractions, both internal and external, as they arise, acknowledging them and then going back to watching the breath.  This ' watching of the mind ' make us more aware of our emotions and how they operate and we thus gain more control over them.  

As a concrete example, I am constantly dropping things on the floor because of poor mobility, strength and grip in my hands.  This can be doubly frustrating because I am unable to bend over to pick anything up off the floor which means every time I drop something I have to go get my reacher to pick it up.  Now this often becomes frustrating with the potential to make me angry which, in turn,  could lead to a high level of stress.  But it doesn't.  And that's because I am able to spot the anger at that very first instant just as it begins to arise and before it gets any worse, I simply acknowledge it, stopping it in its tracks before it takes me over.   Without my meditation practice I am absolutely certain that all the hurdles I face each day would make my life much more unpleasant.  

It's also common knowledge that stress contributes to the level of pain that we experience.  Meditation, as noted above, can decrease stress and that means less pain.  It's as simple as that. 

Again, based on my own experience, I believe that it may be possible to directly influence things like Reynaud's.  Initially my Reynaud's was quite painful and I would spend several hours a day holding onto one of those microwavable heat bags to keep my hands warm and ease the pain.  But then I started a visualization practice, a form of meditation, where I pictured the blood flowing through the vessels in my hands and after I'd practiced this for some time, I can't be more specific than that I'm afraid, my Reynaud's symptoms started to lessen to the point where I no longer needed the heating pads.  That was over three years ago now and nothing has changed.  Of course this is totally anecdotal and not proof by any means that it was my visualization practice which caused of the lessening of my symptoms.  On the other hand, it certainly didn't do any harm and I continue to use a modified version of this practice for other symptoms.

Sorry for being so long winded here but, as is probably apparent, I truly believe that meditation can compliment the other treatment options available to individuals with a chronic disease and the only side effects are that you will be a happier person for it.   If you've never tried it, please consider giving it a chance.  You've nothing to lose.  Here's a link to some simple guidelines for establishing a meditation practice.