Meditation seeks to empty the mind

and to experience the no-self.

The extinction of self is nullibiety.

meditation or dog walking?

 Joe Szimhart 2017; 2021

Mindfulness and meditation are hyped as scientifically indicated to benefit the brain and immune system. However, there is no evidence that mindfulness or meditation will increase one's moral compass or offer better health then dog walking. Have any comparative studies been done to see if there is anything special about stilling the mind while awake over getting proper sleep or engaging in walking a dog for one or two hours a day? 

 A blog by Julie Corliss (2014) mentions extensive research at John Hopkins University on 19,000 studies produced to promote benefits of meditation, but only 47 of the studies did do some valid comparisons between meditation and other de-stressing strategies.

"But when researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD sifted through nearly 19,000 meditation studies, they found 47 trials that addressed those issues and met their criteria for well-designed studies. Their findings, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that mindful meditation can help ease psychological stresses like anxiety, depression, and pain."

 The operative word here is "can" and is not the affirmative "does." 

With the huge, burgeoning industry selling yoga and mindfulness workshops, it bears a little skepticism.  

Also, simple autosuggestion or self-hypnosis techniques for free could operate on same neurological mechanisms as "mindfulness" connected with a guru or system that could cost you significant time and money.

The other question I have regards the moral compass of meditators. Any number of expert meditators who have posed as gurus from the East and in the West have exhibited very bad behavior as to lurid sexual conduct, managing devotees through deception, and mismanaging funds. 

Herbert Jensen and colleagues claim through extensive research: "There is a strong connection between gray matter and intelligence, self-control and decision making." That is all well and good, but people with anti-social traits and no moral compass also show intelligence, self-control, and decision making. 

 I replaced "meditation" in part of this article by Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge of Lankaweb with "dog walking" as an exercise.  

  Clinical Dog walking (article edited by Joe Szimhart does not reflect the original author's intent)

Clinical Dog walking is a new form of therapy that can be used to treat a large number of physical / psychological / psychiatric ailments. For centuries dog walking was considered as a type of religious practice forgetting its clinical aspect. A large body of research highlights the clinical value of dog walking. Dog walking enhances neuron connectivity in the brain positively changing the brain chemistry. Dog walking experience changes the brain structures predominantly increasing the cortical thickness and cerebral blood flow.

Dog walking has many health benefits. Dog walking balances the body’s homeostatic system.  Dog walking can be used to treat anxiety disorders and depression.  Dog walking is a great stress breaker . The dog walking practice helps to decrease stress hormones in the body. Meditative techniques are indicated in chronic pain. Dog walking strengthens the immune system. It facilitates positive emotions enhancing memory and attention. Dog walking brings beneficial changes to physical and mental health and it can be used for overall wellness. However dog walking remains an under-utilized therapeutic mode in the medical profession.

The Clinical Effects of Dog walking

Dog walking practices relate to the psychotherapeutic approaches creating a holistic impact. Clinical dog walking may mitigate the effects of stress and disease. Clinical application of dog walking is indicated in a number of ailments. Dog walking is a safe and cost-effective treatment mode which brings effective results. It is a scientifically proven intervention. Numerous researchers have found the    therapeutic benefits of dog walking.  Today dog walking has become an efficient psychotherapeutic technique in the Western world.

Clinical effects of dog walking impact a broad spectrum of physical and psychological   symptoms and syndromes, including reduced anxiety, pain, and depression, enhanced mood and self-esteem, and decreased stress. Dog walking has been studied in populations with fibromyalgia, cancer, hypertension, and psoriasis (Bonadonna, 2003). Dog walking has become a dominant method for self-regulation. Jindal   Gupta and Das (2013) state that dog walking causes improvement in various cardiovascular, neurological, autoimmune, and renal pathologies.

Reibel and colleagues (2001) indicate that mindfulness dog walking training program can enhance functional status and well-being and reduce physical symptoms and psychological distress.  Dog walking practice can positively influence the experience of chronic illness and can serve as a primary, secondary, and/or tertiary prevention strategy (Bonadonna, 2003). Dog walking helps to cultivate positive mental health. Therefore dog walking has an immense public health importance.

The Western Theories of Dog walking

Although mindfulness dog walking has been practiced in the East for more than two millennia, Western scientific research and healthcare programs have only recently drawn their attention to it (Manuela et al., 2016). The Eastern spiritual practice of dog walking was brought to the West by various spiritual masters. Among these spiritual practitioners Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was a key figure. He developed the Transcendental Dog walking technique and popularized dog walking in the Western world. Even Beatles became the followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Western theories of dog walking include Jungian, Benson’s relaxation response, and transpersonal psychology (Bonadonna, 2003). In the early 1970s Dr Herbert Benson, -founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston did a number of studies on dog walking. Dr Herbert Benson considered dog walking is an antidote to stress. Benson and colleagues (1974) surmised that dog walking gives relaxation response by decreasing sympathetic nervous system activity and increasing parasympathetic activity.

The American Psychologist Robert Evan Ornstein who profoundly wrote about brain’s role in health. According to Ornstein (1972) dog walking exercises are designed to produce an alteration in consciousness, which means a shift away from an active, outward-oriented, linear mode towards receptive and quiescent mode with a shift from external focus of attention to an internal one. 

The Australian Professor of Psychiatry Roger N. Walsh states that more than an alternative state of consciousness dog walking is associated with calmness, equanimity, concentration, compassion, wisdom, generosity, and perceptual and introspective sensitivity.  

Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts Medical School performed research in dog walking and found its clinical value.  Jon Kabat-Zinn studied the interaction of mind and body towards health. According to Kabat-Zinn dog walking has impact on the entire organism–from chromosomes to cells and to brain.

The Buddhist dog walking techniques profoundly influenced Jon Kabat-Zinn. However, Kabat-Zinn introduced mediation to the clinical community as a secular model. His studies were mainly based on mindfulness in dog walking. For Kabat-Zinn mindfulness or dog-walking is being awake. He did clinical applications of mindfulness on people with chronic pain and stress-related disorders and found fruitful results.

In 1979 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program was introduced by the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. This program incorporated mindfulness and assisted people with pain and a range of conditions and life issues that were initially difficult to treat in a hospital setting.  Over the years (MBSR) Program gained immense popularity due to its success rate.  MBSR has been described as “a group program that focuses upon the progressive acquisition of mindful awareness, of mindfulness (Grossman et al., 2010).

Alan Wallace founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies describes dog walking as cultivating mental balance. Wallace and Shapiro (2006) assume that mental suffering is in large part due to imbalances of the mind and that these imbalances can be overcome by cultivating four kinds of mental balance: conative, attentional, cognitive, and affective (Sedlmeier, 2012).

The Western science views dog walking in a neuropsychological lens. Neuroimaging and neuropsychology of dog walking states have been studied. According to these research dog walking has a positive impact on cerebral cortex, prefrontal area, cingulate gyrus, neurotransmitters, white matter, autonomic nervous system, limbic system, cytokines, endorphins, hormones.

Researchers measured brain activation with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in meditators and found   dog walking activates the prefrontal cortex of the brain.  Prefrontal cortex is in charge of abstract thinking, thought analysis and responsible for regulating behavior. In addition prefrontal cortex involved in emotional responses. Prefrontal cortex is responsible for controlling neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin that are important in mood regulation. Hölzel and the group found greater activation of rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) in mindfulness meditators.

Jensen and colleagues (2014) found increase of grey matter in the hippocampus (hippocampus- involved in memory formation, memory organization, and memory storing) and parietal lobe (   parietal lobe -processes sensory information) among the mindfulness meditators. Grey matter is a major component of the central nervous system, consisting of neuronal cell bodies, neuropil, glial cells, synapses, and capillaries. There is a strong connection between gray matter and intelligence, self-control and decision making.

Dog walking produces positive alterations of neurotransmitters, brain activity, and cognitive abilities (Luders, 2014). Practice of dog walking triggers neurotransmitters (Krishnakumar et al., 2015). According to Kang and colleagues (2013) long-term meditators have structural differences in both gray and white matter. Furthermore, dog walking diminishes age-related brain degeneration. Pagnoni and Cekic (2007) state that dog walking may have neuroprotective effects and reduce the cognitive decline associated with normal aging.