Meditation for Healing
In recent years thousands of people have participated in studies that confirm the beneficial effects of meditation for stress, depression, managing chronic pain, insomnia and other conditions. Clearly, there are forms of meditation practice that can help people cope with what ails them. But did you know that in some cases meditation can even help people cure what ails them?
A remarkable story of healing
An article published in the Daily Beast called Can Meditation Cure Disease tells of a 37-year-old Tibetan lama who arrived in New York with a gangrenous leg and was told by three different doctors that the leg needed to be amputated as soon as possible. Even though his physicians were certain that if the lama kept his leg the gangrene would kill him, before giving his consent, he spoke with the Dalai Lama, who told him not to amputate but instead to do certain healing meditation practices.
The story details how, after several months of intensive healing meditation practice, the illness reached a turning point – which was considered medically impossible – and within a year the leg had healed and the lama was walking again.
Over the ages there have been countless accounts of faith-based and prayer-based healing. What stands out here is that the illness and recovery were well-documented and that a team of respected doctors and researchers has been studying the case to try to determine how such a thing could be possible.
One of the researchers, Dr. William C. Bush ell, spoke of Tibetan – and yogic – practices involving prana, the subtle circulatory and energetic system of the body sometimes referred to as “the winds.” Bushell is quoted in the article as saying, “It is not entirely clear from a Western science perspective what the winds are, but the scientific evidence suggests to me and others that the meditative process involving winds includes increased local blood flow, metabolic activity, and oxygenation.”
Meditation can transform the mind; mind can transform the body
The area of using meditation for self-healing has been of great interest to brain researchers around the globe. Numerous studies have revealed the relationship between meditation and a healthy brain. It would seem that the brains of long-term meditators are wired a bit differently than those of non-mediators.
Two regions of the brain are responsible for depression, anger, stress and anxiety: the right prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. These regions become overly active when your mind is agitated or you’re upset. The left prefrontal cortex, on the other hand, is associated with feelings of peace, happiness, self-awareness and positivity. This region is activated in the brains of consistent mediators. So is the production of the “happy” neurotransmitter serotonin – in fact, some anti-depressants artificially increase serotonin, and that’s what makes people feel less blue. Clinical studies have also linked production of dopamine with meditation. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that helps create feelings of pleasure and reward (just like chocolate, but without the calories.)
Meditation is believed to influence the sympathetic nervous system, keeping blood pressure, respiration and heart rate in check. When poorly controlled, these are the physical parameters that go hand in hand with feelings of stress and anxiety.
There’s no question that stress and anxiety are linked to a wide variety of maladies, including heart attacks, high blood pressure, digestive issues, sexual dysfunction and insomnia. And science concurs that many forms of meditation help reduce stress, starting with mindfulness, as practiced in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for example, and Transcendental Meditation, as well as relaxation meditation, guided meditations, walking meditation and more.
Taking care of your whole self
Tr-inlay Ricochet, a scholar and meditation expert who teaches all over the world, says that meditation is the best way to take care of your self: your mind, body and essence. Meditation not only makes our lives more meaningful, it also offers us a natural healing mechanism. Many ailments begin with an imbalanced or stressed mind and develop in susceptible parts of the body. By working with the mind and learning to better manage the triggers that disturb it, we bolster the body’s natural defenses.
Guided meditation for healing is a great way to release the stress that accumulates in the mind and the tensions that build up in the body. One of the reasons that guided meditation is particularly effective is that you can just relax and enjoy it. The only thing you have to do is try to stay focused. Guided meditation for healing can be found in meditation groups, community settings, audio and video.
By reading this article it’s clear that you’re interested in the practice of meditation and its results: making life more joyful and meaningful. And so are we! Mind works is a non-profit organization with a mission to share authentic meditation guidance to you and our worldwide followers. Click the link below to find out more and discover:
- How to work with mind and appreciate every moment
- How meditation enriches your life
- How to integrate meditation into your daily routine
What is Self Healing?
Healing means becoming more whole, more able to accomplish what you wish to accomplish, and more able to enjoy your life. This wholeness may involve the healing of a physical wound, an emotional disturbance, a maladaptive behavior (rage, addiction, shyness), or conflictual relationships.
Healing is an active, living process. You can learn how to heal yourself. Medicines, supplements, surgery, exercise – they help but are only support for the self-healing process. Antibiotics can weaken a bacterium, but only your immune system can actually kill and get rid of it. Studies show the single most important thing you can do is to learn to create mental and physical relaxation and balance. These, along with guided imagery, meditation, self-hypnosis, and prayer are very potent mind tools for getting you well and keeping you well.
Patient, Heal Thyself
Self-healing refers to the things you can do to cause your internal system to function better and heal you faster and more thoroughly. Self-healing involves behaving wisely, tuning into the true needs of your body, mind, spirit, and soul and making wise choices – to eat the right way, exercise the right way, and get the right amount of sleep. Learn deep relaxation for ten or twenty minutes each day, three times a day if you want even better results.
During this time focus on peace, harmony, beauty, love, and other similar experiences. Meditation, prayer, and other deep relaxation techniques will help you eliminate distractions. During this time, allow yourself to feel completely accepting of yourself, exactly as you are and accepting the world just as it is at this moment – after all, it cannot at this moment be any different from how it is at this moment!
Fill your mind with the things you feel grateful that you have to feel and experience in your life. Give thanks and feel the gratitude in your body. Visualize your body healing itself and becoming more whole and functional. Then picture yourself as completely well, happy and healthy. That’s the key to the secrets of self-healing! Just remember to do it several times a day.
Self Healing Stress
Stress is a very important part of most of our illnesses. Some it causes, others it makes worse. Physical tension and mental/emotional stress produce disordered (incoherent) neural impulses in the nerves and circulate stress chemicals in the body that cause, for example:
- Inflammation, (tendonitis, arthritis, GI problems)
- Muscle pain and dysfunction, (backache and headache, muscle tension, elevated blood pressure, colonic disorders)
- Emotional imbalance (anxiety, irritability, anger, depression, unhappiness)
- Mental dysfunction, (low creativity, insomnia, procrastination, attention deficit)
- Behavioral disorders, (drinking, smoking, eating)
- Chronic stress over a long period actually shrinks the brain, killing neurons by the millions
Deeply relaxed states re-balance the system. Most imbalances and disorders, (illnesses, dysfunctions, symptoms, or diseases) are either caused or made worse, by physical tension and mental/emotional stress. Deep Relaxation is the direct antidote to stress and is thus widely used in self-healing techniques.
So, to help speed up your healing, be certain to wisely guide the mind, its thoughts, and emotions, to function in a way that is congruent with the healing process you want to facilitate. In other words, be the change you want to create.
10 Minute Self Healing Meditation for Relief from Injury, Illness, Pain, and Negative Thoughts
This 10 minute guided Self Healing meditation will support you in manifesting a full physical mind and body healing. Each time you listen, it will initiate a deep healing transformation of every cell in your body. Other benefits include instant relief from physical pain, healing long-term illnesses, finding deep levels of inner peace, an increased amount of energy, and the quieting of mind chatter. This Self Healing Meditation will soothe your body and relieve your mind of any so you can receive a physically transformative healing experience.
As you know, I have been working through a particularly challenging foot injury. Its taken me out of so many things I love (high heels included) and there have been times when I have felt depressed, hopeless, frustrated, and physically/mentally exhausted. When I feel like this I know that one of the best things I can do to support myself is to meditate. I find that meditation helps me reset and shift my consciousness so that I can find the present moment and view life in a positive light. This in turn eases my depression/anxiety/exhaustion; sometimes, it eradicates it completely.
The endurance and uncertainty of an injury is emotionally exhausting. In those times where I feel lost, upset, drained, hopeless, or scared about what’s next, I have turned to meditation and prayer to help.
When you feel stuck in that place of hopelessness and depression you must find a way to shift your state of being. Remember your thoughts and beliefs affect your body’s ability to heal. If you are caught in a negative thought cycle and obsessed with your pain, you’ll only move downward. What you focus on expands and if you let yourself worry about pain, you are giving more power to it. Both health and illness is a part of life. When you keep that in mind and have a positive state of mind, then illnesses or injury can change.
If you are feeling hopeless, depressed, or stuck in a state of pain, this quick Self Healing meditation can help you shift your mindset to a more positive place. This Self Healing meditation is about establishing a different relationship with your thoughts and affirming your body’s ability to heal itself. You’re training yourself to place your attention where and when you want. This is very powerful. It gives you the ability to direct your thoughts (and mood) in more productive and peaceful directions. This ability has profound self-healing implications for physical and mental health.
How this Self Healing Meditation Helps The Body Heal Itself
The body knows how to heal itself. It is equipped with natural self-repair mechanisms that repair broken proteins, kill cancer cells, fight infections, prevent aging, and maintain the homeostasis of the body. When the body gets sick, whether from the common cold or something more serious, like heart disease or cancer, it’s almost always because the body’s self-repair mechanisms have broken down, usually because of stress.
When the nervous system is stressed, as it is during the “fight-or-flight” stress response that is so commonly triggered in modern day life, these self-repair mechanisms are disabled and the body is at risk for disease or injury. Only when the counterbalancing relaxation response is activated, when the sympathetic nervous system is turned off and the parasympathetic nervous system is turned on, can the body heal itself.
So how can you turn on that relaxation response so the body can heal itself? My book, Balanced Body Breakthrough, lists many ways, but one of the simplest and most effective is meditation! Meditation has been scientifically proven to activate the relaxation response, and as a result, almost every health condition improves. Research has shown meditation is effective in treating angina inspector, cardiac arrhythmia, allergic skin reactions, anxiety, mild to moderate depression, bronchial asthma, herpes simplex, cough, constipation, diabetes mellifluous, duodenal ulcers, dizziness, fatigue, hypertension, infertility, insomnia, nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, nervousness, postoperative swelling, premenstrual syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, side effects of cancer, side effects of AIDS, injury and all forms of pain – backaches, headaches, abdominal pain, muscle pain, joint aches, postoperative pain, neck, arm, and leg pain.
Meditation has been shown to decrease stress-related cortisol, reduce respiration and heart rate, reduce the metabolic rate, increase blood flow in the brain, increase activity in the left prefrontal cortex (which is observed in happier people), strengthen the immune system, and lead to a state of relaxation.
Meditation also reduces work stress, anxiety, and depression, promotes cardiovascular health, improves cognitive function, reduces alcohol abuse, improves longevity, promotes healthy weight, improves immune function, and heightens quality of life.
If you are struggling with injury or illness, making a consistent effort to practice Meditation will help your nervous system relax. Doing so will help you heal from injury, pain, illness, or negative stress patterns that hurt your health.
Self-healing meditation in a few steps
There are different types of fields in charge of treating the mind; the most important ones are the medical fields or the alternative ones. Our bodies are self-healing machines of every illness we have and we are responsible for taking care of that machine so it can work properly. We just have to listen to it, and according to Dr Lissa Rankin “The body’s natural self-repair mechanisms only fully function when the nervous system is in relaxation response”.
Our society cares more about how other people look or think that in our own mental health and that is why there is so much sickness in the world. Our mind has the power to improve this and to self-heal through practice.
John Milton said that ¨the mind is its own place; it can make a heaven out of hell, or a hell out of heaven¨
We try to pass the blame to something else or someone else but “if we have unhealthy minds, we have an unhealthy world” and the key is to solve the problems from the root, explained Águeda Burgos, an Alternative Healing Therapist in an interview to The Circular.
Águeda deepened in the topic by expressing the importance of mindfulness and being present in the world at this exact moment. Noticing everything you see, hear and feel sets you in a state of awareness and calms the mind, dealing with over-thinking. By practising awareness you stop being in “automatic pilot”.
Yes, it will take time but self-healing by practising the mind is important. There are several types of practices; choose the one that suits you better, the one you can add to your busy day or your lifestyle and commit to it. Choose a practice and see the changes that it makes in your life.
The simplest practice to do in a daily basis is meditation; it can be done for five minutes, ten or as long as you can maintain focus without judging, but “the most important thing is that you try to do it every day” says Águeda. You can start with a simple meditation:
Seat with your back straight on the floor or a chair. Close your eyes. Take deep breaths feeling how the air enters and leaves your body. If you get distracted by thoughts let them pass and go back to paying attention to the breath. Open your eyes and think about how you feel for a minute before standing up.
Or you can search for a meditation center or do it by your self-using a guided meditation to help you, there are also apps like Calm to get you through it.