Meditation Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Enlightened Solutions

Meditation to Manage Our Emotions

Written by enlightened solutions on June 15, 2018. Posted in Alternative Therapy, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

Many of us with mental health problems and addictions can find it very difficult to manage and navigate our painful emotions. Our minds and hearts can react to stressors, challenges and triggers in self-destructive ways rather than choosing healthy coping strategies, especially when we have experienced trauma which can program subconscious mind to be destructive rather than protective. There are many holistic tips, techniques and remedies to help us work with our emotions in ways that support us in creating inner peace for ourselves. Meditation is one of the best things out there, and while it isn’t always easy, it is worth every minute we devote to the practice.

There are countless forms of meditation to explore, both for beginners and those looking to incorporate new methods into their practice. Meditators come to learn that there is no such thing as perfection when it comes to meditation. It really is about the process and the practice, the journey rather than the destination. If the end goal is enlightened consciousness, the journey is a strengthening of mind, body, heart, soul and spirit. Any form of meditation you choose can help you, whether it be focusing on your breath or on a single point such as a candle flame, repeating mantras and affirmations, practicing visualization, doing a walking meditation, meditatively creating art, or practicing mindfulness while going about our daily routine.

The health benefits of meditation are numerous and continue to be studied extensively. What you might notice right away when meditating is an increased sense of calm and peace, especially in response to things that usually trouble you. You might find yourself becoming less reactive to your usual stressors and triggers. You may find yourself less quick to anger, and more inclined to choose forgiveness and healthy detachment. You might find it easier to come up with solutions to the problems that once overwhelmed and confused you. When meditating, your heart rate and breathing slow down, bringing an increased sense of overall wellness and contentment. When meditating, we often find it easier to enter into a place where we can connect with our spirituality, communicate with our higher power, and receive divine messages in the form of signs and guidance. Meditating teaches us to prioritize following our intuition, to really listen to our instincts, and to trust ourselves, as we carry infinite wisdom within us. Whatever emotional problems we might be facing, meditation has the power to open up new and powerful channels for healing.

We listen, and we understand. Many of us have personal experience with recovery. Enlightened Solutions offers therapy, mentoring, and friendship. Call (833) 801-LIVE today.

A Heart Healing Visualization Meditation

Written by enlightened solutions on June 13, 2018. Posted in Alternative Therapy, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

When we are struggling with mental health issues, emotional challenges and addictions, our minds have a way of compounding our pain and deepening our pain responses. When our ego is wounded and out of balance, it acts from a place of fear and fills your psyche with insecurity, self-hate, doubt, anxiety, judgment, criticism and all manner of inner demons. Our minds become tools for self-sabotage and self-destruction, rather than self-love and forward progress. Because our minds can be so loud and so powerful, we have a tendency to prioritize our egos over our hearts, and to choose thinking over feeling- in our daily lives, when addressing problems, when dealing with interpersonal relationships, when confronting our fears. Our hearts, however, hold infinite capacity for love, forgiveness, and healing. Sometimes shifting our focus from our minds to our hearts is all we need to feel an immediate sense of peace and calm, and to set ourselves up for healing rather than continued pain.

When your mind is overrun with fearful thoughts, practice this simple meditation and visualization exercise. Try visualizing light entering your heart, from your higher power above, or coming from the deep source of inner power within you, which is also a reflection of your higher power. Place your hand over your heart and visualize light glowing from your heart, radiating inwards to the deepest parts of your pain, and outwards to anyone else experiencing pain. That light is filled with compassion, empathy and understanding. It knows your pain and wants you to feel heard and understood, loved and protected. We hold within us infinite healing power that we can tap into just by giving it our attention.

Feel the light you envision helping to calm your anxious mind. Feel the light growing within you, spreading to every corner of your suffering. Let it bring you peace. Your mind will want to return to its fear-based programming. Gently return your attention back to the light emanating from your heart. Affirm to yourself, silently, out loud, or in writing, that you are a being of light, that you possess the power to heal yourself, and that your heart holds the key to your transformation. Meditate on this love and amplify its energetic power by practicing holding this light visualization often, especially when your ego mind is out of control and you feel it bringing you down.

Meditation and other holistic healing practices can make all the difference in your recovery process. At Enlightened Solutions, we will help you find what works for you. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Become the Yogi Within

Written by enlightened solutions on December 7, 2017. Posted in Healthy Living, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

In the typical clinical treatment center, there might not be a lot of associations with recovery and yoga. With a more holistic approach, patients are encouraged to enlighten themselves in a more spiritual sense. There are different kinds of yoga that benefit different groups of people. In treatment, meditative yoga practices mindfulness. This is essential for people to live in the present with a lowered amount of anxiety and fear. All humans struggle with fear on a daily basis. This cannot be combined with faith of any kind. Without faith in a higher power, there will be hardly any resistance to the first thought of drinking or using. The spiritual principles by which those with addiction learn in a 12-step program, help with practicing humility and gratitude.

Yoga is also a great tool for relaxation and stress. It may not be easy at first, but when the mind settles down, there can be progress. Being mindful is as easy as feeling the warm water on the hands while washing the dishes. This can be achieved easily, but not when the mind is consumed with the past and the future. Focusing on the breath is also a tool to stay in the present. While someone with addiction is in the beginning stages of acceptance, it is crucial to incorporate spirituality. Meditation can be useful for allowing a conversation with a higher power. It is suggested at this time to ask for guidance about the next right step. Having this connection helps in working alongside the intuition.

Having the patience that is practiced in mindful yoga, gives people with addiction the ability to learn how to sit with themselves, and to find who it is that they had been running from. People with addiction who suffer from shame and depression must accept that these past experiences do not define who they presently are. Actions from the past do not have to determine the future. Giving into mind games of constantly fighting with the intuition, will only cause people to back peddle. These realizations can and will be manifested on the yoga mat.

If you are struggling with addiction and want to find a way out, the answer is waiting for you here in New Jersey at Enlightened Solutions. Our partial program provides a healing blend of the body, mind, and soul. Don’t hesitate any longer and call us today: 833-801-5483.

Different Kinds of Energy Healing

Written by enlightened solutions on October 26, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Addiction Recovery, Alternative Therapy. Leave a Comment

There are many types of healing modalities that you can engage to influence the energetic field that contains your life. The idea that every person has a circle of energy that surround them beyond the solid matter of their body is crucial to deeply understanding the potential impact of holistic modalities. Embedded in this concept is the acknowledgement that individuals can influence the lives of each other simply by how they are being in life. This is found in the spaces where our energetic fields overlap with each other. If you regard this concept as true, you likely agree that practicing energy hygiene, or the cleansing of the energetic field, on a regular basis is just as important as tending to the physical and emotional aspects. There are many different modalities and practices to engage daily maintenance of your energetic or auric field:

Chakras: the chakras are 7 energy centers along the centerline of the body from the root at the pelvis to just above the crown of the head. Each chakra has unique properties and they can be enhanced or muted engaging a variety of practices. Some practices include: chakra holds – place hands at different chakras in specific combinations; gems can be engaged to influence chakras in different ways.
Sound and Light: these carriers of energy can be engaged to influence the state of the field. Both move through wavelengths and these can be harnessed to shift the quality of the energetic field.
Visualizations: By engaging a visualization that soothes the emotional state, the quality of the energetic field can be transmuted.
Movement: as with sound, the energetic field can be transmuted simply by engaging any kind of movement. The vibration will create movement in the energetic field and transform its current state.
Aromatherapy: this involves taking the oil of a plant and diffusing its properties into your field. The qualities of the plant become integrated into an individual’s energetic field and transmute the state of it.
Earthing: this can be many things that involve engaging the natural world to alchemize the state of your energetic field. Common examples are feet on the ground or in the sea for a brief period of time.

If you are struggling with addiction, alcoholism, and/or mental health, know that there is hope. There is a solution. Harmoniously fusing together the best elements of clinical care, holistic healing, and 12-step philosophy, Enlightened Solutions has created a program of total transformation for men and women seeking recovery. Call 833-801-5483 today for information on our partial care programs in New Jersey.

Bringing Meditation to Every Area of Life

Written by enlightened solutions on September 15, 2017. Posted in Healthy Living, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

Meditation is a powerful and accessible tool for someone in recovery. It transforms their state of presence and creates space to make an intentional choice in every moment. With choice, recovery begins.

Meditation is many things. To beginners, it is commonly thought to be a period of time sitting on a meditation pillow. Meditation is much more and can express in many other ways. It can be explored in the following the realms: physical body, mental body and emotional body.

Physical body: the body as a moving meditation, for example, when walking down the street. You can engage the following focal points:

Notice when your heel is in contact with the ground and when the ball of your foot is in contact with the ground.
Play with making big movements with your body – exaggerate your steps or swinging of your arms, or exploring the full core length as you move.

Mental body: engage the mind to cultivate ‘the witness’ which is to create space between you and your mind. You are not your thoughts. This awareness is the bridge to resisting cravings which can save lives.

Throughout the day, write down your thoughts as you notice them.
In a seated-meditation, notice your thoughts, explore the space between ‘you’ and your thoughts, allowing your thoughts to be clouds drifting by without attaching to them.

Emotional body: one challenge is the habituated avoidance of emotions. The emotions are a great playground for taking contrary actions to our habits:

When you notice an impulse to avoid, pause, and simply do the thing that you desire to avoid, even in the smallest measure. For example, if you typically avoid eye contact, make eye contact intentionally, even if only for a few seconds. Small changes lead to bigger changes, so celebrate the smallest contrary actions!
Remember emotions are simply energy that needs to move in order to be released. As you feel an emotion, allow yourself to connect to the image of a wave, washing in and out. As with waves, emotions will always change.

With these simple focuses, you can bring more attention to many areas of your life. You can begin to live with more intention by taking these small, tangible ways of being more fully with yourself in every moment of your precious life.

Enlightened Recovery Solutions offers a harmonious approach to holistic treatment, bringing together the best of evidence-based, alternative, and 12-step therapies. Call us today for information on our transformation programs of treatment for addiction and alcoholism: 833-801-5483.

Yoga as a Spiritual Lifestyle

Written by enlightened solutions on September 8, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Alternative Therapy. Leave a Comment

Yoga has diverse ways of being expressed in the lives of people. In simplicity, yoga is usually a framework of physical movements called postures. They function to offer the practitioner, yogi, to have a spiritual experience breath, body, focus and senses. Many people will practice yoga fashioned after the philosophy of a specific spiritual teacher. There are people who become devoted to one philosophy of yoga and others who study many forms of yoga and integrate them into a personal expression. Both are authentic avenues of yoga as a spiritual lifestyle.

When beginning the journey of yoga as a spiritual lifestyle, it is supportive to take classes at a yoga studio after treatment. The structure of classes, experience of community and relationship with a teacher will allow yoga to become an integrated experience. Overtime, the student may discover that yoga came alive in their life and the decision to maintain these structures will become optional.

When this transcendence occurs, one may find themselves reflecting on what it means to take the yoga practice off the yoga mat and into the world. The student may return to reflect on these core principles: breath, body, focus and senses and play with them in everyday non-yoga contexts. For example:

Breath: be deeply connected to your breath in the rhythm of walking to the bus stop.
Body: discover internal connection to your upright spine as you sit at your laptop sending email.
Focus: playing with the dimensions of seeing and listening as you have a social conversation that is not optimally enthralling to you.
Senses: explore ways that you can experience layers of taste with appreciation of the healthy meal that you prepared.

In addition to exploring yoga off the mat, you can also consider Karma Yoga which is the way that bring what you have learned onto the mat into the lives of others. Sometimes this is sharing your practice or the way it has influenced your life. Other times, it is simply being of service to the needs of the community that may seem unrelated to yoga. With all of this woven together and adapted to, one has become a yogi.

Healing the Physical Effects of Addiction with Eastern Practices

Written by enlightened solutions on September 6, 2017. Posted in Addiction Recovery, Alternative Therapy. Leave a Comment

The eastern world largely refers to Asia and India in terms of spirituality. In contrast, the concept of the western world is referring to the US and the culture birthed as it was settled. Each of these worlds has unique gifts to offer and it is valuable in recovery to learn how to harness and integrate them in their lives.

In many ways, the eastern hold the most ancient spiritual wisdom. The spiritual practices of this region have sustained themselves over many hundreds, even thousands, of years. The practices are the very essence of the idea of tradition. The spiritual practices of the western culture, much younger,have shorter lives before evolving into something new. They bring forward spirit of innovation.

These principles, tradition and innovation, bolster our recovery as we integrate them into our lives. As we embark on the healing of our individual life from addiction, we are the settlers traveling to a new, unknown land. We feel as though we are leaving our ancient selves behind and sailing for new territory. Some aspects of who we were will always be present, although, those parts of us will express in entirely new ways.

With this invitation of a new journey, carrying forward the tradition of the past, and allowing it to evolve into a new form, play with one of these practices:

Chakra meditation

The chakras are seven energy centers, root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown, in your body. To explore one, find a seated position and connect to the center of your chest to your heart. Envision a pulsing green light beginning as a small circumference, the size of your fist. With each inhalation, imagine a contraction. With each exhalation, an expansion leading to a greater circumference. Continue this practice until you have filled the room with a pulsing green light.

Earthing

This indigenous practice is the ancient wisdom of the western world pre-settlement. It can be as simple as allowing yourself to be led to a tree, ideally in bare feet. Placing a hand on the tree and breathing in cohesion with this life-sustaining member of the natural world.

Chanting

This practice also comes from the ancient world and some people engage changes in the ancient languages from these practices. However, you can also apply this practice to mantras in your own language. Often, it is ideal to choose a simple mantra that can be matched to inhalation and exhalation. For example, Thy Will (inhale), My Will (exhale).

Meditation Better Than Opioids

Written by enlightened solutions on January 17, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Healthy Living, Recovery. Leave a Comment

In an opiate-based world for treating pain, how do you treat pain without opioids? As the opioid overdose epidemic worsens around the world, health practitioners are looking for alternative treatments for pain. For chronic pain patients who rely upon opioid based medications to provide them pain relief, the sudden governmental campaign against opioid use is detrimental. Chronic pain patients are rightfully frightened to lose their sense of security and relief during the day. Not every person who takes opioids will end up abusing them. Even when abused, not everyone who abuses a substance becomes addicted. some doctors argue it is heinous to take opioid medication or limit opioid medication availability to patients who do not abuse the drugs. Others are encouraging the scientific community to more research in an effort to prove opioid medications are not, and never have been, necessary.

Medication Assisted Therapy

The treatment industry for mental health rehabilitation and substance abuse rehabilitation faces the same argument. Medication assisted therapy or drug substitution therapy uses prescription medications which still have trace amounts of morphine- or- cause an opioid-like effect. While some argue that taking a pill is better than, say, shooting up heroin, others argue that the ongoing presence of opioid substance in the body is harmful. Treatment for opioid addiction includes a vast variety of methods and modalities of care. From traditional talk therapy to innovative biofeedback, mental health practitioners and scientists have collaborated to find what works best to end the life threatening chemical dependency on opioids.

Mindfulness Alternative

Mindfulness meditation is one of the alternative methods used to treat addiction. It has even been suggested to show significant results of symptom reduction in chronic pain patients. As the struggle to find opioid-free pain relief treatments carries on, mindfulness meditation poses itself as a considerable candidate. Recent research published in the Journal of Neuroscience discovered that in patients whose opioid receptors were actively being blocked and those whose were not- the daily practice of meditation reduced pain by over 20%. 20% less pain in chronic pain patients is an astonishing accomplishment. Chronic pain patients are not the only population who benefit from this finding. Withdrawal from opioid drugs is painful, causing muscle aches, spasming, weakness, discomfort, and even the feeling of brittle bones. Mindful meditation can support the withdrawal from opioids both on a neuroscientific level and on a basic physiological one.

Enlightened Solutions is a unique treatment center offering a hybrid approach to the rehabilitation of men and women from addiction to drugs and alcohol. Combining holistic healing and spiritual methods with traditional twelve step philosophy and progressive scientifically backed treatment methods, Enlightened Solutions provides an integrative approach to treatment. For more information on our programs, call 833-801-5483.

The Scientific Benefit Of Prayer And Meditation

Written by enlightened solutions on December 22, 2016. Posted in Mental Health, Recovery. Leave a Comment

“The spiritual life is not a theory,” the authors of The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous boldly state. When Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in the 1930’s there was no answer for the disease of alcoholism. The insanity which drove a man or woman to continuously drink to excess despite the impending and well known negative consequences lying ahead was bewildering. No doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, wife, husband, or man himself could explain it. Moreover, no one could seem to make it stop. Until, that is, founder Bill Wilson had what he would come to famously described as a spiritual experience. Once he discovered the healing of a power greater than himself his phenomenal obsession of craving for more alcohol ceased to exist. Of course, it took some work to maintain his sobriety. However, the foundation of his life became a spiritual one. The twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, and all reflective twelve step programs, are a program of living for a spiritual life. They are a guide for discovering and building a relationship with a spiritual power of being that one gets to define for themselves.

Step 11 calls upon a recovering addict or alcoholic to engage in prayer and meditation for the purpose of improving a conscious contact with a Higher Power. Regarding step 11, The Big Book text reads, “We shouldn’t be shy on this matter of prayer. Better men than we are using it constantly.” Later, they write, “it works- it really does” For years, the 12-Step philosophy has fallen under ridicule as a model of treatment for addiction and alcoholism. Spirituality and science have long been at war, struggling to find a common ground. Ironically, most spiritual people fully embrace scientific evidence. What occurs through spiritual experience feels like a scientific revelation to many. Changing one’s thoughts, behaviors, and ways of thinking is in fact a neuroscientific process but feels remarkably spiritual. That is precisely what happens when one chooses to leave their destructive relationship with drugs and alcohol behind and seek a closer connection to spiritual sources greater than themselves.

Fifty five percent of Americans say that they participate in prayer every day, according to a 2015 poll. Seventy five percent of Americans believe prayer is an important part of life. Some doctors are bridging the crossroads between spirituality and science and looking at just how important prayer might be. Prayer and meditation have great physical and psychological benefit that help deal with a deadly factor: stress. Addiction and alcoholism are stressful. Recovery can be stressful. Life itself is often stressful. How one deals with that stress has a direct impact on their health and wellbeing. Prayer and meditation have been found to create a sense of calm, lower blood pressure, support regulation of challenging emotions like anger, and generally reduce symptoms of stress.

Reduction of stress due to prayer and meditation, the constant conscious contact with God or a Higher Power of one’s own understanding might relieve so much stress for another reason. “We alcoholics are undisciplined,” The Big Book authors explain, “So we let God discipline us…” Spiritual practices like prayer and meditation are a form of discipline which help guide a recovering addict or alcoholic into a new way of living.

Enlightened Solutions brings together the spirituality of 12 step philosophy with natural healing modalities for holistic health. Our program is designed to help you break the harmful bonds of drug and alcohol addiction and support your transformation from co-occurring disorders. For more information, call 833-801-5483.

When You Start Meditating

Written by enlightened solutions on November 24, 2016. Posted in Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

Meditation is a helpful spiritual tool for recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. People associate all kinds of images and ideas with meditation without knowing just what will happen when they start meditating. Here are some of the things you might have to endure when you start meditating.

You Sleep Better

Meditation before bed is as good as medicine. Slowing down the nervous system and helping the brains settle down, meditation encourages the body to reset after all the chaotic happenings of the day. Focusing on the breath helps the body and brain get that extra bit of oxygen it needs before going to sleep. When oxygen reaches the muscles, it helps them relax. Some people find that their mind races before going to sleep. Meditation helps to quiet the mind. Practicing some mindfulness with meditation will train the brain to let go of the stress from the day and focus only on the present moment, which is thankfully bedtime.

You Notice Your Thoughts More

Mindful meditation asks you to pay attention to the thoughts that come up as you try to settle your mind into not thinking much. You acknowledge the thoughts which arise, notice them, actively try not to label or judge them, then practice just letting them go. In doing so, you start to recognize patterns of what you’re thinking and why you’re thinking it. When adverse situations arise which would usually call for a particular reaction, you find yourself stopping to think about that reaction before acting on it. Where you might have once reacted adversely, you find yourself able to pause, notice your thoughts, and take a moment to choose how you would rather react.

You Become More Compassionate

Learning to recognize patterns of your own suffering through noticing your thoughts and observing how they effect you helps you to be more compassionate toward yourself. Compassion is about recognizing that someone experiences suffering of their own, then developing a kind and loving sympathy for them. It is harder to be kind toward ourselves than it is to be kind toward others. When we meditate and foster that self-compassion, our kindness toward others changes. It deepens and widens in our hearts. We feel a whole-heartedness toward the world we never noticed before.

You Want To Meditate When You Can

Connecting to the breath is like connecting to the source of life. Even if you can’t engage in a full twenty minute or hour long meditation during the day, you find yourself searching for every opportunity you can to take a deep breath. Just taking one moment to mindfully take a deep breath in and let a deep breath out is a moment of meditation. Overtime, you’ll notice that when you are in need of receiving, your inhale will lengthen. Likewise, when you are in need of letting go, you will be able to exhale for longer without hardly taking a breath in.

Enlightened Solutions teaches our patients meditation as part of a spiritual skill set for overcoming the power of addiction to drugs and alcohol. We offer multiple levels of care to men and women seeking compassionate change in their lives regarding addiction and dual-diagnosis issues. For more information call 833-801-5483.

Tag: Meditation