Natural Living: The healing power of meditation

The simplest and quickest way to completely transform your life is to practice daily meditation. There are hundreds of ways to meditate, even more ways to breathe while meditating and many locations to be enjoyed while meditating. With all these possibilities I believe you can find the perfect style that suits your needs.

Meditation is a period of time in which your thoughts flow free of judgment. It’s a period of time in which you just “be.”

Meditation is a doorway for you to explore your spirituality. Mediation is a time in which you become in-sync with your true self. Meditation is a time in which your conscious mind is able to recharge after being constantly bombarded with stimuli. Meditation is the process of connecting with the energy of humanity.

It’s no wonder more and more people are learning how to meditate with benefits like these: Improved ability to focus, increased creativity, deeper level of relaxation, improved perception and memory, development of intelligence, natural change in breathing, decrease in stress hormone, lower blood pressure, reversal of aging process, reduced need for medical care, reduction in cholesterol, increased self-actualization, increased strength of self-concept, decreased cigarette, alcohol, and drug abuse, decreases muscle tension, strengthening the immune system, increasing serotonin production, increasing activity of natural killer cells, which kill bacteria and cancer cells, increased productivity, improved relations at work, increased relaxation and decreased stress.

Here’s what the research shows: Chronic pain patients reduce their physician visits by 36 percent and fifty percent reduction in visits to an HMO. Eighty percent of hypertensive patients have lowered blood pressure and decreased medications — 16 percent are able to discontinue all of their medications. Open heart surgery patients have fewer post-operative complications. One-hundred percent of insomnia patients reported improved sleep and 91 percent either eliminated or reduced sleeping medication use. Infertile women have a 42 percent conception rate and decreased levels of depression, anxiety and anger. Women with severe PMS have a 57 percent reduction in physical and psychological symptoms. High school students exposed to a relaxation response-based curriculum had significantly increased their self-esteem. Inner-city middle school students improved grade score, work habits and cooperation and decreased absences.

Enough talking about it, let’s do it.

It’s best to find a quiet place where you can’t be disturbed, perhaps a place of special meaning to you, like a garden, a river or waterfall or where you’re surrounded with things that are meaningful to you within your house or you can just pick any place that’s comfortable. Do not let chaos stop you from meditating — when you have an abundance of stimuli all around you (like two kids running around) and you’re able to meditate you have made a huge accomplishment — now take that into our over-stimulated world and see how much better you’ll feel.

Now close your eyes and breathe deeply as if you’re filling up a balloon. Let your thoughts flow in and out, without judgment. It may take several minutes to let your mind clear and during this time focus again on your breath ... your inhale ... your exhale ... imagine energy all around you as if it was as strong as the rays of the sun ... breathe this energy into your body ... feel this energy in your body. You should start feeling lighter now — your thoughts are rapidly dissipating and slowly your mind is going into a deep meditative state. This state should be soothing, relaxing, calming. Take time to feel the sensation of your body in this state, your hands, your toes and your heart. Try to stay in this state as long as possible.

We live in a world of constant stimuli. We push ourselves to the limits and in the process forget to let our mind and soul recharge and as a result we become stressed and sick. It doesn’t have to be that way. Life is meant to be enjoyed. Meditate today. Even if you start with five minutes a day and gradually lengthen this time you’re going to see benefit as long as you’re consistent.

If you’re interested in local group mediation classes or would like to get CDs of guided meditations contact Sierra Acupuncture & Healing Arts at 841-3336 and we’ll guide you to the right place.