RESEARCH ASSUMPTIONXS AND ERRONEOUS CONCLUSIONS

Today I heard a newscaster relate the findings of some research on women.   The conclusions were bizarre .  From what was mentioned, researchers took a random number of women but with no mention of criteria...it was apparently those who meditated and those who did not,  Their criteria was not specific to stress level, hormones or chemical balance.  They then concluded that women who meditate have much less stress than women who do not.    To me, that is a chicken and egg sort of issue.  Might it be that only a woman who is capable of relaxing and freeing her mind is capable of meditating.  I do not meditate because I have ADD and can't sit still that long trying to empty my head.  For me that is far more stressful than other techniques I have used to handle the rare stress I may feel.   In fact, I am rarely stressed feeling stressed..

While I have no problem with whatever people find that works for them, I do have a problem with assumptions based on faith...the assumption here being if you can teach yourself to relax, empty your head,  think positive thoughts, you will help yourself become stress free. Might it be that those who are capable of reaching the necessary state are also capable of a degree of self-hypnosis? What if your stress in increased by your inability to take 15 minutes of your day to force yourself to this exercise because your body wants to move and your senses scream that they are idle and need more than an empty head.?

No matter what I try to focus on, I usually am asked to see things in a one-size-fits-all perspective.  Meditation, like so many other things,  only works for people capable letting go the need to keep their senses engaged like a juggler...always more than one ball in the air.  I find that engaging all my sense keeps me calm.  Since my world is usually seen as a half full glass, I don't have to work at not thinking negatively.  I don't worry about anything over which I have no control and live as Nikos Kazantzakis  describes on his tomb, :"I fear no one, I want nothing, I am free"