Everyone knows the great relaxation benefits that meditation provides but not many people know that meditation can also help your body repair, rebuild and some studies have shown it even helps change the way your genes behave!
An article from the Harvard Medical School talks about a study where blood samples were taken before and after the participants were given an 8-week relaxation response training course. The samples were analyzed to observe the expression of over 22,000 genes at various points in the study.
The conclusion was that deep relaxation produces immediate changes in the expression of genes involved in immune function, inflammation levels, energy metabolism and insulin secretion. Although the findings showed the short term benefits of meditating, they also indicated that with longer term practice the results were even more pronounced.
Great news for anyone with cancer and those concerned about their genetic predisposition to cancer.
You may be thinking that meditation is hard or that you don't have time for it but given that the benefits of deep, Theta state meditation are actually greater than the benefits of Delta wave sleep, I suggest getting up 20 minutes earlier in order to start your day with a meditation practice.
At the conference with Eben Alexander and Karen Newell I spoke about last time I experienced a very deep meditation thanks to Karen's Sacred Acoustics recordings. The recordings help quiet the mind and bring you more quickly into the Theta brainwave state. Please use this link to try Karen's free 20-minute OM meditation. If you prefer to meditate without music or sound I have many guided meditations available on my course site including a Deep Healing meditation - an empowering 10-minute guided healing journey.
I believe meditation is one of the most powerful tools for healing at a mind, body, spirit level and that soon doctors will be writing prescriptions for people to meditate twice daily as part of any treatment plan! But don't wait to start, recordings make meditating easy - please let me know if you have any questions or visit my peacefullife.ca website to try my 5-minute mini meditation and for tips on how to start a regular practice.
Be well and stay relaxed!
Jackie