We are in the midst of an inexplicable paradox. – Our scientific discoveries and medical advances have increased our life expectancy to an all-time high. Yet, we have never been more obese, addicted, over-medicated, or stressed-out as we are today!

The “mind-body problem” seems to be right at the heart of this paradox as shown by ample, Western medical research. This research has bridged the gap between Descartes and Plato, who first described this problem, and modern science.

The mind-body problem refers to the problematic ways our mental activity, that is, our thoughts, affect our body.

Meditation offers us an incredible shield against the negative consequences of the mind-body problem. Here are three of the reasons why:

1.    “Our minds’ wish is our command!”

Much like training a puppy, our mind and attention can be trained through the practice of meditation to stop and stay in the present and not wander off so easily to worries about things that are not happening now. Worries about the past or the future are unsettling. They cause our heart rate and our blood pressure to go up and draw metabolic energy away from the fabulous, critical thinking part of our brain to the mammalian, primitive part of our brain. It is up to us to decide where we will place our attention and what wish will become our command. We can choose to stay away from mental activity related to fear, and instead fuel our creativity, will-power, and optimism—wonderful resources we can use to support the optimal functioning of our body.

2.    We are born to be free.

When we train our mind and attention, we essentially free our body systems (our hearts, cardiovascular, nervous, immune, and digestive systems) to work for us and not against us. We have the amazing “hardware” to operate at peak performance levels professionally and personally. But we need to be in charge of all this power we have to be able to use it for noble causes and not to waste it on non-existent threats, which are based on our perceptions of the past or future.  Using our power to fight “imagined threats” undermines our ability to connect to the ones we love, access creative solutions to our problems, bounce back from adversity, and feel happy, content, and optimistic. We are born free, but sometimes we end up allowing our past to keep us hostage and deprive us of the freedom to be our authentic self. Meditation puts us back on the path to freedom, by not allowing our attention to wander to anything that is not in the here and now.

3.    “No pain, no gain”

There is so much grace and dignity in human suffering and discomfort. None of us gets a free pass from pain and suffering. We can find incredible lessons in pain, and we miss out on a lot of mundane, yet profound, beauty by numbing our pain through all sorts of ineffective ways such as drinking too much, working too much, or shopping too much.

Meditation is a gateway to surrendering to the present moment, instead of resisting it, even when our present moment includes the discomfort of physical and/or emotional pain.

Once upon a time, meditation was a mystical practice that belonged to foreign cultures and religions.

Today, laboratory and imaging instruments have provided measurable, hard-core evidence that the simple act of quieting our mind changes our brain in a way that helps us manage our body systems better.

Sure, in our information-overloaded world, there is a pill for everything to keep away symptoms of disease, even for unfamiliar diseases with strange names.

But if you want to try something new that actually has the power to bring your body and mind into harmony and shield you from dis-ease, I invite you to MEDITATE.

You can find a collection of guided meditations here: http://bit.ly/myndzenguidedmeditations