Ashok Gupta introduces meditation as a tool for calming the nervous system and rewiring the brain during recovery from chronic conditions. The session covers five techniques: guided visualization, surrender meditation, waves of healing, soften-and-flow, and alternate nostril breathing, available through an app, home study course, or group retreats.
Sam. Sa.
Hello and welcome to session two. I really hope you enjoyed session one and now are feeling more positive about your recovery. Having been on this journey myself, I really understand how important it is to feel like there's someone on your side, someone who understands your situation, someone who's there for you. The Gupta program is a whole package. And within the scope of these video sessions, the webinar series, and the online retrainer community, I'm going to do my best to walk with you on this journey. So in this virtual connection, I invite you to take my hand and let's walk together towards wellness. Let's take this bold and exciting journey towards your recovery. I've done it. Hundreds of my patients have done it, and so can you.
So far. In session one, I introduced the Gupta program and asked you to keep a symptom thought diary. In today's session, we're going to introduce an important supporting tool to the main retraining. And that supporting tool is daily meditation. This fits within the second R of the Gupta program. Relaxing the nervous system.
Now, why is meditation important for brain retraining? Well, in our next session, we'll go deeper into the detail of the hypothesis and how the condition may be caused by an overstimulation of the nervous system and the immune system. Meditation has been shown to help calm down the nervous system, and we also know that when we meditate, it's easier to rewire our brains. Some people notice benefits at once from meditation. For other people, it can take some time. So committing to the process is really important.
What is meditation actually doing for us? Well, imagine the mind is like a pressure cooker. And each time you think a negative thought or worry, a bit more steam builds up in that pressure cooker. Meditation is like the release valve at the top. Suddenly, all the steam comes rushing. So initially, when we first meditate, there's a lot of steam to be released. It can feel like we have our eyes closed and we're just having lots of thoughts, but that's perfectly okay. It's still meditation, and it's normal and expected over time. What happens? Well, once you release the main steam, then everything gets calmer and then you get some glimpses of that peace and stillness and happiness. So please be patient with meditation. It will definitely be having positive effects on your health, and you may not see that straight away.
Later in today's video, we'll talk more about how modern medicine is catching on to the positive effects of meditation and mindfulness. This can help to further inspire you towards perseverance and regular commitment.
Most of our retrainers find that meditation is brilliant in supporting their recovery. In fact, a few retrainers even say that it was mainly the meditation, you know, longer and deeper meditations that got them better. And they were so grateful that they persevered with meditation and kept going with it no matter what happened. So I can't emphasise it enough.
A minority of retrainers occasionally experience some anxiety when they first try meditation. And this is perfectly normal and it will dissolve over time because like we said, you might be suddenly releasing some anxiety or some pent up tension from your nervous system and it has previously remained hidden. So if this happens, see if you can get through it. See if you can just observe it and stay calm. If not, you can practice with some different relaxation techniques, such as guided visualization, to see which ones work best for you.
For instance, you can try the meditation called the surrender meditation, or perhaps the waves of healing meditation. These are less of a meditation, more of a visualization. You can just find a regular daily relaxation technique that works for you. Some people find learning meditation in a group or on a retreat. They find that very useful. Alternatively, if you do notice a lot of anxiety when you meditate, you can use the soften and flow technique instead. This is great for being calm and centered whilst you release the anxiety. It's very useful. Retrainers feel really good afterwards. All of these meditations are in your timeline, in the app, or in your home study course.
If you feel really sleepy during one of your meditations, or indeed you think you've fallen asleep, that's all perfectly fine. This is releasing that deep down exhaustion from your system. When I first started meditating, I also had the occasional sleepy, drowsy meditation. Occasionally it was anxious, but it all became easier. Whatever happens during meditation is what you need in that moment to heal.
What can help deepen our meditations is doing a few minutes of alternate nostril breathing. It's a type of breathing technique and we can do that before our meditation. This helps to calm our minds before we sit still. And I'll share this breathing technique after I talk more about the practice of meditation.
Once you've tried all the meditations, you can pick and choose the meditation that you want to listen to whenever you like. And I would love for you to experience a 20 or 30 minute meditation in the morning before breakfast, and then another one in the evening before dinner. Now let's really get into what meditation is and how we do it.
