Women’s Independent Press

by Dr. Kathleen Hartford

We have been hearing for decades about the power and importance of meditation. Studies have shown that meditation not only lowers blood pressure but can also enhance your immune response, while improving your ability to concentrate. In the Fit, Fun and Fabulous meditation we even go further. In Eastern practices such as yoga they often discuss the chakra centers but did you know that these
chakra centers align with your neurological plexus of traditional medicine? And that in Chinese Medicine there are certain emotions, life patterns and physical attributes that affect these centers and their corresponding organs? Yes the human body is fascinating and if we can integrate approaches from these various world disciplines then we can truly have the best of all worlds.

In our Conscious Living Meditation CD we incorporate all of these healing disciplines beginning at the root of your spine. Here we find your root chakra, whose color is red, it aligns with your sacral and pudenda plexus and houses the emotions related to group safety issues, do you feel safe in your world? Physically this is where we find our strength and vitality. In my practice I often find patients who feel helpless or powerless suffering with recurrent bladder or reproductive issues. In this case they will benefit from a conscious focus and mental releasing of these limiting emotional belief systems along with appropriate therapies to help bring balance and healing to the organs affected.

Your heart chakra, whose color is green, aligns with your cardiac plexus and emotionally houses the areas of love, both divine love and personal love, here is said to lie your ability to give and receive unconditional love. We have all felt our hearts broken and we’ve all felt our hearts leap for joy. We’ve even felt our heart skip a beat with excitement and felt the heaviness of our heart when it was sad. These emotions are real and directly affect the functioning of their corresponding organs. Research has proven that love and companionship are important and there are times in our lives when we will have to be our best most loving companion to ourselves.

These are only two examples of seven very powerful and accessible energy centers in your body. The process of meditation to support balance and bring harmony to these areas has nothing to do with religion; it is actually a health enhancing function just like flossing your teeth, eating correctly and exercising. Think of it as exercise for you mind and spirit to bring health, happiness and energetic balance to your body.
We are integrated beings, the second we think a thought it changes our body’s chemistry, and our body’s chemistry effects our immune system and the ability of our organs to function. The second we eat a bite of food our body springs into reaction to digest and manage that food, that food will change the chemistry of our body as well as the function of our organs and the emotions of our mind. Everything from the thoughts we think, to the foods we eat, to the company we keep leaves our body responding to its environment. This response from our body physically and emotionally truly creates our lives.

Meditation simply provides for us an intimate moment to spend with our deepest self, to quietly release any negativity of our day while bringing forth and magnifying the goodness and profound energies that are innately ours to enjoy and to play in each day! It will not change what has happened to you but it will profoundly change your ability to stay grounded and peaceful in response to these occurrences.

For more information or to download your MP3 of Meditation For Conscious Living please visit www.drkathleenhartford.com