How Meditation Supports Oneness, Health, and Happiness
Mantra-based meditation entails focusing on a word or series of words which reflect the higher vibration of Divinity, the One Divine Reality. We are beings comprised of energy; our atoms (cells, organs) are energy. Every thought, word, and object you “consume” works to either raise or lower your energy vibration, your level of consciousness. A higher level of consciousness is reflected in human beings as happiness, peace, and love, as well as serenity and a release of judgment toward self and others. It all translates in our daily lives as alleviation of pain and suffering. By simply going within and meditating repeating a mantra that vibrates with Divinity you may experience more vibrant health, a greater sense of happiness, as well as an affinity with all life forms.
A Quiet Mind-A Peaceful Body
Mantra-based meditation helps train your mind to become one-pointed. Our dear minds, hardware for our infinite consciousness, are actually structured to be one-pointed. We are not meant to multi-task as much as to task, then task, then task with one-pointed attention (and with clarity rest breaks in between if possible). This laser focus can be honed with daily mantra meditation. This training also helps you not react to the world but to become a responder. The quick ego-based reactions (often negative) are slowly replaced with heart-centered, intuitively guided responses.
A one-pointed mind is a calmer mind. Because your body is a reflection of your mind, a hornet’s nest of thoughts buzzing about your system will most likely leave you feeling anxious, irritable, or unfocused and unable to function at your best capacity. Repetition of your mantra will help “shake off” lower vibrational thought forms/energies such as fear, hate, self-hate, shame, blame, anger, guilt, insecurity, pride, greed, or resentment. You are literally filling your mind with grace. This will be reflected in how you feel, think, and act.
Meditation helps your mind quiet and allows you to focus within. It allows your true inner voice, that storehouse of infinite intuitive wisdom and love to flow into your conscious awareness. From this place you are better able to create, to have aha’s! and to speak and act form a place of love. A more serene state of being allows you to be in flow and to experience your life with greater joy, fulfillment, and wonder.
So, the next time you feel all jumbled up or in any state of dis-ease (physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual pain) try to feed your system a diet that includes a loving mantra and see what happens. Experiment!
Meditation Basics
To meditate: Sit in a chair in a comfortable position with your head, neck, and trunk straight. Take a few breaths gently expanding you belly, then your chest and collar bone areas. Bring your awareness to your heart chakra (center of the chest) or brow chakra (the center of the forehead, a little inside the head and a little above the eyebrows) area. Disregard the breath (We breathe all the time without noticing the breath. Try and let go of it so you may focus entirely on the mantra.) Now silently and lovingly repeat one of the following mantra examples (most of which are listed in the meditation description in Perlmutter’s The Heart and Science of Yoga):
Om
(Om is a bija, a seed or original sound
reflecting all that is manifest in the universe).
Om Namaha Shivaya (All the things of this world are here for me to appreciate
and enjoy, but not to possess nor be possessed by).
Jesus
Christ
Hail
Mary
Shema
Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad. (Listen now Oneness/Higher Self,
The Lord is God, the Lord is One).
Allah
(God/Divinity)
Om
Mani Padme Hum (The Jewel in the Lotus)
So-Hum
(I am That)
Oneness
What to Do With Thoughts That Come Up During Meditation
When you have a thought or image come into your mind during meditation you must do something with it. You have a relationship with this thought, just as you have a relationship with every thought, word, or object (person) you encounter throughout the day. You do not want to repress or suppress the thought. Instead, you may witness, acknowledge, bless, and surrender or sacrifice the thought to God (the universe, Oneness, nature—offer it to whomever or whatever works for you). The word sacrifice is derived from the Latin sacrifice meaning “sacred offering”. So each time you witness, bless, and sacrifice a thought that comes into your mind during meditation, you are taking a skillful and loving action. The phrase I use in daily meditation (and during the day when I choose to relinquish an unhelpful thought) is: “I witness this, I bless it, I surrender it to God.” Each time I do this, as Leonard Perlmutter states in The Heart and Science of Yoga, I have helped to enhance my willpower, creative energy, and fearlessness. Any important thoughts will be waiting for me at the end of the meditation. In fact, it seems like my Higher Self uses this meditation time to organize my day and what (and in what order) I should focus on in order to be in flow throughout that day.
How Repeating Your Mantra Can Turn a Traffic Jam into a Healing Experience
You can use your mantra to practice japa a Sanskrit word which means prayer without ceasing. Throughout the day, in your car, while cooking, or even in the midst of a challenging situation, silently and lovingly repeat your mantra in your heart. Japa will help bring a higher vibration to your body, mind and to that situation. It tells the energy around you how you choose to experience yourself and your life. You may leave a traffic jam feeling better than you did before! You will also have deposited peaceful energy into the environment around you (thank you global peacemaker!) With a mantra you feed yourself energy medicine.
The next time you are feeling out of sorts or simply want to improve your sense of connection with your inner self, and improve your health and happiness, try meditating. Replace the lower energy vibrations from the television, computer, cell phone or work environment with the higher vibrational, calmer energy of a mantra and meditation. In the swirls of a chaotic and seemingly uncontrollable world, create an oasis of peace and clarity. It is already there; all you have to do is focus within and go Om.
A free weekly meditation is held with Beth at The Center for Integrative Health and Healing on Wednesday evenings, 7:30-8:30 pm.
Beth Netter, M.D. left the practice of anesthesiology in 1998 and now supports health, happiness, and healing as Reiki practitioner and Holistic Health Life Coach at The Center for Integrative Health and Healing in Delmar, N.Y.
www.CIHH.net
Comments