Meditation

The Sounds of Silence

I use mantra for meditation. The definition of mantra is “to free from the mind.”

In my method I teach mantras I have used for years with great results. In private sessions I will initiate you with a select personalized mantra for your use. Meditation is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself to preserve your health. Why? Stress!

I have no doubt that the biggest factor contributing to the onset of my diabetes was stress. I had fallen away from my yoga practice and was overcome and smothered by my thoughts and reactions to my life situation manifesting stress and anxiety in my body. “Up to 90% of visits to physicians are stress related” I pulled this fact from an article I wrote over a decade ago on the benefits of yoga for stress reduction. The source was the National Mental Health Association, 1996.

So what happens when you suffer from stress and anxiety? The heart rate and blood pressure increase, and high levels of cortisol and adrenaline are released into the body. (High levels of cortisol are a strong risk factor in cardiovascular disease and known to be responsible for weight gain as well.) But most importantly for those of us dealing with diabetes or insulin resistance is the fact that stress causes blood sugars to rise. Stress caused release of blood sugar is a double edge sword. To compound the problem the same stress cycle blocks the body from releasing insulin. The physiological reason is to prepare our body with the fuel for fight or flight. But today what happens? We no longer run or fight and use the fuel to end the cycle. We sit and simmer and our bodies are slowly destroyed and diseased by a mechanism initially designed to help us to survive. The body remains in this constant state of high blood sugar levels. An insulin dependant diabetic can use insulin to eliminate the stress induced high blood sugars. The non-insulin dependent diabetic or those with pre-diabetes cannot. So learning to manage stress is the most important thing you can do to preserve your health.