The Role of Medication

Your doctor may prescribe medication for any number of ailments. Most medicines are designed to treat the symptoms of disease. Some get to the heart of the problem, but most reduce the symptoms, thereby allowing the body time to heal itself. It is important for you to continue to take prescribed medicines, even if you get into a more serious meditation practice. Certainly you can discuss meditation with your doctor, and you can work with him or her to find the fight dosages as your mental activity changes.
Some naturopathic medicines are designed to get the body itself to attack an illness or to overcome weakness. These tend to push the body's healing mechanisms into action. Sometimes a homeopathic remedy will evoke an emotional as well as a physiological response. We can take this as an indication that the remedy is doing its job, just as we take the reduction of symptoms as an indication that an allopathic medicine is doing its job.

Meditation can certainly reduce the need for medications. If your blood pressure and cholesterol levels are lower, you may not need all the medications you were given during an acute episode. If you no longer experience migraine headaches, naturally you can stop taking the medication for it. By the same token, you may keep a dose or two on hand for a while. Meditation is not meant to take the place of medical treatment. It is a valuable supplement to diet, exercise, and medical care.

In an interview on the Internet, Dr. Dean Ornish states:

Meditation is great for your heart, as well as for the rest of your body. Meditation can take you to a deeper state of relaxation that is more profound even than sleep. This deep relaxation allows the heart to begin healing . . . Many studies have documented that the regular practice of meditation may lower blood pressure, reduce the frequency of irregular heart beats, and even lower cholesterol levels independent of diet. Meditation is an important part of my program for reversing heart disease.

Dr. Ornish confirms here that physical healing can result from meditation, just as I mentioned earlier in this chapter that emotional healing happens. This is because you consciously are altering your perceptions, or at least your responses, to the world. You are learning how to choose your response instead of reacting.

EXERCISE 15 - Changing your pulse rate

Research has shown that individuals can raise or lower their blood pressure through physical activity. If you walk, jog, or run, you will increase your blood pressure. As you slow down, blood pressure falls back toward normal. You can manipulate your mental state in a similar way.

1. Assume your meditative posture and take a moment to relax. Take a few deep breaths. Feel the spots where your body meets the floor, cushion, or chair.
2. Notice your rate of breathing. Place your fingers on your throat and feel your pulse (or use a heartbeat sensor).
3. Now imagine yourself engaging in a vigorous activity. Perhaps you ate running up a hill to catch up with your dog. Chase him around at the top of the hill. Imagine doing this until you begin to tire.
4. Place your fingers on your throat again. Even though you have not changed your physical position, you find that your pulse has increased. Just thinking about the chase sped up your heart.
5. Now imagine you have the dog on his leash. You start back down the hill. Instead of hurrying, you wander back and forth. He sniffs the plants for signs of rabbits and other small animals. You notice the color of the plants, the rocks, whatever is in your path. You may even pick up some small thing to examine. You feel the warmth of the sun on your back.
6. Place your fingers on your throat again. You will find that once again, without physically moving, your pulse has changed—it has come back toward normal.

You notice that your breathing has slowed, just as it does when you cool down from vigorous exercise.
The mind is a powerful tool. It can work for us or against us in our search for peace. We can regulate out thought process in a positive way through practice, and meditation is a part of that practice.