Author: Professor Mira Yoon in the Nursing Science Department, Joong-Ang University Publishing information: Tumor Nursing Study (2016), vol. 16 3rd issue, p. 158-167


Study Background

○ The problem in the increasing number of cancer survivors

The cancer survival rate is increasing at a rapid pace. Cancer survivors should take care of physical consequences that arise from medical treatment as well as many encountered problems in a variety of areas such as psychological, social, spiritual areas, and others. The majority of cancer survivors are reported to have experienced psychological disorders such as depression, stress, anxiety, anger, and avoidance or intimidation of personal relations, 1) Since their existential questions are confronted with the possibility of death, they have lost hope in life, which makes their medical treatment even more difficult. 2) Also, it is proven that their mental and spiritual health has a significant relationship with physical symptoms as well as the quality of their lives, 3) Thus, it is to be kept in mind that more keen attention needs to be paid to those issues.

○ The use of meditation for increasing the mental health and quality of life of cancer survivors

Meditation is a kind of self-psychotherapy that activates the self-curing mechanism through reflecting on oneself and solving one’s problem for oneself while maturing through the role of being a self-counselor or psychotherapist for oneself. 4) Many reports show that negative components such as stress can be controlled, and various kinds of physical and psychological symptoms improve and the cancer survivors’ mental and spiritual health has been improved by the means of meditation. Additionally, because meditation is regarded as a generally universal and safe practice, it has been employed in many ways as a program for promoting health and improving quality of life in medical institutions, local communities and etc., in the U.S., Europe and other developed countries.

○ The effect of Ma-Eum Su-Ryun meditation

As for Ma-Eum Su-Ryun meditation, specifically, which has been paid more attention recently, a variety of cases showing the improvement of physical and psychological symptoms have been reported. Ma-Eum Su-Ryun meditation turns out to decrease negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, anger, hwabyung, stress and etc. while increasing positive emotions such as self-esteem, self-realization, happiness, etc.

○ The need of study

The established quantitative research shows there have been reports about the consistent effects of Ma-Eum Su-Ryun meditation not only on the general population but also on cancer survivors. However it was not enough to provide the background on how these meditation participants experienced these effects and psychological changes. Therefore, this research tries to, from a meditation participant’s viewpoint, understand one’s improvement of symptoms and one’s curing process by means of qualitative research, analyzing the personal experience and the process of psychological change.

The Purpose of Study

The purpose of this study is to understand the essence and structure of the meditation experience, investigating into cancer survivors’ individual experiences and their psychological transformation process when they participate in Ma-Eum Su-Ryun meditation.

The Study Method

The participants of this study are women, out-patients who visited the university hospital for adjuvant therapy and passage observation after first-line therapy or chemo-therapy after undergoing surgery for breast cancer. 20 people who finished the 8 week meditation program in Ma-Eum Su-Ryun submitted their writings of their meditation experiences. The materials were collected through experience writings and personal meetings and it was analyzed through the phenomenological analysis of Griorgy.

The Study Result

The analysis of those 20 people’s qualitative data resulted in 13 subthemes, which were classified into 4 themes considering the context and temporal relation in order to synthesize components. The first theme is a subtheme about difficulties one had when the patient began meditation, motivation, expectations and etc. The second theme is about difficulties which arose while adjusting to the unfamiliar experience of meditation and how one collected herself. The third theme is about what one had discarded during meditation and what one had gained through meditation. The fourth theme is the main theme to ‘find light amidst darkness’ after integrating these four themes. This is how a cancer survivor, after having started meditation, experienced the change from the negative mind to the positive mind so as to gain the hope of life.

In result, when participants initially started meditation, they were doubtful but went through the process to get used to the meditation method. Consequently, they experienced the change of their lives; they changed from a person with a negative mind to one with a positive mind. What they discarded can be summarized as ‘hatred, blame, and attachment’, ‘depression, anxiety, and stress’ and ‘one’s false self.’ The changes they experienced after meditation can be summarized as ‘from confinement to freedom’, ‘from negativity to positivity’, ‘from a closed door to the world that has opened’ and ‘able to see true happiness’. (refer to the full text)

Discussion and Proposal

This study found that most participants who practiced the meditation reflected on their lives and repented upon their self-centered lives and came to feel both sorry and grateful to their families and the people around them and decided to discard the negative minds and live in the world with a positive mind from this point onwards. These changes in their attitudes and their viewpoints on the world resolved their conflicts with other people, resulting in positive relationships. Also, they became free from the minds of intimidation and inferiority that occurred after identifying themselves with their illness so that they gained self-esteem. The positive change in their perspectives and the way they saw illness brought them the hope that they would have a happy life. These changes in the meditation participants showed significant direction in practices on how to treat cancer survivors, considering that internal changes from Ma-Eum Su-Ryun meditation could enhance their satisfaction and quality in life, even though the objective conditions in their lives had not changed. It can be explained that the reason why those breast cancer survivors’ spiritual health, sleep disorders and physical symptoms could be improved through the Ma-Eum Su-Ryun meditation experience is because they reflected on themselves with honesty, resulting in their improved spiritual well-being. On these grounds, there must be significant meaning in employing Ma-Eum Su-Ryun meditation in practices for breast cancer survivors, other cancer survivors and all people concerned with improving their health and happiness.

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Source: www.meditationlife.org