The West Wight is the Western side of the Isle of Wight, situated off the Southern coast of England. There is a thriving Buddhist community on the Island made up of a number of different groups. The West Wight group, or Sangha, is non-denominational and meets weekly to meditate and discuss the Dharma, the Buddha's teachings.
There have been a considerable number of scientific studies recently "proving" the effectiveness of Mindfulness. Now, I know that there are plenty of things that lots of people firmly believe to be effective or to be true that aren't. But ever since the Buddha taught his system of meditation, over 2,500 years ago, many millions of Buddhist Monks, Nuns and lay practitioners have been well aware of its benefits.
The theory that meditation can reduce stress, depression and even chronic pain is one that has been gaining in momentum in recent years. So the BBC's David Sillito has been learning the art of mindfulness meditation in order to find out for himself.
After getting to grips with the activity, he joined some other devotees for an MRI scan to find out what impact the practice can have on brain activity, as you can see in this video.
The U.S military is also evaluating meditation and mindfulness training to help alleviate the devastating symptoms of Post-traumatic stress disorder that afflict more than 250,000 military personnel; soothe the brain trauma that’s left thousands more with tremors, speech impediments and memory lapses; and assuage the chronic pain that lingers after gruelling, repeat deployments.
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