Mind and Body in sync

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This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 7 months ago by louise.

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March 27, 2014 at 11:41 pm #53693

Anonymous
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I was wondering about something about my mind and body state. Basically, my head stays “silent” most of the time, no radio playing. Of course, when i decide to focus closely, there are thoughts swimming there and i am teaching myself to simply observe them. I used to think that this was a sign that i was probably ignoring my thoughts but i can concentrate very easily while studying, solving a problem etc.

However, my body is a different story. I tend to have these attacks of breathlessness, racing heart all of a sudden. Of course, sometimes i am well aware of the triggers. Other times, it catches me out of the blue. My mind is seemingly clear about what could be a potential cause for this but my body doesnt calm down.

Would any of the forum members and regular practitioners of meditation tell me about this possible phenomenon? Are there any means through which i can calm my body down?

Thank you!

March 28, 2014 at 10:18 pm #53736

@Jasmine-3
Participant

Hi Jess

@amatt is more experienced in this stuff than many of us so hopefully, he will provide his perspective on this when he goes through your post.

I will share my experience with you. Mind (ego / logic) and body (physical body / emotions) are part of one continuum according to my spiritual teachers and we are not this body or mind. Hang in there with me pls on this.

The symptoms that you describe fall into the “panic attack” category. Often some people can have panic attacks when our thoughts and our feelings / actions are out of sync. The subconscious mind carries all the regular or routine thoughts that make us (these thought patterns could be coming from days, months or years ago) and conscious mind is the one, which is active currently and processing current information. Subconscious becomes highly active when we sleep and goes into passive mode when we are awake as the conscious mind takes over. Physical body or emotions in the “out of sync” state often react to subconscious mind more than the conscious mind. While your conscious mind is silent, your subconscious mind is playing havoc in your life by creating bodily symptoms. You have some unresolved issues from the past that you may need to work through.

Meditation is one form of looking into your subconscious mind patterns; if you start your meditation with breathing exercises before going into a semi trance state, you will be able to achieve a much better result of watching your subconscious film. With practice, you will come to know what your regular thought pattern is and I wont be surprised if it compromised mostly of sub optimal beliefs from the childhood. Another way of changing subconscious thinking is to practice positive affirmations few times a day with a clear visualisation. For example: I am safe and Universe is providing for my every need and want. While saying this, visualise jess feeling safe and loved. You will notice a huge difference in just a few days if you practice this.

Some people go for EFT sessions, hypnotherapy or energy healing sessions to align their subconscious with conscious mind. But it all comes down to the quality of your thoughts that you have fed into your mind over time. Repeated thoughts or recurrent thoughts form a belief system, which becomes our personality and we start acting out according to this (very much like on an auto-pilot).

All this may seem quite complex at this stage but I assure you that with practice, things become more clear and we become more self-aware. Thats what spiritual growth is all about.

Blessings,

J

March 29, 2014 at 8:25 am #53751

Matt
Participant

Jess,

Consider supplementing your breath meditation with a metta practice. Much like breath meditation helps us make space in the mind to observe thoughts, metta practice helps cultivate positive emotionality that creates emotional spaciousness. Consider that when a thought or experience arises that sings to you of anxiousness, your body has a reaction. Chemicals in the brain release, and a woosh of emotion comes up.

When we can smile at that emotion, then it settles quickly. Just an emotion, no biggie. We have space in the mind to let thoughts settle, space in the body to let emotions settle. Peaceful endurance, and the wind blows the clouds away.

After the emotion settles, we can look deeper at the trigger, and offer compassion, warm space. Instead of trying to stop the emotion (suppression), or chase down a trigger to try to dismantle it (avoidance), we can just let the information pour through (calm abding). The long term goal is to let them settle, of course, painful emotions are painful. But we can accept that emotions and thoughts move through the body consistently, so good thoughts, good feelings, bad thoughts, bad feelings come up and go, wind sometimes blowing in clouds, sometimes blowing them away. And there is Jess, walking and breathing.

From another direction, consider that sometimes when we spend too much time in our head, the body becomes restless. Its a good time to get a little grounded, spend more time in nature, give physical space to the body, spend time helping others, and so forth. We can let go of the obsession with ourselves, and simply keep our toes moving along the path. Sort of like stubbing our toe… hurts like crazy, but we can laugh that we didnt see the couch there and just hobble for a few minutes while we get on with what we were doing. If that “doing” involves being kind and helpful to yourself or others, even better. Then the toe pain seems small, impermanent, a natural result of misaiming the foot. But even so, its only a stubbed toe, so no need to obsess. When our mind remains undistracted in this way, we have more available resources to watch where we put our feet. If we start digging inside for whatever caused the stubbed toe, we might very well miss the chair, and stub it again. Hehe,
what a journey!

With warmth,
Matt

March 30, 2014 at 9:08 pm #53847

Anonymous
Inactive

Hello Matt and JasmineJasmine,

Thank you for taking the time to reply 🙂 I will try metta-mediation, hopefully find a teacher to help me out. Jasmine, yes i do get panic attacks. I have been able to identify a lot of these distorted thought patterns for the last 2-3 years. Still, got a long, long way to go nonetheless. Just in my early twenties now 🙂

I am experiencing a very worrisome period of uncertainty at this moment. I really have to make sure this particular thing works out. I need to get things back on track for my sake. Its may be causing me more worry than i am willing to take consciously 😀

Thank you for your insight once again!

Lots of love,
Jess

April 28, 2014 at 7:05 pm #55544

Katarina
Participant

wow my friends…i have learned so much from this explanations…but my mind is so restless…i meditate now 15 min every day,but i cant feel calm,i dont know what to do to envoid the past…cant live in present..any advice? blessings from Serbia

April 28, 2014 at 10:22 pm #55550
louise
Participant
Hello moon gal
It sounds like you are suppressing, that causes stress on the body.
THere is a stress disk that is also a meditation disk.
you can get it at amazon, it is called how your mind can keep you well.
I found it 35 years ago.
hope this help..
madera
- This reply was modified 10 years, 7 months ago by louise. Reason: added to it
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