Benefits of Meditation In The Time of COVID19

Today we chat with Jenny Murphy,  one of our speakers who has presented for the last two years at Thrive Festival with her talks booked out – speaking about “Us As Energy Beings” and awakening our latent inner power,  a wealth of knowledge on energetics, chakra psychology, consciousness and the power of the mind.

As a giveaway meditation for our Thrive community, Jenny has recorded a mediation incorporating tools to calm yourself in times of stress…Jenny explains that the latest HSE broadcasts and the spike in numbers of  COVID-19 cases can spike stress and anxiety levels for many. In this blog, Jenny discusses the reasons why meditation is necessary in these times and the importance of having headspace, a fast route to calm ourselves.

We all know the many benefits of meditation but today, I would like to discuss the reason why meditation is so necessary in these times of COVID-19

As human beings, the most ancient part of our brain is wired for stress. The stress response – our inbuilt survival mechanism, hat activates that fight, flight or freeze response, is fantastic when needing to get away from a dinosaur, it is there to keep us alive. But in 2020 living, our thoughts can create that same level of physiological response in our bodies, as if a dinosaur was chasing us.

Our thoughts can use up enormous amounts of energy as we are wired for survival, and the mind doesn’t know whether what we are thinking is real or imagined (our thoughts). Our nervous system will put our body into survival mode, slow down our digestion and critical-thinking function and suppress our immune system for up to six hours. Our thoughts can use up as much of our vital energy as running a marathon, for many they are running daily mental marathons, which leads to burning out and low immunity.

Primarily, mediation provides a form of mental purification – allowing the mind a quiet space, to clear our thoughts. We process between 15,000- 60,000 thoughts a day! That is a lot of processing, especially if we are on the upper range of excessive thinking. Thus, mediation provides a space to gain a perspective over our thinking and recycle the thoughts we no longer need.

Science is now proving, we are hyper-connected, as a group of people, a country and as a global family. The elevated effects of collective fear can be amplified and felt, which triggers our personal stress levels.

The unknown and potentially life-threatening risks of COVID-19 put so many of us into survival mode stress as time went by in lockdown and we started to understand this dinosaur threat, called COVID-19. On a personal level, our minds started to come out of survival, basically, we didn’t die, we survived COVID-19, the nervous system started to settle down. As human beings, we learn to adapt to survive, over the weeks in lockdown, our 50 trillion cells adjusted to the environment, that we call, the new normal. We might not like it, but we adjust to it, to survive.

The recent HSE broadcasts of spikes in the number of COVID cases can create a spike in a collective fear-based threat for us as a country and energetically it activates again our survival mode. The constant broadcasts for many are a source of major stress, all on a subliminal level, the most ancient part of our brain is responding, we could be the percentile of having 60,000 thoughts a day, these broadcasts, creating a negative physiological reaction for the physical body. When the body is in stress mode, it weakens our immunity, which is the last thing we need to do, with such a serious virus circulating.

The below meditation I have recorded with specific language to assist the mind to go into the relaxation response, taking the body out of stress mode and activating the parasympathetic response – the rest and digest mode. This guided meditation, using mindfulness, breathwork and relaxation techniques, learning to become calm, stimulating dopamine release (the happy hormone) to counterbalance the effects of stress.

As we are wired for stress –  our brain is the most important organ by far, the master organiser of all the other organs,  it is so important to take care of our mind and learn to come out of automatic pilot living. Epigenetics has proven the impact the environment has on our wellbeing, which on a grand scale, is now a COVID19 world which has us all on high alert and kicking into survival mode, along with our work-life balance,  our emotional relationships,  these are the major contributors to daily adrenal hijacking. It is so important to take care of our mind and learn to slow down our automatic pilot and become aware of the tone of our thoughts, especially if our thinking is creating fear-based related stress and anxiety,

The good news is – knowledge is power, we do not need to be held captive to our biology and chemistry, in fact, we can take control of our automatic reactions to stress. Mother nature has given us a wonderful gift, a neurochemical called dopamine, a neuromodulator, we can calm ourselves just by being still and using the breath. I have incorporated in this mediation, deep breathing technique, that you can use, to create a deliberate self-practice,  the ability to calm yourself.

The science behind meditation is difficult to understand but the process is so simple, use the gifts of mother nature, very simply, your breath, stillness, and loving-kindness to counterbalance the hardships of life. 5-10 minutes of stillness, in a meditative state activates dopamine release, if you add a practice of gratitude, even just deliberate intention to focus on the good stuff that Is happening in life, simple things, write them down before, your practice, your mum, granny, pet, good friend, your achievements, the fact we are surviving and have not caught coronavirus, give gratitude, this will release also the neurochemicals serotonin and oxytocin,  complete healing for the mind and body system.

My gift to you, this meditation, as a starting point, to finding that place within… your inner peace and drink up all those wonderful chemicals for your brain and nervous system.

Find the meditation here and relax…!

Namaste
Jenny

About Jenny Murphy:

Jenny Murphy is a Kildare based energy and healing expert, founder of Vibe Tribe which provides ‘a haven for people to connect at a soul level to truly discover and understand their authentic self and life purpose’.

Through her work, Jenny has inspired a vast array of individuals and groups through one to one consultation, mindfulness courses, meditation, healing attunement and workshops for over fifteen years. Her approach, experience and knowledge in her field is holistic in every respect with qualifications spanning Hypnotherapy, Psychotherapy, Healing Therapy, Transpersonal Therapy, Past Life Regression Therapy, Analytical Psychotherapy – Solution Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Mindfulness Stress Management Therapy, NLP Practitioner and Reiki & Seichem Healing Master. Her main objective and passion in her work is to empower people with the wonderful teachings, tools and healing techniques to live a fully rounded, present and fulfilling life. A progressive tribe moving forward into 2020 living.

Check out Jenny’s website here –> www.angelicblessings.ie and find her here on Instagram