Meditation - life’s healing tonic
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Meditation is an exercise that can be done in-between your healing sessions.
Meditation is its own reward and doing this for just five minutes a day will make a dramatic difference to your life. The process of meditating slows down your thoughts which in turn reduces your stress levels (stressful thoughts suppress the immune system). During meditation your energy flows freely and at its optimum level which has a direct impact on your physical and emotional health. For those people wanting to increase their health on all levels, meditation is an all round body tonic which is free and can be done anywhere at anytime.
Here are just some of the many benefits:
- Regular meditation will significantly boost your immune system
- Focusing on a particular part of the body sends increased blood flow, oxygen and nutrients there.
- Balances blood pressure
- Reduces anxiety by lowering blood levels of lactate
- Helps chronic conditions
- Research has shown that meditation increases the activity of natural killer cells which kill bacteria and cancer cells.
- Reduces susceptibility to viruses
- Balances emotions
- Reduces PMS
- Induces the “relaxation response”
- Improved posture
- Increased levels of melatonin (the sleep hormone)
Unsurprisingly many celebrities and athletes now include meditation as part of their wellness routine.
How to meditate
Meditation is a very flexible practice that can be done anywhere and as mentioned above, at anytime. There are various different ways of meditating and achieving very deep states of relaxation.
When my clients ask me what they can do to help themselves in between sessions I always advise them to meditate everyday.
Here is a very effective counting meditation which is easy to learn and is incredibly relaxing. By the end of the 5 minutes you will feel very peaceful and both physically and mentally relaxed. Of course you can do more than 5 minutes if you wish and doing 15 minutes a day will profoundly enhance your life.
The Counting Meditation
The counting meditation uses numbers as a point of focus during the whole meditation process. The reason we focus on numbers and counting is because there is very little thought and attachment that any of us have towards the numbers 1,2 and 3. I like to use numbers rather than words because some words will inevitably lead me into a thought process through their associations and meanings, and 1,2 and 3 generally lead nowhere. Which is exactly where we want to go!
When we focus on the numbers and think of nothing else then our thoughts slow down to a very slow pace and you will notice moments when there is a gap between them and they cease.
To do the counting meditation you simply count to 3 as you inhale and count to 3 on the exhale. You do this by counting 1, 2, 3 on the inhale followed by 1,2,3 on the exhale. At the same time as hearing yourself count in your head, visualise the number you are counting at the same time. So you are seeing and hearing yourself count simmultaneously. By engaging as many of your senses as possible in the process you will bring yourself to much more of a present state of awareness. When we are present we are not thinking about the past or the future and our stress levels dramatically reduce allowing the body to heal.
To increase the effectiveness of the meditation and keep yourself as present as possible try saying 1,1,1 followed by 2,2,2 and finally 3,3,3. You can also visualise the numbers as being in a straight vertical line with each number being behind the next. By repeating the numbers three times each you decrease the chances of other thoughts coming into your head by keeping the gap between your counting to a minimum. If counting to 3 does not fit comfortable then counting to 2 will work just as well.
Try it and see for yourself!
