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How Meditation Can Help You Heal

How Meditation Can Help You Heal

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Meditation has been around for thousands of years. The reason meditation endures is it helps heal the mind and promotes the recovery of the body as well. In the Western world, it is very much underutilized. Everyone needs to learn how to use and promote meditation’s amazing holistic benefits.

What Is Meditation?

Meditation began almost as soon as civilization started. No one knew what to think of meditation all those years ago or what meditation techniques worked best. However, most people already understood with a chaotic mind comes an unsettled spirit. A famous French philosopher once stated, "The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself." What the philosopher meant is to know oneself makes understanding the rest of the world a bit easier. In today's fast-paced, technology-driven day to day life, there has never been a statement so true.

The break down of the word meditation comes from Latin, and it means, 'to ponder.' When we meditate we seek to find a better way to connect to ourselves, our body, our mind, and our spirit. If we can make those connections as we meditate, it helps us become aware of our emotions and how those emotions influence our behavior.

How Old is Meditation?

There are some meditation records which date back to 1500 BC in India. The records relate how some people were learning how to train their mind. This learning of the mind is thought to be the first records of various meditation practices learned and encouraged throughout India. But India wasn't alone in creating meditation literature. There were also early forms of meditation referenced back in the 3rd and 6th century in China. Ancient writings have been found by Chinese philosophers on how to embrace simplicity or guard tranquility. Both of the concepts are known in meditation.

Today, meditation is used to create healthy hobbies in your mind and body to build self-esteem or find tranquility. Meditation is also used to align your body and spirit.

How Meditation Can Help You Heal

There are many times one suffers from a chronic condition or physical condition which pains them greatly. If you are suffering, sometimes you think you will try meditating, but once you cross your legs or try to get to a placid, tranquil inner space, you lose track of what you are doing because you get a cramp in your leg or you start thinking about work. If you let go of all the what-ifs in your life and concentrate on where you are right now, what you're doing this second and let your inner voice be heard, you will start to clear out the ongoing noise in your head.

You will find a place in yourself where there is inner peace and wisdom. Once you find it, you will almost always be able to find it again. It's like your stash of zen and calmness you can pull out when you need or want it. You will know you are doing meditation the right way because most of the time a random event happens that gives you the insight you were struggling to find. You will realize you were able to get rid of the noises in your mind and concentrate on what your soul and body needed to replenish, rejuvenate, and renew.

Replenishment, Rejuvenation, and Renewal

There are medical studies that prove you have the power of replenishing and renewing your DNA cellular rejuvenation. You can do this through energy healing exercises such as chi, meditation, and yoga. If anyone doubts this benefit, think about how often prolonged stress causes our bodies to break down. Prolonged stress can cause us to catch a cold, get the flu, cause a migraine headache, break out in hives, etc.

Medical research also proves prolonged stress also affects your reproductive abilities, your digestion, memory, and even your bones. You must find a way to counterbalance the parts of your life that bring you stress, anxiety, worry or panic. Meditation is essential to your health at even the cellular level to help bring you more balance and good energy.

Slowing Down

If you find meditation too difficult to get to in the middle of your busy life, at least slowdown. Slowing down helps you take a breath, look around, and feel the moment around you. It doesn't take much time or energy to slow down yet the benefits can be substantial to your long-term health. Meditation is about slowing down your mind and spirit, so you have less impulsive thoughts and more deliberate and well-executed decisions and actions.

Your first instinct may be to deny you are ever impulsive or make bad decisions. But everyone makes impulsive decisions from time to time. The one thing that cures the quick decisions you sometimes regret is slowing down. Create time and space between what you need to do and your thoughts. Inevitably, your first response when you think about something comes from a place of fear, anxiety, stress or people-pleasing. The first response rarely comes from your peaceful, inner spirit who deliberates and then decides.

Visualize Your Healing

One of the most wonderful things about the human brain is the ability to visualize and imagine whatever we want when we want it. Embedded in our memory cells are idyllic pictures of lakes, oceans, mountaintops, crisp air, blue skies, and more. You can visualize those energizing and healthy images into your DNA's spiraling strands. The DNA strands that can help you repair and reproduce healthy cells. It helps you bring light to dark and life to death. There is nothing more important than your spiritual center and how much power it has if you use it. Give it a try and find out meditation can do for you.

Self Nurturing Activities

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Self Esteem Happy PicSelf Esteem– How do you go about caring for and nurturing your child within? There are hundreds of small acts of self-nurturing that can serve to cultivate a more caring relationship with yourself and ultimately a much improved sense of self-worth. The list below suggests fifty small ways in which you can nurture yourself on a daily basis resulting in improved self esteem.

Take a warm bath

Have breakfast in bed

Take a sauna

Get a massage

Buy yourself a rose

Take a bubble bath

Go to the pet store and play with some animals

Walk on a scenic path in a park

Visit a zoo

Have a manicure or pedicure

Stop and smell some flowers

Wake up early and watch the sunrise

Watch the sunset

Relax with a good book and/ or sooting music

Go rent a funny DVD

Play your favorite music and dance to it by yourself

Go to bed early

Sleep outside under the stars

Take a mental health day off from work

Fix a special dinner just for yourself and eat by candlelight

Go for a walk

Call a good friend

Go out to a fine restuarant just with yourself

Go to the beach

Take a scenic drive

Meditate

Buy new clothes

Browse in a book or music store for as long as you want

Buy yourself a cuddly stuffed animal and play with it

Write yourself a love letter and mail it

Ask a special person to nurture you

Buy yourself something special that you can afford

Go see a good film or a good show

Go to the park and feed the ducks

Visit a museum or another interesting place

Give yourself more time than you need to accomplish whatever you’re doing

Work on your favorite puzzle or puzzlebook

Go into a hot tub ot jacuzzi

Record an affirmation tape

Write out an ideal scenario concerning a goal, then visualize it

Read an inspirational book

Get in touch with an old friend

Bake or cook something special

Go window shopping

Buy a meditation CD

Listen to positive, motivational tape

Write in a special diary about your accomplishments

Apply fragrant lotion all over your body

Exercise

Sit and hold your favorite stuffed animal

Reevaluating Negative Feelings

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Self Esteem Scared Child PicSelf Esteem– If you were to encounter a small child who appeared scared, confused, or abandoned, you would likely do everything in your power to nurture and comfort her. Yet how do you treat yourself when you feel insecure, scared, lonely, abandoned or otherwise needy? Too often we simply deny these feelings; or else we become critical or rejecting toward ourselves for having them. One of the most profound transformations you can make along the road to greater self-esteem is to re-perceive feelings of insecurity and inadequacy as pleas for attention from your inner child rather than as signs of weakness to be gotten rid of. You will heal yourself faster by acknowledging and nurturing the needy child behind your negative feeling states instead of trying to push away your inner child’s needs.

The next time you feel frightened, insecure, inadequate, vulnerable, or angry, frustrated, and fed up, try asking yourself “What is the need behind this feeling?” What is it that my inner child needs right now?” Then take the time to give your child within the attention, caring, or nurturing she or he needs, and you’ll be surprised how much better you feel.

Learning to re-preceive negative feelings as pleas for attention from your inner child will transform your life and contribute greatly toward your self esteem. This is what “becoming a good parent to yourself” is all about.

Examples of Disguised Pleas for Help From Your Inner Child

You’ve just come home from a hard day or work. You see yourself in the bathroom mirror and you can’t stand the way you look. Your makeup looks too heavy and it’s smeared besides. You look and feel like an old floozy. You begin to think “What’s the use?” You could choose to sink into a depression, but instead ask your inner child what she wants at that moment. Intead of fixing your make up you decide to fill the bathtub with warm bubbly water. You soak in warm water and stay in the tub as long as you would like. When you look in the mirror, you look pink and warm. You feel more forgiving of the way you look- after all, you’ve had a hard day!

Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part III

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Self Esteem Child Picking FlowersSelf esteem is composed of different factors and that’s why it’s important to attack low self esteem from multiple angles. One way to improve self esteem is by reconnecting with your inner child. We have been discussing different exercies that will help you bring out your inner child such as writing a letter, keeping a photo of yourself as a child in your wallet and engaging in real-life activities that you would as a child such as playing on the swings. Now we are going to explore the power of visualization.

Below is a detailed visualization to help you create a closer relationship with your own inner child. You can put this visualization on tape, pausing for a moment between each sentence and pausing for 15 seconds where it says pause. You may also have a close friend who you trust or a relative read the text aloud to you pausing at the appropriate moments.

Healing Your Inner Child

Imagine sitting down in a rocking chair and getting very comfortable. Feel yourself rocking easily back and forth. As you continue rocking, you might find yourself starting to drift…drifting more and more. Rocking back and forth you might find yourself gently drifting back into time. Year by year you might imagine yourself getting younger and younger. Drifting back to a time when you where prehaps very young. You’re imagining now that you can see the little child you were along time ago. Very soon you can imagine seeing yourself as a little child. Perhaps you can see her/him now. What does she look like? What is she wearing? About how old is she? Indoors or outdoors? Can you see what she is doing? Perhaps you can see her face and you can see the expression in her eyes. Can you tell what this little child is feeling right now? (Pause)

As you look at this little girl, can you recall anything that was missing in her life? Is there anything that kept her away from being fully happy? (Pause)

If there was anyone or anything that got in the way of this little girl being completely happy and carefree, perhaps you can imagine seeing that person or situation. (Pause)

What does your little girl feel toward mom, dad, or whoever is standing in front of her? Is there something that your child would like to say to this person right now? If so, go ahead and say it right now. (Pause)

If your inner child is feeling scared or confused about saying anything, imagine that your present day adult self enters the scene right now and goes up and stands next to your inner child. Imagine your adult self speaking up to whoever is there on your little child’s behalf. Your adult self can say whatever is wants. Tell them whatever you need to say…whatever you need to express. (Pause)

Does the person your facing have any response? Listen to see if they have a response. If so, you can respond to what they say. When you’re finished speaking, you can ask whoever is there to either go away and leave you alone…or to go away for a while until you are ready to talk again…or else to stay…and you’re going to accept them as they are and give them a hug. (Pause)

Now go back and see your present day adult self standing next to your little child. If you’re willing, pick up the little girl and hold her in your arms. Tell her it’s going to be OK. Tell her you know how she feels. Tell her you understand. Tell her that you think she’s a great little girl….that you love the way she talks, laughs…and does everything. Tell her that you care and that she’s precious.

Now allow yourself to slowly wake up. You should now feel closer to your inner child.

Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part I
Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part III

Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part II

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Self Esteem Inner Child LetterSelf esteem can be improved with several different techniques. One technique is getting back in touch with your inner child. In a previous article, we explored keeping a photograph of yourself as a child in your wallet. This will help in keeping the inner child fresh in your mind. We also explored engaging in real-life activities that will increase awareness of your inner child. Activities include eating an ice cream cone, going to the zoo, climbing a tree, hugging a teddy bear and playing on the swings. Now we’ll explore writing a letter to your inner child.

Write a Letter to Your Inner Child
Composing a letter to your inner child will help bring more awareness to yourself which is part of improving your self-esteem. Sit down in a quiet room with a pen and paper. In this letter you can tell your child about 1) how you feel about her or him, 2) how you feel about what happened to her or him as a child, 3) how you would like to get to know her or him better, and 4)what you would like to learn from him or her. When you’ve completed this letter, open your mind and see if you can take the role of the little child. Then write a child’s letter back to your adult self, saying how you feel about your adult self and what you would like from him or her.  You might even try using your child’s handwriting for this letter to help get more in touch with how your little child feels. You will be surprised at how well this works in opening up communication between your adult and inner child “selves.”

Bring Out Your Inner Child Part I
Bring Out Your Inner Child Part III

Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part I

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Self Esteem Inner Child PicSelf esteem improvement is imperative on learning to overcome negative patterns internalized from your parents. During this process, you may wish to begin bringing out your inner child. It’s useful to begin this even before you work through all of the limitations you’ve imposed on your child within. There are several ways to go about doing this, including 1) real-life activities which give your inner child expression 2) using photos as a reminder, 3) writing a letter to your inner child, and 4) visualization. You may be surprised to find that caring for your own inner child is a lot less time and energy consuming than bringing up a real one!

Real Life Activities

A number of real-life activities can foster increased awareness of and closeness to your inner child. Spending ten minutes daily doing any of the following may help you not only get in touch with your inner child but also put you on the right track to improving your self esteem.

Hugging a teddy bear or stuffed animal

Going to a children’s playground and using the swings or other playground equipment

Playing with your own child as if you were a peer rather than an adult

Having an ice-cream cone

Going to the zoo

Climbing a tree

Engaging in any other activity you enjoyed as a child

Try to get into the spirit of being a child as you do any of the above. Your feelings in doing so will tell you a lot about your attitude toward your inner child.

 Photographs

Carry a photo of yourself as a child in your purse or wallet and take it out periodically as a reminder of your child within. Reflect on what was going on and how much you felt in your life around the time the photo was taken. After a week or so with one photo, pick another one from another age and repeat the process.

Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part II
Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part III