Meditation As An Alternative To Medication
A young woodcutter asked for a job with the foreman of a logging crew and got it. The salary and work conditions were very good. So, woodcutter was determined to do his best.
Boss gave him an axe and asked to start Monday. On Monday, the woodcutter fell 18 trees. Boss was very happy and appreciated woodcutter’s effots.
Motivated by boss’ appreciation, the woodcutter tried harder Tuesday, but could fell only 15 trees. Wednesday, he tried much harder and skipped lunch, still, He could fell only 10 trees.
Disheartened, he went to his boss and offered to quit for not being able to fell sufficient trees despite his best efforts.
Thinking, the boss asked – “When was the last time you sharpened your axe?”
“Sharpen the axe? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been working so hard.
Did you sharpen your axe today?
A calm, composed, cool and focused mind is like a sharpened axe and meditation is the axe sharpening stone.
“Meditation can be as simple as deep breathing or listening to a particularly moving piece of music. Simplest definition of meditation is “Living in the moment”.
Meditation can be done consciously, or it may ‘happen’ unnoticed and unannounced. In fact, all of us meditate every day in some form of other. The key is to understand this process and use it to our benefit consciously.
Solving challenging puzzles, reading an interesting book or playing a deeply engaging game of chess can all lead to a meditative state. All these activities engage the mind completely and thinking abilities are completely focused to a single task at hand.
That is meditation in practice.
Meditation for Psychiatric Conditions
S.F. Jane had been suffering from schizophrenia for years with no major improvement with prescribed Anti-psychotic drugs. She still heard voices and saw things. Smoked Marijuana to keep the ‘voices’ down and got herself isolated from society.
After a few years of treatment and no visible improvement, Jane distanced herself from anti-psychotic drugs and mental health professionals. One day, while reading the cover of a book, she read: “meditation helps you find yourself and it helps you discover who you really are. It can liberate you from your mind and the traps that your own ego sets for you”. Inspired, Jane started meditating and made it a daily practice. She practiced meditation whenever possible; whether at work, while riding the bicycle or when she was at home.
Gradually, Jane realized that the severity of her symptoms was lessening. She stopped hearing voices and realized that they were manifestations of her own subconscious thoughts that have been suppressed. Today, Jane is completely cured from Schizophrenia and is working towards spreading awareness of the benefits of meditation. Watch S.F. Jane speak about her miraculous recovery.
Disease need not be Hereditary
We’ve accepted that a disease can be hereditary and if someone suffers from an illness, their children are likely to suffer from it too.
Lawson English, a computer programmer from Arizona also thought so but defied the odds of having a heart disease despite having a family history for it. When he reached his 40s, Lawson English was overweight and only moderately active, thus a prime candidate for heart troubles. Counting his family history of heart disease increased his odds of developing cardiac problems even higher.
But English says that, at the age of 44, his cholesterol levels, blood pressure and heart rate are perfectly normal. “My blood pressure and heart rate are so low that my doctor doesn’t even bother to admonish me to lose weight”.
He may just be lucky of course, but English attributes his good heart health to his long-time devotion to transcendental meditation (TM), a practice popularized in the 1970s by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the Beatles.
Twice a day, TM devotees like English find a quiet place, sit comfortably and focus their minds on a single word, or mantra. For 15 to 45 minutes, they enter a state of conscious relaxation often described as “restful alertness.”
In fact, a 1995 research has shown that middle-aged and elderly African-Americans using transcendental meditation lowered their blood pressure more than those who adopted tried-and-true lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise programs. This study focused on African-Americans because of their high risk for hypertension.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/06/07/minding.heart.wmd/index.html
How to Meditate
If you are on medication, talk to your doctor and follow his advice before starting on meditation. Meditation, when done in excess may be harmful. Start with smaller times and slowly increase the times as you become more comfortable. Meditation comes easy and naturally to us. We all meditate in some form every day. However, to meditate consciously, follow these steps.
- Find a quiet and comfortable place and make arrangements to remain undisturbed for next 5-10 minutes. Switch off your phone and post a sign outside your room.
- If possible, sit on floor with your back resting against wall in either Sukhasana or Padmasana yoga poses given below. A floor cushion might help. Should sitting on floor be difficult, use a chair or couch. Keep your feet on floor and rest both hands facing down comfortably on thighs.
- Repeating a word mentally helps to focus the thoughts inwards. Use a suitable word that you can remember easily. Ancient Indian syllable ‘Aum’ or ‘Om’ is a good choice but you may use any word that you can remember easily.
- Find a way to keep track of time. You may download following Solfeggio (528 Hz) based timers for 5, 10 and 15 minutes and use them to keep track of time. Solfeggio frequencies are known to heal. Read more about them in Music That Heals Body and Mind.
- Breathe in deeply, hold for a couple of seconds and slowly breathe out from mouth. Repeat this two more times. Close your eyes.
- Think of the present moment. Be aware of yourself, your breathing, your surroundings, the sounds. Do not think of past or future; focus your thoughts on the present moment.
- Repeat your chosen word mentally and focus inwards. Remain in this state for the duration of meditation.
- After time is over, remain in position for another 2 minutes. Open your eyes very slowly and come out of meditation gradually.
- Repeat this process every day, once or twice. Increase your meditation time as you become comfortable.
Alternatively, download a Free Meditation Course here to get started. This is the course that I used to learn meditation.
When to Start?
If you are healthy and happy, now is the right time to start on the wonderful path of Meditation to keep yourself that way. On the other hand if you or someone in family is suffering from a disease, Meditation can tremendously help in recovery process by lowering stress levels and strengthening the immune system to fight disease naturally. Medicine only helps body cure itself. Meditation will help your body do this process faster and better with no side effects.
