Bjarne Timonen

In the years that I have practiced meditation I have met a lot of long time practitioners who, even after all these years, still struggle with psychological problems. Also with myself I noticed that meditation itself didn’t clear up all the points in my life where I got stuck. Often we need something extra next to our meditation practice. We might visit a therapist to talk about a possible long-time unresolved trauma, or we might use other techniques to give attention to certain areas where we get stuck. I myself find writing a very effective way of dealing with some of the stuff that meditation doesn’t seem to reach. With writing we actually use a different brain part than the areas we use when we worry or ruminate, which seems to work like a loop. Writing seems to re-process the experience, memory or worrying thoughts and is a very effective tool to end rumination and become aware of the loop we have been stuck in for so long. In Sweden, where I currently live, we use the term ’smörgåsbord’ (A Swedish buffet meal with a lot of different kinds of food) in psychiatry, which basically means that if we want to tackle a problem, say depression, it’s best to have multiple interventions. So next to meditation, writing or therapy we might even strengthen this whole process by doing running (which increases endorphins in our brains), yoga, martial arts or something other creative such as painting or making music, all methods which have been scientifically proven to be helpful in psychological and physical well-being. It is important that you find out what works for you. In cases such as severe depression, psychotic disorders or affective disorders medication is often needed, but can be ignorant and dangerous to think that medication alone will solve someone’s disorder. But we can always go back to the cushion, the use of other interventions can be a great stimulation to our meditation practice, enlightening those points of suffering in which our meditation practice got stuck so that much more space is created for compassion and insight to benefit other beings.