Meditations for Healing
Meditation for Health
In part 1 of this series on Meditations for Healing I compiled a big list of the health benefits of meditation as proven by recent scientific research. This list, although not comprehensive, should be ample fuel to motivate and inspire you to start using meditation as a serious tool for optimizing your health and supplementing any treatment plan. In this final part of the series, I am going to point out some of the wonderful meditations that are freely available on the website already, which are highly reputed for their curing and healing powers.
The meditations I will detail below come from various spiritual traditions and as they use different mechanisms to work their magic, feel free to choose the type that is suitable for you. This is an important aspect of meditation practice, as certain personality types prefer certain types of meditation. Some prefer the intensity of silent, still meditation, while others enjoy mantra meditations, while others will like more physical meditations. So find one that you enjoy and commit to it seriously. Your body, mind and soul will be forever grateful.
Healing Meditation #1:
One of the meditations most used by the scientific community for their research on the healing and other benefits of meditation is the simple Breath Awareness Meditation, or Zen Meditation Technique. This meditation is formally know as Zazen and is pretty much the face of meditation. As I have mentioned on the blog previously, this meditation forms the foundation of my practice as well, as it is the starting point for the more advanced insight meditation technique that I practice (Silent Mind Meditation).
For healing, health and that little thing called enlightenment, Zen Meditation is my first recommendation to everyone who is interested in meditation. It certainly deserves a sincere attempt, as it has been a proven champion for thousands of years. This meditation is excellent for stress reduction and it will create the correct mental and physical environment for self healing to take place. In addition, all the other benefits besides health are also within reach of this meditation.
Healing Meditation #2:
The second meditation and one that has been equally well researched for it’s healing and other prowess is Mantra Meditation. In this technique, you repeat a mantra and use it to develop concentration, one pointedness of the mind, inner awareness and transcendence. A terrific mantra for doing this is So Hum Mantra meditation, although other mantra meditations will be just as good.
So Hum mantra meditation is one of the most prescribed meditations for fighting depression and is known to invoke inner joy and happiness. It is also an excellent meditation for dissolving stress and like any other meditation technique, So Hum also creates the optimum conditions for the body to heal itself. Below is more on the concept of Self Healing.
The Concept of Self Healing:
This concept of Self Healing is very important when it comes to alternative medicine and getting healthy in general. The thing to keep in mind here is that the body has a blue print of ideal health and will always try to return back to that state naturally. Your responsibility is to work with the body in accomplishing this, and especially important, is not being a hindrance to this process. This is where meditation comes into play in a big way. It helps create the conditions which maximize the work the body can do towards accomplishing self healing. Always keep this in mind when you are dealing with disruptions to your health. Work with the body to help it heal itself. It can do it, you have to believe and let it.
Healing Meditation/Prayer #3:
Mahamritunjay Mantra of Lord Shiva
Along with So Hum Mantra meditation, I also want to point out another mantra meditation which is designed specifically for health, healing and longevity and that is the Mahamritunjay Mantra of Lord Shiva. This mantra has been used for centuries for healing and it is used most often as a form of prayer meditation. The power of faith based healing and the role of prayer in healing are also fast becoming part of accepted treatment processes, and towards that end, Mahamritunjay Mantra is a great tool to have at your disposal.
All the details for this mantra, including free MP3 downloads can be found in the linked article above.
Meditation for Healing #4:
Doei Ashtapad Jap (The Healing Meditation)
The next meditation I want to mention is actually known as a Healing Meditation and it comes from the powerful school of Kundalini Yoga. It is known not just for helping you heal your ailments, but is also known for it’s ability to bestow the great power to heal others onto you. In other words, the power of healing others via your energy is bestowed by this great meditation.
This meditation uses the power of mantra, mudra (hand/eye/body positions) and breathing to heal and help you develop your healing powers. These details are in the article link above, but one note I would like to make is that when you first start learning this meditation, it is ok to use 8 repetitions per breath cycle instead of the 16 as required by the full version.
Healing Meditation #5:
Recently I met an Ayurvedic doctor at a small gathering of holistic practitioners and she confirmed what I too have noticed in today’s world, that stress is about 70% responsible for all the health problems that we are suffering with today. This is the reason why I feel the following Yogic Relaxation Technique makes the list of the top 5 healing meditations. The simplicity of this pose should not fool you. Many readers have given me feedback on how helpful this exercise has been for them, and it should be the ending exercise for any yoga set or session.
It is simply called Yoga Corpse Pose, but there are several ways to use this pose as I have detailed in the article link above. Here I want to give you an additional variation you can use which is specifically for healing. In this variation follow all the steps given in the “Corpse Pose for Conscious Relaxation and Stress Relief” section, and then at the end, when you are completely relaxed, visualize either white light entering and healing the area in need for treatment, or visualize the disease process leaving your system with each exhalation. Don’t underestimate the power of your mind when it comes to healing, and really have faith that the body can indeed heal itself.
Meditations for Healing Summary:
The healing meditations, prayers and yoga exercises I described above are of course a subset of the techniques that are freely available here on Mastery of Meditation and Yoga, and you can find other such techniques in the Free Online Meditation Techniques e-book and the Free Kundalini Yoga Exercises and Poses e-book. Also, I will by compiling for you in the near future the best yoga breathing exercises for health and healing, and also some more yoga exercises which are known for their healing powers, so be on the lookout for those.
For more information on self healing be sure to check out the articles below, and just to make sure I have driven the point home through and though, here again is my plea to you. Start your journey back to good health today, by starting your meditation practice now!
Introduction to Ayurveda for Self Healing
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Related Articles at Mastery of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen:
