Many people associate meditation with either something Tibetan or infogypsy. Both are extreme. Meditation has been used to work with your mind since ancient times. There is no magic in them, just those who were inaccessible to such types of mind control surrounded meditation with an aura of esotericism, magic, miracles, a fireball and a whisper of the Universe. Today, everything that is done with closed eyes and in silence is called meditation. Meanwhile, real psychosomatic meditations can solve many problems with health, with personal development, with self-esteem. Understanding the issue with an expert .
With such self-awareness at the level of the psyche, meditations begin to put things in order in the head. A person consciously ceases to be vulnerable to damaging situations. He controls his emotional reactions and at the moment of exposure to stress is not immersed in it. He is an observer. Remember? That is what Osho and other Masters said. A person watches the situation unfold, but he himself remains at rest, does not get involved.
The second skill is self-regulation. This is when a person begins to consciously reconfigure himself. I will not react to it the way I reacted before, I will try not to think about those memories that bothered me before and re-evaluate the reaction, I will try to put things in order inside myself. I manage my anxiety, due to this I manage my thoughts.
The third skill is autoprogramming. This is a positive diagnosis of the future. When a person makes plans, he forms intentions, but not in the category of magical consciousness and marathons of desires, but with the help of step-by-step work with his subconscious. These are actions directed inward, programming oneself for a certain result in any area, including the notorious money thinking. And at the same time, a person realizes that only actions lead to the result, and not the favor of some higher powers and a charmed corner in a house in the southeast. He takes responsibility for his life, becomes holistic, builds viable algorithms applicable to reality to achieve results and acts. Life does not “happen” to him, he lives it from the I-position.
The main thing is that all three skills work to reduce the level of anxiety.
A modern person is daily exposed to incredible volumes of stressful stimuli, including information ones. We run, every day faster and faster. In a routine, in a cycle, in a tense negative information field. And accumulate tons of stress. Our days are beginning to merge into one spot. Our body suffers at the same time, because there is a shift in the work of the autonomic nervous system. Psychosomatic meditations come to the rescue, which at an organic level affect the brain tissue, structure, and stabilize electrical activity.
Many psychotherapists and researchers note that they are comparable in their effectiveness to taking antidepressants. Only meditation does not cause painful addiction and side effects.
Scientifically, meditation thickens the volume of gray matter in the hippocampus, where transmitters are synthesized. And it’s not just me saying this, but for example, researchers and scientists at Harvard. Meditation works by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, and this is followed by a cascade of stabilization of the work of the internal organs and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system. This should generally be called a reboot, and not 15 minutes in shavasana in a fitness center.
Many diseases – from the nerves, more precisely – from an increased level of anxiety. Meditations can remove the cause so that there are no consequences.
Everything is not what it seemed
In June 2022, a devastating article was published, which refuted the serotonin theory of depression, which we have adhered to for the past 10 years. We are talking about such a hypothesis: supposedly the cause of depression is a lack of serotonin or other disturbances in the work of this neurotransmitter. It also gained notoriety as the chemical imbalance hypothesis. However, it has now been proven that the level of serotonin does not change before the onset of depression, its fluctuations occur after its development. This is not a cause, but a consequence.
These psychological damages are directly related to what pain, what stress a person has lived in his life and what suffering is hidden in his personal experience. Autoregulation training does not erase memory, it stops reactions to negative memories and creates an understanding for the brain that we are moving forward and not living in the past. This is the basis of a healthy life for a modern person who wants to live happily, with high quality, wants to notice and appreciate his days, feel loved and take care of himself.
How do psychosomatic meditations work?
Very simple and easy. In fact, all you need to do in order to listen to a meditation is turn it on and try to relax as much as possible. It will be very good if you fall asleep right during meditation, after 2-3 falling asleep you will notice how much the quality of night sleep has changed.
But it is not necessary to fall asleep, the main thing is to concentrate on words, listen to music and gradually switch to your body – to breathing, heartbeat, to your muscles and sensations inside the body. As you develop the skill of observation, you will gradually learn to control your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations by focusing on the here and now.
After meditation, I recommend being in the silence of your body for a few minutes, programming yourself for something pleasant or important, directing your feelings and emotions to positive prognostication.
Meditation is work on oneself, it is mental hygiene. Like brushing your teeth or going to the gym. When they tell me that “I don’t have time for meditation”, I understand that this person needs them like no one else. Because he doesn’t have time for himself. There is time for everything, but no time for yourself. Whose life is he living then?
Today, mental hygiene is reaching a new level. We no longer give ourselves unconsciously to doctors and psychologists. We do not shift responsibility for our condition and future onto them. We accept their help, but we understand that a person, that is, I, is a complex being. There can be no universal approaches. We need a comprehensive and individual. You need to be able to work with your own states, manage your emotional intelligence.
When people gain self-reliance after the introduction of the practice of meditation, they change dramatically in a year, because they understand themselves. And most importantly – all this goes without a fight, only through the desire and understanding “I want to make my life better.”
How to do it right
Let’s move on to practice. Something that everyone can try at home.
1. Accept…