In my psychiatric practice, I have recommended meditation to many clients who have been taking psychiatric drugs. In almost all of them, after feeling relaxed for a short while, they start to feel depressed or anxious or paranoid. Their symptoms become worse than before. There is limited information on this aspect of meditation in medical literature. Meditation is supposed to make EVERYONE feel better.
There is a catch in this statement. Not EVERYONE is going to feel better initially on doing meditation. Before we appreciate (or ‘understand’) this aspect of meditation, we need to be aware of a simple law of Nature.
The law of Nature is this- Release and let go of what you have once it has fulfilled your need.
If, for example, you are blessed with wealth, then Nature would like us to give a part of it to others who are less fortunate than ourselves. If you are blessed with knowledge, you need to give it away to benefit others. There is an old saying that ‘knowledge is something the more you give the more it grows’. Recently, I read somewhere-’ Giver never lacks’. So according to this law there is no point in holding on to anything that has outlasted its usage. Whatever has fulfilled its role is meant to be released, including emotional tension.
On the same note, when we meditate, the body relaxes. In this state of relaxation, it starts to release our fears, our grief and our traumas. In reality, Nature is doing us a favour by letting us experience these feelings. It is only by permitting ourselves to ‘feel a feeling’ that the emotions can be brought to an end. This results in our suffering coming to an end too.
Strangely, when you meditate and start to feel ‘worse’, you go to a family physician or a psychiatrist and they start putting you on medication. They see this emotional distress as an ‘illness’. This is what they are trained to see -illness. From Nature’s perspective, the emotion has already served its purpose and so has to be released. If the release of emotions is so intense that it disturbs your own life or the lives of others around you, then medication is helpful.Medication suppresses these emotions. But the moment you reduce your medication, you will start to feel low or depressed or anxious or paranoid or obsessive again.
Experiencing emotional distress following meditation is a physiological phenomenon. Any person who is withholding trauma or grief or fear or anger WILL be experiencing these emotions when they meditate. The body is simply getting rid of the tension associated with the emotions so that the individual can be happy.
Pradeep K Chadha is a psychiatrist who specialises in helping patients with meditation and imagery using little or no medication. He is the author of The Stress Barrier-Nature’s Way To Overcoming Stress published by Blackhall Publishing, Dublin. He is based in Dublin, Ireland.His website address is :http://www.drpkchadha.com
Meditation is one of the most important gifts that you can give to yourself in starting each and every day. There are many ways to meditate, but they all lead to the same wonderful experience - a peaceful way to start your day - reduction in stress - answers to questions that we may have been pondering - a wonderful connection to yourself and Spirit.
Throughout this article I will attempt to give you some ways to help you focus on meditation if you are a beginner, and if you have meditated before this will just be a gentle reminder to stay on your practice.
When beginning to meditate, find a quiet place or area that you are committed to using when you wish to meditate or go inward. Start by either being on a meditation cushion or being in a comfortable chair that allows you to sit upright, so that your breath can flow easily in and out. Close your eyes, and you may wish to have some gentle music in the background (wordless unless it is some type of a chant). Begin by breathing in thru the nose and consciously focus on your belly being allowed to go out - babies do this automatically, but as we get older we are told to “suck in our gut” and get out of practice of breathing this way. On the outbreath, a gentle release of the breath through the mouth and you may wish to go to different parts of your body and release the stress that is there - consciously. I know for myself, I store my stress in my shoulder and neck area and spend more time going there. Your feet should be flat on the floor if you are sitting, and all you are doing is focusing on the breath - your breath - your life sustaining force, and honoring it by being One with it. Periodically, because you are not use to this silence, your “ego-self” will try to get your attention by letting thoughts fly into your head - like your agenda for the day - just notice it and take another concious breath and refocus on your breathing. Sometimes I will consciously get myself back in my meditation when this happens, by breathing and mentally saying “I am One with Spirit”. I usually sit with my hands palm up, welcoming any insights and my connection with my breath. All of a sudden, you will realize that 15 or 20 minutes have gone by and you did not even realize it. It is truly a peaceful, connecting, and calming experience.
I just went to a wonderful workshop in the mountains with my spiritual support group, and we stayed focused on meditating on the 4 aspects of the Heart Center. If one aspect was calling us more than another then we focused on that particular aspect. The 4 aspects of the Heart Center that we focused on are:
1. Compassion - Sometimes it is easier to have more compassion with others than we do with ourselves. Pracice must always begin at home by finding compassion with ourselves. Compassion allows you to develop another state of consciousness and awareness. Compassion gives you clarity.
2. Inate Harmony - Accepting all the parts of yourself just as they are, without judgement - this means owning your shadow material, and trying to observe it as a pattern that we have developed, without judgement. I know it is hard to believe and there is a part of us that only wants to accept what we have determined and judged as “good” without ever owning our disowned parts(i.e.greed, jealousy,judgement). We must accept all our parts, and not deny or judge them - just observe them when they appear, and begin to become conscious of the why.
3. Healing Presence - When you can be open to all the parts of yourself without judging them, a wonderful healing and shift takes place. Try to come from a place of assessment rather than than critical judgement - an example might be “today, I made an unkind statement rather than, I am always unkind!!!”
4. Unconditional Love - Just PURE LOVE - the glue that holds all of us and the Universe together - each person playing their part in the greater unfolding process. Shedding light on even the destrucive parts of ourselves, allows for Divine healing to take place. It is all part of the cycle that makes us - us. Once we can love ourselves and all our parts unconditionally, we are different, and the way we look at things is less emotional. Since we are Pure love, we attract pure love into our lives - when you can hold and be in this space, it is a great way to live.
We lit a candle each day and placed our hands on our hearts and meditated on each of the these aspects of the heart center, and some wonderful healings took place - I was truly blessed for the insights that I received and honored to be in nature with like-mined people. Try meditating on the 4 aspects of the heart and see the difference it makes in your life.
Fran Buckless has been a coach and educator for over 30 years. She has just started a newsletter, “All About Caring”, on her website http://www.myallaboutcaring.com. Her goal is to remind people that there is someone out there that cares about them and their needs. Fran comes from a spiritual background, and believes in helping others through a variety of ways. If you need a “pick me up” or something that will make you “think”, read one of her articles. She is just like you, and will try to relate some of her experiences knowing that there are others who are going through the same thing. She is also committed to helping you find other people who come from integrity in a variety of fields - people that you don’t have to search for but can trust. If you like honesty, you will like what she has to write about. She is truly inspirational, and has a bigger heart than anyone I know.