Meditation for your health.

Over the past few years, many people have asked me how to meditate, and I have struggled to give them a short useful answer they can take with them to help build their own meditation practice.  

In trying to describe the ancient art of meditation, I drifted into the esoteric land taught to me through thousands of hours of yoga practice, studying of sacred texts, and spending time immersed in nature.  And, of coarse, twenty minutes of daily meditation.  All of these practices have coalesced to create a unique and powerful meditation practice that allows my body’s immune system to thrive, my mental state to be at ease, and my spine to continue to heal after my surfing accident and subsequent cervical fusion, with titanium.  

The results from meditation have been remarkable.  

My mind which was once scattered between worry, excitement, planning and nostalgia, has settled and more easily syncs to the present moment.  Not at all times of coarse, and those feelings still do creep back in, but the meditation practice has been the tamer of the wild stallion, the young hawk that learns to settle into the wind and rest effortlessly in the open sky.

During my morning meditation practice, I focus on each and every vertebrae.  I focus my concentration on moving energy, both physical and mental, along the spine and activating the micro muscles that can elevate and elongate the spine.  I imagine golden and azure tones coming from the cosmos to encircle up and along my spine, all the way to the brain.  I slowly allow the breath to expand and circulate in and out of my lungs.  

Two and a half years after my accident, my neurosurgeon, Dr. Cesar, explained to me that the formation of the bone around the titanium screws and cylinder is as strong as he has seen in his career.  I smile inside, remembering all the hours of one pointed focus on this calcification of bone around titanium.  The beautiful light I gently placed inside my mind.  Everyday in meditation, my focus is on the healing.  

This same practice can be applied to any bodily pain or injury to accelerate the healing process.  Use the mind to heal the body.

We improve our mediation practice by being mindful in nature.  The nature itself brings about a greater space of mindfulness, and the ability to stay in the present moment enhances the effect of the planet on our cells.  How do we define nature immersion? Nature can be the beach, the ocean on our skin and the sand beneath our feet.  It can be a gust of wind blowing between the leaves and listening to a tree sway against its roots in the breeze.

There is, of coarse, a noticeable difference between spending time in a San Francisco park, and being miles into the desolation wilderness – the latter enabling a deeper connection to nature, leading to even more profound positive effects on our meditation practice.  With that being said, if we surround ourself with ecological life, even in an urban setting, we can find a reduction in stress, more meaningful daily experiences, and an accelerated progress in meditation.  It is essential we spend time in nature to still the mind and find lasting internal peace. 

What we intake directly effects the mind, the body and our unified self.  Therefore to achieve benefits of mediation we should practice a clean and conscious diet based on foods that due minimal damage to the earth, and create an anti-inflammatory effect on the body as well.  The details of such a diet will be explained in another chapter, but we can improve our inner well-being by making conscious decisions in what foods and drinks we intake.  Does it come from a factory?  Did you read the ingredients?  These are good places to start as you begin to investigate more thoroughly what you physically consume.  This same principle should be applied to foods as well as substances we take.  

These are steps we can take to find our higher self.  

Through mediation we can be more at ease in the world and unveil secrets to the universe we have been passing by everyday.  

You can foster empathy, allowing for more connection with humans who cross your path along your journey.  

Through mediation we can heal, progress, spark creativity and create more love in our lives.  This could be how you make a difference.