Our body has to go through a lot.
Modern living is stressful; the sheer pace saps us of strength while convenience and easy availability lure us to dig into unhealthy junk food. The body has to put up with the stress and strain of chronic and acute diseases. Accidents may happen, and some of us injure ourselves. The stresses of daily living and physical and/or mental trauma may compel some people to take refuge in and abuse addictive substances.
We all need to heal from time to time.
But healing does not have to come solely in the form of medications, expensive and long-term physical therapy, or indulgent spa sessions. You can heal yourself too, and do a great job of it.
Relaxation and Healing
Unknown to most of us, there is a powerful connection between the mind and the body. The human mind is powerful, and our thoughts and emotions affect us at the bodily level. This is why, we blush when we are embarrassed. Our heart races, and we feel the wind being knocked out of us when we are frightened.
Unfortunately, mental stress takes a toll on our physical selves.
There is no dearth of scientific literature on the adverse effect of mental stress on the body. According to Mayo Clinic, mental stress triggers a host of bodily symptoms like headache, muscular pain, fatigue, insomnia, and upset tummy. Long-term stress that goes unmanaged has been known to cause diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and heart problems.
Clearly, a stressed-out mind also impairs the healing process of the body. If you are ill, mental stress will keep you sicker for longer. If you have an injury, mental stress will aggravate symptoms like pain. And this report explains how physical stress and emotional exhaustion weakens the immune system and triggers common cold.
The writing on the wall is clear. You need to bust stress to boost your immune system, turbo-charge the healing process, and reclaim your health and vitality. You need to learn to relax and calm down.
According to Cleveland Clinic, mind-body exercises are powerful and effective in calming people. The relaxation response has been shown to be effective in managing several health conditions like chronic pain. In diabetics, relaxation training helps control blood sugar levels and has also been found to reduce the need for insulin in some people.
The Role of Systematic Relaxation in Healing
Activities like gardening, petting the cat, knitting, and watching television are definitely relaxing, but only for a while. These activities distract you and calm your frayed nerves, but only while you are at them. As soon as the activities are over, the niggling doubts and the gnawing worries rush back and overwhelm you.
Unfortunately, some stressors won’t disappear from your life overnight. People will push your buttons. Life will throw curveballs at you. Sometimes well-laid plans will go awry and leave you clutching at straws. Accept that you cannot control everything that happens to you. Along with cultivating this attitude of acceptance, learn how to change your perspective, so you can see the silver lining in the clouds and spot solutions or opportunities instead of problems.
The need of the hour is a radical change of mindset.
The solution: a systematic, long-term relaxation training program.
Note the word “systematic.” You need to go through a program that will retrain your mind, almost. An approach that will help you recalibrate your thoughts, beliefs, and priorities.
It’s not an easy task. Our thoughts tend to be wayward; the human mind has a nasty habit of jumping from one thought to another and dwelling on negatives. Guided meditation gently steers your thoughts, feeds suggestions to your sub-conscious mind, teaches you how to gain distance from negative thoughts and nurture more helpful ideas. It also teaches you, how to let go of muscular tension in your body from head to toe, in a profound, truly rejuvenating way.
In other words, a guided meditation program lets you take control of your mind and body and nurture the inner balance that is conducive to physical, psychological and social well-being.
How Visualization Helps in the Healing Process
The role of visualization as a performance-boosting technique has been extolled in self-development literature. But not many people know that visualization can also enforce positive changes at a bodily level and trigger the healing process.
There exists a definite mind-body connection. When you visualize positive images, your mind triggers a host of pleasant sensations throughout the body. Think about those warm, fuzzy feelings that wash over you when you think about or meet a loved one or watch your favorite movie or play with your kid. We are all familiar with these feelings, but scientists have delved deeper and believe that these positive and pleasant emotions can also help you heal at a physical level.
Imagery triggers powerful physiological outcomes. The sub-conscious mind is so powerful that it can make the body respond to images as strongly as genuine experiences. Imagery has been shown to affect heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, immune responses, and cortisol levels, among other physiologic systems.
According to several research studies, visualizing healing imagery—seeing oneself as hale, hearty, free of injuries, and fully functioning—have helped athletes recover from injuries quicker than the time they would have needed to recover without imagery intervention. Visualization is so effective as a healing technique that guided imagery therapy is now recognized as a valid mind-body therapy to be implemented with other treatment methods.
How Self-suggestions Heal You
A positive mindset is key to the healing process.
The findings of this study reveal interesting insights on the power of positive thinking. Positive emotions open your mind to possibilities and attune you to the options around you. And you need to be open, analytical, and perceptive when you are ill or have suffered some injury.
You need a positive attitude to be able to see beyond your pain, injuries, and trauma and truly believe that you will eventually recover fully. You need a positive mindset to be able to overcome the feelings of despondency and frustration that rise within you, so you can feel enthused and hopeful about the success of the treatment that you are going through now. You need to preserve a positive regard and appreciate your body for all it has endured to take you places and reach your goals, so you feel renewed vigor to focus on your recovery.
Repeating positive messages to ourselves in a relaxed state of inner focus, is a powerful and effective way to influence the sub-conscious mind and bring about positive physical and mental change.
How Does Meditation Help You Relax?
Scientists harbor absolutely no doubt about the strong connection that exists between the mind and the body, and how our sub-conscious mind can influence bodily systems and processes. If you want to bring about healing and boost your immunity, energy,and vitality, make your mind your ally. Train your mind and tap into your inner reserves of strength and healing powers.
Meditation helps you relax and trigger the healing process. Here’s how:
By calming you
Meditation is an established mind-body relaxation process. According to the Mayo Clinic, meditating calms the mind, helps you find peace in the midst of chaos, and enhances your sense of well-being. The benefits are not over when you get up from the mat or stop focusing on your breath or listening to a meditation audio. Instead, you carry over the effects through the day and in any work you do. Meditating regularly turns you into a calm person.
By creating a quiet mental space for you to visualize and repeat self-suggestions
You need to create a mental sanctuary where you can retreat from the chaos around you, so you can focus on and practice your affirmations and visualize a happier, healthier, and fitter you. Meditation creates this quiet mental space where you shut out external noise and the disquieting negative chatter inside your head to focus on positive self-statements and empowering images.
When you meditate regularly, you become a calmer person who is able to take his negative thoughts with a pinch of salt and replace them with more positive ones. When you meditate regularly, you are no longer influenced by societal conventions, peer pressures, and media perceptions and can think up and believe in the images of you that you aspire to become.
By fostering positive body image
Meditation is an effective and proven way to cultivate a positive mindset. A positive, non-judgmental attitude is necessaryto foster a positive body image.
When you harbor a positive body image, you find it easy to believe in its self-healing powers. A positive body image helps youimagine and visualize, convincingly, a healthier and fitter you despite the pain you are going through now and notwithstanding the slow results of the current treatment you may be undergoing.
By helping you cultivate an attitude of acceptance
An attitude of calm and stoic acceptance is necessary to keep your wits about you and to move on. If you cannot accept your illness, injury, or any other physical shortcomings, you will always be stuck in the why-me mode.
You need to get out of the rut of self-pity, frustration, and hopelessness to move on and cultivate a more positive body image. You need to accept that life happens in ways that we cannot always control. But you have a choice—wail, lament, and remain in self-pity, or accept your circumstances graciously and move on to improve your situation.
Meditation lets you cultivate an attitude of acceptance. With acceptance comes mental peace, and when you are not fretting and fuming over your woes, you have the clarity and perspective to discover, acknowledge, and put into practice your own healing powers.
We are all healers. We all have the ability to heal ourselves, revitalize our bodies, and rejuvenate our souls. The powers are trapped deep inside the mind. Meditation lets you quieten the choppy waters of your conscious mind, so you can discover the powers buried underneath and fish them out. The Meditable guided meditation app helps you stick to a focused meditation regimen to retrain your mind and reclaim your healing powers.
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