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Meditation - The Best Medication to Ease the Body & Mind
Lets face it. We live in a fast-paced, achievement driven world in which many of us feel guilty if we’re not being productive most of the time. The world we’ve created allows us to be perpetually plugged in, turned on, and tuned in 24/7. Between the World Wide Web, 24 hour up to the minute news, and a global culture that is screaming that “MORE IS BETTER”, we are pushing ourselves past the boundaries of our physiological and psychological capacities. As a result of this overload more of us are reaching for a quick fix for our stressed out minds and worn out bodies.
As we have come to expect instant information and instant connection so have we concluded that we should be able to get an instant fix for what ails us. There are more medications available than ever before and we are reaching for that quick-fix-in-pill in record numbers. So determined are we to keep racing through life with all of our balls up in the air that many of us don’t bother to find out what potential harm all of this self-medicating could be doing to us. Doctors continually prescribe pain-killers and muscle-relaxers that are so addictive people are ending up in rehab for something that was supposed to HELP them.
As we wear ourselves out each day many of us are turning to the new super charged drinks that are so loaded with caffeine (among other things) they are causing people to go into seizures because the nervous system gets so overloaded it basically short-circuits. Milder side effects of these wire-me-till-I-pop drinks are heart palpitations, shortness of breath, nausea, and (ahem) a feeling of weakness and fatigue. That’s because when you consume excessive caffeine you stimulate the production of dopamine in the brain and your adrenal glands get pushed so far past their limits that they go into a fatigued state. Then YOU get fatigued. You may even feel more exhausted a few hours after you consume an “energy” drink.
The next issue is sleep. After we’ve effectively pushed ourselves until we’re ready to drop, then juiced ourselves up on caffeine, we fall into bed desperately needing good sound sleep but our brains and bodies are so wired and chemically out of balance that all of those natural sleep inducing chemicals that our brains are supposed to produce when nightfall comes are nowhere to be found.
There HAS to be a better way. There is. It is called Meditation. Meditation is the most simple and natural way to medicate the body and mind. Not only can meditating at night destress the mind and body and induce relaxation and serenity, a morning or midday meditation session can increase awareness, clarity of thinking, and help reenergize you so that you are ready to take on whatever comes your way.
I discovered meditation after I had gotten to such a point of stress and overwhelm that I stopped sleeping at night. Instead of sleeping I would lie there and notice how my heart was beating as fast as it would if I were on a good-paced run. After two weeks of no more than an hour or two of sleep at night I consulted my physician. He prescribed Beta Blockers which made me feel severely dehydrated and mentally disconnected. I threw those in the garbage, got some natural herbs for sleep at my local health food store, and signed up for a week long meditation clinic at the Chopra Center of Well Being.
Before I left at the end of the week I had signed up for the meditation intstructors program knowing with certainty that my well-being was on its way back. To this day meditation is my number one self-cure for insomnia, overwhelm, anxiety, frustration, or stress-overload. In addition to all of this, meditation is the vehicle that I use when I am searching for answers or for clarity in my life. For me meditation is truly my miracle medicine.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Hi crystal! this is your nephew michael. I was just perusing your website and thought I would say hello. What you are doing is wonderful as i too have found the power of meditation, especially though the Chopra books. I wish I had known about this before so we could have talkd about it. It will be good to hear from you. michael