Throughout our lives, we go through bouts of suffering. Most of that suffering takes place within the deep trenches of our minds. The way we look at it, can affect how fast we recover from it. So if you’re suffering from physical or mental pain, sometimes focusing our minds on this present moment can help us heal. Today, we’re going to share a guided meditation for healing that can help you cope with your suffering on tough days, like today. While the pain may not suddenly disappear, many find that focusing on breathing exercises helps minimize their pain as it shifts their attention somewhere else.
What Is Meditation for Healing?
Your mind is a powerful force. It can heal you from any trauma or pain, and rejuvenate you too. Some people have been able to reverse illness, simply by overpowering their minds with positive energy. Giving your mind and body time to recover from pain and suffering is key. Nothing happens overnight. However, by focusing your mind on the present instead of shifting to your painful time periods: the past and the future, you can regain power over your mind.
Meditation is all about focusing your attention on the present moment. Often, you’ll do deep breathing exercises that help you relax. If you’re experiencing emotional pain, it’s often because you’re living in the wrong time period. You might be reliving your past mistakes or feel anxious about future events. However, in the present moment, overthinking doesn’t occur, because you’re too busy living.
Meditation helps you live life, instead of feeling stuck in the past or future. It won’t magically cure cancer or a terminal illness, but it can help you cope with illness in a way you never thought of before. It can help you cope with the fear of dying or make you realize you could live life differently. You might even realize it’s time to apologize to your sibling for that argument you had when your parents died. Meditation can give you the clear mind for you to self-heal.
Guided Meditations for Healing
The following meditations are made to help you cope with your healing. Whether you need help healing yourself, healing others, or even healing a broken heart, you can find a meditation that helps you cope with the life challenges you’re up against. Remember, this isn’t about magically curing someone at the end of their life. It’s about reframing your thinking to allow you to let go of past mistakes, accept what’s to come, and move forward in your next step.
Meditation for letting go
This 15 minute guided meditation practice will help you let go of whatever you’re holding on to and help you start the healing process.
Find more practices like this one in our free guided meditation app Declutter The Mind.
How Meditation Improves Healing
1. Improving blood pressure
High blood pressure and stress tend to go together. When you practice meditation for healing, or any meditation as a matter of fact, you can decrease your blood pressure. Those who work in stressful environments can benefit from meditation as those environments often do a number on our blood pressure. Of course, if you have low blood pressure, speaking with a doctor will be necessary before starting a meditation practice.
2. Decreasing heart rate
The only acceptable time for a fast heart rate is during exercise. Beyond this, a fast heart rate often signals stress or other illnesses. Those who meditate for healing on a regular basis can see a decrease in their resting heart rate over time. A low resting heart rate is typically a sign of a healthy heart. Those with high stress levels can reduce their stress with meditation to lower their heart rate at the first sign of stress.
3. Strengthens the mind
People who meditate regularly are able to experience a heightened sense of awareness while living presently. It’s much easier to manage difficult conversations when you notice which emotions are arising within you instead of reacting impulsively. With this greater awareness, you’ll be better equipped to deal with difficult or tense situations with a sense of mental clarity.
4. Decreases metabolism
Most weight loss fads talk about increasing your metabolism, however, there are many positive benefits of decreasing it. Meditation can help decrease your metabolism which can increase your life expectancy as your body is under less stress. Since your metabolism will be slower, managing your food intake will be necessary, which means you’ll need to eat less to prevent obesity, which also has many benefits. And by decreasing your metabolism, you might be able to heal your body of various illnesses.
How to Meditate for Healing
1. Find a comfortable seat
If you can, take a seat with your legs crossed on a meditation cushion or mat. If you’re experiencing physical discomfort, you can choose to lie down instead. However, please note that lying down can sometimes make you feel drowsy during a meditation practice (and you just might nod off to sleep). Feel free to scratch any itches or wiggle into a position that feels best for you. And during your practice if you notice any uncomfortable itches, feel free to scratch them after noticing them for a moment or two.
2. Open your Declutter The Mind app
Declutter The Mind is a meditation app with hundreds of meditations to choose from. You can download the app to gain access to meditations for healing, such as healing others, healing, or healing a broken heart. You can search the meditation library by clicking on the lotus flower on the bottom of your screen and searching for “healing.” Depending what you’re struggling with you can also choose to search terms like “depression,” “anxiety,” “trauma,” or “pain relief.” Some topics also have courses you can follow or you can choose to simply do a quick guided meditation instead.
3. Take action
After completing your meditation, it’s time to take action. Your meditation practice may have helped you come up with an epiphany on your next steps. If not, your action should be to try to put out more good into the world to help reduce your suffering. When you help others, it’s common to feel better about yourself or your situation. Plus, when you’re kind to others, people are often kind right back.
The Suffering Epidemic
Suffering is a huge epidemic. Today, approximately 26% of Americans over 18 are struggling with a mental illness. However, many of those individuals are struggling with more than one. Worse than that, nearly 59% of Americans struggle with physical pain, with back pain negatively impacting nearly 40% of those individuals.
Suffering can be caused by any illness or discomfort. Some may struggle with managing their thoughts whereas others may be dealing with terminal illnesses.
The key to life is to be kind to everyone because you never really know what people are facing in their lives. And one day, you’ll want people to be compassionate with you when it’s your moment of hardship.
Doing meditation for healing can allow you to have a mental clarity that allows you to provide compassion to others who are struggling so you can heal others. You can also practice kind acts to other people to cheer them up or support them through their life journey.
While suffering is a part of life, being a supportive and kind person to those facing hardship can minimize the pain caused to them.
Other Ways to Improve Healing
1. Mindful eating
In addition to meditation for healing, you can also practice mindful eating to improve healing. In North America, illnesses caused by obesity are on the rise. Becoming mindful of how much food you consume and which type of food you consume can help you reduce your illnesses. Food is meant to nourish you and give you energy. For your next meal, take a moment to carefully chew thirty to forty times. Note in your mind how the taste and flavor changes with each bite. Also, notice the sensation in you as you crave the next bite.
2. Mindful walking
One of the meditations for healing you can follow along to is mindful walking meditation. When you go for a stroll, consider listening to Declutter The Mind’s mindful walking meditation instead of a podcast. And take notice of the world around you. Notice cars driving by, birds chirping, people walking past you, and breathe that fresh clean air. Being in nature and moving around can help heal the soul. You can try grounding techniques, such as gardening too.
3. Water Therapy
Those suffering from depression or thought disorders may find some benefit in water therapy. Taking a shower or running a bath can be a healing experience. Add in some lavender soaps, bath salts, or shampoo and you’ll find the experience more relaxing. The lavender scent is known to help with stress relief. By using it in your bathing experience daily, you’ll be able to reap the benefits of stress reduction. It can help heal your mind.
4. Seeing a therapist
Finding a therapist who can help you is crucial in self-healing. Often, when we try to sort through our problems ourselves, we get further tangled in them. Having an outside opinion on how to get ourselves out of our sticky situation can be the game-changer in our improvement. In between therapy sessions, you can try guided meditation for healing so you get the support you need throughout the week.
5. Practice positive visualization
During periods of suffering our minds become consumed with negativity. And the more negatively we think, the more negative we see. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, when you find your suffering unbearable, practice positive visualization or guided imagery. You can create a vision board too if that helps. Think about all the good things you want out of your life and situation. And come up with a plan to make small changes in your life to move in that direction.
6. Be kind
A meditation for healing isn’t complete without actions in your life moving in the direction of bettering the world. You can make a difference in the world in so many ways. You can do acts of kindness or good deeds daily allowing you to shift your thinking from negative to positive. The more good you put into the world the more you nourish your soul. It’s hard to suffer when you can see that you’re trying your best daily.
7. Practice self-care
There are countless self-care ideas that’ll help you care for yourself so you can heal. Everyone’s needs for self-care vary. Some people just need some time alone while others need to practice meditation for healing, exercise, and having a spa day. You can read through ideas to see what would help you in your specific situation. Whatever it is that’ll allow you to heal from your pain will be best. Trying a mix of things can also be therapeutic. Try different things to see what works best for you in your self-healing.
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