Acupuncture
Chick – Your Expert on Chinese Medicine and All Things Health
Jessica
Tatieze, LAc
Awwww, meditation. Those who do it love it; those who
don’t do it think it’s some weird woowoo stuff. But as a gal who used to fear
it due to a lack of understanding it, I can tell you first hand that you can
learn to love it and it can be a vital part of your daily life. When I began as
a student at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM), I noticed I had to
take a class called Qigong. I thought this will be fun, I’m awesome at learning
new things so I’m sure I’ll be great at it. J Then I looked up what it was
and I realized it’s a form of meditation which means I would be expected to ‘still
my mind.’ Now this was scary stuff because being the type of person who was
constantly thinking, the idea of actually trying to stop thinking sounded
ridiculous. Fortunately, what I learned in that first Qigong class from Roger
Lore was that there are many different forms of meditation, including practices
with movement, visualization, and auditory guidance.
The most ironic part of my fear of meditation was that I
found out that I had actually used meditation quite a bit in the past. When I
started middle school sports, my mom taught me something she had used as a
gymnast – visualization. Every night as I fell asleep and before every game I
would relax, focus, and visualize every skill and play I needed to know and do.
I once told a group of younger athletes that I would have felt completely unfocused
and scared to step onto the court for any sport without doing my visualization,
and I believe that my athletic efforts would have turned out differently
without that routine. While this wasn't exactly a practice of 'stilling my mind,' it was a good start.
Realizing that I actually had experience in meditation
may have given me confidence, but it didn’t change the fact that I had a mind
that liked to go go go with so many ideas! I found that I did better with
guided meditation, so that was a great bridge as I headed toward other forms.
My second year at OCOM my Qigong class was led by world renowned Qigong master,
Master Liu He. While she completely amazed me and I enjoyed my time in class, I
still wasn’t in love with meditation and it was hard to turn my brain off
knowing that the next class I went to that day expected me to have a zillion
things memorized for a test! But I kept going to class, kept learning One
Thousand Hands Buddha, and gradually my mind became more and more still.
I also found it amazing that the relaxation my body could
feel through meditation was unlike anything else, as if what I thought was
relaxed before actually wasn’t! This relaxation and mind stillness that I
started to love, this was mediation! I was doing it, and it was really AWESOME!
It turns out, I get much better and clearer ideas in this stillness than when
my brain is spinning so fast with thoughts…who would’ve thought?! Now days I
often recommend meditation to patients, and I try not to giggle when a majority
of them say, “Oh I tried it and I can’t do it, my mind races too fast.” I tell
them to keep at it because over time even the most zooming of minds can learn
to be still—I know from experience!
Please, if you haven’t tried some form of meditation,
do! I promise you will learn to love it too, and it can do amazing things for
your health and your life! Need help getting started, just e-mail me and I can
point you in the right direction! http://www.jessicatatieze.com/Contact-Us.html
“Meditation is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal Bliss
and supreme joy in the end.” Swami Sivananda
