Strengthening your immune system
Awareness of the inner body is consciousness remembering its origin and returning to the Source. ―Eckhart Tolle
👥 Serves: 1 person
🎚 Difficulty: Easy
⏳ Total time: 1-10 minutes
🥣 Ingredients: “The Power of Now” book by Eckhart Tolle (if you’re curious to find out more about it!)
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Awareness, Rest, Ritualising
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Breathing, Hosting yourself, Letting go, Mind-body-connection, Mindfulness, Non-performing, Pausing, Refuge, Transcendence
Strengthening your immune system
📝 Description
A simple but powerful self-healing meditation to boost your immune system.
Becoming aware of your inner body presents numerous benefits in the physical realm. For instance, you strengthen your immune system. As Eckhart Tolle points out, “The more consciousness you bring into the body, the stronger the immune system becomes. It is as if every cell awakens and rejoices. (…) Most illnesses creep in when you are not present in the body.” The benefits transcend the physical immune system to enhance your psychological immune system too.
This inner-body awareness is particularly helpful for changemakers whose energies are focused on helping others to the point of neglecting their own physical and psychological wellbeing. It is especially effective if practiced when you feel the first symptoms of an illness. It can also counteract disruptions of your energy field caused by some form of negativity. It works well both as the last thing you do before falling asleep, or as the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning.
The following practice has been adapted from The Power of Now – A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle. In this book, Eckhart Tolle offers simple yet transformative teachings to focus on the here and the now to go through your day-to-day living. Great emphasis is placed on the importance of living in the present moment and avoiding thoughts from the past or future to disidentify ourselves from our minds.
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Important: We shared this recipe as part of our blog post “Wellbeing in the time of COVID-19” because it’s a useful self-healing meditation to strengthen your immune system. Naturally, take all needed precautions: for instance, if you practice this with other people, make sure to sit at least 1 metre away from each other to protect yourself and others from getting infected.
👣 Steps
Step 1 – Flood your body with consciousness
Whether you are about to go to sleep, or have just opened your eyes in the morning, take a few moments to flood your body with consciousness. Close your eyes and lie flat on your back. Choose different parts of your body to focus your attention on briefly at first: hands, feet, arms, legs, abdomen, chest, head, and so on. Feel the life energy inside those parts as intensely as you can. Stay with each part for fifteen seconds or so.
Step 2 – Deepen your attention
Then let your attention run through the body like a wave a few times, from feet to hand and back again. This need only take a minute or so.
Step 3 – Feel the totality
After that, feel the inner body in its totality, as a single field of energy. Hold that feeling for a few minutes. Be intensely present during that time, present in every cell of your body. Don’t be concerned if the mind occasionally succeeds in drawing your attention out of the body and you lose yourself in some thought. As soon as you notice that this has happened, just return your attention to the inner body.