Methods for Bringing Peace to a Chaotic World
Meditation for mental health is a great technique to reduce stress or anxiety; and research shows that it may also help improve your mood, promote healthy sleep patterns, improve memory, and help with depression and pain. There are two major types of meditation, insight and tranquility. These are different mental skills, modes of functioning and qualities of consciousness. “Insight,” is a clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens. “Concentration” or “tranquility” is a state in which the mind is brought to rest and focused in a state of tranquility which must be experienced to be understood. The result is a state of concentration which lasts until the meditator ends the session. It is only temporary.
Insight meditation uses concentration as a tool in the process of mindful mental training that will teach you to experience your body in an entirely new way. As a process of self-discovery, we slowly become aware of what we really are down below the ego image. This ever-increasing awareness into the inner workings of reality is called Liberation and it’s permanent.
I teach this guided meditation as a tool at every acupuncture session. I use skin temperature, muscle tests, facial, inquiry, tongue, and pulse diagnosis to identify imbalances and blockages affecting your health. Through meditation, the body resets and your relaxed pulse will give me your baseline and a true read on your Qi. The added benefit is that you yourself can eventually feel Qi and identify any imbalances to manage your own thoughts and mental health at the same time.
Tibetan Za Zen Meditation – The Basics
The goal for anyone new to meditation is not to become a master but to incorporate a new healthy habit into your daily routine. These tips should help you get started and keep going.
Start small first. Using a timer, plan to meditate and sit for just one minute. This will seem too easy, to just meditate for one minute. That’s the point, how can you say no? Start with just one minute a day for 3 days. If that goes well, increase it to two minutes and do that for the next 3 days. If all goes well, keep increasing every day and you’ll be meditating for 10 minutes a day by the end of the month.
Do it first thing each morning, set a reminder for every morning, a note that says “meditate” somewhere you’ll see it.
Don’t worry too much that you’re doing it wrong. There’s no perfect way to meditate — just do it.
Count your breaths. Place the attention on your breath as it comes in and follow it through your nose all the way down to your lungs into your belly. Count “one” as you take in the first breath, then “two” as you breathe out. Repeat this to the count of 10, then start again at one.
Come back when your mind wanders. When you notice your mind wandering, smile, and simply return to your breath. Our brains are constantly on so we can’t just shut them down. Instead, just try to practice focusing more of your attention on counting your breaths when your mind wanders.
Practice a positive loving attitude when thoughts or feelings arise during meditation. Take a friendly attitude with your thoughts, as friends, not intruders or enemies as they are a part of you. This practice isn’t just about focusing your attention, it’s about learning how your mind works. By watching your mind wander you can start to understand and get to know yourself.
Za Zen – The Exercises
Here we introduce one step or exercise at a time for each visit. Your goal is to be aware of each change within the body and mind. This is guided meditation, so no need to remember or memorize anything. Your acupuncturist will introduce the next exercise as you advance your level of experience and instructions will be provided at each visit.
Body Position
Lie down with hands crossed over your heart and feet crossed at ankles, right over left. This completes a closed infinity circuit of the body’s circadian, meridian and chakra flows. Variations to sitting posture, standing positions or movements are decided here.
Cleansing Breaths
Inhale through nose into belly to hold, then exhale out of mouth to relax. This gives lungs time to exchange gasses by absorbing the most oxygen and evacuating as many toxins as possible. Mantras are used here. Variations to build Qi, strengthen the diaphragm and clear the lungs are used here as well.
Connect Heart to Mind
While breathing, the tip of your tongue (a Heart point or Yin) touches the center of the gumline (brain points or Yang) behind your front teeth. During your inhale, the tongue touches the roof of the mouth, behind where upper teeth and gums meet. On exhale, the tip of the tongue drops below, touching where the lower teeth and gums meet. Like sparking a battery, these yin and yang points connect the body to the mind to prime or initiate the flow of Qi. Chakra sounds, prayers or mantras can be incorporated.
Eye Circles
In your mind’s eye, imagine you are facing the face of a huge clock in front of you. Starting at 12, you will have to almost roll your eyes to the back of your head to keep the muscle tension around the clock. Keeping that tension, stretch your eye muscles twice in a circle as you gaze first clockwise and then counterclockwise through the minutes. Since the eyes are connected directly to the brain, stretching eye muscles stimulates different parts of the brain. If any area of the brain is compromised, the eyes will not stretch smoothly and skip, or jump past the hour sections on the clock. Your eyes should not tick tock like a Timex but roll smoothly from minute to minute like a Rolex. Gaze over the hours and minutes in both directions in a smooth, flowing transition to ensure brain stimulation was successful. 3 o’clock should be far right, 9 is far left, 6 is below the tip of your nose.
Search the Channels
Qi, or life energy flows in the meridians as our blood travels through blood vessels. Qi and blood flow together. Like an electrical current, you can trace the meridians by feeling for your heartbeat anywhere in the body. Then focus that sensation to the part of the body furthest away from the heart, the big toe. The aim is to eventually feel and mentally trace all Qi pathways or meridians in the body to prepare for healing.
Imagine your third-person, bird’s-eye-view of yourself. You will imagine the details of your environment as you expand out into the universe, then return. First, see yourself in the room. Try to imagine the details like furniture, yourself in the room, etc. Then imagine with every breath that you elevate yourself outside the building. Take a look around. Next, elevate to the sky and look at your town, then elevate again to see the Coast. Then the continent as you enter the stratosphere. Lastly in space, take a look around. Then return to your body in the room in the present. This gives us perspective, self-awareness, and a sense of belonging to the bigger picture so that future danger is avoided, and solutions can be realized. Astral-projection is practiced here.
6 senses
Daily morning exploration of all your senses one day and one sense at a time. By concentrating on each sense individually, the body’s awareness includes more than what is physical, opening new connections between life and your surroundings. ESP is cultivated here.
Build Qi
Breathing technique also used for pain: Tense your abdomen on inhale, relax the body on exhale. For pain, this works on the CNS and PNS nervous systems by confusing your body’s pain receptors. For building Qi, this works on loading the body with oxygen and contracting the muscles that stimulate the Spleen to pull Qi from the food we eat and the air we breathe. Qi Gong and Reiki variations applied for different ailments here.
Protect Qi
Visualize a shower or bathing of a protective force or covering, engulfing your body in light. At this level, you are more connected with your Qi and the idea is to create a force field of that Qi force which heals and protects us. Affirmations, prayers, or mantras are used again here.
If you have any questions or if you would like to set up a meditation or acupuncture session with Dr. Valentin, give us a call at (425) 949-5961.
