  Er ontstaat meer aandacht voor mindfulness, eind september 2008 verscheen een groot artikel in het Amerikaanse blad voor artsen, de JAMA, van de hand van David S. Ludwig, en Jon Kabat-Zinn, de grondlegger van mindfulness in de geneeskunde. Dat is op zich al een stap vooruit, want de JAMA is toonaangevend in de VS. Het artikel opent met de opmerking dat er al heel veel onderzoek gedaan is naar de effecten van mindfulness, zodat ook in Nederland niemand kan zeggen dat het toch maar kwakzalverij is..: Mindfulness refers to a meditation practice that cultivates present moment awareness. In the past 30 years, interest in the therapeutic uses of mindfulness has increased, with more than 70 scientific articles on the topic published in 2007. Meditation practices, including mindfulness, have come to the attention of neuroscientists investigating consciousness and affect regulation through mental training and to psychotherapists interested in personal development and interpersonal relationships.
De waarde van mindfulness De waarde van mindfulness voor de geneeskunde wordt door de auteurs duidelijk gemaakt. Voor veel chronische ziekten, zoals kanker, diabetes etc. kan mindfulness helpen om de eigen verantwoordelijkheid te leren kennen en om de interne bronnen van kracht te mobiliseren: Much cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic illness is caused or exacerbated by modifiable lifestyle factors, and lifestyle modification constitutes primary or ancillary treatment for most medical conditions. An aim of mindfulness practice is to take greater responsibility for one's life choices. Thus, mindfulness may promote a more participatory medicine by engaging and strengthening an individual's internal resources for optimizing health in both prevention of and recovery from illness. For intractable disease, meditative techniques that alter and refine awareness may modulate the subjective experience of pain or improve the ability to cope with pain and disability. Zij wijzen verder op de etymologische gemeenschappelijkheid in de woorden medicijn en mediteren, namelijk het latijnse medere, dat heling betekent. Een boeiende invalshoek. Ook citeren de auteurs de beroemde Epstein, die aangaf dat elke arts met deze materie bekend dient te zijn! Epstein merkte in dit kader op: "mindfulness is integral to the professional competence of physicians" Vervolgens veel aandacht aan de resultaten van modern onderzoek naar de werking van mindfulness bij een aantal uiteenlopende aandoeningen, alwaar de waarde steeds weer bleek. De studies waren wel voor een deel klein en van explorerende aard. De auteurs sloten af met een boeiende bespiegeling: The current age has been referred to as one of "continuous partial attention." E-mail, cell phones, and other technology invade nearly every moment of waking life. Economic pressures demand ever-increasing productivity, even as time to enjoy the fruits of labor declines. These factors adversely affect the health care system overall and diminish the patient-physician relationship. In this context, mindfulness may hold promise as a potential way to help prevent and treat disease, increase ability to cope with pain and chronic illness, reduce stress in patients and practitioners, foster compassion, improve quality of care and reduce medical errors. High-quality, mechanism-oriented studies and randomized controlled trials of mindfulness in medicine are needed. Alleen awareness...alleen bewustzijn blijft over En laten we eindigen met een heel wijze spreuk van Osho: “Remember, only that which you can take with you when you leave the body is important. That means, except meditation, nothing is important. Except awareness, nothing is important, because only awareness cannot be taken away by death. Everything else will be snatched away, because everything else comes from without. Only awareness wells up within. That cannot be taken away. And the shadows of awareness - compassion, love - they cannot be taken away. They are intrinsic parts of awareness. You will be taking with you only whatsoever awareness you have attained. That is your only real wealth. ” Bron: Mindfulness in Medicine, door David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD; Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD In: JAMA. 2008;300(11):1350-1352. Literatuur:
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