My sister visited this weekend and shared something wonderful with me. She recently completed some professional training (she’s a therapist in the counseling field) and was so excited to tell me about “the Merritt thing”. Merritt is the name of the town where I did my 10-day course.
It turns out that the guy presenting at this conference was a Vipassana meditator and it has become a new approach to therapy. People can even get certified as a therapist in this technique (after first doing a 10 day course).
Basically, the client (like most sessions) will talk of some challenge, for example, feeling sad. The therapist will ask, “how do you know you’re sad?” and other questions of this nature, encouraging them to locate the sensations that become interpreted as sadness. How fantastic! The door to mental health via the technique will be opened to more and more people.
I had been forgetting to pay attention to such things and actually have noticed (looking back) a higher number of emotionally disturbed occurrences. The first few weeks after the course I was very aware of those sensations and, as such, they did not bother me.
Staaaaart again, right?
Right.
Meditators have known the benefits for centuries. Science and psychology are beginning to run up behind. One day, they’ll catch up.