Three of One part 1

A trilogy on Health & Well-Being

Body Mind Spirit

We often hear: “Touch grass / Take care of yourself / Your mental health is important”. But how often do we actually follow up on these wise words? If the answer is almost never, it is the exact same thing as a GM routine on our most dreadful day of the year.

Without claiming to be an expert on the matter, I feel confident enough to share my views on this thing we call Health. Saying my way is the only way or the best advice is like saying only one art medium is beautiful and there is just one road to success.

I like to approach health from a holistic Body Mind Spirit perspective. Where this is more an ever communicating continuum than 3 levels. In our lives on Earth one is not more important than the other. Although imo a different phase in our lives can call for a particular optimal entrance. And if you align things with your spirit, that can have seriously positive consequences for the other 2 realms. More about that later.

The Art of Meditation

If there is one single advice that I give to almost everyone, it is to start a meditation practice. Before we go a little deeper into that I would like paraphrase a fragment of book called ‘Be the Change’ by Ed & Deb Shapiro. At a certain point a student comes up to Ed and asks: “So with meditation will I experience other Realities?” Upon which Ed answers: “Try and live in this Reality first!”. Now I don’t remember the exact words but at its practical core I highly agree.

Although there are many different forms of meditation, your basic meditation should draw you into the here and now. We can spiritualize that all we want, but as humans we are mostly somewhere else: The future, the past, other circumstances. Everywhere but here. That can cause loads of unwanted states like anxiety, guilt, worry or basically stress in general. Which might lead to bodily dysfunction like cardio-vascular issues, out of balance appetite, insomnia, fatigue etc.

So for me personally meditation is key. Without claiming it is a (especially medical) cure for everything. For those sceptics whose goto exclamation is ‘no science will back any benefit up’: There are countless studies actually with positive outcome. As not to only use google, if you need science before experience, Pubmed them.

Basic technique

Loads of books have been written and even more articles on the internet so I will only present some basics here. Preferably do meditation sitting as to not associate your practice with sleep. You can use a slight cushion to sit on, but on the floor with your legs folded works fine as well. And no you don’t need to go full lotus.

Draw in your chin and feel if your head is lifted by a string attached to your crown. More with intention than by muscular/postural force. This will increase your awareness and it will create more space between the spinal vertebrae. As a slight correction to us NFT-space or general screen overuse hunchbacks. Also by drawing in your chin your head will be more aligned with your spine and will decrease the weight of your head that your neck and shoulders have to compensate for. So less tension.

Anchors & counting

Thoughts popping up is inevitable. So it is absolutely useless to try and actively suppress them. The key is to use an anchor. And the most readily available one to us is our breathing. So a few examples how you can put a soft focus on the anchor of your choice:

Count after every cycle of inhale and exhale. So breath in, and out. That’s one. Try to make it till 10 counts first, without losing your focus. If you lost count because of a train of thoughts (or dozing off) start again with 1. If you make it till 10 without losing focus or awareness, repeat the cycle. When you’re getting better at it, count till 20 etc.
Count every short pause between your inhale & exhale and vice versa. Don’t forcefully elongate that pause just count them. These pauses are moments of change in a broader sense. Like dusk & dawn or when one extreme movement changes into its opposite. Extreme Yin leading into Yang and the other way around (see the famous Taiji symbol). But let’s not drift off. Count them. If you don’t want to count, just put your attention there. Serene still moments between movements.
This might sound strange, but count your thoughts. This puts awareness on these thoughts without expanding on them. Often it is suggested to view thoughts like clouds passing. Just be aware of them and they will pass. Often we create a train of thoughts when one pops up. Awareness will help to avoid that. Same as with breaths, when you are at 10 (or any number you can handle) start over.

And keep ‘correcting’ your posture which can be kind of an anchor of itself. You can also just follow your breaths and not count them. Now remember these, and especially counting, are all just tools. If you are ready to let go of them, by all means, just sit and be aware.

The Heart

Now one more possible addition is to combine your breath with an exercise to positively influence your HRV (Heart Rate Variability) and with that your Heart Coherence. This comes from the HeartMath Institute. You can also take this out of your meditation and just make it a separate practice.

The only thing you have to do is imagine your inhales and exhales going through your heart, while at the same time holding a truly positive feeling in there.

Gregg Braden is one of my favourite authors. When I visited his event quite some years ago, he explained that often a feeling of love is what people think of first. Followed by saying that ‘well love can be a tricky thing’. Depending on what someone has (recently) gone through. He then named a feeling of gratitude as an example of a safer choice. But in the end, it is what you feel works best.

The Heart by the way plays an important role in of course physiology but also many religions, CAM-medicine, healing, philosophy and basically in our entire human existence.

The Chinese character for Heart also means Mind. And is partly represented by an empty bowl. Now that alone is a great start for contemplation and brand new perspectives.

Zen Mind

Try to build in meditation every day. A Zen proverb goes something like this: “Meditate for an hour a day. If you don’t have time, meditate for two hours”.

I always say half an hour is great, 20 minutes beats 10, 5 is better than nothing. It should be like brushing your teeth and become part of your routine. Ultimately you don’t just meditate on your cushion. You take it into your daily life. In stressful situations or phases you will learn to withdraw to the eye of the storm. To find stillness when everything is moving around you. Including your thoughts.

Stillness does not mean passiveness. Your increased awareness will help you to make better decisions. Take better actions. And you will find, that breathing is not only an anchor in meditation. But an anchor for life.

* In Part 2 we will focus more on the Body