Content

• Spirituality and health
   
  
• Meditation 
  
  
• Yoga
  
  
• Pranayama (the science of breathing)
  
  
• Bach Flowers
  
  
• Inspirational Reading

Spirituality and health

Spirituality and health is in essence to also look beyond the physical body. In the ancient systems of medicine and healing, mind, body and soul were seen as interconnected and non-separable. Spirituality and Health were not seen as separated but closely connected. When one part of the whole was stimulated, it also affected the other parts as well as the whole. Health in a spiritual perspective concern physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of our being. An approach where spirituality and health are seen as two sides of the same coin is holistic by nature and looks at the whole being to understand and correct that which is not in balance. At Natures Clinicals we undertake to share information that helps balance the many different facets of your health and wellbeing.

We recommend that you look into some of the following ancient techniques that help connect you to your ultimate wellbeing and holistic nature and therefore help you towards your true health.

Meditation calms the senses, makes the mind inactive and the body, passive. Therefor meditation is a fantastic stress-reliever. Meditation usually involves concentrating on an object - a flower, a burning candle, a circle, a sound or word, or even one’s own rhythm of breath. Over time, random thoughts peter off. Meditation could also be objectless - just sitting, doing nothing.

Most forms of meditation involve turning your attention inward, away from your usual preoccupations and activities. In the process, you make a simple but significant shift from thinking and doing, to just being. With repeated practice the mind begins to settle down and your breathing slows, and you get into a relaxed, peaceful, harmonious state.

According to Swami Vishnu Devananda, meditation is "….a continuous flow of perception or thought, just like the flow of water in a river." A practice wherein there is constant observation of the mind, meditation brings awareness, harmony and natural order into life. It helps you dig deep into your inner self to discover the wisdom and tranquility that lie within.

The basic points to be kept in mind in practicing meditation are:

• Have a special place for meditation. Try doing it daily. Sometimes a specific time is very useful.
  
• Choose a time when your mind is not clouded with worries.
  
• Sit up straight with your back, neck and head in one line. Face north or east preferably.
  
• Regulate your breathing. Start with 5 minutes of deep breathing. Then gradually slow it down.
  
• Follow a rhythmic breathing pattern - inhale and exhale.
  
• Initially let your mind wander. It grows more restless if you force it to concentrate.
  
• Then slowly bring it to rest on the focal point of your choice.
  
• Hold your object of concentration at this focal point throughout your session e.g. an image or your breath.
  
• Meditation happens when you reach a state of pure thought. Even while retaining an awareness of duel self.

• At the outset, it is hard to keep your attention focussed on one object.
  
• So it is better to start off by limiting your field of concentration to objecrs, sounds or ytour breath.
  
• Choose your objects with care e.g. any four flowers, fruits, trees...etc. You must feel at ease with what you choose and they should be a positive, uplifting image.
  
• After concentrating on one, you can move on to the next, if & when your mind starts wandering.

• Gaze at a point between your eyebrows, seat of the 'Third Eye' or at the tip or your nose.
  
• This would improve your level of concentration. At the same time, strengthening your eye muscles. Nasal gazing has a positive effect on the central nervous system.
  
• Remember not to strain your eyes. Start with one minute of gazing and then slowly build it up to ten minutes.

• Place a candle at eye-level in a darkened, draught-free room.
  
• Close your eyes and hold an after-image of the bright flame.
  
• The practice steadies the wandering mind, leading you to focus with pin-point accuracy.

The ancient Yogis recognised long ago that in order to accomplish the highest stage of yoga, which is the realisation of the self, or God consciousness, a healthy physical body is essential. For when we are sick, our attention is seldom free enough to contemplate the larger reality, or to muster the energy for practice.
 
The masters of yoga also teach us that personal growth is possible only when we fully accept our embodiment and when we truly understand that the body is not merely skin and bones but a finely balanced system of energies.

Basic spiritual benefits
Improved Concentration
Regulated Breath
Clarity in Mind

Advanced spiritual benefits
Thought Control (Clear and one-pointed thought)
Mind Control (Firm Will power)
Psychic control (like telepathy, clairvoyance etc.)

Ultimate spiritual benefit - The realisation that you and every other being in the universe are one! So you = me and me = you .
Healing of the body, psyche and soul is one of the basic directions in the yogic activity and serves the whole psychobiological and spiritual restoration. Purifying, healing and rejuvenating yogic exercises can restore health, life force, joy and also lengthen the life span. Laya Yoga practices serve liberation, salvation of the soul and its reconciliation with God.

Discover your breath - A major and important benefit you may notice with yoga practice is that you are more in touch with your breathing.
Yoga poses are practiced in harmony with the breath. One of the residues of this constant concentration on breath is that students tend to pay more attention to their breath outside of class. Most students' report they are surprised to learn that they find themselves holding their breath frequently during the day in response to stress. By learning to notice their breath holding they can begin to break the habit. When one breathes easily throughout the day, less tension will accumulate in the body.

Free your thoughts - One of the most important things you can learn from a yoga class is that your thoughts have the ability to affect your overall contentment and health. During the deep relaxation pose ( savasana ), one systematically relaxes every part of the body, even suggesting that the brain itself is 'relaxed'. During conscious relaxation, thoughts are experienced more as energy, which is associated with the brain than as the sum total of who we are.
We have thoughts, but those thoughts no longer take over our bodies and minds at large - triggering tension, anxiety or other responses. Yoga teaches us that consciousness and thoughts are not the same thing.

During relaxation we are able to let the thoughts flow through us without dancing away with them to the past or the future. We remain conscious, allowing the thoughts to come through us, but we learn not to interact with them. We can say to ourselves, "Oh, there's another thought of dinner, or of person 'X' or of fear about tomorrow's meeting." Then we can let go of that thought and return to the relaxation at hand. This is a meditative practice, which gradually over time allows us to 'dis-identify' with our thoughts. When thoughts are experienced just as thoughts, not as reality itself, then the path to freedom which yoga promises begins to unfold naturally. And that path is as sweet as a perfectly ripe mango.

Learning to Breathe Correctly

Breathing is so much a part of our lives that we tend to take it for granted. Ancient philosophers and yogis through their calmness and intellect discovered the powers of controlled breathing techniques. We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide - each time we inhale the body receives oxygen which gets converted to fuel to charge or activate the body parts. Each time we exhale the body throws out toxic wastes in the form of carbon dioxide.

Most of us use only a fraction of our lung capacity while breathing. Many of us put a lot of pressure on our body system unknowingly while breathing. Quick shallow breathing results in oxygen starvation which can lead to a poor immune system, sleep disorders, fatigue, heart diseases and also premature ageing.

Deep breathing reduces stress, deepens insight, expands consciousness and increases intuitive perception. Shallow breathing blocks energy whereas deep, rhythmical breathing generates energy.

In all situations, breathe. Be aware of your breath. If you are in a conversation, take a moment to breathe before you respond. Focus on slowing your breath, and you will find that you are establishing contact with your own internal energy.

Simple breathing exercises

If you wish to make deep, abdominal breathing an integral part of your daily life, first familiarise yourself with natural abdominal breathing, which involves four distinct stages: Inhalation, retention, exhalation and pause.

• Inhalation: One of the most common errors during inhalation is to try to fill the lungs completely on each inhalation. One should never force inhalation beyond comfortable capacity. About two-thirds full is the right measure for an inhalation.
  
  
• Retention: If properly performed, even brief retention of breath provides profound therapeutic benefits to every organ, gland and functional system in the body. Taoists refer to breath retention as - womb breathing because the lungs dont move. The fetus in the womb receives oxygen and energy directly through the umbilical cord, not the lungs. Breath retention for 3-4 seconds slows down heart beat, reduces blood pressure substantially, and triggers cellular respiration.
  
  
• Exhalation: This is more important than inhalation as one has to first thoroughly empty in order to fill the lungs properly with fresh air. Empty lungs in reverse order of inhalation, starting at the top and ending at the bottom.
  
  
• Pause: When the lungs are completely empty, pause for a few seconds to permit the abdominal wall and the diaphragm to relax again, then commence a slow inhalation.

The complete breathing process should be slow, will expand the abdomen and ribcage while inhaling and follow just the reverse process when exhaling: Breathe out the air while letting the abdomen cave in. But to get the maximum out of breathing it has to be pranayama , which extends much beyond the process of complete breathing.

A stressful lifestyle makes us breathe more quickly and less deeply. We get emotional so easily. Our negative reactions make us easily excited or angry, causing shallow and fast breathing. When one is restless, troubled or confused there is more prana outside the body than within. Prana is the energy which regulates life: It symbolises the combination of physical, mental, intellectual, cosmic and spiritual energy.

Pranayama or breath control signifies stretching, extending and regulating our breathing process. Pranayama can be used as a preparation for meditation wherein it cleanses the body and the mind. It also helps to maximise the benefits of the practice of yogasanas and also focusing the mind.

There are many different methods of pranayama, and we recommend that you should look for an experienced teacher to guide you initially through some of these ancient highly beneficial methods.

Bach Flower therapy is a unique medicine system that can change very subtle emotional and psychological states of being. Terror, depression, anxiety, irritability, intolerance, lack of confidence, hatred or selfishness... two drops thrice a day of the right remedy can uproot such deep-seated personality traits. And, in the process, heal the body.

These remedies bring us nearer to our souls and by that very act
bring us peace and relieve our sufferings — Dr Edward Bach.

Although the system was founded in the 1930s by Dr Edward Bach, an English bacteriologist and homeopathic physician, it remained an obscure tributary of homeopathy till the recent rekindling of interest in it. Its popularity is growing the world over, with annual conferences and the publication of books to keep pace with the burgeoning number of new remedies.

Bach flower is perhaps one of the most spiritual therapies, for it stems from Dr Bach's belief in the soul, a spark of the divine, guiding us towards our purpose in life. Violating the soul's dictates or harming others distorts our inherently noble virtues such as courage, love, mental peace, humility, strength and understanding into negative qualities such as possessiveness, fear, indecision, depression, impatience, cruelty and hate. This process generates disease, which, therefore, originates in our spiritual state. Its cure, too, must be found in that realm.

On deep and intuitive inquiry, Dr Bach pinpointed 38 archetypal soul states and discovered plants embodying those states. Their use helps restore the balance between the soul and the personality, lost through the lack of a certain soul quality, thereby healing the illness.

Though plants and herbs have always been used in healing, Dr Bach made a distinction between plants that relieve symptoms and those of the "higher order" that contain genuine healing powers. Besides, in a natural method of potentizing, he used the essence of flowers, in which all the essential energies of the plants get concentrated. There is an esoteric relationship between man and flower, which symbolizes beauty and the development of human faculties. For example, the rose is used by the Sufis and the Rosicrucians and the thousand-petalled lotus in Indian philosophy.

The remedies are prepared by gently picking wild flowers (never cultivated ones) at their prime, that is, just before dropping, at 9 a.m. They are floated in a glass bowl of spring water and left in clear sunshine for three hours. The vitalized water is then preserved in brandy, vinegar or spring water.

Dr Bach's 38 remedies were made from English flowers. Today the number has risen to over 1,200 with producers in different countries tapping the healing power of indigenous flowers.

Rescue Remedy, a combination of five remedies, is universally popular. It has an almost miraculous effect on trauma—accident victims have been known to regain consciousness and walk to the hospital. Because of its quick and lifesaving properties, it is an indispensable part of the user's survival kit.

The advantage of Bach flower therapy is that not only does it change our very personalities, but it does so through the spirit and not the body, thereby pre-empting the possibility of overdose, side-effects or incompatibility with other therapies.

At Natures Clinicals we often prescribe Bach Flowers to assist you on your way to full holistic health.

To fill out a Natures Clinicals Bach Flower questionnaire click here