Taming The Anxious Mind
Introducion
‘Taming the anxious mind’ is an article by Michael C. Murphy which concentrates on an eight week program on mindfulness meditation undertaken by a group under the banner of ‘taming the anxious mind group (TAM). The setting is at a university counseling centre.
Taming the axious mind
The authors abstract is short and concise and it captures all the main points that are to be discussed in the main text. According to Yin (2009), an abstract should not exceed more than a ½ of a page. However, Murphy initially fails to state the main objective of the article and instead concentrates on what mindfulness meditation is all about hence leaving the reader to make up for himself the main purpose of the article.The rest of the text is very well organized with the author following a logical flow of his main ideas. A brief introduction leads us into the body of the text where Murphy introduces the reader to the group under consideration and gives its format of conducting its business. From there he concentrates on the sessions giving a good account of how they are conducted session by session. Nearing the conclusion, the last part of the authors work presents the reactions of the members of the group as well as the potential problems they pose. This good organization of the text helps the average reader to understand and appreciate the authors work
Literature review
The author emphasizes and increases the reliability of his work by citing from a wide variety of sources. He begins by informing the reader that here have been other research works dedicated to the field of meditation and he goes on to cite some of the most authoritative sources with regards to the positive effects of meditation. It is commendable for the author to give a brief of the various stages mindfulness meditation focuses on. That is, people are first taught to concentrate on one chief purpose, i.e. the raising and fall of their breath and any time their mind focuses on something else apart from this, and they have to bring it back to this chief purpose. Next, people are taught to focus on other aspects of meditation including movement, touch, sound as well as smell. Much later, the meditation widens its focus to the current happenings.Murphy develops his argument by demonstrating some of the benefits of mindfulness meditation and on this he quotes an authoritative research that has been carried out. Some of the advantages advanced for mindfulness meditation according to Murphy include ability to help alleviate some psychological as well as medical problems more specifically pain, cancer patients stress and depression amongst other issues.
Other issues that mindfulness meditation helps in alleviating include disorders brought about by anxiety and this is probably why the author in his conclusion notes that mindful meditation would in most cases suit university students who are most prone to stress and other psychological disorders such as anxiety.Murphy’s assertion that mindfulness meditation does not contain religious or other related language in my opinion is meant to reassure readers who may be interested to take up meditation but fear it will interfere with their religious orientation. According to Ospina (2009), meditation in some quarters has been linked to some religious orders and practices. However mindfulness meditation is different and it does not appeal to an individual’s religious inclination. Murphy also notes of the applicability of mindful meditation in he clinical setting.Murphy’s description of the TAM sessions is very clear and it gives the reader a good picture of what TAM is al about. The first session concentrates on introductions with the leader and the members getting to know each other. The commitment the members should show throughout this eight week exercise is also emphasized. The basics of the exercise are also discussed with the members being given workbooks with each sessions home work detailed therein.
The rest of the sessions are basically carried out in the same way with the main points including meditation technique practice, home practice processing, and a review of the same.Nearing the conclusion, Murphy gives a brief account of the reactions of the student members of this group. However, this account is very short for a process that takes a substantial period of time to complete. The author should have considered giving a detailed report of how these students react especially before and after the program.Equally short is the part on the potential problems the author gives as having been experienced. It is unrealistic that only two major problems are experienced throughout such an exercise. The authors conclusion is however very well brought out especially with the author calling for additional research on areas such as the effectiveness of the TAM model to those students who are older, the effect of religious beliefs to the efficiency and impact of the program as well as how this program can help students suffering from a range of disorders including anxiety and perfectionism
Conclusion
Murphy’s article is highly informative and it is hoped that his call for more research on various aspects of mindfulness meditation will be headed by researchers.
eferences
Yin, R.K (2009). Case study research: design and methods, 4th Edition Sage Publications
Ospina, M. (2009). Meditation practices for health state of the research. DIANE Publishing
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