Find a Root Cause Practitioner
Working with a good holistic practitioner is essential, but finding one can be tough. Good news is that holistic (whole person) and functional medicine (aka root cause medicine) are becoming more mainstream. In fact the Cleveland Clinic has recently added a Center for Functional Medicine. Unfortunately many of these practitioners do not accept insurance. Below are links to organizations that offer a “Find a Practitioner” link.
Guided meditations may be the easiest way for you to ease into meditation. These are a few of my favorites for relaxing, healing, and getting better sleep:
Brain Sync
Kelly Howell offers powerful guided meditations like MindBody Healing, Healing Meditation, Guided Relaxation and more for purchase at: www.brainsync.com
davidji
davidji offers soothing guided meditations for free and for purchase at: davidji.com
Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine
Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine offers an effective and free 6-minute Relaxation Response guided meditation with Peg Baim, MS, NP: www.youtube.com
These apps are available for your iOS or Android device. Each offers some free meditations and optional monthly subscriptions.
Calm
Apple’s 2017 App of the Year, Calm comes with a “7 Days of Calm” intro program to get you started, as well as 7 and 21-day meditation programs. The meditations range from 3 to 25 minutes long, there are nature sound options, and many are guided by a soothing female voice.
Headspace
Headspace is another a great option for beginners and for people who want to make meditation a habit. Get started with the 10-day free meditation pack on the basics. From there, you can explore meditation packs about health, happiness, work, performance and more. Guided meditations are led by the soothing, British voice of Andy Puddicombe, a co-founder of Headspace.
These apps are available for your iOS or Android device. Each offers some free meditations and optional monthly subscriptions.
Muse: The Brain Sensing Headband
Muse is a headband with sensors that track your brain activity in real time. When your mind is calm, you hear peaceful weather sounds like gentle waves lapping on the shore and chirping birds; when your mind is active, you hear more intense weather sounds like crashing waves or heavy rain. Immediate neurofeedback gives you the opportunity to choose a more peaceful state. www.choosemuse.com
Studies show that this form of meditation, which could be described as non-judgmental present moment awareness, reduces stress, anxiety, pain and depression; improves memory, attention and empathy; and even increases the brain’s gray matter density.
Mindfulness Daily
Top mindfulness meditation teachers, Tara Brach, PhD & Jack Kornfield, PhD offer daily 15-minute mindfulness training and practice: www.soundstrue.com
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training:
An 8-week program originally founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD in 1979 is now offered by many hospitals and medical centers worldwide, MBSR helps to reduce physical symptoms and psychological distress while helping people live with greater awareness and peace.
Find an in-person MBSR training: www.umassmed.edu
Online & donation-based MBSR training: palousemindfulness.com
