Meditation as a Therapeutic Practice

     Most people who live in the hustle and bustle of modern life have active minds which are constantly being stimulated.  At the same time, stress increases muscle tension and further accelerates the mind, keeping the person less aware of internal emotional responses and more aware of external activities and perceived threats. After a long period of this kind of pattern, we become even less aware of our inner emotional life, get more disconnected from our feelings and shut down the places that feelings lodge in our bodies either by a form of psychological and physical “numbing’ or chronic muscle tension.  Ironically the more we feel disconnected, the more we often seek the very stimulation that keeps us from experiencing the missing parts of ourselves. We begin maintaining a hyper-vigilant state and many of us become “adrenalin junkies”, seeking constant stimulation and stress to avoid the experience of fear and old emotional wounds.  We live in the rational and seemingly more comfortable world of our minds.

     Meditation, through the use of focusing techniques such as breathing or mantras serves the purpose of occupying the active mind so that the mind loosens it vigilance and control over emotional responses and body sensations. Removing or reducing this defense system allows us to experience parts of ourselves we normally ignore, block or repress.  In a state of deep relaxation we may be surprised to find ourselves aware of anxiety, sadness, anger or a deep well of loneliness. All are parts of ourselves we may have forgotten.  The state of relaxation itself can actually allow these sensations to float to the surface of our awareness. They may manifest with the symptoms of physical pain, energy movement or tingling in parts of our bodies, or welling up of tears.

     An experienced meditation teacher assists this process by helping the beginner meditator dip into this deep well of emotion a little at a time, gradually increasing the exploration and awareness of its presence. Meanwhile the student is developing or cultivating a core of experience and inner knowledge that is grounded in pure awareness and sensation, not just in the rational thinking mind.  This emergence of the authentic, grounded self then allows further expansion to the place where the student can experience deep inner emotion without losing their equilibrium.  The student learns to trust themselves and the process, knowing that each layer of awareness and consciousness will lay the foundation for the next.

     Much of the inner emotional work can be done “energetically” without always having to process the responses mentally. In contrast to many traditional psychotherapeutic processes, it is not always necessary to label the origin of the emotional responses: sadness, anger, or joy just IS and therefore can be acknowledged, witnessed or expressed and actively integrated as part of the whole person. The focus for the student is on awareness and acceptance of their experience.

     The teacher’s work is to understand this process and to assist in the emergence of the authentic self, to provide a safe and supportive environment and to assist in balancing the energies that emerge. This assistance can come in the form of helping the student move her awareness to energy/feeling blocks in the body, or recommending techniques that will help access them.  This can be done first by intuitive assessment, then providing verbal direction or by directly “lending energy” to help open the blocks. The student can experience the feeling, integrate and move on.

     We can also explain this process from a totally energetic viewpoint.  With this perspective we assume that each part of the living universe “vibrates” at certain frequencies.  This is true of each body part, each thought form and each emotion.  When we meditate, we reduce dominate vibrational frequencies associated with mental noise and negative thought forms and increase harmonic and peaceful frequencies. There have been numerous scientific studies showing altered brain wave activity among regular meditation practitioners.  There are also studies illustrating the relative electromagnetic  frequencies of different body tissues.

     All parts of our bodies, emotions and spirits naturally seek their highest level of vibration, frequency and optimal health.  When we meditate we become aware of the dissonance between our higher frequencies that create a sense of peace and calmness and the frequencies created by unsettled emotional issues and negative thought forms.    It is as if we create a soft background screen against which we can observe the details of what might normally be experienced as a vague uneasiness or muscular tension. This clarity allows us to feel the true source, intensity and placement of those feelings and then we have the real choice to release them.  Once there has been some release of this bound emotional/physical energy, we can then achieve an even greater expansion of the higher frequencies of harmony and peace and deepen our meditation.

     The experienced teacher can sense or “read” the energetic connections and agitations and help the student become more aware of them through attention, discussion or working directly with the physical/emotional energy blocks.  In effect the teacher draws upon  a quiet state within herself which acts also as a blank screen to allow her attention and awareness to be drawn to the places in the meditation student’s energy field that feel out of sync.

     The teacher acts as a guide and “safety” net as the student may experience feelings of anxiety or disconnection. The goal is to help the student learn, trust and ultimately surrender to this process for deepening their meditation practice and achieving a natural sense of balance and harmony.

© Kay Goldstein
March, 2004