More and more people are becoming aware of the fact that genuine peace and contentment come from the inside – just like the concept that happiness emanates from within. No one can make you happy but yourself. This goes true with peace and inner healing. If you analyze this carefully, you would realize that it is your perception of things that counts, and the attitude that you generate from this perception.
If you perceive things and events with a positive attitude, then you could always be happy and at peace. This however, takes practice and your daily renewal of the positive mind-set that you should acquire.
In order for inner healing to take place, you should be first:
1. at peace with yourself
This can be done through yoga, meditation or mind relaxation. To be at peace with yourself, you should spend some quiet time alone. This would give you the chance to evaluate your life and resolve to be better.
You should forgive not only people who wronged you, but should also forgive yourself for your own transgressions. Sometimes, we are even less forgiving of ourselves than of others. You must remember that no one is perfect.
2. at peace with the people around you
If you had a fight with someone – forget about it. Let bygones be bygones. Renew your friendship instead, and bridge the gap between yourselves.
We oftentimes lose sleep over a person who had wronged us. Because of this, we become insomniacs. Our health suffers, and we become ill physically and spiritually.
You should learn to let go of the past demons. As the cliche’ goes: “To err is human, to forgive is divine.”
Blissful sleep would be at your doorstep once you let go of those demons that haunt you.
3. at peace with the world
When you have attained the first two, then this third step would not be difficult. You should consider yourself as a tiny unit of the whole, which is the universe.
Every simple little thing that you do contributes to the stability of the whole. One very specific example is about your own garbage. If you don’t take the responsibility to properly discard it, then eventually everything around you will get affected by your irresponsible behavior.
When you are at peace with the world, this means being responsible about the environment, nature and all the biota and fauna around you – being in sync with the universe.
Have you noticed that when you help a stray kitten, there is a warmth flow of positive energy within you? It is because your kindness evokes positive vibes back to you.
Have you noticed that when you helped in the “Community Tree Planting Program, or the “Feeding Program”- These gave you a different high?
These are the positive feedbacks of being virtuous and generous. You need not be Mother Theresa redivivus, you just need to do what you can, in your own little way.
All these positive actions attract positive vibes that would lead to inner peace and contentment.
The processes above could be facilitated by meditation methods. Meditation induces inner healing because of the effect it has on the central nervous system (CNS).
“A non-meditated life is a life not worth living”, would be an apt description of the very essential role of meditation in a person’s life.
Meditation relieves you of stress and anxiety. It is now accepted as one of the alternative treatments for several conditions like, drug addiction, obesity, insomnia and many more. When stress and anxiety are relieved, the accompanying diseases that usually go with these two are also eradicated.
Stress and anxiety cause a lot of stress-related conditions like insomnia, high blood pressure, and an addiction to substances of abuse. This is because most people usually relieve stress by smoking, drinking alcohol, using drugs or through an eating binge which would eventually result to obesity, high blood pressure, insomnia and many other pathologic conditions.
Insomnia in turn may cause hypertension, disorientation, stupor , etc. which would affect your mental and physical alertness. Lack of sleep weakens your Central Nervous System (CNS) and therefore all of your physiologic body functions would deteriorate .
Meditation does the opposite – it relieves you of stress; therefore it decreases your tendency to develop a disease. The cure comes from the inside, as a result of your inner peace and calmness.
Here are simple steps of Benson’s Respiratory One Method (ROM):
1. Find a place where you could sit comfortably. Your back should be straight and your posture good. Do not lie down as this would induce you to sleep.
2. Allow your muscles to relax. Your eyes should be closed so that you can “feel” your muscles relaxing. Start with your toes. Feel them relaxing and becoming heavy; then go upwards; the heel, the legs, the buttock, abdomen, arms, neck and then the face.
You should allow each muscle to relax before proceeding. Do this by mentally commanding each of your body parts to relax.
3. Do not breathe through your mouth but through your nose. Feel your diaphragm and chest go up and down so you could feel your breathing. When you exhale, say in your mind the word “one”. Do this for about 20 minutes twice a day.
4. Try to focus on your breathing and not on any other thought. Do not force relaxation. Be patient, when you get the hang of it, it would eventually come.
5. after the meditation, rest for several minutes.
PRECAUTIONS:
1. Do not do this right after a meal. Allow about 2 hours or more to relapse, before commencing.
2. Be sure you do not have a debilitating condition before doing this relaxation technique.
Inner healing focuses primarily on the mind. The mind, through the hypothalamus, controls every biological process in the human body because it controls the hormones secreted by all the endocrine glands.
The mind is a very powerful tool. Without the brain recognizing the stimuli from different parts of the body you would not be able to feel, hear, see or taste anything.
It is logical therefore that to be able to control the body, one must be able to control the mind.
Free your mind of negative thoughts and feelings through the processes described above.
Welcome positive thoughts like love, kindness, helpfulness, generosity, forgiveness, caring and unselfishness, and you will indeed be having a healthy mind and a healthy body!
References:
Calbreath, Donald; Fundamentals of Clinical Chemistry
Freeman, Lyn et al; Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Research-Based Approach, 2001
