Beeja Meditation

Not necessarily what you’d expect to hear from a meditation teacher, but Will Williams hasn’t had the most conventional route into meditation to say the least. Over the last week Will has been doing a 6 day Presscription Juice cleanse and I, in turn, have had my nose deep in Will’s book ‘The Effortless Mind,’ so I thought we’d write a short blog post about Beeja Meditation and the profound effects it can have on the human physiology and psyche. 

It’s safe to say that I’m a reluctant meditator, as I would assume many of you reading this probably are too. We know it’s supposedly good for us but given the choice would rather spend 20 more minutes in bed in the morning. I feel ya. Perhaps contrary to this, however, is the fact that I’ve actually been meditating for well over 10 years now - albeit sporadically. 

My Mum, who actually I credit with so many of my alternative approaches to health and wellbeing, took me to an immersive Transcendental Meditation weekend course while I was still at school, probably because at that time we were trying everything to sort my chronic tiredness out. I was pretty consistent with my 20 minutes twice a day after that and, although it did nothing for my fatigue (it took a few years working with a Functional Medicine practitioner and then a few more years training to become one myself) to get to the bottom of that one, I did, much to everyone’s delight, become a nicer person. 

As a result of always feeling so lacklustre I spent most of my teenage years snapping at my poor parents and generally being mean. I was, in some respects, the ultimate Mean Girl. But after my 20 minutes of mantra time I always arose from the meditation feeling happier and kinder - something Will talks extensively about in his book. 

In fact, most of the benefits that come from Meditation (and that have been scientifically studied and range from digestive complaints, cardiovascular issues, high blood pressure, pain, fatigue, anxiety etc) come as a result of your Nervous System calming the heck down and flipping over into your Parasympathetic state: Rest, Digest, Procrete, Be Nice To People state. The reason for this is that when we’re hardwired for stress the body simply does not switch on the pathways that we need to remain healthy for any length of time. Thus adequate digestion is compromised, mental health is compromised, libido disappears, chronic inflammation is a given. Stress is an inflammatory condition, and inflammation leads, eventually, to a disease state.