Category: Hypnobirthing

Meditation Exercise:

Read through this once, and then go back and try it. Then decide how often you would like to practice this for the greatest benefit. If you are in your first or second trimester, I suggest doing the following for five minutes 3 times each week and gradually working up to the goal of twenty minutes 5 times per week. That may take you 6 weeks or more. If you are in your third trimester, I suggest starting this practice for twenty minutes once a week and working your way up to the goal of twenty minutes 5 times a week.

You are now ready to meditate for twenty minutes at a sitting five times per week. It is a good idea to sit in a comfortable chair with your back as straight as is comfortable for you.

Now let us begin. This is your Leclaire Method meditation:

1.   Eyes: Become aware of your eyes, and become aware of what you see with your eyes. Become aware of the shadows, the light, the darkness, the colors, the shapes, the space, the objects. This awareness of what you see may bring up feelings. Feel the feelings, whatever they are. Gently close your eyes and move inward, into yourself.

2.   Ears: Become aware of your ears. Listen to all the sounds around you and in the distance. Become fully aware of them. Feel whatever feelings may arise and move into your inner self.

3.   Mouth: Become aware of your mouth, your lips, your tongue, the mucous membrane lining of your mouth, your saliva. Become aware of the taste in your mouth. Feel any feeling that may arise and move in you.

4.   Skin: Become aware of your skin. Experience all that is touching you: the textures, the pressure. Again feel any feelings that may arise and move in you.

5.   Nose: Become conscious of your nose and your nostrils. Become aware of any scents or fragrances, any smells. Feel the air as you inhale through your nostrils. Feel the feelings that may arise. Allow yourself to respond to the feelings, laughter, tears, a smile, a frown, a deep feeling. Experience what you are feeling. Don’t push the feelings away; just allow them. They will pass. Everything does. Everything changes.

6.   Mind: Now become aware of your mind, your thoughts. Observe your thoughts, the objects of your mind. Let them come, and then let them go and let yourself feel the feeling that your thoughts may evoke.

7.   Body: Now become aware of your body. Go wherever it takes you. Just follow it. Do this for about ten breaths (one breath equals one inhalation and one exhalation). Now deliberately turn your attention to your uterus and your uborn. Put your hands on your abdomen and just be with your uterus and your uborn. Be with yourself; be with your uborn. Be still. Be.

You are probably beginning to feel a stillness, a quiet, a relaxation. The object is to be in the moment, to feel all that arises, which paves the way for a quieting of the mind. Now focus on your breath. Don’t alter your breath in any way; just observe it. I’m breathing in. I’m breathing slowly out. In and out and in and out. Just rest and observe your breath.

Week 5: Continue as with weeks 1 through 4. Let these steps take you about 5 minutes. Use your own internal clock. Today and 4 more times this week, meditate for a total of twenty minutes each time. Conventional medicine has rendered you powerless. Our society is stuck. We have given the responsibility for our healing to our tribal doctors. That is because we respect them and have lost respect for ourselves. What aspects and details of your innate qualities do you not pay attention to? Take the time now to give consideration to your own intuitions. Remember past lies; allow present lies to come to the fore. You have the ability to use the energy of the authentic healer in you, this is your true medicine. Many illnesses can be cured through your own healing of your mind, body and spirit along with nutrition.

Week 4:  Earlier I said that the purpose of meditation is to still the mind.  That can create another longing, however, another kind of pain.  So for now, let’s look at the purpose of meditation as just to do it:  Just to meditate.  Close your eyes and focus on the area between your eyebrows (also known as “the third eye”).  Do this for five minutes four times a week.

Week 3:  Continue the same as in weeks 1 and 2.  This week, begin to observe your breath.  You don’t need to alter breathing in any way.  Just observe your inhalation and your exhalation.  Let this observation take precedence over the observation of your thoughts.  Your thoughts may persist, but focus your attention on your breath.

In this observation of your breath, all else recedes.  The breath, the now, the simplicity of the moment become effortless.  Continue this focus for a few minutes, five times this week.

WEEK 2:  Practice in this new way three times this week.  Begin as in week 1.  Continue to maintain your state of one-pointedness while observing any thoughts that may enter.  Along with your thoughts, you may now become aware of any feelings that emerge.  Often people are afraid to sit still because some feelings they have been running from for ages come into awareness.  This is possible.  The great thing about this is that, if you allow yourself to feel the feelings for a few minutes, way into the depths of them, rather than ignore them, they will diminish in intensity and begin to ripple way.  A new-found peace will be in their place.  That is not to say that if you feel the feelings they will never return.  It does mean, however, that we are always in a state of change and that, rather than running from what we might be afraid to feel (which in itself is exhausting, unsettling, debilitating, and immune suppressing), it is easier to face the feelings whenever they emerge, thus reaping the repeated benefit of the ensuing peace.  There are ever-greater possibilities in this process:  The hope of utter silence within, bliss, a deepening sense of oneness with the universe, and a feeling of boundless delight.  A new dimension of the self can present a reality more comfortable and peaceful than any on this plane.  It is a chance to dance into the infinite with the absolute.  Once our fears surface, we can deal with them; in many cases, they go away altogether.  Fears come and go as the undulations of your belly in labor, as the rhythmic risings of your uterus.

Meditation is simply a quieting of the mind, with no attachment to the outcome. There are different ways of meditating. What I have chosen to explain here is specifically to prepare you for the meditation of labor and birth. I thought I was going to be learning hypnobirthing, not meditation birthing, you say? You’ve been duped – or are you learning both, and what is the difference? First, let’s look at what hypnobirthing and hypnosis are and what they are not.

Hypnobirthing is done to you from the outside, with your participation and your active permission. You listen to a tape or to someone saying the hypnotic suggestions aloud to you, or you say the hypnotic procedure aloud or silently to yourself. Even if you are not saying the words, you are following the words to be led into a state of relaxation in which you let go of certain thoughts. In meditation, you simply observe. You do not have a script for yourself, nor do you systematically contract and release your muscle groups as you do in hypnosis.

But what can you do through meditation? As you know, we experience life through our five senses – sight, sound, touch, taste and smell – and through our sixth sense, our thought. In order to be still and to be present in the now – not aware of the past, not trying to be aware of the future, but just aware of the present – it is helpful to observe the processes of our senses.

To me, the most crucial aspect of meditation, especially for mothers-to-be, is the quieting of body and mind and the letting go of the outcome, even thought the result is often an approach of the absolute and a healing of mind, body and spirit. It is also a letting go of our long search for satisfaction and an entering into the light beyond the mind.

People who practice some Christian religions believe that meditation goes against their religion, that meditation is a religion in and of itself, or that it is a New Age fad. Those who believe in God and who practice religions that do not promote meditation or are even against it, however, might keep in mind that a sincere meditation practice can improve your conscious contact with the infinite. How can that go against religion

Those who do not believe in God and do believe that meditation is a form of a religion or a theist practice of some sort should remember that meditation brings you in touch with your own peace and freedom and can improve your conscious contact with the grandeur of the infinite blackness. This to me sounds like a connection to the omnipresent now and a deep stillness. Perhaps some of the goals are the same as those of religion, but meditation itself is certainly not a dogma or a religion.

EXERCISE: LEARNING TO MEDITATE

If you follow these simple steps for the next few weeks, you will find yourself falling into your own habits of letting go and relaxing or, if you prefer, meditating. That’s really all meditation is: Sitting and letting your mind/body balance.

WEEK 1: To begin meditation, sit in a chair with your spine straight and feet flat on the floor, hands resting in your lap. You may also rest on your side with a pillow to help support your body, your belly, or anything else that needs to be supported. Turn the telephone off.

Settle yourself in your position, or just sit or lie for one to two minutes before you begin. The purpose of meditation is to still your mind. An easy way to do this is to focus your attention on some point in front of you or above you and then to concentrate on this focal point. If you are like most people, thoughts will continually enter your consciousness. No problem. Just observe the thoughts as you would a balloon floating up into the sky. Do not try to push the thoughts away, and don’t try to hold on to them. Just continue to observe them without judgment. Do this for about five minutes, three times the first week.

 

Hypnofertility, hypnobirthing, babymoon, mind/body wellness and mindfulness.  Is there a pathway that connects one person to another and that facilitates greater understanding and compassion?

Could it be that meditation can inspire your mental and physical health and add to the peace and serenity of those in your immediate environment?

What are your thoughts on this and are you willing to try a simple experiment to test the effectiveness of meditation?