- when we perceive our normal way of

.. ful gift, one of our best mental tools.

.26 | Outin the Mountains |September 20.00

=,,_h.ealth, & wejllbeing =—-

ALTERNATIVE 101:  
Meditation

 

BY HEATHER K. PEAKE

I begin this month with an apology.

When we launched the 101 series back.in February,
I saw it as a no-brainer: a chance to explore some stuff
I found interesting, quick to research, and easy to
write. V

Because the emphasis was on pure information
rather than personal experience, I was automatically
exempted from the burden of sharing my feelings with
you readers. I was also spared facing my discomfort at
being a straight woman writing to a gay audience
(“who is she to tell me anything...?”). As the months
have rolled on by, I’ve grown comfortable behind this
shield of detachment.

This is wrong. '

Whatever differences may exist in
our lifestyles, we all want basically
the same things: happy, healthy, pro-
ductive lives. That’s where alternative
practices come in — we turn to them

doing things is no longer working. It’s
a profoundly personal journey, but we
can all learn from each other. My
experience is mine alone, but in shar-
ing it, I hope I can help you better
decided how to use these methods, as
you need them.

If I had to tell you just one thing
about alternative therapies, it would
be simply to go with your gut. (An
inelegant phrase, but the best I can
come up with) Intuition is a wonder-

We just don’t use it enough. Instead,
we look for outside guidance and val-
idation, sloughing off our internal
guidance as coincidence or hocus-
pocus or plain old hooey.

This is the underpinning of the entire self-help
industry. Do this and you’ll be happy. Eat this and
you’ll be thin and happy. Take this supplement and
you’ll be energetic...and happy. Even when these
self-appointed gurus claim to be putting you in the
driver’s seat, the implication is that they hold some
secret knowledge you cannot grasp, and if you don’t
pay attention - and pay money — they wont give it to
you, leaving you miserable and alone.

Here’s a radical thought: you already know exactly
what you need to be happy. Or thin. Or rich. You just
need to learn how to listen to yourself.

Vitomin Connection

offers the
Best selections

on the Net.

 

Okay, so it isn’t “just” that simple. It requires you
to build a sense of trust in yourself, to be able to find
a quiet place in your head to listen to that internal
voice, and to be prepared to explore, experiment, and
go down a lot of blind alleys in the process.

For example: if you are a regular reader of the 101
series, what particular things have appealed to you?
Has something jumped out at you without your really
knowing why? Voila, intuition. Maybe that’s an alley
worth going down. Instead of looking at each altema-
tive therapy as an isolated practice, start lookingat it
as a smorgasbord. Pick and choose as you please.

As I write this, peppermint oil is bubbling away in
my diffuser — a little aromatherapy that’s worked
wonders on my beleaguered sinuses. I dabble with

enough reflexology and acupressure to have made
myself more aware of areas of tension in my body,
reducing my migraines and incipient wrist pain. A
recent attempt at yoga drew my attention to how out-
of-shape I am. Nothing earth shattering, perhaps, but
part of the process of experimentation. Sooner or later,
I’ll hit on the right combination.

This morning, I had my first meditation practice in
about a decade, and man, was it hard.

Meditation is the act of thinking reflectively; but
within this simple definition lives a wide range of
practices. While not a religion in itself, meditation is
part of almost every r_eligion_in the world. In the West,

for instance, it tends to be a targeted practice intended
to allow the practitioner to commune more directly
with God. It’s usually so buried in the liturgy, we
rarely see it as meditation, but it’s there.

Eastern meditation is a bit more free form. The goal
is to reach a place of no thought, or where thoughts,
emotions, and memories can float by without judg-
ment. We become observers of our own mind. The
theory is that in quieting the endless chatter of our
brains, we open ourselves to peace, harmony, and joy.
Because of its emphasis on bre_ath control, which has
a natural relaxation effect, it’s become a popular stress

«reduction technique in the US over the past 20 years.

The practice I’ve begun was developed by my
beloved over many years. His feeling is that Eastern
meditation is counterproductive;
rather than suppressing emotions,
we should be releasing them. By
burning away layers of resistance
that grow around negative emotions,
we can feel them fully. Once that
happens, we can surrender to them -
not run from them or fight against
them, but just accept them as part of
existence. Oddly, this makes us feel
better. The negative stuff loses the
power to hurt, and we aren’t wasting
energy struggling with it.

Will this work for me? Hard to
say. I may get a lot out of it, or I may
have to find something else. It’s an
experiment.

For more information on the vari-
ous traditions and forms of medita-
tion, there are several good Web and
old-fashioned A print resources.
Yahoo! Health offers a good listing
in its Alternative Therapies section,
and check out the Understanding
Meditation page at observingyour-
mind.com or the Yahoo! Health page. You might also
want to invest in a copy of Meditation for Dummies
by Stephen Bodian.

I began with an apology and end with an invitation:
if you’d like to share your experiences with altema-
tive therapies, make any comments or suggestions
about what you’ve read over the past few months, or
just say’ hi, please feel free to contact me at
hpeake@rocketmail.com. V

 

NMC

Nokruwsrsun Msniou. Cnrrex

Dr. Mara Vijups
Dr. Erin Rhoades

Practice limited
to male clientele

wvm.VItamInconnuctIon.eoun

%

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