Sitting quietly with eyes closed, legs crossed and breathing steadily- In through the nose and out through the mouth -a group of people calmly wait for further instructions as they are guided through a meditation workshop.
Sapna Chandaria, Jok Nyangoma and Eugene Gecaga
are leading the session dubbed 'Own Your self', which is about self-actualisation and creating a deeper connection with one's surroundings.
Sapna is an Indian born in Nairobi.
Meditation has always been part of her life.
My healing journey started at a very young age - seven years old. I remember discussing with my parents the fact that conventional medicine only treats symptoms and holistic medicine the cause of diseases.”
This resulted in a journey to learn about different therapies such as Reiki, Theta healing, Chakras, Meridian lines and energy, and a deeper understanding of intuition.
“I can understand and feel other people's pain and troubles so much better. This allows me to have more compassion and patience because everyone is going through something that they need help with," she says.
"We all need to have more compassion and love for each other, less expectations and more understanding to allow people to live the life we are all meant to live. With family especially, meditation allows us to see each other's faults and weaknesses and to still accept each other for who we are.”
For Jok, meditation was a way for her to recover from emotional and spiritual abuse at home. It was a healing mechanism and a way for her to move on.
"Meditation gives the person the ability to get to know and accept themselves for who they are. The more you can be still within, the more control you have in your life and over what happens. It draws you into yourself and by doing that, you become even closer to others by embracing understanding.”
HEALTH BENEFITS
People in Kenya and all over the world are increasingly turning to holistic treatments such as meditation to treat many mental and physical illnesses.
Meditation is an ancient practice thought to have originated in India in the third century. It was quickly adopted by many surrounding countries and has become an integral part of many religions.
It can be understood as a state of complete and unintentional silence and motionless concentration and is fundamentally different from normal states characterised by terms such as timelessness and boundlessness.
In 1979, Jon Kabat Zinn founded the Mindfulness-Bases Stress Programme at the University of Massachusetts to treat patients with chronic illnesses, exposing meditation's potential as more than a religious or spiritual experience.
Since then, several studies have found the practice not only reduces levels of stress but can also structurally change the way neurons communicate, creating new circuits.
A
carried out in 2013, compared various brain regions, reported to be anatomically different, of meditators and a control group.
It found that cortical gyrification or folding in long term meditators was larger in numerous regions.
This was seen across the lateral and medial surfaces of the cortex and buried beneath, suggesting the cerebral cortex is heavily involved in processes related to meditation.
Other physical changes to the brain can be seen in the amygdala which is responsible for how we experience stress and becomes denser in this state.
Results from the study showed those who practised meditation had less activity in the area and a reduction in density over time.
As we age, our Prefrontal cortex thins contributing to a loss of cognitive function. Meditation was seen to reverse this due to an inverse correlation between prefrontal cortex thickness and medication practice.
Furthermore, the hippocampus which forms memories from experience, also shrinks due to stress. The study found there was an increased concentration of grey matter in the left hippocampus after prolonged meditation.
Meditation has also been used to control chronic pain with success. A
conducted last year used mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) to see the effect on participants with lower back pain.
MBSR focuses on increasing awareness and acceptance of moment-to-moment experiences including physical discomfort and difficult emotions.
The participants were given workbooks, CDs and instructions for home meditation and attended sessions with qualified instructors.
The study found that among adults with chronic lower back pain, treatment with MBSR resulted in greater improvement in back pain. This was in comparison to the status of people in the control group.
'MIND OVER MATTER'
Meditation has enriched Sapna's life.
“Through meditation and visualisation, I know exactly what it is that I need to have in my life in order to achieve alignment with my soul’s purpose and I know how to manifest it.”
The benefits of meditation have been known for the ideas, and so has the idea that learning to train the brain and focus attention are crucial to cultivating peace, clarity and happiness.
The resulting clarity and acceptance may be what cause improvements in the mental state but a general analysis of the benefits leads to the 'mind over matter' conclusion.
Sapna adds that it’s also about getting to know yourself more.
“It is about trusting our own intuition before placing our trust in situations and
people who will never know us like we know ourselves.”
With more and more science backing the medical benefits of the therapy, it is no wonder
more people are turning to meditation.
And while you can attend group workshops to learn how to meditate, you can also practice in your own at home.
Sapna’s next workshop will take place in Lavington
from 11am to 4pm on July 8.
Jok suggests finding meditation videos online and trying to follow them.
“Begin wherever you feel most comfortable for five minutes, just sitting still. If you can’t make it through the first five, stop where you are and continue practicing the next day," she says.
“Allow any thoughts and ideas to stream through you but place your attention on the fact that your body is still. Do it for more than a week and keep adding on a set of two-to-five minutes until you reach the last day of the third week.”
This allows the body to focus and cultivates a habit of being 'one with your body' and from there you can begin to meditate on your own.