Meditation

by Keith R. Holden, M.D.

Wikipedia.com has a great definition of meditation so I’ll just reiterate it here. “Meditation is a mental discipline by which one attempts to get beyond the reflexive, "thinking" mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness. Meditation often involves turning attention to a single point of reference. Different meditative disciplines encompass a wide range of spiritual and/or psychophysical practices, which may emphasize different goals -- from achievement of a higher state of consciousness, to greater focus, creativity or self-awareness, or simply a more relaxed and peaceful frame of mind.”

Meditation is an invaluable tool at your disposal with scientifically documented mental and physical health benefits. As with any skill, all it takes is a little time and effort to cultivate. That time and effort can result in exponential improvement in your health. It is well known that inner peace helps create within our bodies an optimal state for physical well being. When you are peaceful and mentally healthy, you are not producing large amounts of stress hormones or suppressing your own immune function. And when you are at peace, you have better energy reserves for dealing with physical problems.

I have been practicing meditation regularly for over three years and can attest to its multiple psychological and physical benefits. The personal benefits I have experienced include a significant improvement in my perceived level of stress, better sleep, better workouts, improved muscle mass, more energy, less infections, better tolerance of temperature extremes, less aches and pains, clearer thinking, improved intuition, and a more intimate spiritual connection to the Divine. I teach my patients meditation in hopes that they will use it as a tool to cultivate inner peace and improve their overall health.

I have used many different methods to help facilitate my meditations, including slow relaxed breathing, listening to relaxing music, and creative visualization. But I have found that I have deeper and more relaxing meditation sessions when I use brainwave entrainment technology, including listening to binaural beats, isochronic tones, and when using audio-visual entrainment via photic stimulation with LED glasses.

Breath Meditation

The simplest meditation technique I teach involves simply focusing on your breath. Find a relaxed and quiet setting, and get in a comfortable position. Before I start a meditation, I find it helpful to set an intention for that meditation session, whether it is to just have a period of quiet relaxation, or connect with my intuition about a question I have.

Close your eyes and take a slow deep breath allowing your diaphragm to expand fully causing your belly to push outward. This is called belly breathing, and is much more relaxing to the body than breathing with mostly chest expansion. Babies know this and breath with their belly pushing out instead of their chest, but for some reason, we as adults tend to forget this natural way to breath. Breathing with full diaphragmatic expansion lets your lungs expand fully and fill with oxygen. This type of breathing, especially when slow and relaxed, is very soothing to the autonomic nervous system, the part of your nervous system that is running on autopilot that you don’t have to think about. Soothing the autonomic nervous system is an integral part of relaxation.

Once you are comfortable doing slow relaxed belly breathing, focus on the flow of each breath. You may want to visualize white light representing the flow of your breath. Breathe in for a slow count of three and out for a slow count of three. Don’t get fixated on counting, but let a natural rhythm take place that your body is comfortable with. The idea is not to think, but to let your body’s relaxation mechanisms kick in. As you start to develop a breathing rhythm that is relaxing to you, your mind may start to wander to your “to do” list or worries. That is natural. Just acknowledge the thought and let it go. Sometimes I’ll visualize tying my worries or problem to a bunch of helium balloons and watching them float away. Then come back to your breath feeling the rhythmic flow, and visualizing white light if that is helpful.

After a while, you may notice that you no longer need to focus on your breath to help you stay relaxed. This is because your autonomic nervous system has calmed down, and your brainwaves have shifted from beta (thinking) to more alpha (relaxation), and even to more theta (dream state). And if you fall asleep during meditation, you have shifted your brainwaves to more delta.

I have found that it is more effective to set aside a small amount of time to meditate each day, even if it for five minutes. Five minutes is way better than no time at all. I find that the effects of meditation are cumulative, because the more you meditate, the more your brain creates new neuronal pathways and strengthens these pathways to take you down this internal road to relaxation. Creating these new neuronal pathways and the ability of your brain to strengthen these pathways involves a wonderful function of the brain called neuroplasticity.

The concept called neuroplasticity used to be scoffed at by scientists, but now solid research is proving the ability of the brain to reorganize itself for improved functioning. Research is showing that thinking and learning can turn on and off genes resulting in changes in brain anatomy and changes in our behavior and mood.

A great book that outlines the findings of this type of research is “The Brain That Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge, M.D. Dr. Doidge also points out that “neuroplasticity isn’t all good news; it renders our brains not only more resourceful but also more vulnerable to outside influences. Neuroplasticity has the power to produce more flexible but also more rigid behaviors.” “Ironically some of our most stubborn habits and disorders are products of our plasticity.” If you keep reinforcing bad habits and negative thoughts, the neuronal pathways in your brains that help facilitate those negative habits and thoughts become more hardwired and less malleable to change.

Meditation helps you take advantage of the positive aspects of brain plasticity. This is an invaluable tool with scientific support for its therapeutic effects in people, and that’s why I teach meditation to patients.

I love to mesh specific intentions for mind and body healing with creative visualizations to maximize positive outcomes of my meditations. This includes goal setting, positive affirmations, and visualizing intended outcomes with my mind’s eye or imagination. I have even developed specific meditations to help me and my patients work through difficult life experiences. I will describe two of these meditations below:

Inner Child Meditation

I developed the Inner Child Meditation to assist me in releasing mental issues I may have held since childhood, which were acting as a block for my emotional growth and present day well being. Most of us have had experiences in childhood, which if not worked through and released, can act as a sticking point in achieving inner peace. These experiences can range from personal loss, abuse of any kind, difficulties with how we were disciplined by our parents, or feelings of rejection by our peers.

The Inner Child meditation is a very simple yet powerful meditation that allows you as the Adult to travel back in time in your mind’s eye to “rescue” the Inner Child that you were when you experienced that emotional trauma, whether it was from a psychological or physical experience.

The Adult is a metaphor for the all-knowing and all-powerful part of our psyche that is emotionally mature, and knows that beliefs aren’t always truths. Beliefs have the potential to hinder us, whereas truths, which come from a divine knowing (intuition), always support us in our life’s path. 

The Inner Child is a metaphor for the part of our psyche that is innocent, vulnerable, sometimes craves protection, and is guided by the Adult in us. As the Inner Child, we know the simplicity of living as we are and in the present moment with child-like curiosity without doubt or worry. But when the Inner Child experiences separation or suffering through challenges in life, sometimes our minds and bodies are left with residual imprints of an experience perceived as bad. This imprint can manifest in our bodies as mental and physical difficulties ranging from self-doubt, poor self-esteem, anxiety, depression, physical illness and pain.

By establishing a relaxed state through a meditative practice, I set the intention that I, as the Adult, am the protector and guardian of my Inner Child. I also acknowledge that I am divinely supported in this meditation as a prayerful intention to facilitate healing in my life.

As I become more relaxed, I let my mind drift to the first experience I can remember as a child. For me, it when I was an infant lying in a crib next to my parents’ bed, and my mother was holding my hand through the rails of the crib as she slept. I consider myself very blessed to have had such an awesome first memory as a child.

Know that whatever your first memory, it is okay, whether you perceive it as bad or good. Now, in your mind’s eye, see yourself as the Adult coming into the room, picking you up, hugging you close, kissing your cheek, and telling yourself that you are loved unconditionally, that you will always protect you and take care of you. Know this is the truth in your heart.

For some, this is the beginning of a powerful healing starting to take place in your psyche. And for some, this may be where you want to stop in your meditation. You are always free to do as much or as little of this process as you can handle. For me, I choose to go on, allowing my mind’s eye to remember difficult experiences in my childhood with me walking up to my Inner Child, lifting me up and hugging me close, letting me know that I am always protecting me and loving me unconditionally. Knowing that I as the Adult will always come to my rescue.

I have even used this meditation for difficult experiences I have had as an adult as I consider the Inner Child to always be with each of us throughout our lifetime. The Inner Child is that vulnerable part of us that needs protection and love from the Adult in us.

Surrender Meditation

I developed the Surrender Meditation for when I was struggling to accept the experience of difficult times in my life. Surrender can be an incredibly empowering experience when you realize that surrender is not about giving permission for bad things to happen to you, but about letting go of resisting the experience so that you can grow through it and find your way back to inner peace.  

I have found that the mental act of resistance to “what is” creates additional suffering, and acts a barrier for pushing beyond that experience to wholeness. Life will always produce challenging times, but I find that those times can be a blessing in disguise by serving as a catalyst for emotional growth. And through that emotional growth, we are made stronger for the challenges that lie ahead.

I have taught the Surrender Meditation to patients who were clearly suffering, whether it be mental or physical suffering, in hopes that they would use it to find some inner peace despite their current life experience.

By establishing a relaxed state through a meditative practice, set the intention that this meditation will allow yourself to cease resistance to “what is” knowing that you are divinely supported in this prayerful intention for growth.

See yourself in front of a large grassy hill, knowing that whatever you are resisting lies in the valley on the other side of the hill. You can visualize what you are resisting however you choose, whether it be a person, people, a situation, or an illness. Your mind’s eye will automatically come up with a symbolic representation of that which you are resisting.

Next see yourself walking up the hill with a large white flag, and as you come to the crest of the hill, wave the flag high in the air as a sign of surrender to whatever you are resisting on the other side of the hill. Allow yourself to see what you are resisting is surrounded by dark clouds, and there is little sunlight in the valley in front of you.

As you reach the top of the hill, glimpse behind you and see that which you are resisting can’t see in the valley behind you – supernatural forces aligned and ready to fight with you for whatever you need to get through this difficult time. Know in your heart that you are divinely supported in this process, and then close your eyes.

Let yourself be filled with the most peaceful presence you have ever felt in your life. When you open your eyes again, you will see that what you have been resisting in the valley in front of you is gone, and in its place is a sunlit valley with a crystal blue lake surrounded by the most beautiful trees and flowers you have ever seen.

It is done. You have surrendered, and you realize that what you have been resisting has symbolically departed with this powerful intention of letting go of resisting “what is.” In its place is the beauty of nature, a symbolic representation of the Divine, and you are filled with inner peace.  

I will work with you based on your specific needs to help you create guided visualizations, mental imagery, and individualized meditations for better physical health and mental well being.