Meditate and heal from within
Meditation, the very mention of it can spark images of hippies sitting cross legged and chanting strange sounding mantra's.
For me meditation was always elusive. That thing people said I should try but that thing that I always felt was just not for me. My usual response being, "I can't meditate, my brain won't switch off".
Last year when I was faced with my own personal healing crisis, signs kept coming up for me everywhere about meditation. Emails, documentaries, practitioners.
So I did some research and this is what I discovered. Meditation can be done in many ways. It doesn't have to be a battle with the mind. Though I'll admit that even after a year of mostly daily practise I still have my off days every now and then when my mind just won't calm down.
Meditation can be done with the help of recorded guided imagery or you can sit quietly and focus on something, your breath, the flame of a candle, the waves crashing on the shore.
You can chant a mantra, which doesn't always need a diploma in another language to be able to pronounce it. It can be very simple.
Generally speaking meditation involves deliberately holding your attention on something. If your mind wonders you just bring it back to what your focus is. You can do this for 5 minutes up to half an hour.
Find what works best for you.
I discovered that when we meditate our beta brain waves slow down which in turn slows the brains information processing ability. Therefore giving the brain a chance to stop obsessing with the million things its got going on in there.
The parasympathetic nervous system switches on, meaning our body calms and relaxes right down and this has been linked to better digestion, memory and immunity.
In many different reports, it's been shown that meditation can lead to -
* Better focus
* Less anxiety
* More creativity
* More compassion
* Better memory
* Less stress
* More positive emotions and more emotional stability
* Slows normal ageing
* More disease fighting genes
Our muscles relax, our heart slows and our blood circulation flows more freely to the body's tissues feeding it with vital nutrients and oxygen. This restful state is good for fertility as the body is able to conserve the resources it needs to generate new life.
Wow, really, just by sitting quietly for a while?
So after I realised that there was actually something to this meditation thing and that I wasn't just being 'lazy' taking 15 minutes out each day for me, I decided to give it a go.
I find that guided imagery works best for me, as does breath work. I always do it in the morning so it's setting my day up nicely and now a year on, I LOVE my daily meditation.
My health and my moods improved. I've found it helps me be a better, more compassionate wife, mother and practitioner. It helps me check in with myself on a daily basis.
I've also found that my clients that take my advice to meditate, especially my fertility patients, are definitely getting better outcomes too.
I recommend it to everyone and I find that it is the perfect accompaniment to acupuncture treatment.
Whilst the acupuncture needles are in place you are left for 20-40 minutes for the treatment to balance your Qi. This is the ideal time to practise meditation, in fact I find it enhances the calming effects of the acupuncture treatment.
How good to be able to help create a little more peace and love in your life.
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