An interview was conducted with Mr.Sherif Eldawayty, Mr.Sherif was previously a project manager, and a fitness trainer as by hobby, his fitness classes were ended with meditation, he became more interested and started studying meditation and energy healing and soon became an energy healing and meditation expert, he has seen a lot of people with mental illnesses seeking meditation for help and have witnessed their improvement, we tackled generally how does meditation affect mental health, it’s scientific proofs, and even kids meditation.
Written by Reem Zaki 20060349
Q1: In general, how does meditation help in mental health?
A1: Meditation physically affects a person in many ways such as raising their oxygen level, lowering heart rates, and improving blood circulation, and therefore helps in calming depression and anger, meditation helps in one’s consciousness and awareness, daily meditation helps some glands to work more efficiently and therefore a person’s concentration level increases and awareness levels become higher, thinking and comprehending becomes more sharp, you learn to be attached to the present moment, people learn through meditation to accept their thoughts and deal with it without fighting and resisting them, a person then can focus in the present moment rather than thinking of the past or the future, this is why it is recommended daily for 5-10 minutes, this all helps with different kinds of mental illnesses, all symptoms mentioned above are symptoms of different diseases that meditation help with.
Q2: Was it scientifically proven, or did you witness that meditation helped people become better?
A2: If you’re speaking about laboratory experiments, so it’s not scientifically proven here in Egypt, healing and meditation in a culture like ours are not very welcomed, it reached a point that people may say that it’s a part of Buddhism, so that’s why it can’t be scientifically proved in our culture, but it has been noticed that people practicing daily meditation are getting even better, the thing is that some countries do not want to scientifically prove it so that it doesn’t alter medications.
Q2.1:But as you mentioned, people practicing meditation may have better working glands, so is that considered a scientific proof?
A2.1:People practicing meditation are more calm and more mentally stable, able to manifest and achieve their goals, and there are a lot of cases that I was treating with medical conditions and were noticed to be getting better, a lot of scientific papers about that topic are found in other western countries as it’s not yet well known in Egypt, and the more we get into meditation, the more our lives become easier.
Q3: When doctors advice patients to practice meditation, to what extent are patients accept it and are convinced to practice meditations?
A3:There are a lot of cases that come as prescribed from doctors, in my classes we start by talking about a certain topic for example anger management, emotional abuse, gratitude, etc……, afterwards, we start meditating, and therefore people start linking these topics with their daily lives, so even if they come unconvinced they feel like it’s connecting to their lives, and later on they relate the topics to their daily lives, of course some people remain unconvinced, but people find the importance of it “once a client cut of her vacation and came back from the north coast just to attend the session, that’s how important meditation is a very important part of her life”, in a huge percentage people like meditation and keep practicing it, and I have noticed the change that happened in people’s lives, and I have noticed a lot of psychiatrists prescribing meditation, and step by step some doctors start to withdraw medications if they found significant progress.
Q4:Can kids start meditating, or does it have to be with adults so that they understand what they’re doing?
A4:Talking about basic types of meditation yes they can, meditation is basically lying down closing your eyes and breathing, actually kids that can practice meditation feel relaxed, as long as they can sit down and just keep calm and maintain their energy without running around everywhere, we can do it in a more imaginary way so that it can be something interesting for them, it depends on the instructor if he/she can reach their minds, to make it look like a game.
Q5:Do you want to add something?
A5:Meditation helps you control your thought flow, and accept your thoughts, and letting them go, and therefore in you daily life you become more calm, it can be done in multiple ways the most important component is lying down and breathing, it’s all about breathing, breathing is the mindfulness, it could be done with or without music, then start organizing your breathe, it helps with mind shifting, and start concentrating on your breathing, and don’t fight your thoughts either negative or positive, “we here say don’t process your thoughts, watch and don’t judge” this way our thoughts become easier and start departing, if you try to stop your thoughts it will fight back with you, you just need to let go, we always tell people with depression “you’re always remorseful about the past, and worried about what’s to come” , the power of meditation is focusing about the present moment and not think about the past or the future, meditation teaches you how to be present.
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Written by: Reem Sherif Zaki
A Healthier You 
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