I am often asked, as I think most mindfulness teachers are, will mindfulness cure X, where X can be anything from insomnia, worry, anxiety, depression, pain, and any one of hundreds of ailments. This is quite natural, as most people coming to mindfulness are coming with a problem. Most of the scientific research has centred around major ailments, particularly depression, and we often cite those as examples that mindfulness is very beneficial.
Meditation is not, however, medication. It can have some positive and measurable effects, but it is not like a pill to relieve a headache. One meditation may be pleasant and beneficial in the short term, but it has no innate curative power. Regular meditation may ease or even remove some symptoms, but very rarely is it likely to be a cure to a disease.
When Jon Kabat-Zinn formulated Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in the 1970’s, he did not see it as a cure. He wanted to demonstrate its value to the medical community, and an early example was as a supplement to psoriasis treatment where those with a regular mindfulness practice were shown to have better response to standard treatments. MBSR and various derivatives have been demonstrated to have beneficial effects, most notably in the prevention of depression relapse. Rather, Jon introduced MBSR into the hospital where he worked, initially inviting people who had exhausted standard treatments, but who needed some support regarding their condition.
MBSR, as its name suggests, is intended to help with stress, and there is plenty of evidence that stress exacerbates illness. There is also plenty of evidence that stress can trigger some diseases. Therefore anything that relieves stress is likely to have an effect on an illness, even if it just makes it a little more bearable.
Over the last century medicine’s focus has changed. Before antibiotics, most diseases were resolved by the body’s natural healing processes, or became debilitating or fatal. A while ago (before I started teaching mindfulness) I was discussing with a retired physician how medicine has changed. He said his father was a GP before penicillin was available, and in those days the priorities for a GP were comfort, care and (if possible) cure. He then reflected that medicine had changed dramatically, where cure had become the aim of medicine, with care and comfort secondary objectives. The success of medicine in curing things has been remarkable, but there is a fair argument that it has lost some of its value in terms of providing a healing environment.
Healing is not the same as cure. Healing is about creating the conditions where our body and mind can bring its own natural resources to alleviate symptoms. Healing can, in turn, result in cure, but healing is more about comfort and care. That is a dimension that our health services are losing, quite understandably, as the possibility of cure becomes ever greater. Of course, some medications have a healing effect, though it can be that some medical. interventions (surgery or chemotherapy for example) can be quite traumatising in the service of cure.
In society, we have come to expect quick solutions – forgot to get a birthday present for someone, well Amazon will deliver one to them the next day. It is therefore natural for people to expect meditation or mindfulness to have a dramatic and swift effect. Only rarely will someone see a dramatic immediate effect – mindfulness is traditionally taught today over 8 weeks (not a long time in the scheme of things, but not as swift as most medications).
So, my honest answer to “can mindfulness cure X”, is no, but it might help. Then, I will say, try it and see, but give it a good chance. And of course, if it is not for you, look for something else (yoga, art, or some hobby that is less striving, more reassuring and will engage you). And if someone embarks on a mindfulness journey, I will happily help and if needed discuss its impact on their condition.
Certainly my own experience of meditation and mindfulness has been that it is part of the healing process, and that is why I sustained a regular meditation practice initially, and I certainly see the benefits during stressful periods.
So no, mindfulness and meditation are not cures. They are tools to help with healing, which may in turn result in cure. If you are uncertain, try it and see.
