Practice For Entering Hospital - Power Of Mind-Body Medicine

A meditation for entering a hospital or having surgery including mindfulness, compassion and gratitude. Explore how mindfulness may be used to heal up to four times faster and the concept around the “theatre of medicine” and how the power of belief can help. Develop a simple understanding of the placebo and nocebo effects in mind-body medicine.

Transcript

Welcome,

My name is Celia Roberts and I'm the founder of the Biomedical Institute of Yoga and Meditation.

Today we're looking at preparing for hospital and how we can use this time to heal and also to be really mindful in the body as we enter into the hospital environment to assist in our healing.

Now we know that if we're practicing mindfulness we can actually to some degree,

Particularly when we look at studies around psoriasis,

Which is a little bit different from the hospital environment,

But to give you a good flavour of how much faster we can heal using mindfulness.

When we look at psoriasis,

If we put people who have psoriasis in a celerium as opposed to a group of people who go into the celerium to heal the psoriasis and practice mindfulness,

Those who are practicing mindfulness heal four times faster.

And I refer to a work of John Cabot's in mindfulness-based stress reduction when I report to you this study.

So we're looking at using mindfulness to heal the body faster from operation or from anything that draws you into the hospital environment.

So I want you to come into the body part,

The organ,

The area of the body that needs your attention,

Your mindfulness and your healing and see if you can really mindfully and presently sit with that area of the body that needs attention.

Now surprisingly attention is what makes us happy or content.

And so even if we don't enjoy the experience of sitting mindfully with this bodily part or organ or an experience in our lives,

We will experience greater satisfaction than those who try and avoid the situation.

So I want you to really,

Really mindfully,

Attentively place all of your attention into this region of the body and know that as we place our attention into this region,

We can actually increase the blood flow to some degree.

So Laura Mamosly quotes that when we think about a limb or put attention to the limb,

We can increase the blood and lymphatic flow to this region of the body.

Now if you can,

See if you can find something about this part of the body that you're really grateful for.

So it might be a difficult thing to think about at this point.

Perhaps you've been feeling really upset that this has happened or a little bit sad or anxious,

But I want you to find some area of gratitude around this condition that you're facing and just notice where it's led you to or where you are with it now and find one thing that you can be grateful for,

The experience that you're currently undergoing.

Has it given you wisdom,

Insight?

Has it revealed something to you that you were unsure of?

What is the body actually telling you?

Good.

Sit a little bit more deeply into that part of your body and just experience it fully for what it is without labeling it this time as either good or bad,

Without liking or disliking.

So with complete non-judgmental awareness,

You're feeling deeply into the body.

You're noticing different things about that part of the body,

So sensations,

Perhaps even color,

Density,

Lightness,

Even smell perhaps,

Whatever you're noticing you're just observing.

Then from there,

Bringing your attention fully into the heart space.

So the heart space is centered in the sternum of the body and we practice metta or loving kindness from here.

Just allow loving kindness to run from the heart to this area of the body.

Just sending compassion down to this region of your body.

Compassion and healing.

What you want to be aware of as you enter into the hospital environment is the theater of medicine.

What we strangely know is that sham surgery is probably the most amazing placebo.

Of all the placebos that work,

Sham surgery is the best.

What we do know is that the hospital environment,

The costumes that the doctors wear,

The way they talk to you,

The way that you interact with them,

The way that you believe in the outcomes of the situation is really important in your healing.

Once you,

As you enter or imagine yourself entering into the hospital environment,

Really being grateful for these doctors,

These healers,

These people who have the ability to make you well again.

To imagine all the positive benefits that your body will receive from this healing process.

The power of mind and body to heal is amazing.

The way that you prep your mind will be really important.

Power of belief will really assist you.

Really trusting in the system as much as you can as opposed to not trusting or being fearful which will have what we call the placebo effect.

A negative effect.

This might be like when you're frightened of the situation and you're creating anxiety which then allows the body to feel more pain or not heal as fast.

That's where we use mindfulness and compassion and the power of mind body belief to heal,

To overcome the stress or sitting mindfully into that part of the body without being worried.

So you're observing the worry but you're just sitting with it and knowing that everything is impermanent and everything has the power to heal and change.

Good again,

Strongly imagine yourself walking into this environment and really trusting that you will become well again.

Having both compassion and connection to the people who will heal you,

Who will take care of you.

Also great trust,

Belief and faith.

Make sure you observe everything mindfully in the situation so you're seeing yourself observing all situations mindfully.

The medicine that you get given,

It's important that you see that go into your bloodstream or however you're taking it through pills or whatever.

You're observing that medicine going into your body and you do look as much as you can to see how the medicine is affecting your body because the moment that you see it,

It has a more powerful effect than you're not seeing it.

So really as you're entering into this environment,

You're very mindful of everything,

Sounds,

Noises,

Sights,

Visions and how you're innately healing.

Try not to fear the environment,

They're here to help you.

These people are here to help you.

These people are here to help you and you're here to help yourself.

So I wish you all the very best and the very best outcomes and may you be happy and may you be healthy.

May you be filled with deep compassion and may you be at peace.

May your health return,

May you be happy.

May your health return,

May you be healthy.

May your health return,

May you know deep compassion,

May your health return,

May you know peace.

Reviews

I am finding this talk very helpful and comforting as I lead into my surgery for a brain aneurysm. Thank you.

Beautiful meditation. Very soothing and grounding. Thank you.🙏

Just what the doctor ordered. Peace be with you and thank you.

Great!

Outstanding. Thank you.

Oh my goodness! This was tremendously helpful. My doctor has told me to go to the emergency room because my finger is infected, but I'm so tired of seeing doctors and I really don't want to go to the emergency room because of this meditation though, I will, and I will go with a sense of invigorated belief and also honor the people who are trying to help me. And maybe I shouldn't even say trying to help me.. maybe I should say who will help me. Namaste.

I’m currently in the hospital and have been for over a week. I found out that I had MRSA from a blister on the back of my leg and I literally couldn’t walk nor sit because of the incredible pain. Your meditation helped me realize that after the lancing of the MRSA blister as well as the hospital care, I could walk. I felt grateful for that for the first time. Thanks so much for doing this!

Lovely practice♾️⚘️☄️
Thank you kindly♾️📿
Namaste🙏🏼✨️🖤🪔

This is so helpful . Preparing me for surgery in three days. To go alone and not be fearful but empowered is a wonderful gift . Thank you

So helpful. Clear and empowering

Very helpful! Thank you. (I had to work extra hard to focus on your words because the animal yelps in the background were increasing my anxiety. I kept telling myself that they were happy sounds, otherwise you would have stopped and made sure they were okay.)

I wish every person facing major surgery could hear this. I found it a year after 2 major surgeries that were quite traumatic physically and emotionally. If I had focused on the surgical team and office staff in this positive light, it would have prevented months of angst. The numerous office errors, miscommunications, and arrogance completely overshadowed the gratitude for their life-saving skill. This meditation transformed my thinking even a year later. Thank you!

Great session. I had surgery yesterday, and going in with a positive attitude definitely helped, particularly during this time of the pandemic, when - unlike all my previous surgeries - I had to be dropped off at the hospital entrance and picked up there, with no personal support people to be with me. I could hear others in the recovery area having very difficult times with this, but maintaining an attitude and space of gratitude and positivity helped reduce my pain levels a bit, which only served to make me even more grateful. Though I heard this first today, the day after surgery, I still found it very informative and helpful. Thank you for the work you do and continue to do. I see you and the light within you. Be well. 🤲🏻❤️🤲🏻

I had a surgical procedure 2 1/2 days ago. Went in with a healing attitude. This meditation is perfect for enhancing that healing work. Thank you so much! 🙏 ❤