by livingdharmanow in Meditation Mondays

This is the second part of an earlier blog post, How to Alleviate Suffering When You’re Sick.

As you know, I’ve spent the last two weeks sick. It’s been hard to deal with: my illness has evolved so I’ve struggled with different symptoms from day to day. I went to a couple of different doctors and had one visit to the Emergency Room.

Sometimes it was very hard to keep my spirits up, but in the past couple of days, I’ve been improving steadily. Though I’m not at 100% yet, I’m grateful to be feeling better and able to function normally. Now that I’ve finally returned to Living Dharma Now, I can present my next meditation instruction on a subject which is especially relevant to me right now.

How to Meditate When You’re Sick

Sickness comes in many shapes and sizes, but it’s something which everyone experiences and no one can escape from. I’m sure you all know many ways to prevent getting sick in the first place, so I won’t dwell on that.

This meditation instruction is going to tell you what to do once you do get sick to help alleviate suffering.

1. Get comfortable

Or as comfortable as you possibly can. Sit down, lie down, or stand up. Prop your head up with pillows, if you need to. Keep a box of tissues near you.

2. Close your eyes. Focus on your breath.

Breathing is one of the most fundamental aspects of meditation. If you’re able to breathe normally through your nose, wonderful. Let the breath flow naturally – don’t control it, just concentrate on it. Count your breaths, or focus on the feeling of the air as it enters and exits your nostrils.

If it’s difficult to breathe through your nose, then breathe through your mouth.

3. Pick a starting point

Identify the primary source of discomfort in your body. This can be physical pain such as headaches, muscle soreness, or broken bones. It can be uncomfortable feelings like nausea, aches, chills, or itching. It can be feelings of tightness that come with swelling, clogged sinuses, bloating, or pressure. Identify what is bothering you most.

4. Become aware of the discomfort

Focus on your starting sensation, whatever it is. Let yourself feel it. Think “I am aware of x” (x being your headache, stuffy nose, back pain, whatever). Explore the feeling, mentally.

Don’t judge it, critically examine it, or let yourself have an emotional reaction to it. When you feel discomfort, how do you typically react? If you get a headache in the morning, do you find yourself thinking, “This will ruin my whole day if it sticks around”?

The goal here is to separate your physical pain from your immediate emotional reaction to it. So really examine the pain. Concentrate on your discomfort and all of the sensations connected to it.

If you do this for long enough, you’ll find yourself becoming distanced from the pain. The discomfort might not lessen, but you may become aware of the sensation more as just a physical reaction to something taking place within your body. The pain is not a part of you.

5. Continue to explore

As you concentrate on one discomfort, others will arise (probably steadily and rapidly). Don’t feel obligated to brush them aside and concentrate only on the primary pain. As soon as you become aware of another pain, allow yourself to become aware of it. Think, “I am aware of x,” and then gently bring your mind back to the focus of your concentration.

When you feel you are ready to move on, then explore the other discomforts that previously arose. Give the same attention to each one of them as you gave to your primary pain. And if the main discomfort resurfaces in your mind, treat it as you did the others: consciously become aware of the sensation, think, “I am aware of x,” and bring your attention gently back.

6. Variations

Healing Meditation (Breath)

There are forms of healing meditation that many people use (maybe I’ll write up an instruction for one of them another Monday), and it’s not too hard to incorporate certain elements of healing meditation into this type of meditation practice.

Instead of merely concentrating your attention on the source of physical discomfort, you can also try this exercise:

Imagine yourself as a bundle of energy, in a color that comforts you or feels healthy.

Concentrate on your breath. When you breathe in, imagine that you’re taking in beneficial air, the same healthy color as your energy. When you breathe out, imagine that you’re expelling the unhealthy energies that make your mind and body sick. This air is a different color, one that you want to rid your body of.

Typically when I’ve seen this exercise, they recommend imagining pink for the healthy inward breath, and green for the unhealthy outward breath, but I think you should choose what feels best to you.

Healing Meditation (Energy)

Again, imagine yourself as a bundle of energy. You can use the same colors as before.

Instead of concentrating on the breath, concentrate on the sources of physical discomfort as demonstrated in Steps 1-5. Imagine the location of that pain as unhealthy (green) energy, surrounded by the healthy energy which is pink (or whatever color you chose). Visualize this greenness at every location in your body where you feel discomfort.

Now imagine a small bundle of pink energy, outside your body. Gently bring that bundle of healthy energy into a place where you feel pain, and imagine the pink orb slowly healing the green energy until it also becomes pink.

How did this meditation practice work for you? Give me your feedback and suggestions by leaving a comment on the site or contacting me at livingdharmanow at gmail dot com!