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Natural Medicine Associates

This excerpt from a new book on alternative healing examines how meditation and proper breathing can help you relieve stress, promote health and create an oasis of stillness in your life

When your grandmother said she felt something "in her bones" or that someone "died of a broken heart," she was describing the undeniable link between the mind and the body. Whether we use the terms "mind-body, "mind, body, spirit" or the more inclusive "mind, body, spirit and emotions," we are describing the truly whole and integrated nature of ourselves, of our beings. While Western medicine has separated mind and body and largely ignored the importance of mental and spiritual health until recently, Eastern healers have long recognized the interconnectedness of the parts that make up the whole. Indeed, many traditional healers believe that illness or disease begins in our minds with an emotion, and manifests in the body as symptoms. Mind-body medicine is based at least in part on the idea that to heal a physical illness, we must first address the underlying emotional or spiritual cause.

Science is beginning to take notice. Recently a new field of medicine known as psychoneuroimmunology has emerged specifically to study the interplay between the mind and the nervous and immune systems. For example, researchers at the University of Rochester have actually measured the effect of emotional stress on the duration of a cold. And a study published in the journal Hypertension in 1996 found that by practicing transcendental meditation over a period of three months, older African-Americans were able to lower their blood pressure significantly. This was true even for those who were at high risk for hypertension because of stress, obesity, alcohol use, physical inactivity and high sodium intake.

Mind-body methods, ranging from support groups, meditation and guided imagery to yoga and spiritual healing, have been used successfully to help treat problems as diverse as heart disease, high cholesterol, cancer, diabetes and arthritis, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health. It is a connection that Black women have long understood, if only intuitively. By saying a prayer generations ago or joining a sister circle today, we've been workin' some of the most powerful and now proven mind-body therapies.

The Way to Stillness

During her first experience with meditation, Monique Fortune could barely control the ticker tape of thoughts running through her mind: I have to write a grocery list; ohmigod, why am I sitting here? Maybe I need to be active ... But gradually, the chatter of her daily to-do list began to quiet down. "My body got still and I said, `Wait, there is value in being still,' "she recalls.

A year later, pursuing this therapeutic stillness, Monique signed up for a workshop with meditation mentor Devya in New York City. "At that point, I was at a very stressful job," she says. "I was a fundraiser, and I was also in graduate school. I felt that I needed to get centered and I needed some peace." During the following year Monique made the commitment to meditating daily. When she began, she lacked well-being and a sense of her life's purpose. Her health was also at stake. Stressed out, she was 50 pounds overweight and her hair was falling out. "I was a good fund-raiser," she says. "But I was coming home every day with a headache, sitting in front of the television, eating five pieces of fried chicken and having a half gallon of ice cream.

Meditation became her balm of Gilead. She started rising every morning for her meditative practice. Gradually, the stillness and focus she sought began to change her life. "Certain people had to be removed from my life because they were toxic," she says. "Certain situations and people were not serving me. I had to take a hard look at friends, take a hard look at career. It took three years for me to say, `Oh, your extra weight is not serving you.'" Then after meditating one morning, Monique heard a voice that told her to leave her job.

Three years and a couple of jobs later, the 40-year-old has found her calling: teaching. "I love my students," says the professor of communications and media studies. "Nothing has felt so right." She's also worked with a doctor who helped her recognize and change her emotional eating patterns. Meditation has led her to and kept her on the correct path. Through deep breathing, meditating on the mantra om and praying in front of her altar each day, Monique has discovered the peace of mind and sense of purpose she sought. "The beautiful thing about meditation is that when you chant, you're feeling that vibration," she says. "And when you feel it within you, you feel like you're becoming more whole."

Natural Healing Is Our Heritage

To our West African ancestors, the mind-body-spirit connection was unquestionable. It remains even now the basis of the African worldview. As Malidoma Some writes in The Healing Wisdom of Africa (Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Putnam), "A physical body alone cannot have any sort of direction in this life, so it is important to recognize that the body is an extension of the spirit, and the spirit is an extension of the body, and that the two are inseparable, with a communication that goes both ways." Because the body and spirit are joined, illness is the result not only of physical symptoms but also of an underlying "energetic" or spiritual disorder, Some explains. The cure, therefore, has to address the spiritual level to be effective and enduring. In the Dagara village where Some was trained in the ways of a shaman, and in many indigenous African communities, deep healing does not rely first and foremost on a pill or medical treatment, but on consultation with elders and ancestors, and on a return to nature, ritual and community. "Healing comes when the individual remembers his or her identity," Some notes, "and reconnects with that world of Spirit."

This world of Spirit includes our ancestors, spirits or inanimate objects imbued with spiritual power. Nature is the magical home of these otherworldly beings, the point of contact. Though unseen, these ancestors and spirits are always present, offering guidance and wisdom when needed. For Africans the interconnectedness of the body, mind and spirit, therefore, is not only limited to the individual person, but it also extends to the family, the community, the ancestors, nature and the universe.

For African-Americans this strong relationship with Spirit has survived, although in different forms. Stripped of the freedom to practice their beliefs openly, our enslaved ancestors embraced Christianity while also holding fast to faith in the power of spirits, ancestors and even hexes created by those who worked "roots."

Today Black women dominate the pews in Black churches, and some are wielding the reins of power in the pulpits. More and more sisters follow Islam, Yoruba and other African religions. Still others embrace New Age spirituality: In many ways Black women's reliance on prayer--whether it is to God, Allah, a Higher Power or Mother Spirit--has always superseded a reliance on the tools of Western medicine. Perhaps this is evidence of the ancient wisdom we still carry within us.

Former health editor Ziba Kashef is now the senior editor of essence.com.

From Like a Natural Woman: A Black Woman's Guide to Alternative Healing by Ziba Kashef. Copyright [C] 2001 by Ziba Kashef. Published by Kensington Publishing Corp. Printed by permission of author and Lowenstein Associates.

RELAXATION TECHNIQUES

"Relaaaax!" says a loving friend, partner or health-care provider, but that is often easier said than done. It may be safe to say that many Black women simply don't know how to relax. We've been focusing on making it and taking care of others for so long, we feel guilty even thinking about relaxation. But taking a break and putting our minds at ease is no luxury to be indulged only during annual vacations. It is a health necessity. When we actively engage in relaxation techniques such as meditation or yoga, we naturally slow our brain waves, relax our muscles and allow the power of mind-body healing to come forward. The beauty of the following techniques is that you can use them by yourself at any time and any place. Ten to 20 minutes should be enough time to trigger the relaxation response in your body, but you may want to add more over time to maximize the healing benefits. Try to incorporate these relaxation techniques into your morning and evening routines. When we are most stressed or in despair, a relaxation technique may be the last thing we feel like doing, but it may be what we most need to do. If one technique does not seem to work for you, try another until you find one that fits. Meditation Focused awareness is one way to describe meditation, an ancient Eastern spiritual practice. "It's a way of calming the thought waves of your mind," says Devya, a New York City meditation mentor and president of Devya & Associates. "Meditation gives you a period of time when the thoughts quiet down so that you can begin to tap into the real wisdom that lies within you." Breathing With eyes shut, inhale slowly: Picture the air moving through your body toward your toes. After a pause, exhale and see the air flowing away from you. Concentrate on the expansion and contraction of your abdomen with each breath. Chanting A Hindu practice introduced to the West in the 1960's transcendental meditation popularized mantra meditation, a method in which a word or phrase is continually repeated, silently or aloud. Close your eyes and chant the Hindi Om, or perhaps "Peace" or "I am strong" each time you exhale.

Gazing Without thinking about it in words, watch a candle flame, a flower or another object a foot away from you. Keep your breathing steady as you free your mind of everything else. if your mind or gaze wanders, gently return to the object.

Visualization Close your eyes and picture the tension seeping out of every muscle, from head to toe, as you exhale. Noting each detail, see yourself on a deserted beach, in a quiet garden or in another calm locale.

Emptying the mind With eyes open or closed, focus on letting all thoughts float by as if meaningless.

Breath work Concentrating on and controlling our breathing is one basic way to immediately focus the mind and relax our spirits. Breath work can also increase the amount of oxygen flowing through the body and enhance our energy.

Breath awareness To perform this breathing technique, simply concentrate on the feel and sound of your breath moving in and out of your body. Don't try to force a change in your breathing pattern at first; just observe. After several minutes have passed, make an effort to breathe more fully, filling the abdomen, then the chest as you inhale; empty the chest and abdomen as you exhale. Slow your breathing down, taking more time to exhale than inhale.

Visit our Web site at essence.com for an extended list of natural healers in your area.

Ziba Kashef, essence.com senior editor, says she wrote Like a Natural Woman because "so few alternative health books address Black women's concerns." An excerpt is on.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Essence Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group