Body Calm
From our Winter 2015/2016 issue. Be the first to read the next issue of Positive Life in print – Subscribe.
By Sandy Newbigging
We become what we focus on the most, so the Body Calm technique offers simple ways to connect with the power of meditation and embody a series of positive virtues and focus points. When thought and felt regularly, these can transform your belief system and mental and emotional habits, in turn affecting your physical wellbeing.
Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to observe a number of common beliefs held by people struggling with a range of health complaints, with some of the most harmful being, ‘I’m unsupported’, ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘I’m unworthy’ and ‘I’m weak’. The purpose of meditation is to rest within your real Self: the calm consciousness that is always within you, and discovering the aspect of your being that never gets stressed, sick or suffers. Even if your body is uncomfortable or presenting undesirable symptoms, you can find wellness within.
Body Calm meditation helps you to befriend your body, give it the rest it needs to recover and improves the communications between mind and body. With regular practice, it helps form new, improved beliefs; ones that encourage physical health.
The ‘CALM’ part of Body Calm stands for ‘Conscious Awareness Life Meditation’ and involves two main elements:
1. Being Gently Alert with your Awareness Wide Open – a technique I affectionately call GAAWO.
2. Occasionally thinking Body Calm Thoughts that help to heal the sources of stress.
Calm Thoughts are short statements used during open and closed-eye meditation that act as the antidote to any attitude that might be having a detrimental effect on your body or behaviours, and consists of three components: I am + Positive Virtues + Focus Points.
Despite being two of the shortest words in the English dictionary, ‘I’ and ‘am’ together are two of the most powerful. When you think or say ‘I am’, you are referring to the absolute aspect of your Self that is unconditioned consciousness, unbounded being and infinite awareness. ‘I am’ is pure, powerful and infinite. To harness the power of this statement, we marry ‘I am’ with a series of ten positive virtues. These encourage the mind to form healthier beliefs and help you to embody healthier states of being that support good health.
Each Calm Thought also has a recommended location within or around your body on which to put your focus when thinking it. With the inclusion of these focus points, the power of the Calm Thoughts is magnified significantly by working in a number of ways. All of the focus points are symbolic and appeal to the mind–body connection. For example, when it comes to the interconnectedness between the mind and body, most people I meet who feel they are ‘unsupported’ also tend to present lower back problems. So thinking ‘I am supported’ while focusing on the base of the spine can heal the belief and perception that you are unsupported.
By working in harmony with the symbolic nature of the mind–body connection, you reduce mental and physical resistance and more easily shape a new, healthier belief system and a more supportive attitude towards yourself and your body.
Sandy’s new book Body Calm is out now and is full of more great tips and advice on using the Body Calm meditation technique. sandynewbigging.com
