Calming the mind with meditation has many healing properties for physical, mental, and emotional pain. Practicing meditation daily for as little as five to ten minutes a day is life-changing. It is a habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts. Meditation has increased in popularity in our culture in the last 20 years because of its health benefits.
Meditation Increases Awareness- healing properties
Practicing meditation not only calms your mind and nervous system but increases your awareness of yourself and your surroundings. Meditation is practiced for its beneficial habits and feelings, such as a positive mood and outlook, self-discipline, better sleep patterns, and increased pain tolerance.
Stress Reduction
Reducing stress is one of the most popular reasons for starting a meditation daily habit. Mental and physical stress cause increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol and adrenaline. Causes many harmful effects of stress, such as the release of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines.
The effects of these stress hormones flooding the bloodstream disrupt sleep patterns or cause insomnia, and promotes depression, and anxiety disorders. Causes high blood pressure, while contributing to fatigue and cloudy thinking. Research has shown that eight weeks of mindfulness meditation reduced the neurogenic inflammation response caused by stress.
Research also shows that meditation may also improve symptoms of stress-related conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia, and MS among other auto-immune diseases.
Attention Span Improves
Meditation that is practiced with focused attention is like weight lifting for your attention span. Our attention strength and endurance are increased. Furthermore, one research study concluded that meditation may reverse patterns in the brain that contribute to mind wandering, worrying, and poor attention. One study showed just 13 minutes a day enhanced attention and memory after 8 weeks.
A method of meditation called Kirtan Kriya combines a mantra or chant with the repetitive motion of the fingers to focus thoughts. The study revealed that people with age-related memory loss have shown improved performance on neuropsychological tests.
In addition to improving normal age-related memory loss, meditation can at least partially improve memory in patients with dementia. Family members caring for an individual with dementia used meditation to help control their stress and improve their coping ability.
Addictions Can Be Combated with Meditation-healing properties of meditation
Using meditation helps with mental discipline and may help individuals break dependencies by increasing self-control and awareness of triggers for their addictive behaviors.
Research shows that individuals with addiction issues learn to redirect their attention, and manage their emotions and impulses while increasing they’re understanding of the causes behind their behavior.
Insomnia- Sleep Disturbances Improve
Just about everyone has struggled with insomnia at some point. Studies report that 90 percent of Americans suffered from insomnia on some level. Research studies on mindfulness meditation found that people who meditated stayed asleep longer and had improved insomnia severity, compared with those who had an undedicated control condition. Therefore, by practicing meditation you become skilled at redirecting the racing or runaway thoughts that often lead to insomnia.
Meditation helps relax the body, releasing tension and placing you in a calm, peaceful state so falling asleep comes with more ease.
Chronic Pain Control-healing properties of meditation
Our perception of pain is connected to our state of mind. Pain can be elevated in stressful conditions. There have been 38 research studies that concluded that mindfulness meditation could reduce pain, improve quality of life, and decrease symptoms of depression in individuals suffering from chronic pain.
MS, Chronic Neck & Lumbar Spine Pain, with Anxiety Disorder-healing properties of meditation
I suffered from MS and chronic spine pain for 23 years, and anxiety disorder from the age of 13. Meditation was the first holistic method I tried to help with my stress and anxiety after separating from my husband. Little did I know the profound effect it would have on my MS and chronic pain symptoms. Over the months of practicing meditation daily my anxiety levels dropped. I was less stressed and could cope with my outer stimuli in a healthier manner. I continued my meditation practice daily and to my surprise, my MS symptoms started to lessen along with my anxiety disorder.
The more I practiced meditation the better I felt mentally, physically, and emotionally. My thoughts and emotions became more positive, and my outlook on life was becoming more bright. Prior to practicing meditation my state of mind and emotional well-being were not in a good place. I was suffering inside and my outer world mirrored my inner world.
My neck and lower spine prevented me from laying flat in bed. I would get migraine headaches from my cervical spine, and extreme sciatica in my lower back when I laid down. Chronic pain was my way of life. Preventing me from enjoying life. Meditation helped me to cope with chronic pain, and my sleep improved for I had slept in a recliner chair for over 10 years. Finally, after seven months I was sleeping back in a bed.
Holistic Healing Journey
I could go on for hours writing about the benefits of meditation on my illnesses for it truly changed my life. Meditation started me on a holistic healing journey for the benefits on my mental, emotional, and physical health were amazing. I just wished I learned and practiced meditation from a younger age. Life is good and everything happens in divine timing. I truly believe that my healing process happened at a time in my life when it was supposed to.
Living Out My Purpose
Now I live my life with the purpose, of sharing with others the benefits of meditation. Along with other holistic healing methods and the effects they can have on their health and life. My MS symptoms are completely gone after 23 years and I no longer have chronic spine pain. Practicing yoga and qi gong enhances my physical and energy body. I eat an anti-inflammatory diet and live life to the fullest.
I have gone ziplining off the highest mountain in North America with my daughter and granddaughter. It was one of the most fun and exciting times in my life and I can’t wait until we go again. Looking forward to our next adventure.
We spend our summers in the great outdoors, camping, swimming, and fishing. We have so much fun. I had missed out on so much in life because of MS and chronic pain. Now I am living every day with gratitude, and love, and want to help others do the same. Sharing my knowledge of many holistic healing methods I have used to heal myself, mind, body, and spirit. I do so with excitement, love, and joy, for I know that healing is possible for everyone.
More Resources:
Calming Racing Thoughts With Meditation https://1111newme.com/2022/10/29/calm-racing-thoughts-sleep-with-meditation-2/
Meditation a Simple Way To Reduce Stress https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/meditation/in-depth/meditation/art-20045858