Mindfulness and Clinical applications

[FruityLlama]

Just starting a thread about this because it encompasses two areas of interest for me as a trainee audiologist, and also demonstrates how historic 'esoteric' or holistic practices can be combined with modern treatment. 

One of my tutors practices mindfulness by way of treating, or rehabilitating people with balance and vestibular disorders. A quick look online shows its being researched in psychology practices too. 

Mindfulness helps you to objectify any thoughts, feelings and emotions and essentially look at them differently. By identifying things singularly and exploring them, the more efficiently one can reconcile with it and reach to a calm state. 
For dizziness, although I have yet to understand properly how it helps, taking the time to slow down and navigate your way around your responses to dizziness may help to deal with it on a day to day basis, if it is severe and persistent. 

I think it helps with other health issues too, especially those that might come with stigmas such as hearing loss early in life, mental health etc. Advocating compassion with yourself is one of the best ways towards rehabilitation. 

Has anyone else tried it either in everyday life or for treatment?

[Ava]

Well I can feel physically sick all over when my emotions are out of whack.

Often I can heal that in a mindful way -- just changing my perspective. That ability didn't come naturally but it's a spiritual discipline. And I'm not perfect at it, sometimes I am locked in a bad feeling no matter what.

The mind-body connection is endlessly fascinating to me.

I have a great appreciation for Ayurvedic medicine and the potential for healing that comes from understanding food energetics. Ayurveda teaches that all food has its own "intelligence"...prana. That is something found in fresh food that can be taken in and transferred to one's self. So the physical nourishment and "spiritual" (ie subtle) energy lift are one in the same. I don't know how it could help in difficulties with the hearing or balance, but if the body's metabolic waste is a factor...the Ayurvedic term for that is ama, and ama gets cleared out the more a body is filled with ojas (the accumulation of positive energy, from food, meditation, love, etc). Ayurveda basically quantifies well-being that way and expects a reversal of degerative issues, the more one can amass a storehouse of this positivity within. Likewise it predicts illness proceeding from ama, which can be generated mentally, but usually isn't, if there's enough ojas to protect the spirit from wandering into, and lingering in, lower vibration thoughts. 


Edit: 

Sorry if I'm off topic, wasn't sure what you were inquiring about, specifically. Mindfulness can be interpreted different ways; I'm looking at the value of the transformative potential of the mind, and many would argue that the mind doesn't just exist in the brain.

So what I was saying above, this helps explain the healing powers of prayer, laughter, music, etc...if one can go along with the premise that energy IS or can be medicine, on its own, then one can take this therapeutic approach more seriously.

[FruityLlama]

Thanks for replying Ava !

Mindfulness can be used for rehabilitation with balance disorders, sometimes treatment and management comes by way of approaching disorders differently. In this way, things like tinnitus can be managed too. I think scientifically this might have something to do with the plasticity of the brain- its ability to re-calibrate to stimuli.

No you weren't off topic, sorry I suppose it was a bit of an odd post. I just wanted to throw it out there because I thought it might be interesting and especially if anyone has had hearing or balance problems specifically as they are very common problems.

I would like to learn more about mindfulness, and I'll definitely look into ayurvedic practices! It was interesting what you said about elimination of waste when there is more positive energy. I think this could be related to what I said about the brain recalibrating as well. The more you focus positively, the more you can control or recover from a problem. Mindfulness after all is about being kind to yourself and treating yourself as you would a friend (from what I understand anyway).