Day 1 - Healing Meditation

Hello! Today we will discuss about meditation as a healing practice.

This is a practice recommended mostly for calming your mind, relief stress, disconnect from worries and blockages in order to liberate yourself and let the solutions dive in. And all of these, guess what? All of these make our body function at its optimal, improve our health and boost our immune system.

It is the brain that controls all the other functions of our body, only through a healthy mind you can have a healthy body. An affection is never only physical, it always has a mental cause. A person with a healthy mind set will almost never get sick or if they do, they will recover instantaneous.

Our mind is connected so much with our physical state, with our overall health. Scientists everywhere start to recognize this more, day by day.

A couple of years ago I was faced with some medical problems. First I followed some medical treatment which helped for a while and then the problem would keep reappearing and practically I needed to be on medication all the time. Then, the longest period when I got really healthy with my body functioning normally, optimally, without medication was while I started a daily meditation practice. Then, caught in the speed of everyday life I dropped this routine and guess what? I started having problems again. Back then my mind was still a bit set in overcoming health difficulties with medication so I went again to the doctor. I was lucky to find a doctor who really wanted to understand and was opened to other remedies as well. I started explaining the history of my medical condition, how I got better for a while then this would keep coming back. She asked me what I did during the longest period when I was healthy and my reply was obviously – “I was meditating” – and she said to me – “Then keep doing that”.

Only by taking care of the mind and treating the mind you really heal a physical condition. Medication can also be needed sometimes, in very critical situations but even then – the mind should also be trained to get into a healthy state. With each article in this program I will elaborate more on this while giving practical examples that can be followed.

A healthy mind set is kept only through continuous work and an everyday practice and discipline in which to make sure you have a positive attitude, positive image of yourself and what you can do to improve yourself and contribute to a better world.

“Where temperance is, there health is speedly imported, not only to the head, but to the whole body.” (Plato, Charmides, 156-158)

Meditation is freeing your mind, detaching from identifying with thoughts, situations, worries, taking charge, owning and choosing thoughts, actions and emotions. It is a way of washing and cleaning your mental state in order to keep the body in its optimal shape. So as you clean your body every day, you should also clean the mind.

Start this practice today! (You can find a guided meditation link at the end.) In the beginning set your intention on freeing your mind from any worries at least for the duration of the meditation. Get accustomed to meditating and in the next days we will learn how to use this further to transform the mind set.

Step 1: Willing decision

First step is to decide to sit in quiet, put the phone away, close the TV, computer, take some time for you. Be with your thoughts.

This is a very big step when starting a meditation practice.

Usually we say “I don’t have time”, “I have too many things to do”, “I need to first take care of that, my kids” and so on.

Those are thoughts coming at you and instead of you controlling them, they control you.

In the chaos of thinking, deciding to stop and sit in quiet is very challenging.

Do it today. Make the time. Take control.

Step 2: Quiet the mind

Once you have taken the first step to sit in quiet, you will first be bombarded with thousands of thoughts, temptations, emotions, things to do.

Ignore them, close your eyes and start focusing on your breathing or even try some breathing exercises (I will talk about this in tomorrow’s practice). Let the focus drift from thoughts to breathing and feeling your entire body, being.

Keep that state of focus on the breathing as much as you can. That is the QUIETNESS.

Step 3: Paradise

Once in the state of QUIETNESS, having your eyes closed, thoughts, emotions, situations will begin to manifest as beautiful lights, images that will fold before you. Detach and let them fold as a movie, without controlling or trying to keep the focus on any. Try to take a detached note of the feelings/emotions that stir inside, yet let them fall, pause behind and move your mind into your place of bliss, whatever paradise image comes to mind that inspire you peace, comfort, protection.

Step 4: Discovery

Once you are full and recharged from your paradise blissful image, start going back to the thoughts/feelings/situations/emotions that overwhelmed you initially. Looking at them now, from a much more peaceful state of mind, a new perspective should uncover over them.

Step 5: Better Choice

Coming back to your everyday thoughts/feelings/situations/emotions, keep the peaceful, detached state of mind and start sorting them, choosing which you can really act on, which are better left for another meditation session and the ones you can’t really act on in any way to get them resolved, just release them, let them fly away.

Step 6: Coming back

Once you feel you are ready, just gently bring your attention back to your breathing, then to each part of your body, your legs, your belly, your back, your arms and each hand, then your neck, your head and each muscle of your face. Open your eyes and smile.

Remember:

“Rule your mind or it will rule you.” Buddha

And also:

“A genuine change must first come from within.” Dalai Lama

Here is a link to the guided meditation practice to help you: