[LUM#12] Meditating beyond suffering
Treating—and curing—certain childhood ailments through meditation. That is the promise kept by Professor Tu-Anh Tran. The pediatrician has developed a meditation method adapted to children that produces spectacular results and sometimes even eliminates the need for commonly prescribed medications.
Alex is 9 years old, and things aren't easy for him. He is very anxious and impulsive. He has severe tics: he scrapes his tongue until it bleeds, jerks his head suddenly, trips himself up... Sometimes he spews out a torrent of swear words. At home, bedtime causes uncontrollable anxiety; he screams and bangs his head on his bed. At school, Alex has trouble reading, understanding, and concentrating. He fidgets a lot. Alex has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.
So Alex's parents took him to see Professor Tu-Anh Tran, head of pediatrics at Nîmes University Hospital...Two months later, the tics had disappeared. And although he still occasionally swears or trips over, Alex is much calmer and more composed. How did Tu-Anh Tran treat Alex? Through meditation! "Meditating means observing what is happening in your body and mind in order to understand the phenomena within yourself," explains the pediatrician, who has been meditating for 30 years. "From this observation comes the understanding that allows you to resolve the physical or psychological blockages that are causing your suffering."
Observe what is happening in your body and mind
When he meets young Alex, the doctor observes that his mind works very quickly, but his body is slower. This is why his body cannot keep up with his thoughts: he fidgets, falls over, stutters, and has tics. "Through meditation, I helped him slow down his mind and relax his body so that he could better articulate his movements and thoughts and regain harmonious gestures, " explains Tu-Anh Tran, who created a university degree in Meditation and Health.
The practice of meditation spread throughout the Western world in the 1980s with the rise of mindfulness meditation. At that time, some child psychologists began offering this practice to their young patients. "It was a failure," explains Tu-Anh Tran, "because the way they presented meditation from an intellectual perspective was not at all suited to them. With children, there is no need for words; everything is conveyed through physical sensation."
Spectacular results
Tu-Anh Tran is very familiar with children's feelings. Ten years ago, the doctor was working at Bicêtre Hospital. As a specialist in inflammatory and rheumatic diseases in children, he treated young patients suffering from algodystrophy or fibromyalgia, who were in constant pain. "Pain that sometimes couldn't even be relieved by medication, " explains the pediatrician. So the doctor set up meditation sessions for these children. "The results were spectacular," recalls Tu-Anh Tran." The children were in much less pain and regained their motor skills."
To achieve this improvement, the pediatrician developed a meditation practice specifically tailored to children. It is a two-phase method. The first objective is to calm down. "To do this, children begin by practicing conscious breathing. They must think only about breathing, which allows them to refocus. The mind returns to the body and the present moment, without wandering between the future and the past. "
Facing suffering in order to heal
Once the children have perceived the power of concentration through conscious breathing, Professor Tran moves on to the second phase. "Calming down allows us to better cope with suffering in order to achieve healing. This phase is too often neglected in Western meditation practice, yet it is what heals." And the doctor has healed many children.
Physical pain, stress, concentration problems, learning difficulties, hyperactivity, eating disorders, anxiety, sleep disorders, academic failure, dropping out of school, depression, phobias, chronic illnesses, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, acute and chronic pain... The list of ailments that can be relieved by meditation is long. "Sometimes this practice can even reduce or completely eliminate the need for medication, " says the doctor.
It also helps restore balance in families that are sometimes disrupted by their child's difficulties. "Many parents come to me saying, 'I've tried everything! ' They are the first to be surprised by the changes that come about through the practice of meditation. And they are not alone: Alex's school principal was so impressed with his progress that she asked Tu-Anh Tran to teach her meditation techniques to the teachers so that they could practice them with their students...
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