Day 254 of 365 - Meditation for Healing
The topic of meditation has been discussed in this blog before, but today I'm approaching it from a slightly different angle. That angle is considering meditation as a healing tool for chronic illness.
Sometimes, people who have developed a chronic illness encompassing a variety of ongoing symptoms have felt very driven to work hard at relieving those symptoms. Stress levels can be high due to the ongoing experience of fatigue, pain, and loss of abilities, to name a few. When we are in high stress mode, the sympathetic nervous system response of fight or flight can be switched on most of the time. However, what is necessary for healing is the opposite, the state of rest, restore and replenish.
Becoming more aware of the body-mind connection is helpful in approaching recovery strategies. The body has a natural tendency to seek a state of balance and we can assist in moving towards that by learning to notice more about how it responds. Mindfulness meditation in a very simple form can assist with that and can help modulate the nervous system.
One of the myths about meditation is that it is about achieving a blissful state which takes you outside the body. People can feel like they are failing at meditation if they do not achieve that. For people who are very sensitive and intense, some kinds of meditation can actually overstimulate the nervous system, the opposite of what you want.
A gift of being sensitive is helpful in practicing mindfulness meditation for healing because it allows you to be a mindful observer of what is happening at a physical, emotional and mental level. The trick is being more body focused as a mindful observer, allowing the space for the body to move back towards balance. You are not trying to leave the body. Rather, you are just mentally stepping back a bit to notice and observe more things about yourself in layers.
People who are dealing with chronic health issues are often thinking ahead, about the next thing they need to do. Mindfulness asks us to stay in the present. It is only in the present that we can be nourished and satisfied. It is a softer form of meditation.
Don't expect too much of meditation to start. Begin with just five minutes where you are noticing your breath and your heart rate. Keep it simple. Focus on calming and settling the system, grounding the body as a kind witness. Discomforts will come up. Rather than trying to ignore them or chase them away, move towards them with trust. By doing this, they can actually soften and abate. What's in the way, is the way.
Staying in the present is positive and restful. You can notice your patterns of thinking and feeling and become aware that you have a choice about them, in terms of whether you allow them to ramp up your nervous system. Being a loving witness encourages a healthy relationship with yourself. The body can be rebalanced through breathing technique and how we organize our attention. Even after a short time of meditating this way, people may start to feel better.
(The ideas for the content of this post come from Linda Hall, a meditation teacher who has also suffered from chronic fatigue.)
Sometimes, people who have developed a chronic illness encompassing a variety of ongoing symptoms have felt very driven to work hard at relieving those symptoms. Stress levels can be high due to the ongoing experience of fatigue, pain, and loss of abilities, to name a few. When we are in high stress mode, the sympathetic nervous system response of fight or flight can be switched on most of the time. However, what is necessary for healing is the opposite, the state of rest, restore and replenish.
Becoming more aware of the body-mind connection is helpful in approaching recovery strategies. The body has a natural tendency to seek a state of balance and we can assist in moving towards that by learning to notice more about how it responds. Mindfulness meditation in a very simple form can assist with that and can help modulate the nervous system.
One of the myths about meditation is that it is about achieving a blissful state which takes you outside the body. People can feel like they are failing at meditation if they do not achieve that. For people who are very sensitive and intense, some kinds of meditation can actually overstimulate the nervous system, the opposite of what you want.
A gift of being sensitive is helpful in practicing mindfulness meditation for healing because it allows you to be a mindful observer of what is happening at a physical, emotional and mental level. The trick is being more body focused as a mindful observer, allowing the space for the body to move back towards balance. You are not trying to leave the body. Rather, you are just mentally stepping back a bit to notice and observe more things about yourself in layers.
People who are dealing with chronic health issues are often thinking ahead, about the next thing they need to do. Mindfulness asks us to stay in the present. It is only in the present that we can be nourished and satisfied. It is a softer form of meditation.
Don't expect too much of meditation to start. Begin with just five minutes where you are noticing your breath and your heart rate. Keep it simple. Focus on calming and settling the system, grounding the body as a kind witness. Discomforts will come up. Rather than trying to ignore them or chase them away, move towards them with trust. By doing this, they can actually soften and abate. What's in the way, is the way.
Staying in the present is positive and restful. You can notice your patterns of thinking and feeling and become aware that you have a choice about them, in terms of whether you allow them to ramp up your nervous system. Being a loving witness encourages a healthy relationship with yourself. The body can be rebalanced through breathing technique and how we organize our attention. Even after a short time of meditating this way, people may start to feel better.
(The ideas for the content of this post come from Linda Hall, a meditation teacher who has also suffered from chronic fatigue.)
Comments
Post a Comment