A short YouTube talk by Ashok Gupta encouraging meditation to manage pandemic-related anxiety and to strengthen immunity. The speaker recommends switching off the 24-hour news cycle, practicing "doing nothing" as a meditation approach, and cites studies claiming large protective effects of meditation (e.g., up to ~50% reduction in infection risk and shorter illness duration). He also references a 2015 Harvard study of >2,000 people reporting nearly 50% fewer doctor/hospital visits after learning to meditate, and points listeners to free guided meditations on his website.
Questions this video answers
By up to 50%.
It can halve the number of days ill (about 50% reduction).
A 2015 Harvard study of over 2,000 people found those who learned to meditate cut their visits to a doctor or hospital by almost 50%.
Chapters
And many of you might be experiencing some challenging emotions right now, some anxious thoughts, which is totally understandable. So much is going on and this can be made worse by the 24 hour news cycle, which we're often glued to. And I'd suggest switching off the news as much as possible. Obviously, find out what you need to know practically, but then let it go. Don't buy into the drama. Fear, anxiety and these other emotions can, over time, compromise our immune systems. So strengthening our immune system also means looking for ways of calming and centering our minds. And we'll cover some great ideas over the next few days. But today we'll be covering the simplest technique, which is to do absolutely nothing. Do nothing. You might say that's easy. That's what I've been doing. Many of us have had to spend a lot of time at home, pretty much doing nothing. But physically we might not be busy, but mentally and emotionally in the mind we may be very busy. Mind may be overactive, full of worries. And today's challenge is a new invitation to take this idea of doing nothing to a deeper level, a deeper peace of mind to improve your immunity. Meditation is probably the best way of training our minds to be calm. And meditation has been proven in many studies listed below to boost the effectiveness of our immune system. Studies have shown that meditation can reduce the chance of getting an infection from a virus like a cold or a flu, by up to 50%. And if you do get that virus, meditation can halve the number of days that you're ill. Like many other aspects of the challenge, meditation has been shown to boost our health overall. In fact, its impacts are truly miraculous. If it were a pill, it would be hailed as a miracle drug. For instance, a 2015 Harvard study on over 2,000 people found that people who learnt to meditate, they cut the amount of times they visited a doctor or a hospital by almost 50%. And after this situation blows over, as more of us shift to a healthy lifestyle, I hope there will be a sea change in healthcare where proven preventative tools like meditation will become part of our health service. Meditation is a fantastic way to overcome the stress, feel centered, feel calmer and happier. And during this time, you might be around a lot of other people with little space to yourself. So meditation is a great way of going within. They also say that families that meditate together stay together, so why not make it a regular family activity? We've provided lots of free guided meditations for you on the website. So now let's find out more about what meditation is and how we can do it.
