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April 2, 2013
Posted by Alisa Bowman at 02:15:34 PM on April 2, 2013
You’re at a crowded doctor’s office. The doctor is running far behind schedule, and it’s standing room only. A patient hobbles in. He’s on crutches.
You look around. Everyone else in the waiting room is checking their phones, reading a book, or otherwise pretending not to see this person in dire need of somewhere to sit.
Do you offer him your seat?
Really, no one will know your answer but you.
I’m guessing that you’re sitting there thinking that you’d definitely get up. Or you hope that's what you would do, at any rate.
If that’s the case, you’ll probably be surprised to know that you’re in the minority. Roughly 85 percent of people would not, finds a recent study. Researchers from Northeastern and Harvard Universities simulated precisely this scenario with one exception. Everyone in the waiting room was an actor except for one hapless person who thought he was waiting for a real appointment.
When faced with a guy with crutches, only 15 percent of study participants offered their seat.
Researchers then modified the test. Before putting participants in this waiting room scenario, they trained them with an eight-week meditation course. After the course, half of the participants offered their chair.
"The truly surprising aspect of this finding is that meditation made people willing to act virtuous -- to help another who was suffering -- even in the face of a norm not to do so," says David DeSteno, a professor of psychology at Northeastern. "The fact that the other actors were ignoring the pain creates as bystander-effect that normally tends to reduce helping. People often wonder, 'Why should I help someone if no one else is?'"
This is just the latest research to show that meditation benefits our health and emotional well being. Another study out of University of California at Davis recently found that people who train in mindfulness meditation have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. A few months back researchers found that meditation could drop levels of health harming inflammation and that meditation can dull pain by 40 percent—which is a greater effect than morphine and other pain relieving drugs.
Sold? You can learn more by reading books, downloading audios, or taking any number of courses taught in the area. (I teach one at Kula Heart Yoga and Wellness Center in Bethlehem). Here’s one simple technique to try: Imagine someone you love. Think about how this person might be suffering. Develop a strong wish—one you feel in your heart—to relieve this person’s suffering. Imagine that white energy flows from your heart, envelops this person, and brings happiness and relieves mental and physical pain. See this person smile. Now notice the warmth in your heart—that warm, light feeling of love. Hold that feeling as long as you can.
Posted By: Jiayu G5 | Apr 15, 2013 12:31:04 AM
ABOUT THE WRITERS
TIM DARRAGH has been reporting and editing the news for 30 years, most of it at The Morning Call. For much of that time, he's been doing award-winning investigative and in-depth reporting projects. Tim created the three-year-long Change of Heart project, and wrote a series on the state's fractured food inspection system that led to widespread improvements in food safety. Meantime, that novice jogger you see plodding along the streets around Bethlehem Township? That would be Tim.
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