SGM October 2016 Weekly Message One: “4 Ways to Use Meditation for Health & Healing”

SGM October 2016 Weekly Message One: “4 Ways to Use Meditation for Health & Healing”

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Welcome to the October 2016 Edition of Spiritual Growth Monthly. I’m Kevin Schoeninger. I’m so glad you’re with us here at SGM!

This month, we wrap up our series on Mastering Meditation by exploring four ways you can use meditation to support the experiences your soul desires. You’ll learn how to apply meditation to promote health and healing, overcome pain and suffering, manifest your good intentions, and connect more deeply with your spiritual path.

Facial massage

This week, we begin with using meditation as preventative medicine, to boost recovery, and to facilitate a deep sense of well-being. Let’s begin with a story from “Meditation: An In-Depth Guide” (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2011) by Ian Gawler and Paul Bedson.

Bernice Heals Her Cancer
(p.274-278, MAIG)

In 1980, Bernice Groeke was diagnosed with melanoma in her calf which she had surgically removed. A year and a half later, doctors found melanoma in a lymph node in her groin and also surgically removed that. A year and a half after that, the cancer had spread to her lungs, at which point the doctors said that it was inoperable. They said there was nothing medically they could do for her and that she had only months to live.

Bernice decided to join a 12-week cancer self-help group. Soon after joining the group, the discussion turned to the effect of mindset on handling the physical pain and mental-emotional suffering of cancer. Bernice had never really given much thought to her mindset.

However, as the group discussed the power of positive thinking, Bernice quickly began to realize just how negative her usual mindset tended to be. In fact, she had taken it as her duty to be on guard and to warn her family and friends of anything that could go wrong. On the flip-side, she was also quick her warn herself and others not to get too excited about new possibilities because they were likely to end in disappointment.

Bernice realized that her mindset was the definition of the “glass half-empty” approach to life. And, after learning about some of the benefits of thinking more positively, she decided that she wanted to try to change that mindset. She decided to repeat the affirmation “I am a positive person” anytime she recognized herself going negative.

About six weeks into her new affirmation practice, she was sitting with her husband after dinner when she experienced one of the melanomas pressing uncomfortably against her spine. Her husband noticed her agitation and asked what was wrong.

Bernice replied, “Perhaps the doctors are right. Perhaps I’m just kidding myself. Perhaps I should just accept the fact that I’m going to die and give up on all this other stuff.” (p.275, MAIG)

Her husband was sympathetic to her pain and he was also aware of her new affirmation practice. So, instead of just sympathizing, he replied, “Oh that’s interesting. What are you?”
“What do you mean, what am I?” she replied.

“Oh, I thought you were a positive person now” he said.

Bernice reflected on this and replied, “You’re right, I am.”

Bernice recalls that, as she said this, she felt a palpable shift inside her body, as if a switch had been turned on. From that moment on, she was able to see the positive in every situation.

Shortly after this inner shift, she was meditating and praying in church and had a profound mystical experience of God’s Presence in which she understood the Biblical phrase “Be still and know that I am God.” From that moment on, her faith was strengthened. She found it easier to follow through on her healthy diet and her healing efforts with meditation. She also became enthusiastic about serving others.

Within six months, scans revealed that her lungs were clear of all tumors. And, within a year, much to their surprise, doctors proclaimed her cancer-free.

Soon thereafter, Bernice volunteered to speak to meditation groups at the Gawler Foundation telling them her story. She beamed radiantly as she spoke and her enthusiasm for life was infectious. Bernice became an inspiring spiritual force.

Several years later, her husband died in his late eighties. Her friends and family wondered how Bernice would take his passing. After all, they had been together for over sixty years.

While she grieved appropriately and was deeply saddened, she surprised them with her resilience. She said, “Well, you know, it is really sad that Wain died and I will miss him terribly, but it will be interesting. . . I have never lived on my own before. I wonder what it will be like not having to take Wain into account anymore?”

Shortly thereafter, to help with expenses, Bernice took in a student boarder from overseas. They quickly became the best of friends. She taught him of life in Australia and he gave her company and financial support. It was a beautiful new chapter in her life.

Then, in 2009, at the age of 93, and 26 years after her cancer had disappeared—it reappeared. This time, she deteriorated quickly.

At first, she thought that she was at fault. She went to Gawler to express her disappointment in herself. Gawler was quick to remind her of her remarkable recovery. For over 26 years, she had lived cancer-free. He reminded her that we all die of something—and that we don’t always know why. He also reminded her of her faith.

Bernice conceded that she had somewhat lost touch with her faith and that now she had some doubts and fears of dying.

Gawler encouraged her that doubts and fears were natural human feelings, especially in the face of death. He encouraged her to mindfully recognize her doubts and fears and accept them for what they were—natural feelings toward facing the unknown. He also suggested to Bernice that dying was like “going home.”

He reminded Bernice of her faith and encouraged her to imagine what it would be like to rest in the Divine Presence. He told her that “dying was easy, that she had led a good life, and she could look back on it with gentle satisfaction and no regrets. To die she only had to breathe out and not breathe in again. It would be easy.”

Supported by Gawler’s words, Bernice resolved to focus on the Divine Presence and imagine herself merging with it when the time came.

Bernice died less than a week later, peacefully. And, her funeral was a joyous celebration of her life. Family, friends, and throngs of those whom she had touched with her smiling service came to celebrate what she had meant to them.

A beautiful story.

4 Insights for Health and Healing

So, what can we draw from Bernice’s story that can help us heal and be healthier? Gawler and Bedson identify four things (p.268, MAIG):

1. Your mindset affects your ability to heal

As we saw with Bernice, her healing began with healing her attitude, her mindset. She came to recognize that she had a habit of looking at life through a negative and fear-based lens. She was always wary, on guard, and expecting the worst. Before attending the cancer self-help group, she hadn’t really noticed that this was a mindset, or that it was detrimental—she just thought she was being conscientious, responsible, and careful.

Bernice learned to change her mindset by affirming, “I am a positive person.”

Now, having a positive mindset is not about making things up or making things better than they really are. It’s about noticing the opportunities that are present in every situation. It’s about seeing what can be done rather than focusing on what can’t. It’s about being present with “what is” and noticing what you can do to move things forward in a good direction.
When you do that, you open yourself to a wider scope of possibilities and become more inspired to take positive action.

2. The choices you make matter

As you open yourself to a wider scope of possibilities, you realize that you can choose to take actions that make a positive difference for yourself and others. Things are not “just the way they are,” they are the result of a series of choices that combine together to create results.

As Bernice opened up to the possibility that she could heal, she began to make different choices. She chose to say her positive affirmations to reset her mindset. She adopted a healthier diet. She meditated daily. She increased her efforts to serve others. She widened her community.

In time, these all combined with other unseen forces to create a miraculous healing.

Meditation supports a state of clear seeing in which you can recognize options and make good choices. As Gawler and Bedson say:

“When we give our mind the chance to settle, to rest undistracted for even a short while, it clears. With clarity comes the capacity to make effective decisions. With clarity comes confidence, and with confidence, commitment. With commitment comes perseverance, resilience and the capacity to follow through on decisions. This clarity also leads quite naturally to a heightened awareness. We begin to be aware of what is working well for us and what is not.”

Through meditation practice, you become more able to choose what works and let go of what doesn’t.

3. Meditation itself supports healing

One of the most important things you can do to facilitate healing—whether it’s physical or mental-emotional—is to activate your body’s natural relaxation response.

When you are in stress-mode, over-busy, and over-whelmed, your body restricts energy flow to digestion, immune, and higher-thought processes. Your sympathetic nervous system directs all energy outward and you lose your ability to absorb nutrients, repair your cells, and make good choices.

Our bodies are made to alternate between periods of activity and rest. Most of err on the side of too much activity. We rush from one thing to the next and don’t allow ourselves time to consciously process the events of the day. Then, we spend our sleeping hours actively processing life in our dreams. No real rest for the weary.

When you consciously relax, using a tool such as meditation, you activate your parasympathetic nervous system, your natural recovery and repair mode. This brings digestion, immune, and higher-thinking capacities back online, so they can do their jobs again. You also begin to process the events of the day, and of your life up to now, so you can let them go and be more present with what is.

For these reasons, it’s vitally essential to consciously activate the Relaxation Response at least once a day using a tool such as meditation for at least 10-20 minutes. For those with an illness, especially in an advanced stage, sessions of 20-60 minutes up to three times a day are recommended.

4. Meaningful imagery supports healing

Bernice had a strong faith in God. Because of that, she found it quite helpful and healing to imagine herself in the Divine Presence. This was soothing and comforting to her. Her faith also prompted her to take other healing actions, serve others, and build community.

When we are thinking only of ourselves, our own situation, and our own suffering, it’s easy to get bogged down in a “Woe is me” feeling. Having a vision of Life as bigger than yourself inspires and heals.

Holding an image of a Bigger Reality and your purposeful place within it, inspires you to embrace Life. It inspires you to ask what you can do to live your purpose here. It opens you to ask what you can do to more fully express that.

So, what is your Bigger Vision of Life and your Purpose in it?

It could relate to God (the Universal LifeForce or however you prefer to phrase that), your family, community, a cause, or a specific action or practice—or all of the above. When you hold these meaningful images in your mind, they inspire the flow of LifeForce through you—and that is the essence of being healthy.

Health and Healing occur as a result of the Universal LifeForce flowing strongly and smoothly through your whole being. Meditation is a powerful way to recognize blocks to that flow, release them, and center into that deeper enlivening Presence.

I would love to hear your thoughts on using meditation for health and healing in our Discussion below.

In next week’s message, we’ll explore how to use meditation to ease pain and suffering.

Until next time,

How can you use these 4 Insights to strengthen your meditation practice and support your health?

Kevin