Meditation Technique Helps Traumatized Soldiers

by Native  www.gooddeedsmall.com  

For soldiers, sound can mark the beginning of pain or relief from pain.

The sound of a bomb can signal the beginning of damage to a soldier’s body and mind. But the sound of a person’s voice may provide relief from mental suffering, according to new scientific findings.

A recent study found that a technique using meditative sound could relax soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that’s often caused by combat trauma.¹

The study is entitled, Effects of Transcendental Meditation in Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

For the twelve-week study, Joshua Z. Rosenthal and colleagues screened veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, gave the soldiers meditation training, and assessed the soldiers.

“Eleven subjects [soldiers] were screened, 7 were enrolled, and 5 completed the trial,” noted the scientists.

The scientists also reported that a certified instructor trained each veteran in Transcendental Meditation, or TM, which involves repeating a mantra (sound) to relax, according to the book, Transcendence.

“The results of this small, uncontrolled pilot study found that TM may have helped alleviate symptoms of PTSD and improve quality of life in veterans … with combat-related PTSD,” Rosenthal and colleagues concluded.

American war veterans who would like to learn Transcendental Meditation can find a qualified instructor throughTM.org, the official Web site for this meditation technique.

PureCalm is an herbal remedy for promoting a calmed mood and soothing nervous tension and symptoms of stress.

Sources:

1. Joshua Z. Rosenthal et al, “Effects of Transcendental Meditation in Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder,” Military Medicine.
2. Norman E. Rosenthal, “Transcendence,” Penguin.    www.gooddeedsmall.com