The healing powers of the mind have been well known for thousands of years even though modern medicine is just now starting to accept that this ancient healing practice is more than it appears.
Modern medicine usually tackles the blood pressure problem with medication, which can have drastic, unpleasant side effects – not to mention high cost. However, the power of the mind is often enough to lower blood pressure, for free, with no nasty side effects.
Scientists are beginning to understand the mind/body connection now and “mind over matter” is proving to be true. You can consciously alter your body’s physiological functions! You can lower your blood pressure by achieving a deep state of relaxation. In fact, meditation has been proven to help with mind/body healing. The Division of Cardiology at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center conducted research showing that meditation lowers blood pressure and regulates the heart rate. Meditators showed increased cardiac output along with decreased blood pressure due to a dilation of the arteries, which allows increased blood flow throughout the body.
Meditation relaxes the mind as well as the body; circulation and blood pressure improve and normalize quickly, the body is given a chance to repair, and the toxic effects of stress dissipate.
The primary cause of elevated blood pressure is stress. When your body is operating on red alert due to unrelenting stress, the cardiovascular system is adversely affected. In the stress response, certain blood vessels constrict in order to direct blood to parts of the body necessary for the fight or flight response; heart rate and blood pressure increases. But modern life rarely calls for running away from wild animals. Our stresses are more of the emotional kind, and they usually have to do with lifestyle choices: there is simply too much activity, multi-tasking, competition, information, deadlines, hurrying, obligations, poor sleep and nutrition, and lack of exercise or other healthy stress release
Stress is meant to be released physically, through running or fighting – or by a deep relaxation technique like meditation. Today, we rarely give ourselves the chance to go for a run or sit in meditation when we’re stressed (and thankfully most of us are too civilized to engage in physical aggression). Too many people try to escape stress by using alcohol, drugs, sex and other temporary stress releases, but we don’t address the cause of our stress. And so the stress accumulates, and causes all sorts of physical, mental and emotional problems. Once blood pressure becomes chronically high, it can be more dangerous to exercise since exercise itself raises blood pressure – so the answer to lowering it quickly and permanently may lie in meditation.
Achieving a state of consciousness that allows for truly deep relaxation is very effective at releasing the stress that contributes to high blood pressure. You may think that relaxing during sleep is enough, but is it? That’s when your mind does a lot of processing of the day’s events and the things in your life that are important to you. Even when you are asleep, your mind is still busy rehashing your past and worrying about the future, so relaxing completely may be hard. The quality of sleep is important, and when we’re stressed, we generally don’t sleep well. Being in nature, or engaging in an activity that is calming also help; but ultimately the best way to lower blood pressure is to deal with the cause of the stress.
The Silva Method employs several marvelous techniques that can help develop even more mental power that can lower blood pressure. The first is the ability to enter the alpha state anytime, anywhere, to instantly calm and center yourself. This stress-busting technique is so life-changing you’ll wonder how you managed before you learned it!
You can also learn to use the power of the mind to visualize your desired state of health; to imagine blood flowing freely throughout your body and your whole body in a state of blissful relaxation, with a nice, slow, steady heart rate. The Mirror Exercise is a useful visualization tool where you can visualize yourself as you are now – tense, stressed and with high blood pressure – and the way you want to be, with normal blood pressure and in perfect health. You can use the Mental Screen exercise to visualize yourself as the eye of the storm, where you don’t allow life to throw you out of balance and raise your blood pressure.
All Silva Method techniques develop your ability to self-program desirable thoughts and behaviors. This includes self-programming yourself to be less nervous and respond with calm and poise so you can diffuse a difficult situation before it escalates and raises your blood pressure even higher.
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The Silva Method exercises all help develop your ability to focus your attention. If you focus on a health problem, for example, it will persist, your pain will be greater, your suffering more intense, and your healing much slower. By contrast, focusing your attention away from a health problem actually gives the body a chance to heal. This isn’t denial – it’s just that when you focus your energy on high blood pressure, you become worried, tense, fearful – and end up contributing to the problem. It’s more effective to focus your energy on something that makes you calm and happy. The mind is an incredibly powerful healing tool, but you have to have control over your thoughts and emotions so that you can use it for you, instead of allowing automatic negative thoughts and emotions to affect your health.
As you develop mastery over your thoughts and emotions, your default state of being becomes happier and calmer. Then, watch your blood pressure plummet! Over time, you will gain clarity on your life and release stress so your body is no longer in a perpetual state of alarm.
Taking care of your body with exercise and excellent nutrition is also essential to keeping your blood pressure low. You can use lifestyle modifications as well as the power of the mind to naturally lower blood pressure, but please don’t discontinue use of any prescribed blood pressure medication unless you are advised to do so by your healthcare practitioner.
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