Wellness

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 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

Good Health and Good Energy

Mid-twenties and without realising I was on a destructive path carrying baggage from the past. In order to get myself and my life onto a happier path, I dived into spirituality and self-improvement.

A lot of the approaches I tried worked, and I was happy to spend money on therapies such as breathwork, different kinds of massage, acupuncture, radionics, homoeopathy, books and workshops, because it was making me happier and healthier. At that time the Wellness concept wasn’t talked about as such, it was more about vibrational medicine on a cellular level, and self-improvement. My life changed direction and I didn’t look back. It was and still is a life of learning, refining and change, trying out new things, discarding what no longer works, and learning a lot about myself and life. I had a science background, and I knew science didn’t know everything, instead science keeps developing, if people are open-minded enough to ask new questions.

My health improved hugely, with a change in diet and cutting out drinking and dodgy substances. I liked exercise anyway, and taking up Tai Chi had a positive impact on my body and I learnt a little about Chi energy, and other kinds of energy. Even all that time ago I looked after my gut biome as it made sense to me. I took some supplements which helped a bit.

Fast forward to now. I have had a family and life was more about doing what it takes to be healthy enough and fit to be there for the children. I put them first and it was my job to look after them. My grounding in spirituality ticked over healthily, and progressed. I was definitely happy, still am, as the spiritual aspect goes deeper.

Health wise though is another issue. Being older, it takes more effort to be flexible, I have less energy, and health issues bubble under the surface. My body was giving me some pain. Things don’t seem to work so well as one gets older. I focused for several months on strength, flexibility and overall fitness levels, which helped a bit.

I have spent some time looking into what it is that affects health and function as we get older. It should not have been a surprise, but I was shocked to find there are some essential substances in the body that are found in smaller concentrations in the body as we age. So the body works less well. These substances seem to start dropping away in concentration from about the mid-twenties. How soon this happens did take me by surprise, but then taking a look at many sportspeople, then performance starts to drop as they get older, usually unless they take supplements and do exercise like Pilates or yoga.

As the body works less well, some substances that are unhelpful build up in the body, such as proteins involved in brain disease.

There are other factors that age the body slower or faster, such as genetics, amount of stress, drinking or not drinking alcohol, smoking or not smoking, drug use, obesity, quality of sleep over the years, exposure to harmful chemicals at work or in the environment, amount of exercise over the years, and having a good quality diet or poor quality. This is not a full list.

Having a happy mind and emotions, or an angry or worried mind and emotions is a factor that can be influenced by working on emotions and thoughts. Spirituality and meditation can have a positive effect on longevity. Having supportive friends or family definitely adds to happiness which supports longevity.

When we are young it is the hormones produced by the glands of the endocrine system which gives the signal for growth, for puberty, and the changes to the body that occur as time goes on. Hormones change in concentration as time goes on. There seems to be an intrinsic body clock, with the hormones as the messengers as to what changes need to happen when. We are all on a biological timer. People do try to counteract this natural system, for instance by taking testosterone to reduce loss of muscle, increase bone density, increase libido and improve mood. Though the long-term effects of this are not known.

Two of the key substances which decrease with age are NAD+ (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide), which plays a role in repairing DNA, and in many physiological reactions, and glutathione, considered the major antioxidant. There are several other substances important for cellular function such as Coenzyme Q10 which also decrease in amount with age.

For anyone interested in these substances, it is worth researching further.

My first “go-to” when wanting to make an improvement in what is in my body is to tweak my diet. After this approach I may take a supplement.

Glutathione is not only the master antioxidant but also has roles in mitochondria, the body’s producer of energy, and in DNA synthesis and protein synthesis. It also regenerates Vitamins C and E in the body. It is an important substance, and its production in the body lessens with age.

As I hadn’t given a lot of focus to my body for some time, I started taking glutathione as a supplement. I started to have more energy. Over time, I found that health issues affected by low concentration of glutathione due to age started to clear up. My body became healthier with the increased concentration of glutathione. This has been a big win. I looked better.

The glutathione supplement has made a big difference for me. Clearing up health issues related to body chemistry, has made it possible to spot other health issues linked to emotions and also energy.

Sometimes traumatic events are not emotionally dealt with at the time. Perhaps the person doesn’t know how to. But the trapped-in emotions and thoughts can manifest as an illness or health condition. Dealing with the trauma massively improves health.

Our own beliefs and thoughts usually formed when young can express themselves as health conditions. From years ago, Louise Hay showed us how to identify thoughts linked to physical conditions, and how to work on thoughts and feelings from the past, resulting in improvement in the issue. I have found going back to this approach very useful. The thoughts were buried deep, and healing them has led to improved self-esteem and self-image plus improvement in the health issue.

Using glutathione from Immunotec® to clear up some health issues has really helped me uncover surprising issues going way back, and this has led to improvements. It has been a wonderful. An added extra.

Another thing, I’m quite intuitive, so when I look at people I will see the surface of them, but more importantly for me, I will sense their chakra systems and auras as well, which tells me a lot more about them than their looks. I noticed that taking glutathione supplements from Immunotec® had a very big energetic effect on people’s chakras and auras.

For me, a part of spirituality is that everything is spirit. Being quite intuitive, before I take something, I will intuitively check it out, I will check its energy or its spirit. If its energy or spirit is good, I will take it.

For some reason, the energy / spirit of the Immunotec® glutathione supplements are really top-notch, so I have been happy taking them. As there are some different combinations containing the glutathione, I did read up on the info about the products, about how to take them, whether or not I should drink water with them if any toxins were pushed out, and read up on what to expect and on any reasons why the glutathione products should not be taken (only a few reasons). As glutathione is naturally found in the body, I felt OK about taking it on a physical level as well as energetically.

As I mentioned, I took the products that came from the Immunotec® organisation. If you are intuitive, I would suggest checking out the energy / spirit of their supplements.

I was very impressed by the supplements and can recommend them, and I know others who had good results with them, so I became a seller for the company. If you want to take a look, the link is https://www.immunotec.com/Jonathan-B

Happy Health. Happy Wellness!!!