Making Meditation Part Of Your Chinese Medicine Regimen
Chinese medicine relies heavily on a whole body and mind approach. Nutritional counseling seeks to pair foods favorable for health while at the same time also seeking to limit or entirely cut out the kinds of food combinations that are neither favorable nor healthy for a sufferer of certain ailments. Nutritional supplements further assist in the overall wellbeing of the digestive and gastrointestinal tracts, and other modalities – especially massage therapy, acupuncture, and acupressure – will round out the bodily approach. Yet to complete your regimen, do not underestimate the power of the spiritual aspect!
To this end it is vital to plan on making medication part of your Chinese medicine regimen, and while learning the techniques is not hard to do, finding the right time and space can be a bit of a problem, and therefore are most commonly the reasons why Westerners will ignore this aspect of their quest for mind and body harmony, in effect actually negating the strides already made on the bodily side of the equation!
Setting yourself up for success and encouraging yourself to not only start a consistent meditation practice but to also stick with it will require a bit of planning at the outset. Perhaps the best piece of advice is the idea of finding a consistent spot in your home where you will meditate. You do not need a spare bedroom, a large open surface, or even a secluded spot – unless where ever you are thinking of meditating is an area of constant foot traffic by family and friends – but it should fulfill the following requirements:
1. The area should be free of distractions. These vary from person to person! Understand what will keep you from relaxing and meditating and then fashion your area accordingly. For example, for some a distraction is a telephone because it reminds them of all the calls they still need to return or make; for others it is a clear line of sight of the dishes piling up in the sink; still others find it hard to focus on meditation when they hear the buzz of the dryer signaling that it is time to get out the dried clothes.
2. Make sure that a CD player and lights are within easy reach. You may find that a CD playing ocean sounds or perhaps wind chimes will help you to tune out the rest of the sounds you hear around you. Similarly, you want to be able to control the lighting – make sure it is neither too dark nor too light.
3. As opposed to popular myth, you do not have to sit on the floor in the lotus position to meditate. You may sit in a comfy chair, on the floor, on some pillows, on a sofa, whatever will work best.
In these three simple steps you will have made a huge stride in an effort of making meditation part of your Chinese medicine regimen. Remember to ask your practitioner if you are not certain how to get started with meditation, yet at the same time remember that meditation means different things to different people and you need to find a mode that works for you.
