Disease Prevention, Good Health, Mental Health »

The health benefits of meditation are becoming more well known, both as a preventative and curative process for your body. Listed are a few of the health benefits of meditation, as well as two structured meditations for you to try - a basic, everyday meditation, and a more focused meditation to help with a chronic condition.

Meditation’s Effects

• Studies have shown that the awareness meditation brings to a certain part of the body can increase blood flow to that area, as well as oxygen and nutrients. This can help in all aspects of general health, even helping general complexion and appearance.
• Meditation helps oneself focus, and gain control over mental processes. This is important for reducing stress (which has a whole range of health benefits in itself), as well as conditions such as anxiety, depression, learning difficulties, and a lack of motivation.
• Meditation can help a large range of physiological responses, such as rate of breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and headaches.
• Can help the body fight viruses.
• Meditation both restores and assists the body’s natural immune system. Meditation can help activate the immune system to fight all kinds of foreign and mutated bodies, including cancer cells and bacteria. There have been reports of meditation being important components of cancer treatment and survival. On a more basic level, meditation can assist general healing of damaged or scarred tissue, or common conditions such as colds and flu.
• Moderates the affects of PMS.
• Can assist autoimmune conditions, such as arthritis. Meditation can also reduce the affect allergies and other long term conditions have on the body.
• Assists with dealing with anger, and other emotional responses. As these emotional triggers have physiological effects, this alone is a valuable component of meditation.
• Meditation can increase natural seratonin levels. Low seratonin levels have been shown to be involved with conditions such as obesity, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
• A daily meditation practice can also reduce phobias, anxieties, and feelings of low self worth.

It is important to realize that the affects described above require the support of professionals, and cannot be done without a thorough understanding of meditation and how it works. We are currently compiling a list of books and resources that may help you in this. Until you have made contact with those who may be able to assist you with the use of meditation to treat chronic illness, we have provided a basic checklist to begin, and practice, a meditation course on your own.

A Basic Meditation Practice

1. Firstly, in Buddhist meditation in particular, it is understood that for meditation to be successful, it must be undertaken in the right context. Known as “the three jewels”, three factors are important for the ongoing success of meditation. These are:

• a supportive meditation community who can encourage and help you maintain your meditation
• knowing an example (either through reading, or through meeting a) person who has achieved success in meditation personally, hence giving you the confidence to continue your practice, and
• the intellectual knowledge required to understand meditation, and how to navigate the guaranteed difficulties and problems you will meet.

Once you have found all three of these prerequisites (a local church, buddhist or yoga center, or other healing resource would be a good place to start), you can begin your meditation with confidence.

2. Prepare a “sacred space” in your home for your meditation. It is important to reserve some place in your house for meditation to occur. Doing so prepares your mind to reserve some time, also, in your life for a daily meditation practice. Having a place for this activity will help instill a positive routine for you. It will also quickly prepare your subconscious mind for meditation through repetition and subconscious cues when you enter this space. A simple example may be a corner of a bedroom which may have a cushion that can be placed on the floor, a low table, and any positive meditation object that can help center and guide your journey. This may be an image of a religious figure, teacher or subject that is important to you, a sculpture, the smell of incense or flowers, or other items - such as religious beads, a special meditation book, or a candle perhaps. Also a small clock, or a place for a watch or phone clock, is important.

3. Prepare a time of day that will become your meditation time. Many people recommend setting aside 15-30 minutes in the morning for meditation, when your mind is likely to be more alert than in the evening. Meditation in the morning also has the added benefit of setting your day in a positive frame from the outset. Set your alarm half an hour earlier if you think you cannot afford the time, and retire to bed a half hour sooner. Regardless of when you can set aside, having a regular practice is of utmost importance. It is said if you do any activity for three weeks, it can become habit.

Once you have the intellectual knowledge about meditation, have a sacred space, community support, are aware of a previous person who has achieved what you wish to achieve, and have put aside time, you are ready to begin your daily meditations.

1. Start with a small starting ritual action, to indicate that your meditation time has begun. This can be anything from the lighting of a candle or incense, a bow, prayer, or anything else that designates this time as separate from your daily worries and other activities. Also, set an end time, including setting an alarm if you need one. Most meditators recommend starting with a small period of time - perhaps 10 minutes - which gradually increases each week.

2. Consider your motivation. For Buddhist meditation, the question of why we wish to do something is as important, or more so, than what we do. It may be to become well, centered, healthy, to know more about oneself, or any other reason. A motivation which has a positive affect for others are particularly valuable example to take, for instance “to learn more about myself, and to heal my body, to be in the best position to be of service to others.”

3. Take one deep breath, to center yourself. Take notice of the sensation of the air passing through your nostrils. Where does it make contact? Where are you aware of this sensation exactly? Are you able to breathe more clearly through one nostril, or another? The sensation you determine will become the focus of your meditation for the next ten to fifteen minutes. Sit up straight - it is said that our backs should be “as a pile of coins” - straight and true. Meditating in a chair is perfectly acceptable if this is not possible for you with cushions.

4. In meditation we are learning to pay attention to what is going on at this very moment, rather than being lost within the multitude of thoughts and fantasies that are our usual daily experience. Feel the first brush of air against the inside of your nose, and count to yourself “one”. Exhale. Now repeat the process until you get to “ten”, and return again to “one”.

5. As we count, we will soon become aware that our mind wanders to any number of mundane or fantastical thoughts. This is completely normal - it is what the mind does. What we are hoping to achieve is an awareness of the process, so we can be in control of it (rather than it in control of us). If you find yourself losing count, or losing attention, simply return to the count in a non-judgemental way. Remember, the aim is not to remove all thoughts and remain thoughtless - rather - to gain a familiarity and detached awareness over the process.

6. When the time has ended, sit still for a few moments. At this time you can make a personal resolution, such as to try to stay aware of your mind as much as possible in the coming day. You may wish to conduct a closing ceremony, such as a prayer for your progress and the progress of others, and blow out your candle or incense.

Almost as useful as the above “sitting” practice can be to reserve other activities (such as walking, eating a meal, exercising, or taking a shower) which we designate as our “meditation time” activity. Paying attention to the physical sensations and thoughts related to the action, and returning to these as our mind necessarily wanders, is a useful ongoing meditation technique. Such an approach can convert a usually wasted or boring activity, such as riding the subway to work, into a strengthening and healing part of our day for ourselves.

Stay tuned for an upcoming article from My Health Encyclopedia. dealing with a specific meditation to try in relation to treating more chronic, specific health problems.