Staying in the present moment is the ultimate (yet elusive) goal of any meditation practice. There are many types of meditation. This post will focus on a breath centered meditation. Learning to meditate is like learning any other skill, it requires practice to develop, with the benefits making it time well invested
Swami Vivekananda is considered as the introducer of meditation to the Western countries. He defined “meditation” as a state “when the mind has been trained to remain fixed on a certain internal or external location, there comes to it the power of flowing in an unbroken current, as it were, towards that point.
Mind versus Brain
The three definitions of mind and brain below come at it from a more comprehensive perspective than those found in ; “A Primer on the Mind, Heart and Body.”
Dr. Jennifer Weinberg, MD, MPH, MBE, a preventive, and lifestyle medicine physician, describes the brain as “the hardware” that allows us to experience the thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions that we collectively call the mind.”
Ray Oakley, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Psychiatry and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University advises; “According to the mind–body or biopsychosocial paradigm, which supersedes the older biomedical model, there is no real division between mind and body because of networks of communication that exist between the brain and neurological, endocrine and immune systems..”
Quantum Consciousness
Dr. Dirk K.F. Meijer, a professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, hypothesizes that consciousness resides in a field surrounding the brain. This field is in another dimension. It shares information with the brain through quantum entanglement, among other methods. And it has certain similarities with a black hole.
In other words, the “mind” is a field that exists around the brain; it picks up information from outside the brain and communicates it to the brain in an extremely fast process. He described this field alternately as “a holographic structured field,” a “receptive mental workspace,” a “meta-cognitive domain,” and the “global memory space of the individual.”
In Dr. Dirk K.F. Meijer’s interesting quote above he writes; the mind “picks up information from outside the brain and communicates it to the brain in an extremely fast process. An idea of how fast this might be and the complexity of the brain is described next.
The Cleveland Clinic infographic above advises that signals in the brain travel at 300 miles per hour over 500 trillion synapses and 100 billion neurons!
What does Mindbody Connection mean?
Sandstone Care, a mental health provider states that;” The mind-body connection works by the feedback loop between your body and your mind.
Painted Brain, another mental health provider offers this excellent definition ;”One of these connections is the Mind-Body Connection, which is the link between our emotional and mental health (such as thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors) and our physical health. Our biology impacts our mood. How our body feels impacts our emotions.
An example of this mind-body connection is how your body responds to stress. Constant worry and stress over jobs, finances, or other problems can cause tense muscles, pain, headaches, and stomach problems. It may also lead to high blood pressure or other serious problems.”
Awareness and Mindfulness
Self-awareness or mindfulness mean being fully present and aware of where we are and what we are doing. It means not being overly reactive or overwhelmed by what is going on around us, but just being aware and reflective.
Mindbody connection and mindfulness are the same, moving the mind and body in the direction of increased harmony, balance or coherence.
We can talk about mindfulness at length about it, but to understand it we have to experience it directly, through a breathing meditation or other practice. This is because mindfulness points to something intuitive and pre-conceptual.
Meditation and Conscious breathing
Your mind is often underutilized because you aren’t focusing it on the right things. However, if you set a clearly defined goal, and point your mind there, your mind will help you travel where you want to go.
You are the one who should give instructions to your mind, not vice versa. If you do not learn how to use this amazing tool then it will use you for your whole life
Integrative psychiatrist James Lake, MD, of Stanford University, writes that “extensive research has confirmed the medical and mental benefits of meditation, mindfulness training, yoga, and other mindbody practices.
Conscious breathing also improves the quality and effectiveness of meditation by; assisting in changing the brain wave activity from the stressful beta wavelengths to more relaxing and healthier alpha and theta wavelengths.
There are many health benefits to intentional or conscious breathing.
When you meditate, you will have periods of time focusing on your breath as it comes in and out of your body. And other times, finding your focus being swept away by the automatic thinking mind, and then snap out of it and return to the breathing, again and again. Rinse and repeat.
I am including a short video on a breathing meditation. There are many online, you just need to find one that resonates with you.
Brian
