mental health

spiritualgrowthadventure

Why Meditate?

Meditation: quiet serenity, a feeling of joyful contentment, knowing all is OK.

Meditation is like mental and emotional decluttering for the modern world, with some awesome energy as well, to shift one’s perspective about oneself and life.

Modern life is different to how it was. People used to experience worry, thought this didn’t stop them from getting on with their lives. Now people experience anxiety, which can sometimes bring life to a halt. I used to get people asking me for meditation to help them deal with stress, and recently I have been asked to help turn down and turn off anxiety using meditation.

There are factors these days affecting people’s mental wellbeing that played a smaller role before.

There are so-called “smart” phones, they can have some positive uses but they have had an awful effect on some people. As people used smart phones they have become susceptible to relying on them, on the internet and on social media, for their artificial and growing dopamine addiction. Then there are the emotional and mental effects of social media, through which others can cause upset and harm.

In life, people have always looked for answers. But the scrolling on phones will never feed the need for the really satisfying answers that people deep down want.

“Smart” phones will never give people what they want, emotionally and mentally. As one gets older you learn it isn’t that others like you that is really important, it’s that you like yourself, and are true to yourself, and not others.

Meditation can at least take you part way along your journey, and help you find your centre. Meditation helps you claim your power, and reclaim your sovereignty over yourself and your life making you freer.

Meditation weans people off the need to chase external stimulation to gain a dopamine hit, as plenty of dopamine (and serotonin) is created in the brain with meditation. Meditation is a way to connect with some wonderful and naturally available energy that has a good effect on the brain and nervous system, quite deeply as you will see later. The effect on the brain is passed on to the body through the body-mind link.

The internet and social media have the effect where we can end up judging ourselves against others and against unrealistic “values”. This can be very harmful and affect our emotions negatively.

Meditation can help us empower ourselves, taking away from others the power we might have given them. Meditation can help us build a good awareness of our own body and improve our self-image.

There is a lot of change happening in the world. Over-thinking about it can pull you away from your centre. Also, humanity is now more susceptible to the astral levels, and the lower levels can negatively influence, feelings, thoughts and moods. Decluttering this kind of energy and lifting yourself back up happens with meditation, then it is very useful to learn to button up your aura and chakras for protection.

Regular, ideally daily meditation helps to keep your system clear and tuned in to the higher energies that are beneficial to your spirit, mind and physical body.

Meditation is a wonderful way of looking after yourself, and helping you with your daily life. It helps you connect more and more with your true nature.

If you are interested in the body and brain, auras and chakras, read on.

The effects of meditation on the body and brain

People in the East have meditated very a very long time, and meditation has long been an accepted part of life. In the West, years ago, there were few meditators, and meditation was seen as a slightly weird and fringe activity. There wasn’t any scientific interest in studying the effects of meditation.

Nowadays though, meditation in the West is seen as a good thing. Also, there are scientific studies of the effect of meditation on the body and brain. There are available some useful techniques for doing this. For instance, MRI scans of meditators brains provide very convincing reasons why a person should meditate.

Scientific studies have shown that meditators have less oxidative stress in their bodies. (Source: pubmed.ncbi.nih.gov/21280542/) This means that chemicals useful for the body (such as glutathione, a major antioxidant) are not used up dealing with the free radicals that cause oxidative stress. Instead, they are available for other functions in the body, such as the alleviation or prevention of conditions leading to disease. Simply put, meditation boosts the immune system and health.

In the brain, levels of dopamine, serotonin and GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) all increase with meditation (Source: standfordmag.org) The brainwave state is improved, with less beta waves which are associated with stress, and more alpha brainwaves instead. These are linked to better calm and focus, and creativity.

Meditation has been scientifically found to increase grey matter (brain cells) in several areas including the hippocampus (important for learning, memory and emotions). Grey matter is reduced in the amygdala which is to do with fear, stress and anxiety, which are reduced.

These changes are not all that surprising as it is known that the brain does physically alter depending on what we habitually do, and how we use our brain.

(Extremely helpful to think about diet and gut health, as chemicals from the gut reach the brain and have a profound effect. Also, a healthy gut produces 90% of our dopamine and serotonin! Important to sort out diet as well as meditate.)

I should say that in modern life, meditation is best considered as a very useful part of one’s life. A happy, healthy and balanced life, from an energy point of view. Also important is exercise, as it shifts old, stagnant energy from accumulated thoughts and feelings out of your body. Exercise is like a reset.

Being out in Nature also gives us a reset as old energy drops away and our energy is nourished and balanced by Nature. If you were into T’ai Chi and could appreciate the chi energy, you will know there is chi energy all around us, and particularly out in Nature rather than in artificial environments. That energy out in Nature has a good effect on us.

Also, check what you are thinking about yourself, others and life in general. Positive thoughts take you up, while negative thoughts take you down.

Aim to think positively about everything. (This doesn’t mean accepting situations that are not acceptable. Positive thinking can be a start to offering situations up, and so that light and love can be injected into them to bring about change.)

The most noticeable impact of meditation on chakras and the aura is to clean them up a bit, recharge and uplift them. The aura improves in shape and brightness, and the chakras lighten up and brighten up. Better energy and positive thinking will also influence the possibilities on your future timeline.

As previously mentioned, there is a lot going on in the world, and the astral levels have more access to humanity. At the same time, there is a huge amount of Light and Love flowing into the planet and the rest of creation. Meditation helps with accessing and absorbing this lovely energy, and at the same time, clears out the astral, and helps one to become less affected by changes in the world. Remember there are positive changes happening as well though; they don’t get reported on so much.

For some people, the intense Light and Love flowing in is difficult for them to handle, so they will use drugs in an attempt to numb out or try to escape the energy. Drugs just put holes in people’s auras, and introduces low level energy. The holes make it easy for what is in the astral levels to get inside people’s auras. Often this will stimulate the need for more drugs and the energy that goes with them. The astral energy promotes addiction. The situation is not good. Meditation over time greatly improves matters.

(Substance addiction in some people though can be a response to trauma at some point in life, so dealing with the underlying cause of the addiction is also very necessary as well as the repairing of the energy system. I have seen many cases of this successfully happening.)

There are different meditations on this blog. For best results try out the one for rooting yourself into the ground, as this prevents you from being floaty, and it means you can absorb more Light. It is good also to practise buttoning up your aura for after the main meditation as you can then look after the lovely energy you have gained, and protect your own energy. Happy meditating.

spiritualgrowthadventure

Dealing With Bad Experiences And Trauma Energetically

Dealing with bad experiences and trauma in the past that affect a person’s life in the present, has been going on in modern times since early in the twentieth century. One way of trying to deal with the symptoms is to cover them up or manage them with medication. But that doesn’t deal with the root of the issue.

There are other ways of dealing with bad experiences and trauma. Think of a human as a physical body, with nervous system, muscles and bones and organs. With this is an etheric body that the physical body sits in, then there is the astral body and the mental body which is larger in which everything sits. These energy bodies go all the way through the physical body, and in them there are the chakras which are energy centres. It is also worth considering energy channels in the body, such as those that carry chi energy, or prana energy. There is an aura around a person and the aura has a skin or outer layer, which holds in the energy, and acts as a buffer (or sometimes not!), as protection from negative astral and mental energies.  

With a traumatic experience there may be damage to the physical body. There can also be an emotional response to the traumatic experience, and intense negative thoughts that have driven deep into the mind, during and after the trauma. If the trauma is inflicted by another person, then their negative emotional and negative intent also goes into the emotional or astral body and into the mind. Along with this, intense negative emotions and intense negative thoughts affect health and functioning of the body. So a powerfully negative event where a person isn’t physically harmed, but where they experience intense negative emotions and thoughts, say through bullying or intimidation, can manifest itself in the body as an illness or impaired function.

With a traumatic experience, the emotional and mental energy of it stays stuck in the astral and mental bodies, in the chakras, and the outer skin of the aura could be damaged, even when any physical trauma may have been partially or totally healed.

This negative emotional energy, and mental energy as thoughts can be intensely replayed again and again. Or the negative energy can be triggered so it keeps on affecting the person. It is like the trauma happening again and again on emotional and mental levels. Each time it happens, it takes its toll on the person. This happens for as long as the person lives unless it is dealt with.

For negative emotional and mental energy to be dealt with it has to be removed by ways that affect energy like that. It won’t happen with medicines or drugs.

There are ways of handling negative emotional and mental energy and releasing it, and providing emotional and mental healing.

One powerful way is bodywork, working on the body of the person, though remember the physical body is connected to the etheric body, the astral or emotional body, the mental body and the mind, and the chakras, so when the physical body gets worked on, all these parts get worked on. Also, the body stores memories of what happens to it, going way back.

There are gentle forms of bodywork, and more intense forms (which some might consider too painful). Gentle bodywork can still trigger powerful releases of emotional energy, and the thoughts that are tied in with this to bring about an amount of healing. Usually each bodywork session would bring about a small amount of healing that the body can cope with, and in gaps between sessions, the body, emotions and mind can adjust to the new situation.

Even using reflexology on feet or hands, which is not so invasive for people who don’t like their body being touched, can affect all of the body and the emotions and mind. Over time, with enough sessions, there is a cumulative effect.

There are some extremely sensitive and gentle forms of bodywork that have a big effect on the body, emotions and mind. One such is cranial sacral osteopathy. There is one technique (I can’t mention the name as it is trademarked) where the body is held and moved very gently and it literally unwinds tension and trauma out of it.

Even normal massage can help, the human touch can be very powerful. Aromatherapy, where essential oils from plants are massaged into the skin, can have very powerful effects on the emotions, and bring about healing release.

Deep tissue massage can be painful but it really shifts the energy out of the body, to release the memories and the energy stored in the body. So over several sessions, a person can release a lot, if they can cope with a bit of pain.

This is only a brief description of some bodywork and massage techniques, as it is intended to show what can be done about dealing with traumatic experiences and their effects by removing the emotional and mental energy in a person’s system.

Healing techniques which introduce positive energy into the person’s system are worth considering to help remove negative energy. Years ago I experienced a technique myself, and then used a similar technique to help others release negative emotional and mental energy.  It was a breathing technique that was based on an old powerful technique, kriya yoga, ( that in itself is likely to be of benefit), which in yoga terms, resulted in prana building up in the body which then brought to the surface emotional issues to be released. In the 1990’s I came across some Orthodox Christian monks in Bulgaria who used a similar technique.

Again, as with the bodywork, it seemed to release old memories and the locked in emotional and mental energy, and needed to be done over a number of sessions. Over time, as issues were dealt with tension was released and the body felt so much more relaxed, and the mind felt calmer.

In the 2020’s, this breathing technique is now labelled Breathwork. In the1960’s and 70’s it was called Rebirthing in the USA as the people who came across it claimed they re-experienced their birth. It doesn’t mean other people would necessarily experience this. Whatever comes up in the session, comes up. Other people changed and tweaked the process, emphasised different aspects that they preferred and came up with their own names. Breathwork is a handy umbrella name.

I used it in a way that people could focus on the emotions that came up, without getting sucked into those emotions, whereas instead they could observe and feel the emotions being released and cleared. With the emotions cleared, the thoughts associated with the emotions also went. Often people had deep insights about themselves and about their feelings because of this. The process seems to tap into a natural body-energy process to clear old and sometimes stuck energy (emotions and thoughts) out of the body.

Massage and bodywork, and breathing techniques are good for releasing emotions and thoughts and the memories held in the body. But where possible, talking about feelings and thoughts, and memories and events, also helps bring them up, and makes them available for release. Also, being counselled by someone who listens well, and who can help the person come to a new understanding and make steps to move forward is really helpful.

I have seen people being firstly counselled through a technique called Focused Expressive Psychotherapy, which brought up a lot of feelings and thoughts, and then they went straight into a breathing session in which they could release and clear those emotions and thoughts very effectively. It was a powerful combination; very transformative.

I have seen a form of hypnotherapy used alongside counselling over several sessions, along with positive relaxation meditations shift anxiety. With each session, there was a definite shift in energy.

There are other purely energetic techniques, for instance homoeopathy. This works on energy in the physical, astral and mental body and works on the person as a unique individual. In my own experience I have found it very powerful. Over a period of a year or two or more years it is possible to make a lot of shifts in body, mind and emotions. There are other modalities that work directly on the energy of a person, and homoeopathy is given here as an example. I do find though, that being able to have counselling and talk about matters is important too, as by thinking and talking about the past, and thoughts and feelings in a reflective way, it helps people think about the future and how they would like it to be, and how they would like to be in that future.

When the thoughts and emotions from bad experiences and trauma get stuck in a person’s energy system (aura, subtle bodies and chakras), it is like these thoughts and emotions have a life of their own, and come up again and again, and are recycled and reinforced. What was mentioned previously will make a difference. But there is more which can be done.

When people think negative thoughts and experience the emotions that go with them, from an energy point of view, their vibration drops right down. “Energy follows thoughts”. From an energy point of view they radiate a low vibration, which affects what they attract into their lives. Therapy, healing and counselling can improve the situation. Learning to manage their thoughts, reduce the intensity of negative thoughts, and deliberately choose to do positive thinking, no matter if it is only in a small way to start with, can break the recycling of the negative thoughts and emotions. A powerful way of doing this is to work with a counselor who can work with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. In the UK this is a mainstream therapy, where it isn’t necessary to be able to “see” or sense energy.

This is just a brief look at a huge field, and there are other therapies and healing modalities that can work on the issue of locked-in and recycling thoughts and feelings due to bad experiences and trauma, from an energy point of view.

You may like to take a look at the article about reincarnation, karma and mental illness

For FAQs about meditation, click here.