Meditation basics for practitioners and patients

By Joel Kreisberg

Due to their simplicity, meditation and mindfulness are often overlooked as methods for improving performance and stimulating healing for patients and practitioners alike. Clinical research provides considerable evidence of the benefits of regular meditation. Recent research indicates meditation helps individuals manage occupational stress and burnout, while enhancing the quality of interactions with patients and practitioners. 

A common misconception is that meditation requires a quiet room with a cushion and plenty of time to sit. My intention is to present several methods that can be easily incorporated into a busy schedule, providing considerable benefit to the busy clinician.

Most forms of meditation require several key ingredients, which are the foundation for many different methods.

• Set Your Intention: You must choose to meditate. You decide when, how long, and what technique you’ll use. This occurs before you get started.

• Set a Timer: While not essential, in this age of cell phones, it’s not hard to have a timer to set before you begin. The value of this is that once you begin, you never have to look at the timer again. Simply meditate until the alarm goes off. Then you’re done. Insight Timer is a free app with the basics. You’ll get the added benefit of having the app keep track of your daily progress.

• Choose a Location: While a quiet space provides a supportive environment for settling into meditation, there are plenty of other environments that can be useful for meditation.  The key ingredient is preparing the space. This means shutting the door if it’s your office. Turning off ringers on phones. Deciding where you will walk if you are doing walking meditation or removing distractions if you’re going to stand. The point is to plan and prepare the environment for your meditation to minimize distractions.

• Choose a Posture: There is something to be said about having an erect spine to support proper breathing and foster a healthy energy flow. The simplest method for sitting is with an erect spice. Sit cross-legged with a cushion raising your pelvis slightly above your knees or sit on the front six inches of a chair, feet flat on the floor. Tuck the chin slightly, spine strait.  By returning to the same posture again and again, you train your body to support concentration. Over time, your body literally remembers this posture. This makes it easier to settle your attention. Similarly, standing and walking meditation should be done with a healthy posture, chin slightly tucked. It’s not recommended to do meditation lying down. You lose about 30 percent of your lung capacity when prone or supine. It’s easier to fall asleep. While sleep is good for you, it’s not the same as meditation.

• Focus Your Attention: All meditation begins with a concentration practice. This can be your breath, a word said silently in your mind, a visual focus (with eyes open), or a sound like a bell. Many forms of meditation start with attention to the breath: you settle your attention on the movement of the breath. Often one chooses to attend to one body location as it relates to the breath. This can be the rise and fall of the belly (Hara), the passing of air at the front of the nose, or the passing of air in the back of the throat. Each will have a different quality.  Simply choose one that is most comfortable and stick with this for a regular practice.  Consistency will make it easier over time. 

What Type of Meditation is Right for Me?

There are literally hundreds of forms of meditation from which you can choose. Many are associated with spiritual paths, Zazen or Zen Meditation, Transcendental Meditation, and Insight Meditation, to name a few. My intention is not to introduce different formal practices of meditation, but rather to provide a menu of styles of meditation that you can easily use as part of your busy day. 

Sitting Meditation

Personally, I’ve learned to make sitting meditation a priority. I’ve noticed that if I schedule a meditation break in the afternoon, I simply have to close the door, change my seat to another chair in the room, and sit in a meditation posture near the edge of my chair. I set the alarm for five, 10 or 20 minutes. I bring my attention to my breath and either attend to the sensation at the front of my nostrils, or repeat a word with every inhalation or exhalation. There are many words or mantras that can serve as this repetition. A simple one from Zen is “No.”  This refers to no to thoughts arising.

Standing Meditation

If my day is busy, I’m on the move and there really isn’t a quiet place to sit, a short standing meditation is energizing. I often begin or end a class with a standing meditation. Again, set your time. Plant your feet shoulder’s distance apart. Adjust your posture such that you are standing fully upright, chin tucked slightly. Bring your attention to your breath. Follow the breath by attending to the lower abdomen, the Hara. Continue to breath and relax in your standing posture. Due to the more active muscles required to stand, this form of meditation is best kept to a maximum of five to 10 minutes.

Walking Meditation

Walking meditation is useful when you do not have the time to stand or sit for a meditation period. This can be done during a walk in any setting. The simplest form of walking meditation involves repeating in your mind which step you are taking, say “left” when you step with your left foot and “right” when you step with your right foot. Continue to walk and repeat “left” and “right” with each step. This can be done for as long as you walk.

One Minute of Brief Meditation

The point of meditation is to concentrate long enough to settle your mind.  This doesn’t require as much time as we think. Learning to take advantage of even short breaks in the day, simply set your timer for as short as one minute. Choose a posture.  Bring your attention to your breath or a word or other mantra. Repeat until the timer rings.  

Insight Meditation

Insight meditation is very popular. It’s a form of traditional Theravada Buddhism. Use the same instructions for sitting meditation. The addition that Insight Meditation brings occurs when your mind has wandered from the breath. When this happens, simply notice the distracting thought and name it. For example, when a song starts to play in your head – name it “song,” then return to your breath. If you start thinking about work, name it “work,” then return to your breath. As you practice naming the mental distractions, over time, you’ll become better at simply staying focused on your breath for longer periods.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a meditation technique that allows you to continue to pay attention to the activity in which you are involved. I often use this form when I’m cooking dinner or I’m eating. It requires choosing not to multi-task. Simply focus your attention on the action at hand.  If this is cutting vegetables, pay strict attention to the process of cutting. If you are eating a meal, do this mindfully, and simply attend to experience of eating without distraction. As thoughts arise, simply return to the activity at hand.

Metta

Metta is a Theravada Buddhist practice of repeating a positive phrase in your head. A common Metta phase is “May all beings be at peace,” or “May all beings be well.” This simple form of meditation involves simply repeating the phrase or phrases over and over, allowing yourself to really feel the positive qualities of the statement. 

The practice of meditation is a powerful tool for self-care. The simple act of focusing the mind not only helps settle the mind, it often allows us to better understand the way our minds work. Over time, when we practice meditation, we find that we develop greater clarity of thoughts, more compassion for those we come in contact with and greater acceptance of our experience. Studies show that meditation reduces a variety of symptoms especially anxiety, anger and negative thinking. By concentrating repeatedly, we reduce psychological stress and increase our parasympathetic response. Over time this helps stabilize our energy and our mood. 

Editor’s note: This article is part of a series celebrating Self-Care Awareness Month. Click here to view the complete collection. 

About the Author

Joel Kreisberg, DC, PCC, CCH is the founder and Executive Director of the Teleosis Institute, www.teleosis.org, a not-for-profit institution devoted to coaching and the healing arts. Kreisberg bring 29 years of leadership to his work as an integrative physician, teacher, coach and change agent. He holds credentials in chiropractic (New York College of Chiropractic), homeopathy (Hahnemann College of Homeopathy), coaching (International Federation of Coaching), and health coaching (National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching)

In 1996, Kreisberg founded the Teleosis School of Homeopathy, a four-year postgraduate program. After completing his master’s degree in Integral Ecology at Prescott College in Arizona, Kreisberg founded the Teleosis Institute, devoted to sustainable medicine. In 2012, he was instrumental in developing the first ordinance in the United States making it mandatory for drug companies to operate safe disposal systems for consumer prescription drugs. 

After becoming an Integral Master Coach, Kreisberg integrated this coaching style into his clinical practice in homeopathy and nutritional medicine. Narrative Health Coaching offers a comprehensive framework that identifies and nourishes the healing capacity of those seeking to reduce pain and illness as well as those seeking to increase overall health and vitality.  Teleosis Institute offers continuing educations classes for coaches and health professionals in Narrative Health Coaching and Homeopathy.

Kreisberg co-authored Coaching and Healing: Transforming the Illness Narrative. He maintains a private practice, Integrative Homeopathic Medicine, is in Berkeley, California.