Saying Goodbye to Stress and Insomnia —The Story of Seung Hee Cho, a Public Servant from Korea
Throughout her childhood, Seung Hee Cho’s parents fought incessantly every day. Her mother always praised the eldest daughter, compared Seung Hee Cho to her, and scolded her for not being a good student. The atmosphere in the house was always tense and, as a result, Seung Hee Cho started having frequent nightmares when she was 16. She resented her parents and the world, and wondered why she was born and why she lived—living felt difficult.
As an adult, Seung Hee Cho faced issues with other people at work. Suffering from all that work-related stress, she could not sleep well. Her health gradually deteriorated and, at one point, she had to go to the hospital. She was diagnosed with sleeping disorders and insomnia brought on by anger. Because she could not sleep well, her body regularly broke down, and going to the hospital became a part of her routine. Her heart and body felt so heavy, that she would wake up feeling dehydrated and barely able to move her limbs. Her immune system was weak, and this resulted in dry eye syndrome and diarrhea. She tried various medicines, but they did not help. No matter how many sleeping pills she took, she could not sleep.
She began to think that she was going to die. All she wanted was to stop all that pain. When her aunt recommended meditation to her, Seung Hee Cho decided to take a break from work and try meditation. Soon after she began meditating in nature and experienced the bliss of a thoughts-free mind, Seung Hee Cho’s insomnia began to lose its grip.
Within two weeks of meditating at the local Meditation Centre, Seung Hee Cho decided to spend some time at the main Centre, where she could practice intensive meditation. It was there, that she was finally able to let go of all the burden she had been carrying—the resentment toward her parents, the negative feelings toward her bosses, and the inferiority from being compared to her older sister. Her body, mind, and heart became lighter. In less than a month of intensive meditation, her insomnia disappeared completely, and the quality of her sleep significantly improved.
When she went back to work, she was able to overcome difficult situations. Her negative mind had been the source of all her illnesses. Meditation helped her gain freedom from that negativity and, consequently, heal.
Seung Hee Cho practiced a particular meditation technique, called action meditation. This technique cleanses the mind by observing the body. Within a short time of practicing this type of meditation, Seung Hee Cho found herself thinking less, and her life became more effortless. The effect carried over into her daily life, and she found she was now thinking less and doing more.
This “new” and regenerated Seung Hee Cho was now very energetic at work, had fewer conflicts, and had more harmonious relationships with others. After letting go of the resentment she had held toward the world, she began to feel grateful without any expectation or desire. The hospital she used to go to so often is also a matter of the past. Now that her problems are out of the way, Seung Hee Cho wants to live as a person who helps others.
There is much scientific evidence that meditation regulates sleep and acutely improves the quality of sleep1,2. Stillness techniques, particularly meditation, relax the body and the mind and is an excellent replacement for sleep medications. In medical jargon, insomnia is defined as a hyper-arousal state which results from stress, disturbing thoughts, negative anticipation of future events, or simply rumination about painful past experiences.
For example, a study3 showed that senior practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique spent more time in slow wave sleep, characterized by more dominant theta–alpha brainwave patterns and some delta brainwave activity. Other studies4,5 on practitioners of Vipassana Meditation showed that enhanced sleep architecture of senior practitioners in all age groups resulted in a higher quality of sleep.
Many physiological changes happen within the body during meditation, leading to a better quality of sleep. For example, meditation regulates the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (our central stress response system) and increases anterior pituitary hormones and melatonin levels (which play a key role in the regulation of sleep). Seung Hee Cho succeeded in integrating all these benefits of meditation into her life, which not only healed her sleep disorder but also significantly improved many other aspects of her daily life, including her resilience to stress and the quality of her relationships in the workplace.