IS MINDFULNESS MEDITATION A CAPITALIST TOOL OR A PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT?
IT’S HARD TO put your finger on the point when the Western stereotype of Buddhist meditation flipped. It was sometime between the 1950s, when Zen Buddhism seeped into the beat generation, and the early 21st century, when mindfulness meditation seeped into Wall Street and Silicon Valley.


We know that increased activation of the sympathetic nervous (fight or flight) system is present in fibromyalgia but is it contributing to the pain there? Martinez-Lavin (“When Stress Causes Distress”) has been hypothesizing that it’s been a key pain driver in FM for years. He’s shown that levels of norepinephrine – the neurotransmitter that turns the SNS on – are positively correlated with pain in FM. The higher the NE levels – the higher the pain level.
