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How to Meditate to Heal Autoimmune Disease
How do you feel about mediation? Have you googled “how to meditate” only to discover that you can’t find a style that works? Or you don’t understand the benefits of meditation? Or maybe you just don’t find that how to meditate explains it enough for you?
Last week I talked about the importance of mind-body connection and how many times, women who develop or are suffering from an autoimmune condition have lost that mind-body connection. In that episode, I gave you all of the info about why that is important. Today, I want to talk to you about an example of one way you can achieve and maintain this connection.
Sometimes I hear that you have tried meditation - and it's not that you don’t understand the proof it works, you just don’t understand how to meditate.
Don’t run away if you have already tried it or if you didn’t like it or if you even feel like it didn’t work - I promise you can do this.
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How to Meditate to Heal Autoimmune Disease
Rough Transcript (listening is best)
How do you feel about meditation...
How do you feel about mediation? Have you googled “how to meditate” only to discover that you can’t find a style that works? Or you don’t understand the benefits of meditation? Or maybe you just don’t find that how to meditate explains it enough for you?
Last week I talked about the importance of mind-body connection and how many times, women who develop or are suffering from an autoimmune condition have lost that mind-body connection. In that episode, I gave you all of the info about why that is important. Today, I want to talk to you about an example of one way you can achieve and maintain this connection.
Sometimes I hear that you have tried meditation - and it's not that you don’t understand the proof it works, you just don’t understand how to meditate.
Don’t run away if you have already tried it or if you didn’t like it or if you even feel like it didn’t work - I promise you can do this.
Intro
Welcome if this is your first time listening - I’m Audrey Christie - I’m a functional and integrative nurse nutritionist and energy medicine practitioner. I help women start their very own Autoimmune Revolution so they can stop chasing symptoms and learn how to heal their bodies from autoimmune disease.
If your mind-body connection is broken...
As I mentioned in the last episode about Mind-Body Connection, if you are disconnected from your body, if you aren’t in touch with your body, if your mind-body connection is missing or broken, then it makes it more difficult to heal your body from an autoimmune disease or even effectively mask the symptoms with conventional or natural medicine.
I want to make sure you understand that bit there because it is so important, a mind-body connection is essential for healing, no matter your path, this will be a recurrent theme today too.
Let me share a story with you...
I want to share a story with you - because I promise if there is an excuse for not meditating I have heard it.
Let me set the stage, busy mom of 4 kids under 10. Also running a full-time business, from home with the kids. Suffering from all kinds of symptoms, fatigue, irregular menstrual cycles, sleeplessness (unrelated to kids), anxiety...you get where I am going with this. She was at her limit. She wasn’t officially diagnosed with an autoimmune condition BUT she did have a collection of symptoms that could likely be labeled as such (and we already know that autoimmune conditions take an average of 5 years to diagnose...do you really need that label bad enough to suffer 5 years before taking charge and creating your own Autoimmune Revolution? She didn’t thankfully - and here’s a hint - you don’t either).
So this lovely client of mine, she is BUSY, right with a capital B. Her reason for not taking the time to fill her cup was obvious - she didn’t have time to sit twice a day even for 20 minutes. She barely had time to do the rest of her list - much less add nearly an hour of “unproductive time” to her schedule.
After lots of convincing, I finally got her to adjust things just a wee bit to include these to protected time slots on her calendar each day. Once before the kids got up, and once towards the end of the day...and guess what - not only did she start to reap the benefits of meditation she also found she created more time in her schedule. MORE TIME created by spending time sitting.
She also reported that she slept better at night, had more energy, was able to skip that mid-afternoon caffeine, and stopped being such a “screamy mom.” And moms out there - you know what she means by “screamy mom”, right?
I experienced this for myself 12ish years ago, I have seen it happen for so many people just like this story that I have shared, and hey, the data and published research backs this up.
Research shows meditation is key...
And if its research you want - I have data on how meditation boosts your health, how it boosts your happiness, how it boosts your social life (yes even though it is a solitary activity unless you are doing a group meditation), how meditation improves your self-control, how it changes your brain (for the better), how it improves your productivity, how it makes you smarter and wiser, how it helps you keep it real, how meditation actively lower adrenaline and cortisol (also known as the stress hormones), how it lowers the heart rate and blood pressure and decreases total body system-wide inflammation - critical for those suffering from any autoimmune disease or chronic illness or looking to release excess weight. Learning to de-excite your nervous system actually promotes healing on a cellular level.
These are all benefits proven by science, that is that mind-body connection I have been raving about. I just love being able to say that science supports it.
And with all of these benefits, there comes, of course, about 1000 different ways you can find on how to meditate. Luckily there is some science on what works best, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start where you are and move into the best-case scenario as you begin to train your mind and body. You would go from couch to marathon in one day, right? This is no different.
How to Meditate to Heal Autoimmune Disease
So, how do we achieve all of this? How do you meditate to heal your autoimmune condition and every other aspect of your life (did you hear my description?) ? Here’s the steps friends - good news there are only 5:
- Sit. In any position comfortable to you. You can have your feet on the ground, extended, crossed up “easy sit” or “criss-cross applesauce” style, knees at your chest, literally any comfortable seated position.
- Set a timer. Set it for 15 minutes OR just have a little clock where you can crack an eyelid open and peek if needed.
- Mindfulness. Close your eyes and breath in through your nose for a count of 3 and exhale through your mouth for a count of 6. You can also do 2 in, 4 out or 4 in, 8 out. The goal is to inhale for a count and exhale slowly at double that count. After you have done that 2-3 times, begin to breathe normally and begin to tune into everything you hear, see, feel, taste, and smell. Try not to judge, just allow.
- Begin meditation. Continuing with your eyes closed, allow your mantra to bubble up. If you want me to assign you a mantra - head over and DM me on Facebook or Instagram and I will give you your very own.You can find those links in the show notes or on the show notes page at AudreyChristie.com/128.
No worries if you are too shy - use this word: "one." There are theories that your mantra should be a non-word and not ever shared with anyone. I was gifted my mantra by a meditation teacher back in 2012. Before that, I used the one I am sharing here today: “one.”
As you are allowing this mantra to bubble up gently into your mind, repeat it in your mind over and over. You can allow the mantra to change speed and to fade in and out. When thoughts creep in (and they will) gently return to your mantra, repeating “one, one, one, one, one.”
At the end of 15 min, when your timer goes off or you check the time and notice its up, release the mantra and allow your mind to wander.
- Close with gratitude. Begin to think of 5-10 things you are grateful for in the present moment. You can even write them down if you choose. Don’t worry if you don’t have anything grand, start with your breath or the sunshine or the birds chirping or your fav dinner.
And that is IT! Here’s the thing, its probably not going to be super smooth the first time, and there will be times even when you are a pro - that your meditation will get interrupted or just not be this amazing experience, but it IS working, even when you feel like it wasn’t the best session.
This stuff is so important...
This meditation stuff is so important, so critical for healing that getting this mind-body connection piece is one of the first steps in creating your Autoimmune Revolution.
I have two free resources for you today, the first is called Kickstart Your Autoimmune Revolution and you will find information on getting plugged back in and creating your meditation practice and 4 other steps to help you kickstart your healing journey.
Once you have that a few days later, I will send you 2 sure-fire guides to get you started on your meditation journey, even if you aren’t ready for the flavor of meditation I described above.
You can find it on the show notes page at audreychrsitie.com/128. It’s totally free and I want you to have it and use it often. I encourage you to download it here.
To wrap this up...
To wrap this up - as I always say symptoms, autoimmune diseases, chronic illness are trees with many roots, and one of those roots is the mind-body connection.
Learning how to meditate serves to actively lower adrenaline and cortisol (also known as the stress hormones), lowers the heart rate and blood pressure, and decreases total body system-wide inflammation - critical for those suffering from any autoimmune disease or chronic illness or looking to release excess weight. Learning to de-excite your nervous system actually promotes healing on a cellular level and creates MORE time for you.
Thank you so much for tuning in, if you have a second it would mean the world to me if you could leave a rating or review! That helps me help more people start an autoimmune revolution of their own. I’d be oh so grateful.
I hope you have the most magical and restful day friends, and I challenge you to leave your world, however you can, a little better than how you found it when you got up this morning.
Be well.