The problem with worrying is that it becomes a cycle of self-perpetuating negative thoughts. In a new review, University of Surrey researchers described worry as “a chain of thoughts and images that are affectively negative and relatively uncontrollable.”
So what’s the best way to stop the cycle? We rounded up some research-backed ways:
Set aside a designated “worry time.”
Instead of worrying all day, every day, designate a 30-minute period of time where you can think about your problems. Penn State researchers found in a 2011 study that a four-step stimulus control program could help seriously stressed people take control of their anxieties, LiveScience reported. Step one: Identify the object of worry. Step two: Come up with a time and place to think about said worry. Step three: If you catch yourself worrying at a time other than your designated worry time, you must make a point to think of something else. Step four: Use your “worry time” productively by thinking of solutions to the worries.
Kick your online addiction.
All that time you spend perusing your Facebook newsfeed probably isn’t doing your mental health any favors. A recent study from Anxiety UK showed that nearly half of people feel “worried or uncomfortable” being away from email or Facebook. “These findings suggest that some may need to re-establish control over the technology they use, rather than being controlled by it,” Anxiety UK CEO Nicky Lidbetter said in a statement. Need some ideas for things to do away from your computer or cell phone? We’ve got you covered.
Be mindful.
The most effective strategies to stop worrying and rumination may be ones based in mindfulness, which involves nonjudgmental awareness of present thoughts and emotions, as well as cognitive behavioral therapy strategies, according to the University of Surrey review of 19 studies. Particularly, the review noted that “treatments in which participants are encouraged to change their thinking style, or to disengage from emotional response to rumination or worry,” as well as “treatments which enable participants to adopt more concrete and specific thinking or which cognitively restructure thinking in a more positive and constructive way” seem especially effective.
Accept the worry — and then move on.
Worrying about worrying is a dangerous cycle to fall into. A 2005 study in the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy showed that people who naturally try to suppress their unwanted thoughts end up being more distressed by said thoughts. Meanwhile, “those who are naturally more accepting of their intrusive thoughts are less obsessional, have lower levels of depression, and are less anxious,” the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researchers wrote. Therefore, people who get caught up in worry when they try to force themselves to stop worrying may want to try a different strategy — acceptance.
Write your worries down.
Letting all your emotions out on paper before a big exam could help decrease test-taking worry, according to a 2011 study in Science. “It might be counterintuitive, but it’s almost as if you empty the fears out of your mind,” study researcher Sian Beilock, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Chicago, told U.S. News. “You reassess that situation so that you’re not as likely to worry about those situations because you’ve slain that beast.” While exams are no longer a threat to many of us, Beilock noted that the approach could work for people facing anxieties for other things.
Cut yourself some slack.
Dr. Susan M. Love, a professor at the David Geffen School of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, told The New York Times that the perceived need to follow all the rules when it comes to health can be a source of stress and worry in itself. Love, who wrote the book “Live a Little! Breaking the Rules Won’t Break Your Health” told The Times that at the end of the day, it’s impossible to have perfect health, and you’re probably a lot healthier than you realize. “Is the goal to live forever?” she said to The Times. “I would contend it’s not. It’s really to live as long as you can with the best quality of life you can. The problem was all of these women I kept meeting who were scared to death if they didn’t eat a cup of blueberries a day they would drop dead.”
Keep your hands busy.
Engaging in activities that keep your hands busy and mind distracted could help prevent flashbacks from traumatic experiences, according to research from the Medical Research Council in England. While the study didn’t examine how this strategy impacts everyday worry, the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Bob Hirshon pointed out that “keeping your hands and mind busy interferes with storing and encoding visual images.”
Make time for meditation.
Taking some time to find some zen can really help anxiety in your brain — even brain scans say so. A study published earlier this year in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience showed that meditation training not only lower anxiety levels in people, but it also had effects on the anterior cingulate cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex brain regions (the former region controls emotions and thinking, the latter controls worrying).
Get your heart pumping.
Exercise may be a predictable way to beat stress, but it’s only predictable because it’s so effective. Research in animals, for instance, shows that exercise can affect brain activity of serotonin (a so-called “happy” brain chemical) as well as reduce the effects of oxidative stress, The New York Times reported. And Well and Good points out studies showing that exercise interventions can result in lower anxiety levels than people who stay tied to the couch. “Several studies have found the effects of aerobic exercise to be initially similar to those of medication,” Jeff Dolgan, an exercise physiologist at Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach, told Well and Good. “However, in the long term, exercise seems to work better.”
Only as a [spiritual] warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges. The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse. — Don Juan, as quoted by Jack Kornfield in A Path With Heart
I first read these words in medical school, in the middle of a difficult surgical rotation. I felt depressed and beaten down from working 80+ hour weeks and arduous overnight shifts, and demoralized by poor treatment from my superiors (who were undoubtedly demoralized, themselves). I wanted to be a surgeon, but couldn’t imagine the rest of my life looking like this. And then, out of nowhere, my boyfriend broke up with me. It felt like things couldn’t get much worse.
Then, I read these words in Jack Kornfield’s book, A Path With Heart. I mulled over what he said, and turned it over in my mind. I began to consider whether it was possible to see painful experiences as challenges to work through, and not as bad luck to lament. I wondered, could I see the same circumstances through different eyes? Soon after, I decided to abandon a career in surgery for a future in psychiatry (and haven’t looked back since). Here are some ways we can all cultivate our own inner spiritual warrior — the part of us that faces challenge with wisdom, equanimity, and compassion.
1. Turn straw into gold. Our deepest suffering is often our greatest opportunity to learn about ourselves and take action to be better people. Working through suffering is how you learn to be patient, humble, and grateful. And developing strength in the face of painful circumstances teaches you that you don’t need to fear the natural ups and downs of life, and instead can face whatever comes your way with inner calm and peace.
2. Integrate mindfulness into daily life. Being mindful doesn’t mean you need to spend hours a day meditating — you just need to pay attention. We think we don’t have the time, but it doesn’t need to take any extra time. Practice paying attention when you’re engaged in daily activities. When you’re washing the dishes, wash the dishes, and try not to let your mind wander to the past or future. When you’re eating, eat. When you’re walking, walk, and pay attention to the ground under each step.
3. See everyone as your Buddha. Just as difficult circumstances can be opportunities for growth, so can interactions with difficult people. Imagine that any difficult person you encounter is actually the Buddha in disguise, put there to teach you a specific lesson about life or about yourself. What do you think the universe is trying to teach you?
4. Recognize the difference between pain and suffering. In Eastern philosophy, pain and suffering are two very different things. Pain is the inevitable hardships of life, and suffering is the avoidable negative narrative we add on top of that. Losing your job is pain — telling yourself that this means you’re a failure is suffering. Ending a relationship is pain — interpreting this to mean that you’ll never meet anyone again is suffering. You can’t eliminate pain, but you can end suffering.
5. Set a daily intention. In many meditation and yoga classes the teacher will ask the students to set an intention at the beginning of their practice. The same exercise can be useful in your day-to-day life. Try asking yourself every morning, “What emotion or feeling do I want to cultivate today?” Maybe it’s to be patient, nonjudgmental, self-assured, happy, or open-minded. Whatever it is, set an intention to foster this quality throughout your day.
6. Create space for negative emotions. A common reaction to painful emotions like doubt, fear, or anger is to squash them down and pretend they’re not there. You’ll actually find it a lot more tolerable if you create space for them, instead. Imagine whatever painful emotion you’re feeling as a compact ball of energy at your heart. Now expand that ball of energy to take up the whole room, the whole street, the whole planet, the whole universe. As it diffuses outward, the strength of the emotion wanes. As you pay attention to it, it loses power.
7. Cultivate wise thoughts. So little of how we see the world is based on fact and reality, and so much is based on subjective perceptions and interpretations. This is why unwise thoughts can be so destructive and wise thoughts can be so empowering. Choose to cultivate wise thoughts. We can’t always choose how we feel, but we can choose what thoughts patterns and narratives we want to nurture.
8. Do something you’re afraid of every day. In order to be able to do anything really amazing or courageous, we need to be able to act even when we’re afraid. This is learned skill. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Practicing in small ways can help you build the momentum for something bigger. Maybe it’s asking that cute girl out at the grocery store, or negotiating a price when you don’t feel comfortable haggling, or speaking up at work when normally you keep quiet. Whatever you’re afraid of, practice doing it.
9. Act out of love, not fear. Many people think the opposite of love is hate, but I would argue it’s fear. While fear is a closing and contraction of the heart, love is a warmness and openness to yourself, the people around you, and whatever circumstance comes your way. If you’re ever confused and unsure how to act, ask yourself one question: Does the action you’re considering spring from love or from fear? Always choose love.
Drunvalo Melchizedek – The Teaching Of The MER-KA-BA
Last updated on October 24, 2013 at 12:00 am EDT by in5d Alternative News
At the Return To Atlantis Conference, I met a fascinating 84 year old man who has activated his light body by doing the following merkaba meditation. Below the instructions, you will also find a guided meditation for this.
by Drunvalo Melchizedek
Like the sun, we must breathe, radiating out to all life. And from all life we will receive our manna.
Begin by creating a place in your home that is used only for this meditation. Make a space where no one will walk through or disturb you, possibly in your bedroom. A small altar with a candle and a cushion or pillow to sit upon may be helpful. Make this place holy. It is here that you will learn to create the MER-KA-BA around your body and make conscious contact with your higher self.
Once each day, enter into this meditation, until the time comes when you are a conscious breather, remembering with each breath your intimate connection with God. To begin the meditation, first sit down and relax. Let the worries of the day go. Breathe rhythmically and shallow. Be aware of your breath and relax. When you feel the tension begin to fade, begin to open your heart. Feel Love. Feel Love for all life everywhere. Continue to breathe rhythmically, being aware of your breath, and feel the Love moving through your spirit. When the FEELING of love is in your beingness, you are ready to begin to move towards the experience to the MERKABA. Without this Love, no amount of knowledge will create the MER-KA-BA. To the degree you are able to Love, will be the degree you will be able to experience the MER-KA-BA.
Merkabah, The Chariot of Ascension
The Merkaba Field is a permanent and highly ordered Merkabic structure of inter-connected electro-magnetic counter-rotating energy spirals that exist as an integral part of ALL CREATION
The following is an overview of the meditation to reach the MER-KA-BA. There are seventeen breaths to reach completion. The first six are for balancing of the polarities within your eight electical circuits, and , also, for the cleansing of these circuits. The next seven, which are quite different, are to re-establish the proper pranic flow through your body, and to recreate Spherical Breathing within your body. The fourteenth breath is unique unto itself. It changes the balance of pranic energy within your body from third dimensional to fourth dimensional awareness. The last three breaths recreate the rotating fields of the MER-KA-BA within and around your body.
The instructions: The following instructions will be broken down into four areas: MIND, BODY, BREATH and HEART.
FIRST BREATH: Inhale
HEART: Open your heart and feel love for all life. If you cannot do this, you must at least open to this love as much as is possible for you. This is the most important instruction of all.
MIND: Become aware of the male tetrahedron (the apex facing up to the sun, the point facing to the front for male, the point to the back for females) filled with the brilliant white light surrounding your body. Visualize it the best you can. If you cannot visualize it, sense or feel it surrounding you.
BODY: At the same moment of inhalation, place your hands in the mudra of your thumb and first finger touching. Remember, lightly touch your fingers, and do not allow your fingers to touch each other or any other object. Keep your palms facing up.
BREATH: At this same moment, with empty lungs, begin to breath in a complete yogic manner. Breathe through your nostrils only, except at certain places which will be described. Simply put, breath from your stomach first, then your diaphragm, and finally your chest. Do this in one movement, not three parts. The exhale is completed either by holding the chest firm and relaxing the stomach, slowly releasing the air, or by holding the stomach firm and relaxing the chest. The most important aspect is that this breathing must be rhythmic. Begin by using seven seconds in and seven seconds out, but as you get familiar with this meditation, find your own rhythm.
The following instructions for a complete Yogic Breath are from “the Hindu-Yogi Science of Breath” by Yogi Ramacharake. Perhaps this description will be helpful. Breathing through the nostrils, inhale steadily, first filling the lower part of the lungs, which is accomplished by bringing into play the diaphagm, which descending exerts a gentle pressure on the abdominal organs, pushing forward the front walls of the abdomen. Then fill the midddle part of the lungs, pushing out the lower ribs, breastbone and chest. Then fill the higher portion of the lungs, protruding the upper chest, thus lifting the chest, including the upper six or even pairs of ribs. At first reading it may appear that this breath consists of three distinct movements. This, however, is not the correct idea. The inhalation is continuous, the entire chest cavity from the lowered diaphragm to the highest point of the chest in the region of the collar bone, being expanded with a uniform movement. Avoid a jerky series of inhalations, and strive to attain a steady continuous action. Practice will soon overcome the tendency to divide the inhalation into three movements, and will result in a uniform continuous breath. You will be able to complete the inhalation in a few seconds after a little practice. Exhale quite slowly, holding the chest in a firm position, and drawing the abdomen in a little and lifting it upward as the air leaves the lungs. When the air is entirely exhaled, relax the chest and abdomen. A little practice will render this part of the exercise easy, and the movement once acquired will be afterward performed almost automatically.
The pattern of the Star Tetrahedron links with the Star of David
FIRST BREATH: Exhale
HEART: Love
MIND: Become aware of the female tetrahedron, (apex pointing to the earth, point facing to the back for males, point facing to the front for females), also filled with the brilliant white light.
BODY: Keep the same mudra.
BREATH: Do NOT hesitate at the top of the inhalation to begin the exhalation. Exhale quite slowly, approximately seven seconds, in the Yogic manner. When the air is out of the lungs, without forcing, relax the chest and abdomen and HOLD the breath. When you feel pressure to breathe again, after about five seconds or so, then do the following:
MIND: Be aware of the flat equilateral triangle at the top of the female tetrahedron located in the horizontal plane that passes through your chest at the sternum. In a flash, and with a pulse like energy, send that triangular plane down through the female tetrahedron. It gets smaller as it goes down and pushes out the tip or apex of the tetrahedron all the negative energy of the mudra or electrical circuit, a light will shoot out of the apex toward the center of the Earth. The Mind exercise is performed along with the following BODY movements.
BODY: Move your eyes slightly toward each other, or, in other words, slightly cross your eyes. Now bring them up to the top of their sockets, or in other words, look up. Also, this looking up motion should not be extreme. You will feel a tingling feeling between your eyes in the area of your third eye . You can now look down to the lowest point you can, as fast as you can. You should feel an electrical sensation move down your spine. The MIND and BODY must coordinate the above mental exercise with the eye movements. The eyes look down from their up position at the same time the mind sees the triangular horizontal plane of the female tetrahedron move down to the apex of the female tetrahedron. This combined exercise will clean out the negative thoughts and feelings that have entered into your electrical system. Specifically, it will clean out the part of your electrical system that is associated with the particular mudra you are using. Immediately upon pulsing the energy down your spine, you change mudras to the next one and begin the entire cycle over again.
The next five breaths are a repeat of the first breath with the following mudra changes:
Second breath mudra: Thumb and second finger together
Third breath mudra: Thumb and third finger together
Fourth breath mudra: Thumb and little finger together
Fifth breath mudra: Thumb and first finger together (same as first breath)
Sixth breath mudra: Thumb and second finger together (same as second breath)
The first part, the first six breaths, the balancing of the polarities, and the cleansing of your electrical system is now complete.
The star tetrahedral fields around our bodies
There is also a tube that runs through the center of the body, connecting the apexes of the star tetrahedral field.
Before we fell in consciousness I3,000 years ago, we breathed prana through this tube. Prana simultaneously comes in from the top and passes through the pineal gland, and enters from the bottom, meeting in one of the chakras. Remembering how to breathe through this tube, combined with rotating the fields around the body, produces the merkaba, a vehicle of ascension.
There are actually three star tetrahedral fields superimposed over each other around the body. One is the physical body, one is the mental body, and the third is the emotional body. This is literally so. The fields are rotated by linking together the mind, the emotions, and the physical body. The mental field spins to the left, the emotional field to the right, and the field for the body remains stationary. When these fields are rotated at very specific speeds and in a certain way, a disk pops out at the base of the spine for fifty-five to sixty feet and a sphere appears. It looks like a flying saucer.
This field is known as the merkaba. It is the original creation pattern of the universe on all levels of existence. It is how we got here and it is how we will leave.
The word “Mer” means counter-rotating fields of light; “Ka” spirit; and “Ba” is body or reality. So the Mer-Ka-Ba is a counter-rotating field of light that takes both body and spirit with it. Once you know how to activate these fields you can use your merkaba to travel throughout the universe.
The bottom line on the Flower of Life workshop is the teaching of the merkaba and the activation of this field so that it can, at the appropriate time, be used as a vehicle of ascension.
PART 2
You are now ready for the next part, the next seven breaths. Here an entirely new breathing pattern begins. You do not need to visualize the star tetrahedron at this time. Only the tube that runs through the star, from the apex of the male tetrahedron above your head to the apex of the female tetrahedron below your feet, needs to be seen and worked with. This extends one hand length above your head and one hand length below your feet. The diameter of YOUR tube will be the size of the hole formed by YOUR thumb and forefinger touching.
SEVENTH BREATH: Inhale
HEART: Love. There is another refinement here that can be used after you have perfected this meditation. It will be discussed in class.
MIND: Visualize or sense the tube running through your body. The instant you begin the seventh inhale, see the brilliant white light of the prana moving down the tube from the top and up the tube from the bottom at the same time. This movement is almost instantaneous. The point where these two light beams meet within your body is controlled by the mind and is a vast science known throughout the universe. In this teaching however, we will only be shown what is necessary , that which will take you from third to fourth dimensional awareness. In this case you will direct the two beams of prana to meet at your navel, or more correct, within your body at navel level, inside the tube. The moment the two beams of prana meet, which is just as the inhale begins, a sphere of white light or prana is formed at the meeting point about the size of a grapefruit centered on the tube. It all happens in an instant. As you continue to take the inhale of the seventh breath, the sphere of prana begins to concentrate and grow slowly.
BODY For the next seven breaths use the same mudra for both inhale and exhale, the thumb, first and second touching together palms up.
BREATH: Deep rhythmic Yogic breathing, seven seconds in and seven seconds out. There is no holding of the breath from now on. The flow of prana from the two poles will not stop or change in any way when you go from inhale to exhale. It will be a continuous flow that will not stop for a long as you breath in this manner, even after death.
SEVENTH BREATH: Exhale
MIND: The prana sphere centered at the navel continues to grow. By the time of the full exhale, the prana sphere will be approximately eight or nine inches in diameter.
BREATH: Do not force the air out of your lungs. When your lungs are empty naturally, immediately begin the next breath.
EIGHTH BREATH: Inhale
HEART: Love.
MIND: The prana sphere continues to concentrate life force energy and grow in size.
EIGHTH BREATH: Exhale
MIND: The prana sphere continues to grow in size and will reach maximum size at the end of this breath. This maximum size is different for each person. If you put your longest finger in the center of your navel, the line on your wrist defining your hand will show you the radius of the maximum size of this sphere for YOU. This sphere of prana cannot grow larger.
NINTH BREATH: Inhale
MIND: The prana sphere cannot grow larger, so what happens is the prana begins to concentrate within the sphere. The visual appearance is that the sphere grows BRIGHTER.
BREATH: Sphere grows brighter and brighter as you inhale.
NINTH BREATH: Exhale
BREATH: As you exhale, the sphere continues to grow brighter and brighter.
TENTH BREATH: Inhale
MIND: About half way through this inhale, as the sphere continues to brighter, the prana sphere reaches critical mass. The sphere ignites into a sun, a brilliant blinding ball of white light. You are now ready for the next step.
TENTH BREATH: Exhale
MIND: At the moment of exhale, the small sphere two hand lengths in diameter bulges to expand. In one second, combined with the breath talked about below, the sphere expands quickly out to the sphere of Leonardo, out at your finger tips of your extended arms. Your body is now completely enclosed within a huge sphere of brilliant white light.
You have returned to the ancient form of spherical breathing. However, at this point, this sphere is not stable. You MUST breath three more times to keep the sphere stable.
BREATH: At the moment of exhale, make a small hole with your lips and blow out your air with pressure. As you feel the sphere begin to bulge, all within the first second of this exhale, let all of your air out rapidly. The sphere will expand at that moment.
PART 3:
ELEVENTH, TWELFTH and THIRTEENTH BREATH: Inhale and Exhale
MIND: Relax and just feel the flow of the prana flowing from the two poles and meeting at the navel and then expanding out to the large sphere
BREATH: Breath rhythmically and deep. At the end of the thirteenth breath you have stabilized the large sphere and are ready for the important 14th breath.
THE FOURTEENTH BREATH
HEART: Love
MIND: On the inhale of the 14th breath, at the very beginning of the breath, move the point where the two beams of prana meet from the navel to the sternum, the fourth dimensional chakra. The entire large sphere, along with the original sphere, which is also still contained within the large sphere, moves up to the new meeting point within the tube. Though this is very easy to do, it is an extremely powerful movement. Breathing from this new point within the tube will inevitably change your awareness from third to fourth dimensional consciousness, or from earth consciousness to Christ consciousness. It will take awhile, but as I have said , it is inevitable.
BODY: This mudra will be used for the rest of the meditation. Place the left palm on top of the right palm for males and the right palm on top of the left palm for females. It is a mudra that relaxes.
BREATH: Rhythmic breath and deep. However, if you continue to breathe from your Christ center without moving on to the MER-KA-BA, which is what is recommended until you have made contact with your Higher Self, then shift to a shallow breath. In other words, breath rhythmically but in a comfortable manner where your attention is more on the flow of energy moving up and down the tube meeting at the sternum and expanding out to the large sphere. Just feel the flow. Use your feminine side to just be. At this point don’t think, just breath, feel and be. Feel your connection to All Life through the Christ Breath. Remember your intimate connection with God.
The Last Three Breaths
You are asked not to attempt this FOURTH PART until you have made contact with your Higher Self, AND your Higher Self has given you permission to proceed. This part is to be taken seriously. The energies that will come into and around your body and spirit are of tremendous power. If you are not ready, you could hurt yourself. If your Higher Self gives you permission to enter into the MER-KA-BA, then don’t fear, for you will be ready.
FIFTEENTH BREATH: Inhale:
HEART: Love
MIND: Be aware of the whole star tetrahedron. Realize that there are three whole star tetrahedrons superimposed over each other. One is the body itself, and is locked in place and never, except under certain conditions, moves. It is placed around the body according to maleness or femaleness. The second whole star tetrahedron is male in nature, it is electrical, is literally the human mind and rotates counter-clockwise relative to your body looking out, or to put it another way, it rotates toward your left side. The third whole star tetrahedron is female in nature, is magnetic, is literally the human emotional body and rotates clockwise relative to your body looking out, or to put it another way, it rotates toward your right side. To be clear, we are not telling you to rotate the male tetrahedron one way and the female the other way. When we say rotate the whole star tetrahedron, we mean the whole thing. On the inhale of the fifteenth breath, as you are inhaling, you will say to yourself, in your head, the code words, EQUAL SPEED. This will tell your mind that you want the two rotatable whole star tetrahedrons to begin spinning in opposite directions at equal speeds at the time of the exhale. Meaning that for every complete rotation of the mind tetrahedrons, there will be a complete rotation of the emotional tetrahedrons.
BODY: Continue the mudra of the folded hands from now on.
BREATH: Breath Yogic and rhythmically an deeply again, but only for the next three breaths, after that return to the shallow breathing.
FIFTEENTH BREATH: Exhale
MIND: The two sets of tetrahedrons take off spinning. In an instant, they will be moving at exactly one third the speed of light at their outer tips. You probably will not be able to see this because of their tremendous speed, but you can feel it. What you have just done is to start the MOTOR of the MER-KA-BA. You will not go anywhere, or have an experience. It is just like starting the motor of a car, but having the transmission in neutral.
BREATH: Make a small hole with your lips just like you did for breath Number Ten. Blow out in the same manner, and as you do, feel the two sets of tetrahedrons take off spinning.
SIXTEENTH BREATH: Inhale
MIND: This is the most amazing breath. On the inhale, as you are inhaling, say to yourself, in your head, THIRTY-FOUR – TWENTY-ONE. This is the code to your mind to spin the two sets of tetrahedrons at a ratio of 34-21. Meaning the Mind tetrahedrons spinning to the left will go around 34 times while the emotional tetrahedrons spinning to the right will go around 21 times. As the two sets speed up the ratio will remain constant.
BREATH: Breathe rhythmically and Yogic.
SIXTEENTH BREATH: Exhale
MIND: As you let out the breathe, the two sets of tetrahedrons take off from their one third speed of light setting to two third speed of light in an instant. As they approach two thirds speed of light speed a phenomena takes place. A disk about 55 feet in diameter forms around the body at the level of the base of the spine. And the sphere of energy that is centered around the two sets of tetrahedrons forms with the disk to create a shape that looks like a FLYING SAUCER around the body. This energy matrix is called the MER-KA-BA. However, it is not stable. If you see or sense the MER-KA-BA around you at this point, you will know it to be unstable. It will be slowly wobbling.
Therefore Breath Number Seventeen is necessary.
BREATH: Same as breath 16, make a small hole in your lips, and blow out with pressure. It is at this point that the speeds increases. As you feel the speed increasing, let out all your breath with force. This action will cause the higher speed to be fully obtained and the MER-KA-BA to be formed.
SEVENTEENTH BREATH: Inhale
HEART: Remember, unconditional love for all life must be felt through out all of this meditation or no results will be realized.
MIND: As you breathe in, say to yourself, in your head, the code NINE TENTHS THE SPEED OF LIGHT. This code will tell your mind to increase the speed of the MER-KA-BA to nine tenths the speed of light which will stabilize the rotating field of energy. It will also do something else. This third dimensional universe that we live in is tuned to 9/10 the speed of light. Every electron in your body is rotating around every atom in your body at 9/10 the speed of light. This is the reason this particular speed is selected.
BREATH: Breathe rhythmically and in a Yogic manner.
SEVENTEENTH BREATH: Exhale
MIND: The speed increases to 9/10 the speed of light and stabilizes the MER-KA-BA.
BREATH: Same as breath 15 and 16, make a small hole in your lips, and blow out with pressure. As you feel the speed take off, let all your breath out with force. You are now in your stable and Third dimensionally tuned MER-KA-BA. With the help of your Higher Self, you will understand what this really means.
EIGHTEENTH BREATH: This very special breath will not be taught here. You must receive it from Your Higher Self. It is the breath that will take you through the speed of light into the fourth dimension. You will disappear from this world and reappear in another one that will be your new home for awhile. This is not the end, but the beginning of an ever expanding consciousness returning you HOME to your FATHER.
In the Deep South, we’ve passed through the coolest, rainiest summer season of my life. The shimmering lakes are full. Beautiful evenings come at dusk when the mountains reflect on the mirror-like surface on the lakes as the sun sets. After a summer of cool temperatures, the heat returns with the approach of fall. Throughout the year, I’ve often thought the weather acted as an indicator of our thoughts and feelings, with rain washing away emotion and cooling the earth.
High emotions normally accompany mid-summer when temperatures reach toward one hundred, and the humidity becomes almost unbearable. Often, I felt the cool weather was a gift, a respite from the usual torpidity of the South. With the approach of fall, the hottest days of summer have come with the flamed tips of bushes, the appearance of Joe Pye weed, and the touch of golden rod at the edges of the road.
Somehow, I’m not surprised—particularly when looking at the astrological weather. The strange mixture of influences from planets grows stronger in October with the approach of Mercury retrograde in Scorpio and a square between Uranus and Pluto a little later in the year. This aspect will bring radical change to our inner world and group consciousness at large, and the dance of the stars will undoubtedly heat up our lives throughout the fall season.
The square between Uranus and Pluto ripens karma by bringing it to the surface. Pluto has two phases. The first demonstrates our personal inner darkness, or hell, and the second phase involves transforming the darkness into a higher form, preferably one higher in vibration and light. Uranus represents sudden spiritual change; it can be “good” or “bad”, and it can also relate to the quantum field, the instant burst of a miracle or the presence of an angel. Essentially, these planets ask us to walk into our darkness and transmute /transform it into a higher substance, hopefully through the use of the quantum field. These are outer planets, meaning their sphere affects everyone in the world (world karma.)
Karma is always involved in Pluto’s transformation work. In Roman times, Pluto was the dark ruler of hell, and karma (misperception) is the substance composing our present darkness or personal hell. In mythology, heroes often walk into “hell”, overcome dragons, monsters, or other shapes and forms of darkness, demonstrating the process of conquering inner demons and transmuting karma for themselves and the world.
Moving through Karma
The Uranus/Pluto square is about moving through inner darkness or karma and transmuting it into a higher form. When we speak of karma, we invoke Saturn. This planet rules time and space, including our bodies, the physical seat of our consciousness, because we all reside in a particular axis in in time and space. (Remote readers contact others by finding their point of existence on the line of time and space.) When we alter our thoughts, emotions or perceptions, the particles around us move into a higher spin or vibration—thus changing the resonance of the space around us.
Saturn also denotes discipline because it’s impossible to transmute and transform karma without devotion and discipline. Old structures also fall under Saturn’s sphere—indicating the form of structures, created in the past, that require resolution, new energy, or new solutions for spiritual transformation. In other words, we have to walk through darkness to find the light.
Let’s look at a few examples of karma:
World Karma:
Sex or race: For a woman, it can involve putting personal relationships before soul desires or not having a relationship because of career. On a racial level, it can mean discrimination – or the same restrictions for a woman.
Environment: We constantly receive reminders about the state of the planet, including the rain forests, honey bees, chem trails, and nuclear power plants.
Politics: The politics of the world negatively affect everyone on some level.
Important to Know: Everyone has a part of solving world karma. Whatever bothers you most is your assignment. For example: if you worry about the honey bees or blue jays, spend a few minutes each day visualizing them in your personal world. Whatever “it is” should become the target of your visualization. Look at it as your assignment from the universe.
It’s up to you to see something better and happier. (Complaining or blaming doesn’t count as spiritual work.) If everyone visualized positive images instead of watching videos, television or movies, the world might change very quickly.
Personal Karma:
You meet the man or woman of your dreams. There’s an instant connection. You fall deeply in love. A year or two later, you’re having the same problems experienced with your parents, last boy/girlfriend (husband/wife), and you can’t figure out how it happened.
No matter what you do, you have the same conflict with “someone.” It comes up again and again.
You have a life problem. It won’t go away. It doesn’t matter what you do.
You have the weirdest feelings when happens. Your emotions and thoughts are almost uncontrollable.
NOTE:
Older souls are touching on core karma patterns and working on how they affect mass consciousness and the outer world. The younger soul group moves toward heart awakening, learning the lessons of love, finding expression of soul gifts, and adding their light to the experience of group initiation. We do experience karma on many levels, including world, group and individual karma.
Why Now? Does It Matter?
The point of enlightenment, awakening, or introspection is learning to listen within. Just as an outer conversation exists at all times via cell phones, internet, or news, profound esoteric messages are delivered daily about the state of the stars, the planet or whales. Nature talks constantly, as do animals and plants. By tapping in, we may hear our next door neighbor asking for help with a financial or health problem or suddenly “see” or “hear” a solution for a local or world problem.
The only way to solve karmic problems is from within. (It’s actually impossible to take action with envisioning it first.) If we begin to listen to our inner voice instead of reacting, life starts to change. If we follow our actions without condemning, judging or blaming, life changes more abundantly. Listening within brings about compassion because we “know” how the other person feels, or we know our solution is correct because of the heart-connection. There’s no guessing—we know.
The acceleration and amplification of emotion/thought/intuition in the past five years has been amazing. Most people are “tuning in” more. The Age of Aquarius and the Precession of Ages bring a greater intuitive sense and heightened energy to anyone who truly wants it. (Perhaps, the work involved opening of the heart space is an adequate example of wanting the higher frequency energy.) The energy involves changing the way everything works and flows. It requires adjustment and insight.
Here are a few examples of changes of energy. We pick up on the feeling of everyone at the grocery store and may feel tired or energized by the people present. We meet with others to meditate and may feel uplifted or continue thinking about someone’s problem. We watch our favorite teacher and feel happy or depressed. The height, depth, and breadth of our response to other people’s thoughts, emotions, or personal holograms intensifies every few months, particularly if emphasis is put on the development of our spiritual gifts.
We’re more connected to each other, whether we want it or not. In general, we’re attracted to people and a group of people who represent our lower and higher energies. Without resonance (a similar frequency), the connection is not strong enough to maintain a substantial connection. So, our lower and higher energies are increased accordingly and in accordance with whom we come into contact. It makes life more challenging and interesting because new personal boundaries are needed to move forward when clearing issues.
Part of the challenge of group initiation is learning how our thoughts and emotions affect the flow of consciousness on earth as we heighten our frequency. Everyone has likely noticed the movement of a descending day as problems mound up, creating one small issue after another. We’ve also witnessed the difference a teacher or meditation can make in reversing the direction of the flow of a given hour or moment. The lesson lies in learning to raise our vibration, no matter what’s happening.
In the past few years, the interest in metaphysics has tripled. The web of internet holds thousands of esoteric books and teachings. Many healers and teachers hold the key to sending sound, color, light and energy to heal karmic problems or physical issues. Technology, science, and skills are responding to our heightened light and love level.
The big solutions come when we tap into the quantum field. There’s no way to clear the planet and move into light without clearing our personal (and related) global issues. When we lift our emotions and thoughts into a higher frequency or joyfully take a nature walk, those feelings are imparted to the world. It’s not about when heaven comes to earth; it’s about when we decide to raise our vibrations and create heaven on earth—and we do this by transmuting our darkness into light.
A few small tips (These are not “the answer” but are helpful. They are meant to raise your vibrations.)
It’s good to keep in mind that everyone experiences these states when moving through a karmic interlude. The feelings and repetition relate to your current and past lives. It’s easy to see what other people should do, but it’s almost impossible to see it for yourself. When you generate enough light, the answer will appear.
Send light to part of you that is experiencing the darkness, emotion, scattered thoughts –the pieces of the puzzle that won’t heal. Only light is capable of healing darkness. The shadow in you cannot stay when you send enough light.
Ask for a higher vibration. When you can hold a higher vibration, the fragmented thoughts and feelings must cease. If you can’t achieve it, try this: how would I feel if this problem was resolved?
Refuse to think about the people, situation, or feelings involved in the problem. Send light to all of these aspects of the problem. (Don’t tell all of your friends. You can discuss with people who have a higher perspective, but avoid the others – you’re only amplifying the situation.)
Know help will come as you work through these exercises. It must. When you raise your vibration, the universe hears you. The universe always answers us, just not always on our personal time.
Use time envisioning a solution instead of discussing the problem in your mind.
These are meditation exercises, but you can practice them during the day for a few seconds. It will help if you establish a meditation practice. Meditation is a bit like turning on the lights so that all of the beings of light can see you and find your personal light (and help!)
The Navel Chakra – a quick primer
The primary way that the body generates its own prana (energy or chi) is through the navel chakra and your breath. As you breathe in there are two vortexes located at your physical navel; one in front and in back. With each breath prana is drawn through the back and front vortexes of the navel chakra into the core of your body. To the extent that the navel chakra (both front and back vortexes) are tuned to your soul and body accurately you generate prana that is usable by your body now.
Just like any of the multitude of major and minor chakras in our body, our navel chakra is probably somewhat out of tune with our soul’s journey in our body. One of the most common causes of not having enough ‘get up and go’ or ‘seeing it through to the end’ is having the navel chakra not tuned to your body, to your soul, or tuned into this moment in time. Too often our navel chakra still reflects the umbilical cord connection to our mother or our family. It can also be tuned to generate energy for our body as it existed during another period of our life. Or even be tuned to generate life force for a spouse or other person we deem more needful or more important than our self.
As the navel vortexes, both in back and in front, are tuned to your body and soul in this moment now, energy is generated that is usable by your entire chakra system. This energy is often referred to as prana or chi. Great Masters of various spiritual traditions have the ability to generate large amounts of prana within their body. This amassing of prana allows them to relate to the physical world without being bound by all of the physical world’s rules. They can, at times, choose to use this prana as a means of moving outside of the rules dictated by our physical universe.
Prana exists all around us. Our personal prana, tuned specifically to our bodies, exists within the pranic tube (running up and down in the center of our bodies) and in pranic spheres located in and around our body. We have the ability to store prana that our body can use within pranic spheres located in our head, heart, and navel. There appear to be other spheres of pranic energy above and below the physical body as well. At the present moment I am seeing the three pranic spheres within the body as being the most active.
The pranic sphere related to the body center lies deep within the body at or just under the navel chakra. Its center point varies from person to person. I see it either directly behind the physical navel or hovering an inch or two lower in the body. This lower position is the most common; where the upper part of the pranic sphere intersects with center of the navel chakra.
The pranic sphere located at your navel is the equivalent of your magic ball. It is the basis of the prana within your pranic tube and hence the entire chakra system. It is from this sphere that prana (energy, chi) is distributed to every major chakra in your body through the pranic tube. Sometimes a depletion of energy in your life or body stems from an inability to generate sufficient prana at the navel chakra.
Each of the major chakras has its center within the pranic tube. Each chakra is supplied with prana from the central channel or pranic tube. Each chakra then collects its own appropriate energies by drawing additional energy or prana from the outside into the core of the chakra through the webbing of the vortex that make up each chakra. The prana provided in the pranic tube mixes with the prana drawn in and tuned by the vortex of the chakra. This prana, unique to each chakra, is then dispersed from the chakra’s core into the pranic tube to other chakras and to layers of the aura surrounding and interpenetrating the physical body. In this fashion the prana generated at the navel chakra becomes the basis of all prana available to your body.
If there is a lack of this most basic navel prana, the entire process of creating energies for the body to use at each of the chakras is greatly diminished. In my private practice I am routinely finding that it is not individual chakra issues we are addressing now, but overall issues related to simply not generating enough navel chakra prana in our daily living.
As a singer I am fortunate because I can set aside time to sing each day. As I sing I naturally breathe deeply and generate prana. When I do yoga or swim I am also generating prana. But how often do we give ourselves permission to do something that has us actively engaged in conscious breathing? For most people the answer is never.
Breathing Practice to Build Prana
Let’s change that with a simple conscious breathing practice you can do on your own. This is especially good to do when needing to move out of boredom or stagnation. Don’t do this while driving as it might make you light-headed or distract you. Do try this while seated and in a location where you feel comfortable.
Find your navel chakra. You may need to put your hand on your body to do this. Now imagine or feel where your navel’s pranic sphere might be. You don’t have to know this exactly or even be sure of it. Just let yourself explore the possibility that there is a sphere of energy within your body at or slightly below your physical navel.
Breathe out all the way. Feel the muscles of your abdomen and lower torso move inward. You may feel the upper abdomen directly below your ribs move inward and also upward a bit. This is the diaphragm moving upward and expelling air out from your lungs.
Now relax and allow the air to move back into all of the areas of your body that it just moved out of. While our intake of air is of course limited to our lungs, the process of breathing can involve almost every muscle of our body. For now, let’s focus on our torso, and allowing all the areas that want to move with the breath to be free to move.
Start with a slow count of two.
One – Two breathe out.
One – Two breathe in.
Repeat four times
Now go to a count of three.
One – Two –Three breathe out.
One – Two – Three breathe in.
Repeat four times
Now do the same on a count of four.
One – Two –Three – Four breathe out.
One – Two – Three – Four breathe in.
Repeat four times. You may continue this pattern of breathing as long as you feel you want to, up to ten minutes.
If at any time you feel you are getting out of breath and need to breathe more quickly do so, and start the breathing pattern over again at One – Two. As you practice this you will find that you can slow down the counting more and more. This type of breathing, inhaling and exhaling at the same speed and amount, generates a lovely quality of balance in the overall energy field of your body. It creates prana that is tuned to your own body’s balance. This breathing pattern done daily will help to supply your body with its own source of well refined prana.
After you finish breathing, or even during the process, you may notice that the pranic sphere appears to be growing larger or brighter. For those who do not see energies, your body may feel fuller or warmer around your navel. This indicates you are successfully generating more of your own prana as you breathe.
You may also notice discomfort in your body or a sense of unease. As you are filling the navel sphere and your pranic tube with your own prana there is less space for energies that are not in tune with your body and soul. As a result these energies are pushed up into your conscious. They are often interpreted as odd or repeating thoughts, relatively sudden emotions or emotionally charged memories, heaviness or quickly arising body aches. These are all interpretations made by your body, mind and heart of energies that no longer fit you and your life.
Ask each thought, emotion, memory and body ache if it is really yours. Is it really yours now, in this moment? I find it best to keep as much of your attention as possible on the breathing process and ask the questions silently as the sensations arise. These questions coming from your consciousness indicate to the energy behind the thought, emotion or physical sensation that you are ready to release it onto its own journey now. There is no need to follow it as it leaves, and most of the time there is no need to know what it is.
If there is something more you need to know please trust that you will get it from within spontaneously or from the Universe at a later point in time. This process of breathing is meant to bring you out of your head and into your body…so stay in the body with the process as much as possible.
Why Build Prana Consciously? To hear your Spiritual Helpers more clearly.
As you breathe you generate more and more energy that perfectly supports your body. This pranic energy acts as a medium that fills the space between your body, your guides and angels, and your soul. The more this space is filled with your pranic energy, the easier it is for you to hear the messages that are coming to you from your soul, your guides and your angels.
I am sure you have had the experience of being faced with a decision. And as you are presented with the possibilities, one jumps out immediately as being the appropriate choice for you. It feels like a fit to you, and often there is a sense of relaxation or expansion when you are presented with this option. As you build more prana throughout your lifetime your soul’s connection into your body is enhanced. The sensation of what fits and what doesn’t fit is magnified by the presence of this prana, tuned to your body.
What doesn’t fit for you eventually doesn’t fit literally within your body or your aura. For myself, I experience options that don’t fit me as a twisting sensation in my gut. Those situations and choices that do fit me feel comfortable, even though they might appear to be physically difficult to undertake. There is an innate expansion in my auric field when I consider a choice that is appropriate to my soul and body. Acting upon this choice results in my creating more of this same quality of prana to fill my aura.
When we are considering different choices, it is our navel chakra that experiences each of the options first. The pattern of each choice is tested within the navel chakra, and our body tells us the resulting ‘yes’ or ‘no’. We can do this while being presented with the choices (by someone speaking to us, for example “Do you want to go see a movie tonight?”), as well as while we are in a meditative state and holding each option within our mind as a thought or mind’s eye as a picture. For most people feeling their navel chakra and body response to different choices is at first a very subtle art, best done in meditation.
Ideally when we sit quietly and breathe we are generating prana which is accurately tuned to our bodies. Then, as we are faced with a decision, enough prana is present in the various layers of our energy field so that we can feel which option fits best. Without sufficient prana, a means to generate it, and an ability to sit quietly, there is no medium to carry the communication between our body, our guides and angels, and our soul.
Sitting in deep stillness and focusing on our breath is one of the ways we build prana. While it seems to be the simplest, the art of meditating on the breath is quite vast.
In our culture we are seldom exhorted to enter into meditation or a conscious state of deep stillness. We are seldom expected to notice how our buttocks are interacting with the chair or surface upon which we are sitting. In fact, we are seldom praised for being consciously within our bodies much at all, especially that part of ourselves below our waists!
As you breathe while consciously aware of stillness, your heart chakras open more. As your upper thymus gland and traditional heart chakras both open, each breath generates prana, tuned to your soul’s journey, which in turn allows a greater ability for you to be connected from your heart with all that surrounds you.
With this meditation you have linked your heart to your body center. You are beginning to regain the conscious awareness of your body that you had as an infant. This awareness of the physical body ceased as you lived within your culture, but it can be regained. As you do regain it you open into numerous possibilities of sensing and feeling connections to others and to all that surrounds you, both in form and not in form.
Validate the changes you have made…this process will continue!
This essay comes out of thoughts and meditations shared during a recent live channeling. The meditative channeling itself is available as a free podcast #37 Breathing Stillness, Generating at Norma’s podcast page www.healingchants.com/podcasts
Norma Gentile
Sound shaman, is a natural intuitive and channel for Mary, Archangel Michael and the Hathors. She trained as both a professional singer and energy worker.
The demands of daily life often require too much of us, and I’ve noticed how many of us try to meet those demands as though our reserves are endless. But they aren’t.
Our energy, our mental focus and our sense of balance need time and space to replenish themselves. Most importantly, we need a daily quiet space to process. Many people don’t take any quiet time for themselves until they fall ill, or until their life is a mess; by then the window for a proactive approach has passed.
We need a daily quiet space to process our experiences and to find meaning, direction and inner peace. Some people process quickly, their minds well-practiced in the art of emotional intelligence, their experiences are met with perspective. Others process slowly or perhaps not at all proactively, absorbing and hoarding their experiences without perspective like the proverbial bathtub that fills with water. Without taking quiet time to process and gain insight, the water overflows and you become a reactive mess of anger, frustration and victimhood.
There isn’t a a natural time in our waking hours when we can be quiet, notice and allow insight to bubble up from within. There are simply too many distractions. You have to deliberately carve a place for quiet in the midst of your busy days. Quiet, oddly enough, requires emotional maturity, a deliberate choice, and discipline. Our minds can be like children that continually crave excitement, distraction and needless input. They need to be told “no,” at least twice daily, and for 30 minutes each time.
If you have a hard time making time to meditate or process, remember that this quiet time is not time to do nothing. It’s time reserved for a very empowering activity.
In order to live life proactively, you have to take time to to tune in and let go. Ironically, you need to pull back and close your eyes in order to see things more clearly. Like the tide that rolls in and then retreats, like nature that blooms and then withdraws, we must also recognize that as we take time to flow forward, we must also take time to retreat. Your retreat helps to ensure that what’s next will be more fruitful and enjoyable.
Motherhood and age have given me the gift of being an early riser. I enjoy waking up in the wee hours of the day, well ahead of everyone else. At four or five in the morning, I tiptoe through my still quiet house, my boys and dogs lost to their dreams — unaware that I’m up and about. The phone doesn’t ring, and nature lies quiet beneath the still, shining moon and stars. No one needs me at this time of day, and I’m grateful to be awake in the stillness.
What to Do With the Quiet.
1. Begin With Gratitude. Though a quiet walk can sometimes be just as beneficial, I find that meditation is a powerful protective practice. Morning is my favorite time to meditate. Sometimes I begin without moving out of bed, thanking God for the many blessings in my life, one at a time.
2. Make Sure You Have the Right Setting. Other mornings, concerns tumble over in my mind like whitewater over river rocks, and I have to get up and move downstairs for a change in energy. Life always looks better once I get into the half-lotus position. Lying in bed somehow keeps the thoughts endlessly circling.
3. What to Do When Your Mind Is Busy. My goals for meditation differ from day to day. Ultimately I’d like to have a quiet mind, a serene sense of inner peace and a clear sense of direction. Some days, those things come more naturally than others. Some days, thoughts and concerns present themselves to me, nudging me for their attention. So some mornings, the goal is clarity. Concerns pulling at your mind are not worries to be watered with emotion, but elements of life that need to be figured out. Use them as the basis for your morning meditation, by transforming them onto a path of spiritual awareness. Rather than feeding your concerns with worry or trying to suppress them, ask God what you need to be aware of, what you need to learn in order to heal and move beyond the situation. Be prepared to take responsibility.
4. What to Do When the Mind Is Still Busy. If the answers won’t come, or if perhaps your frustration is too prevalent to let go and open a space for them, try remembering that these thoughts are just thoughts. As they come up, acknowledge them and then let them go. Release them to God, the angels or some other higher power to help release your attachment. As you release them, say a quick prayer to receive the insight and resolution you need. Sometimes letting go is all you need to do.
One morning last week I spent about 30 minutes meditating before I got out of bed. I then went about navigating the morning chaos of making breakfasts and lunches and getting my kids off to school, an exercise that is akin to nailing Jell-O to a tree. When I walked toward my yoga class a few hours later, a man spoke to me just before I got to the studio door. “You’re absolutely serene,” he said. “You have this peacefulness about you that just radiates.” Though it’s not necessary, it is nice when your internal practice shows up on the outside as well.
Making the time to process is a protection exercise for your mind. Without it, you will become overwhelmed and angry, and ultimately feel depressed. Rather than allowing yourself to be harmed in that way, protect yourself by making time to process, and empower yourself to live life proactively.
Traditional Doctors, Alternative Treatments: An Intersection?
Sometimes it can seem as though complementary/alternative treatments and traditional medicine live in two silos — never the twain shall meet, as the saying goes. We go to the doctor when we’re sick or for regular wellness checks. And we go to the yoga studio or a meditation class. Yet we don’t talk to our doctors about how one can support the other.
But the tide may be turning — a recent study in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine has found that three percent of people seeking out mind/body treatments, such as yoga, meditation, tai chi, deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation, are doing so based on a referral from a medical provider.
And while that number may not seem to be particularly high, consider a yoga or meditation class, of say, 30 people — on average, one of them is there because their provider told them to be, explains lead author and HuffPost blogger Aditi Nerurkar, M.D., M.P.H, a physician and integrative medicine fellow at Harvard Medical school and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “We weren’t expecting it to be that high,” she says. “Forty-one million Americans are using mind-body therapies. Of those, 6.4 million are using mind-body therapies because they were recommended to by their provider.”
Looking at a nationally representative sample size of 23,000 survey participants, the researchers found that the most commonly prescribed treatments were deep breathing exercises (84 percent of the respondents), meditation (49 percent), yoga (23 percent), progressive muscle relaxation (20 percent) and guided imagery (14 percent). These numbers were similar to those who sought out the treatments on their own.
“For years and years this has been a patient-driven phenomenon,” Nerurkar says. As people discover what works best for themselves and loved ones, yoga studios, for instance, have popped up to fill a need that patients haven’t always discussed with their doctors.
So why are some physicians ready to hand out an Rx for a little “Om” time?
One reason may be the relatively recent body of research on how various mind-body treatments can be helpful, healthy additions to traditional treatment programs for certain conditions, including anxiety and depression, headaches, chronic pain, cardiac disease, insomnia and treatment-related symptoms of cancer, Nerurkar says.
The researchers also found that the patients who were seeking out mind-body treatments at the recommendation of a medical provider were those who typically had more diagnosed conditions and used the health-care system more often. Nerurkar says one reason that may be is that providers are referring their more complex patients once other treatments have failed — and this concept may lead to future research studies about what would happen if these complementary programs were offered earlier on in the treatment process.
Of course, not all complementary and alternative treatments have evidence behind them, Nerurkar points out. But when the research that is out there is coupled with patients’ success stories, some providers are opening up to the possibilities. “Ultimately you just want your patients to feel better,” she says. “At the end of the day, if my patients are using these therapies and they’re feeling good, I encourage them to do it.”
Here are some starting points for each of the mind-body treatments most commonly suggested by the medical community:
Deep breathing: Regular deep breathing — taking slow breaths in and out — has been linked to regulation of the cardiovascular and nervous systems and easing symptoms of anxiety, among other benefits. To start out a deep breathing exercise, focus on your breath coming in and out as it would normally and then begin deeper breaths, spending longer on inhalations and exhalations, according to the University of Rochester:
Breathe deeply and slowly, focusing all of your attention on each breath. Don’t rush it or breathe quickly. As you exhale naturally, allow any tension to leave you with the breath. Imagine the tension draining from your body and mind as you exhale. Notice the feeling of calm and relaxation that comes with exhalation.
Meditation: Studies have linked regular meditation to, among many other benefits, a decrease in fatigue and depression in multiple sclerosis patients, boosts in cellular health and a reduction in the severity of various mental and physical side effects from certain types of cancer treatment. Check out this primer for do-it-yourself meditation from the Mayo Clinic, or find a class near you.
Yoga: Of the many potential benefits of yoga, certain forms have been associated with improving recovery from breast cancer, lessening anxiety and counteracting fibromyalgia. Yoga has many different forms — you can practice poses alone, attend a local class or even do a yoga video at home.
Progressive muscle relaxation: This technique has been found to benefit people with Alzheimer’s disease, patients in the midst of cancer treatment, older people suffering from chronic pain and insomnia sufferers. The basic theory is to focus on groups of muscles in the body, often tensing them up, as you breathe in and then slowly relaxing them as you breathe out.
Guided imagery: Guided imagery has been associated with increased immunity and reduced feelings of depression. This process helps you to relax by taking you through a series of visualizations and direct suggestions, according to the Academy For Guided Imagery. You can find a certified instructor through the academy, practice guided imagery with a therapist or buy a tape to try the technique at home.
When I was 18 years old, I suffered from anxiety and stomach problems. A compassionate physician and practicing Buddhist referred me to a Taoist monk who specialized in meditation and martial arts. I ended up healing myself of anxiety and stomach issues by doing meditation, and went on a great journey of self-discovery.
Here are 9 lessons I learned while studying with a monk:
1. Keep trying until you get it right.
The most important life lesson I learned was trying something three times (maybe even four times) before you stop trying and move on. Also, this monk taught me that, even after multiple tries, you should work on different angles to approach things that are difficult.
If you keep trying, you’ll eventually get where you’re going.
2. The answer to your question is inside of you.
As part of the original monastery training, a monk didn’t answer direct questions from a student unless it was a well thought-out question. A Chinese proverb says, “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.”
Some forms of Zen Buddhism use a very similar style of training.An old saying (by Taoist monks) goes like this: “In making a four corner table, the teacher shows the student how to make one corner. It’s the student’s job to figure out how to make the other three.”
They did this because they were preparing a student to deal effectively with problems in the real world.
I traveled to South Korea one time, and I found it fascinating how much you have to rely on your intuition when you don’t speak the native language of a country. I remember one instance, I had trouble explaining to the cab driver where my hotel was, and he didn’t speak English. So I had to get out of the cab and ask several people until I could find someone to tell the cab driver in Korean how to get to my hotel.
In life, whenever we try new things, we have to go into new places with only a small amount of information. The real world doesn’t give us all the answers. The greatest teacher is inside of us.
3. Real wisdom in life comes from doing something and failing.
Prior to starting meditation, I used to get upset when I’d try something and fail.
I’ve been in sales since I was sixteen. I remember going to work and getting so angry with myself because I didn’t get a sale. If I ever got rejected, I’d get upset with myself, and I’d want to quit my job. But I just keep failing over and over—until I became good at it.
I remember, when I first started doing meditation, I ran into several problems. For example, at first it was difficult to calm down; but if you stick with it, its gets easier and easier. I tried for only a few minutes, and then every day, I added more time onto my meditation.
When we struggle, we learn about ourselves and what we need to do to become stronger.
4. When you start to do meditation you recognize the egotistical mind.
Everything in the ego’s world is the result of comparing. I compared myself to other salesmen and would blame myself because I wasn’t making as much money as them.
When I started doing meditation, I began to build separation from this egoistical mind, which is consistently making these comparisons. A lot of us try something and get rejected, so we give up. Even worse, we blame ourselves for a long time and get depressed. When I started to do meditation, I began to identify my ego and was able to build separation from it.
That’s what happens when we meditate: We separate from the part of ourselves that dwells on comparisons, and start learning to live a life that isn’t driven by our egos.
5. We must be both compassionate and resilient.
The monk wouldn’t meet with me to train unless I called him a minimum of three times. I hated this part. I used to call and call and he would never answer. But this is how life is. How many times do you have to call or email someone to get something done in the real world? It’s usually several times.
Most of us blame ourselves when we try once to do something and fail. At the time, I hated this part of the training, but now I think it was the most important life lesson.
There’s a Taoist proverb that says, “Cotton on the outside, steel on the inside.”
It reminds us to be compassionate, but not weak.
6. Patience is a virtue.
The monk always made me wait—and I dreaded this.
For example, when I got to his house to train, he’d make me wait for a minimum of a half-hour, sometimes longer. We’d go out to dinner on Friday nights and he’d show up at the restaurant an hour late.
He’d tell me to meet him at a particular restaurant at 7:00. I’d get there and find out that he wasn’t there. So I’d usually be sitting in the restaurant by myself fumbling with my phone, acting like I was texting someone, while worrying about what everyone at the restaurant was thinking about me.
Keep in mind, it’s not like I could call him; I don’t think the guy ever turned his cell phone on. Then he’d show up at about 8:15 and act like nothing happened.
His first question was always, “How’s your mother and father?” (Of course in my head I’m thinking, “What do you mean, ‘How’s my mother and father?’ I just waited here for an hour and fifteen minutes.”)
But after a few years of this, it never bothered me; and not only that, it spread to every area of my life. Because of this training, I can honestly say that I very rarely get upset about anything. I never get agitated anymore when I have to wait in a long line or when someone cuts me off on the highway.
Patience is the gift of inner calm.
7. Detach from your ego.
At first, it’s hard to sit at a restaurant by yourself. You’re constantly worrying, thinking that people probably think you’re a loser because you’re sitting by yourself. But the reality is, you will never be happy if you care about what people think you!
Prior to starting meditation, I’d get upset over just about anything. Now, nothing really bothers me. Recently, I was in the airport and there was a several hour delay on my flight. I just used that time to do meditation. Ten years ago, I would have become extremely upset. An airplane delay would have ruined my day.
When you let go of your ego needs, it’s easier to accept and even benefit from whatever comes at you.
8. In Taoism, they say, “No self, No enemy.”
It’s the enemy within that causes all of our fears, worries, and insecurities. If you come to terms with this enemy within, it will impact every area of your life. It’s the identification with the “self/ego” that causes all of life’s problems.
How many times do we not go for something because of fear? Think about all the fears that we have conjured up in our minds that stop us from being truly happy. If you can conquer the enemy within yourself, you won’t have an enemy outside yourself.
9. Happiness come from within, and also comes from outside.
I learned this from observing the Buddhist Physician I met. He used to do meditation in his office before he would interact with his patients. He was one of the happiest and most compassionate people I’ve ever met.
By creating happiness inside, he was able to increase that emotional state by spreading it to others.
We must cultivate happiness from within, and work to spread it around to everyone we interact with. The monk used say, “Everyone has a purpose or a mission in life.”
We have to find happiness within, and also find our purpose on the outside.
About the Author
Robert Piper is a meditation instructor & the creator of monkinthecity.com. He studied with a Taoist monk for 9 ½ years & traveled to Asia & Australia in search of other meditation teachers. Robert is currently writing a book on meditation to make it more accessible for stress relief, health & happiness.
If I am to know God directly, I must become completely God, and God I, so that this God and this I become one I.
–Meister Eckhart
Wandering the Earth as I do, I eventually run into everybody. And almost everybody I meet seems to be on a spiritual quest, or if not, they have a growing hunger for it. The hound of heaven woofs at their heels urging them to wake up to their spiritual possibilities.
The thing about everybody is that they try everything. For sheer creativity and inventiveness, nothing beats spiritual adventuring.
People meditate or fast or pray in search of Divine connection. They make outlandish promises–giving up sex, calories, comfort. They go mad or go manic, become zealots, hush their minds into quiescence and empty themselves of thought hoping to tempt God to fill the void.
They walk on burning coals, sit in the snow, count their breaths, twirl into ecstasy, make pilgrimages to places where God or His/Her local incarnations are reputed to have placed their feet. They try out religions as different as possible from the ones in which they were raised, go on spiritual shopping sprees, twist their bodies into uncomfortable positions, change their names.
Mostly, they shout at God, begging the Great One to finally show up in their lives.
I’m not criticizing these practices; I’ve tried them all. And don’t laugh–so have you, in other ways, perhaps.
There are many signs that point to your being on a spiritual quest, even if you have not named it as such:
Do you wonder every time you pass a book counter if truth is to be found on its shelves today?
How many books have you bought this year that have “soul” in the title?
Are you always heading off to a seminar or a church retreat?
Is your house filled with angel images–cards, statues, books, candles?
Do you have an acupuncturist, a massage therapist, a medicine cabinet full of supplements?
When you get the flu, do you take vitamins and echinecea instead of standard brand antibiotics?
Do you frequent health food stores?
Have you thought about trying to be a vegetarian?
Have you quit the softball league and signed up for a class in yoga or Tai Chi?
Are you surfing the Internet?
Do you find yourself hiding what you’re reading when your relatives enter the room, even though it’s not the least bit sexy?
Have you divorced a spouse because he or she just wasn’t on the same wave length?
Do your kids think you are weird?
Do your CD’s thrum with chants and drums and Celtic harps?
Are you a fan of TV shows about mythic heroes, outer space, immortals, parapsychology?
Are you sometimes unaccountably surprised by joy?
Are you reading this book?
If you have answered “yes” to any of the above, chances are you’re hooked! As well you might be, for the complexity of the present time seems to demand a deepening of our nature if we are going to survive. Deepening requires exploration. And for all its byways, exploration leads ultimately to the spiritual source of our existence.
Not since the days of Plato and Buddha and Confucius, some 2500 years ago, has their been such an uprising of spiritual yearning. But instead of being a Mediterranean and Asian phenomenon, as it was then, the explosion of spirituality is now happening worldwide.
In the busy swirl of everyday life, it helps every now and again to
take a few minutes to be reminded of who you really are.
There is an exercise we do in my online course to access your
Higher Self. I’ve gotten so much feedback about it, that I wanted
to share it with you again.
You have a deep purpose and a guiding force for becoming all you
are capable of being. You may sense this as that inner strength
that directs your actions. Or that inner voice, the intuitive
voice, that calls to you when you’re at a crossroads in
your life.
“This is the path you should take,” it tells you. Often, however,
it tells you with emotions and feelings, and the words come later.
Some call this guiding force the Higher Self. It is the deepest,
holiest, most whole part of you.
Would you like to be able to access this Higher Self at any time?
What if you could actually stand face-to-face with that most
soulful, wise force behind all the good in your life?
In this e-mail, I’m going to give you a meditation that will enable
you to get in touch with your Higher Self, your guiding force, your
voice of destiny. It’s simple and yet so powerful.
If you’ve heard me speak in the past about the 3 Keys to
Discovering and Living Your True Purpose, you know that the
Activation Key #2 to discovering your true purpose is opening to
your larger role in the world by shifting from your “small” self to
your Higher Self.
What is a small self? The small self is the self whose emotions and
moods fluctuate every day based on external circumstances: whether
or not you got praise at work, whether your partner said, “I love
you,” whether you ran into traffic on the way to run errands, or
sometimes because the weather is too hot or too cold. It is the
self that is mainly concerned with the “I” of the ego, the concerns
of status and comfort.
The Higher Self is the self beyond what’s happening in the present
moment, the self that is in alignment with All That Is, with the
divine, with the cosmos. It is timeless, formless and limitless.
The Higher Self is the universe inside of you.
By shifting from your small self to your Higher self, you can
access the truth of who you are and begin to experience your unique
purpose. You can see beyond the everyday concerns of ego to a
higher calling, to seeing the world’s pain and need, and seeing
what your role is in relationship to healing that pain.
When you live from the place of the Higher Self, you live a life in
which abundance is scooped from abundance and still more
abundance remains.
How can you experience the Higher Self consciously, at will, at
more than just those fleeting moments when you sense the greater
intelligence working through you? You can do it through this
meditation, which I’m about to share with you.
This meditation will require a completely quiet and undistracted
space. Maybe you can do this now, or maybe you’ll have to set aside
some time later in the day or first thing in the morning.
==============================================
A 5-Minute Audio Practice to Access Your Higher Self
==============================================
Please visit the special audio page to listen to and download
this powerful experiential practice.
Begin by creating a place in your home that is used only for this meditation. Make a space where no one will walk through or disturb you, possibly in your bedroom. A small altar with a candle and a cushion or pillow to sit upon may be helpful. Make this place holy. It is here that you will learn to create the MER-KA-BA around your body and make conscious contact with your higher self.
SEVENTEENTH BREATH: Exhale
Norma Gentile
