Meditation

This is one of a series of three posts on connections between faith and healing. The others are on Love and on Gratitude. These three are not of course exclusive to the Christian faith, or even to faith at all, but they are integral to the Christian faith. And they all support healing.

According to healthline “Meditation has been shown to offer many benefits. Although it’s well known as a technique to reduce stress and anxiety, research shows that it may also help enhance your mood, promote healthy sleep patterns, and boost cognitive skills.”. And there are other potential benefits too, which you can search on the internet. But even without digging further here are 3 or 4 major benefits for the cancer patient – reduced stress and anxiety and better mood and sleep.

The Bible has many references to meditating on God’s word and in the words of Psalm 46.10 “Be still and know that I am God”.

In the case of Christians, we can meditate on Scripture. I recently read a book on Biblical Meditation, which advocated meditating on a verse or short passage of the Bible, and finding that helped to receive better understanding of the passage and meaning for our lives.

Also, we can meditate on the glory of God and His creation and all the wonderful things He has done which brings us back to “Be still and know that I am God”.

Prayer too can be a form of meditation. Prayer is not just a matter of “asking for stuff”, but a matter of communicating with God. Thanking him for His blessings, recognising where we have fallen short, and requesting His help. And staying still to understand His response.

Inevitably, I think of meditation in a Christian context. But if you are not a Christian, you can still obtain benefit from meditation. There is a lot of on-line help to do that. And while you are meditating, God just might speak to you if you ask Him. Who knows? As with all things, keep an open mind.

The human body, including the mind, is a wonderful thing with a huge capability of healing itself. Think of all the injuries and diseases that we overcome without medical intervention. When it more seriously breaks down, as with cancer, then we need to marshal all our body’s resources to combat it. Our mind is such an important part of our healing and we have to give it our full attention, That is what these three posts are about – Meditation, Love and Gratitude. in the words of the Roman poet Juvenal “mens sana in corpore sano” which translates as healthy mind in healthy body. We need to strive for both.