Meditation is a transformative, limitless power within your reach that provides inner peace, clarity, and tranquility, but it can also provide significant progress in the pursuit of not only managing autoimmune disease, but giving you sovereignty over you condition and much needed symptom relief.
Not to worry if meditation is not your “thing”, I have many tips for you to make this less intimidating, more approachable, and far more appealing. There are so many styles and options to choose from. One needs to find their specific, unique fit; what resonates for you. There is not cookie cutter approach to meditation. We’ll also cover enough compelling evidence that will benefit your autoimmune disease, chronic illness, and overall life in having a meditation practice of your own.
Autoimmune diseases are debilitating, frustratingly unpredictable, and even painful. Rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Celiac, and Lupus are just a few examples of autoimmune diseases you may have heard of impacting millions of people worldwide.
I want to share my personal experience of how meditation was one of the most critical components of my healing journey to remission with two autoimmune diseases (Lupus and Hashimoto’s).
For those of you who have not heard of the word “remission”, complete remission means that tests, physical exams, and scans show that all signs of your condition are gone. This is also reflected in your physical strength, appearance, energy levels, and more.
The medical community acknowledges remission versus definitive healing. In other words, you can experience optimal health, eliminate symptoms, prevent flares from ever happening, feel “normal” again, regain energy, and more by committing to a lifestyle that keeps you in a state of remission. For example, in my experience, if I were to go back to my “old habits and ways”, my autoimmune diseases would flare up again. It is important to emphasize that I must maintain a lifestyle that promotes a state of remission, which addresses health holistically (diet, stress management, and much more). Complete remission has been my experience for many years now, which is why I created my coaching practice to help those interested in a natural approach to lasting symptom relief and the experience of optimal health.
Watch the video or keep reading to explore the healing potency of meditation, my journey with meditation and autoimmune diseases, what science validates, how to unlock its limitless healing powers, and how it can positively impact your condition and entire being, while giving you much needed symptom relief.
From my own experience over a decade with Hashimoto’s and Lupus, two autoimmune diseases that predetermined how my day would unfold, meditation provided more than recovery, it provided me a feeling of control over my conditions; sovereignty. Something I could actually do that would provide noticeable results; rest, self-care, soothe my nervous system, and relief from the havoc autoimmune diseases caused in my entire being.
Meditation has been used for spiritual connection, improved cognition, stress reduction, and anxiety relief (and that’s just the short list). The medical community is continuing to discover the correlation between mind-body connection. In other words, what transpires psychologically, emotionally, and even environmentally has a direct impact on one’s physiology; the current state of your health.
My Meditation Path With Autoimmune Diseases
In my journey with autoimmune diseases before discovering remission, I was on an endless quest of how to improve my energy levels. Those of you who have autoimmune conditions innately understand what it means to be entirely depleted. I carried the belief that if I could find an activity, habit, or practice that would improve my energy, even if it was a 5% improvement, I would do it. The more things I could compile – 5% here, 10% there, 10% here, that would be a a 25% overall improvement in how I felt. I was all for doing whatever I could within my power to feel better.
I started meditation to simply provide my body rest and restore my energy. With autoimmune disease, rest is critical. I was frustrated because as depleted as I felt, not just from my condition, but from life’s demands (because we all know life continues even if you are sick), I could not reliably nap or sleep well, even though I was exhausted. In fact, napping was a rare and blessed occurrence for me. Those of you that can nap, especially on an airplane, I am jealous!
Meditation filled that gap for me. Initially, I started my meditation practice by listening to guided meditations on YouTube that were geared towards stress relief, rest, and relaxation. As I continued to explore meditation (and enjoyed it), I wanted to expand upon it. I transitioned and sought formal training in an unguided technique, transcendental meditation, which was a great experience. Years later, I craved a meditation practice with a more spiritual focus. After reading the book, Autobiography of a Yogi (a book that changed my life), my meditation practice took yet another turn. My path keeps evolving and it has been a complete joy to experience its healing and transformative powers.
The Health Benefits of Meditation – Physically
Physically, meditation has been shown to strengthen immune function, reduce chronic pain, improve sleep, lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, lower resting heart rate, and lower blood pressure. Research continues to suggest meditation helps in the management of a series of conditions, including autoimmune diseases.
Please note, I am conservative in my research; I only communicate what has been scientifically validated time and time again. I believe there are many more physical benefits and science will reveal more as time goes on.
Also, what is important to mention, there are factors that impact one’s ability to reap aforementioned health benefits. It is dependent on your commitment to a meditation practice; length of time, duration, how many days a week, etc. If you have a 5 minute meditation once a week, that’s better than nothing, but you’ll gain so much more with a daily practice for instance for a longer set. You get what you give to anything in life.
The Health Benefits of Meditation – Mentally
Mentally, meditation helps improve cognitive function, reduce (and improve your ability to manage) stress, lower anxiety, increase mindfulness, invite self-awareness, reduce negative emotions, increase feelings of patience, tolerance, and compassion, and improve focus. With the brain fog I experienced with autoimmune diseases, cognitive health and focus were other compelling reasons that drew me to a meditation practice.
The Health Benefits of Meditation – Spiritually
Spiritually, there are innumerable benefits. I understand that the word spiritual means different things to different people. That said, I want to be sensitive to our differences in beliefs when discussing spiritual benefits and will simply discuss what those that meditate report in terms of sensations. Meditators have reported feelings of inner peace, stillness, a balanced sense of being, connection to self, connection to something higher, opening of the third eye, and experiencing a myriad of other spiritual experiences and phenomena.
How To Unlock the Healing Powers of Meditation
It starts with having a consistent practice you can stick to. I am a believer that one has to find something that personally resonates; something that is enjoyable, something you are drawn to.
If you are not a spiritual person, that’s okay! Make your meditation practice anything you want it to be, that’s the beauty of it. If you are purely interested in the physical and mental benefits of meditation, then make that your practice. I certainly started out that way and it dramatically improved my energy levels and cognitive function with autoimmune diseases.
I understand it is hard for people to sit down, relax, breathe, and just be in the moment. Our modern lives are rushing around us and many of us do not want to admit… we actually do not want to sit with our thoughts and hang out with our “monkey minds”. It can be unpleasant. We also can feel like we don’t have the luxury of extra time.
A Few Tips To Help Start A Meditation Practice
- Start small, even 5 minutes a day will provide benefits.
- Commit to a daily practice.
- Find a practice that resonates with you; what calls to you, what genuinely interests you.
- Follow your intuition.
- Allow yourself grace. As with anything, meditation takes practice. Just as if we were going to the gym for the first time, I wouldn’t anticipate being able to benchpress a bunch of weight initially. The same is true with meditation, so go easy on yourself. It takes time and practice for it to grow and flourish.
- Check out my meditation shop for a list of my favorites along with exclusive discounts here.
Meditation Styles to Explore
- Guided meditations (stress reduction, sleep inducing, anxiety relief, etc.)
- Unguided meditations (breath-focused, complete silence, and more)
- Spiritual-based meditations
- Faith-based meditations (religious meditations based on your specific religion and/or belief system. Inquire with your particular organization).
- Transcendental meditation
- Mantra-based meditations
- Mindfulness meditation
- Loving kindness meditation
- Music meditations
- … and so many more
Ask yourself your intention with meditation, explore YouTube, the internet, your networks and organizations, and just have fun with it! It is a gift that will keep evolving and giving back to you…
If you are currently struggling with autoimmune disease and are interested in finding symptom relief and revealing optimal health naturally, click this link to learn more about working with me.
Check Out My Meditation Shop Here
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