Healing Meditation:: A Way of Stress Reduction

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Most web-sites on mediation are from an Eastern or Buddhist perspective.  If you are looking for that perspective, please stop here and go to your search engine and type in "meditation."  But if you appreciate an other approach, you are most welcome to continue.

Outline and Worksheet                              

1. Orientation

After a talk on meditation, a lady came up to me, telling me that she was healed from paralysis by meditation. For me, meditation reduces the stress in my life. Meditation can help in both specific and general healing. This web-site is written from a Christian perspective primarily for stress reduction. Read it all first and then review each section.

Meditation is  considering a subject in the mind through serious reflection and contemplation. It may be healing, leading to goodness and health. But meditation on negatives can be harmful. Healing meditation  fosters peace and reduces stress by a) putting all aspects of life into their proper places, and b) reducing negative thinking which harms the person. 

Stress is the internal or external force that causes a person to become tense, upset or anxious. Meditation is one of the forces that counteracts stress. It does so by bringing the body, mind and spirit into peaceful harmony.

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my strength, and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14. Meditate Acceptably: Some speak and meditate mainly to be acceptable to self, some to others, some to God.  Acceptable meditation focuses on the lordship of God, His strength and offer of support.

Two Meditation Forms:  1. In healing meditation, God’s glory, of the past and future, fills your present life. 2. In Eastern  meditation, you empty your mind and yourself. “It is the privilege of every Christian to enjoy the deep moving of the Spirit of God. A sweet, heavenly peace will pervade the mind, and you will love to meditate upon God and heaven. You will feast upon His word.” E.G. White, Maranatha, p. 67. 

From Mind to Hand:  Daydreaming…is listening to self. Meditating…is listening to God. Praying…is talking to God. Serving…is working with God.

* Pray for grace...and start and end each day in the hands of God.
* Review your blessing...and thank God for your gifts.
* Expect a blessing...and open your hands to receive them today.
* Commit yourself...to God as His rebellious child whose rebellion is healed.
* Prepare yourself...to listen to the still small voice of God.

Exercise 1:  “Meditate on God’s precepts and consider His ways” PSALMS 119:15-16. The exercises are for your very personal self-study. Do not submit them to the instructor.

 2. Physical Setting

* Choose a time...that is disturbance-free and sufficient.
* Select a place...that is distraction-free and comfortable.
* Either sit or walk...in a way that demands no or little attention.
* Breath well...and regularly to slow down your body.
* Stretch and Relax...your body-parts in a given order.

In meditation, you move from the physical, through the mental, to the spiritual. Thus you first orient yourself to meditation, then arrange your setting, choose your involvement and then listen to God.

Exercise 2: Makes notes on Meditation and contemplation  and The way of meditation. “My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.” Psalm 104:34  

 3. Mental Involvement

* Select a Bible phrase...that can fully occupy your mind for some time.
* Let it soak in...as you focus on the healing aspect of the phrase.
* Take a positive view...and never contemplate harm in your heart.
* Visualize the words...like a beautiful picture that your want to remember forever.
* Apply the words...and connect them to your life today.

God inspired the Bible writers. The Bible is the Word of God. As we read and listen to Bible portions, we are listening to God. Thus God guides us into harmony with His will, if we are wiling to be guided. Sometimes, as we listen, He enlarges on His Word.

You may choose Bible words, phrases, texts, passages or chapters. Meditate on the  31 underlined phrases in the Bible passages below. There is one for each day of the month. Or select other  Bible portions. “O how I love  your law! it is my meditation all the day.” Psalms 119:97 

Exercise 3: Outline your mental involvement.

4. Spiritual Process

* Yield to God...your body, mind and spirit to be used by Him.
*  Rest in God...and give up your struggles to achieve.
*  Listen to God...like you listen to a letter from your best friend.
*  Let go, let God...be your loving Father that looks after you well.
* Thank God in prayer...for the healing and peace you just received.

Put God first today. Let your positive meditation permeate  your whole day.

More Ways to Meditate: >Sing or hum a hymn >Review your day >Read gospel poetry >Explore nature >Pray aloud >Forgive everyone >Make peace >Eliminate negativity >Fill all with love  >Affirm God >Overcomel all guilt >Rest in God, relax >Hourly short-prayer >Stop! Listen to God.>Healing touch >God’s glory NOW >Look at God >Pay attention to God >Seek faith, hope, love >Give compassion >Review your lifestyle  >Seek God’s glory.

Exercise 4: Describe the prayer. Participate in at least four half-hour meditations.

   Passages for Mediation

As explained in part 3, meditate on the 31 underlined phrases in the Bible passages. There is one for each day of the month.

a. From a child you have known the Holy Bible, which can make you wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. It is inspired by God, for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in doing what is right. 2 Timothy 3:14-17

b. Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which misuse you.  Give what you can to every man that asks you for it. Do to others as you would like them do to you. Luke 6: 27-45 

c. Don’t be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again. I’m the way, the truth and the life. John 14:1-7 

d. Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom. For I was  hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. Naked, and you clothed me: I was sick, and you visited me. Matthew 25:33-40

e. Love is patient and kind. It is not jealous, boastful, proud, rude, or selfish. Love is not easily provoked. It thinks no evil. It is not glad about evil, but  about truth. Love bears all things. It believes, hopes and endures all things.1 Cor 13:4-7

h. Don’t worry about food, drink or clothes. Is not the life more than food or clothing? Watch the birds, they sow not, nor do they reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Matthew 6:25-26 

i. I saw a new heaven and a new earth. I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.  God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death,  sorrow, crying or pain. Revelation 22: 1-4 

j. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by His stripes we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Isa 53:4-6

More texts for two months:      

Chapters for Mediation, one group for a month:

Researching the Benefits of  on Meditation

1.        With 7 weeks of meditation, cancer patients decreased their degree of depression, anxiety, anger, confusion, and chest and stomach symptoms by 50% - and felt more vigor.

2.        With 10 weeks of meditation, 2/3’s of chronic pain patients had a 30% reduction in pain, and half had more than a 50% reduction.

3.        With 10 weeks of meditation, chronic pain patients had less pain, less mood disturbances, used less pain medication, and could be more active.  The benefits were still present one year later.     

4.        Three years after an 8-week meditation instruction, patients with anxiety and panic disorders still showed a benefit.

5.        All patients with fibromyalgia who meditated for 10 weeks improved, and over half showed moderate to marked improvement in pain, fatigue and quality of sleep.    

6.        With 6 weeks of meditation irritable bowel syndrome patients had less flatulance, belching, bloating and diarrhea.

7.        The areas of the brain that show increased activity with meditation have been identified using SPECT scanning. (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography)

8.        Even though daily fluctuations in cortisol are unchanged, people who meditate don’t have the daily fluctuations in the cortisol-stimulating hormone (ACTH), or beta-endorphins, suggesting a change in feedback sensitivity.

9.        People trained in and performing an imagery-based relaxation prior to injection, had less inflammatory reaction to chili pepper “extract” (capsaicin) injected under the skin.     

10.     With 6 months of meditation, athletes had less increase in the CD8+ suppressor T cell response to strenuous physical stress, improving the immune system’s helper to suppressor cell ratio.     

11.     Patients who meditated during ultraviolet light treatment for psoriasis had quicker clearing of their skin disease.    

12.     With 6 months of meditating for 20 minutes twice a day, hypertensive African Americans had a decrease in the carotid artery wall thickness.  

13.     With 4 years of daily meditation, coronary artery narrowing showed regression rather than progression.

14.     Over a 5 year period, people who meditated had over 50% less doctor’s office visits, and an average of  50% less hospital admissions (including a reduction all 17 major treatment categories such as benign and malignant tumors, heart disease, infectious disease, and nervous system disorders).  Only childbirth rates were the unchanged.

 Sources for the above:

1.        Speca M, Carlson L, Goodey E, et al: A randomized, wait-list controlled clinical trial: The effects of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction program on mood and symptoms of stress in cancer outpatients. Psychosom Med 62:613–622, 2000

2.        Kabat-Zinn J: An outpatient program in behavioral medicine for chronic pain patients based on the practice of mindfulness meditation: Theoretical considerations and preliminary results. Gen Hosp Psychiatry 4:33–47, 1982

3.        Kabat-Zinn J, Lipworth L, Burney R: The clinical use of mindfulness meditation for the self-regulation of chronic pain. J Behav Med 8:163–190, 1985

4.        Miller J, Fletcher K, Kabat-Zinn J: Three-year follow-up and clinical implications of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction intervention in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Gen Hosp Psychiatry 17:192–200, 1995

5.        Kaplan K, Goldenberg D, Galvin-Nadeau M: The impact of a meditation-based stress reduction program on fibromyalgia. Gen Hosp Psychiatry 15:284–289, 1993

6.        Keefer L, Blanchard EB: The effects of relaxation response meditation on the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome: results of a controlled treatment study.  Behav Res Ther. 2001 Jul;39(7):801-11

7.        Newberg A, Alavi A, Baime M, Pourdehnad M, Santanna J, d’Aquili E: The measurement of regional cerebral blood flow during the complex cognitive task of meditation: a preliminary SPECT study.  Psychiatry Res. 2001 Apr 10;106(2):113-22

8.        Infante JR, Peran F, Martinez M, Roldan A, Poyatos R, Ruiz C, Samaniego F, Garrido F: ACTH and beta-endorphin in transcendental meditation.   Physiol Behav. 1998 Jun 1;64(3):311-5

9.        Lutgendorf S, Logan H, Kirchner HL, et al: Effects of relaxation and stress on the capsaicin-induced local inflammatory response. Psychosom Med 62:524–534, 2000.

10.     Solberg EE, Halvorsen R, Sundgot-Borgen J, Ingjer F, Holen A: Meditation: a modulator of the immune response to physical stress? A brief report. Br J Sports Med. 1995 Dec;29(4):255-7

11.     Kabat-Zinn J, Wheeler E, Light T, Skillings A, Scharf MJ, Cropley TG, Hosmer D, Bernhard JD:  Influence of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction intervention on rates of skin clearing in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis undergoing phototherapy (UVB) and photochemotherapy (PUVA). Psychosom Med. 1998 Sep;60(5):625-32

12.     Kabat-Zinn J, Wheeler E, Light T, Skillings A, Scharf MJ, Cropley TG, Hosmer D, Bernhard JD. Effects of stress reduction on carotid atherosclerosis in hypertensive African Americans. Stroke 01-Mar-2000; 31(3):468-73

13.     Moris EL: The relationship of spirituality to coronary heart disease.  Altern Ther Health Med. 2001 Sep;7(5):96-8

14.     Orme-Johnson DW: Medical care utilization and the transcendental meditation program. Psychosom Med 49:493–507, 1987

Library    that may or may not be helpful.

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