Take the Elevator
Here at Your Interior Land we usually take gentle, gradual steps to develop your meditation skills. Today I’m shaking it up a bit to introduce you to a specific type of meditation called EcoMeditation. It’s still gentle, but it’s known for helping novice meditators attain elevated brain states in a relatively short amount of time. As one of my students described it to me, “It’s like taking the elevator instead of the stairs.”
EcoMeditation is a meditation technique developed by Dawson Church Ph.D. that combines traditional meditation with neuroscience-based techniques.
In the 1960’s, researchers began to notice that experienced meditators exhibited certain brain wave patterns. It didn’t matter what spiritual tradition the subjects were from. Buddhist monks, Taoist masters, Pentecostal faith healers, Sufi dervishes, qigong practitioners, and Jewish kabbalists all changed their brain waves whenever they went into an altered state. It was a distinctive pattern characterized by big alpha waves, low beta waves, and high theta and delta waves. They also discovered that this pattern was present in creators and high achievers experiencing “flow states.”
A researcher named Maxwell Cade termed this the “Awakened Mind” profile. It was a completely different pattern than was present in ordinary states of consciousness, and scientists could determine whether someone was in this state simply by looking at their brain wave ratios.
Scientists reverse engineered the process to see what led to these states and came up with a “recipe” for an awakened mind that was repeatable and teachable so that anyone could learn how to generate this pattern.
Bliss Brain
In his book, Bliss Brain, Dawson Church writes, “People know they should meditate. They want to meditate. They try to meditate. Yet they fail to meditate. Why?”
The reason people find it hard to meditate is that our protective survival brain is 400 million years old and still tends to override our pursuits of happiness and self-actualization. Repetitive negative thinking tends to take over when we get quiet, which can make meditation difficult. So Church decided to see what would happen if he combined modern techniques like heart coherence, EFT tapping, and neurofeedback with traditional mindfulness and meditation.
The results were remarkable and repeatable. Novice meditators attained brain states that normally take years to master. There was nothing to “believe in.” The meditators simply had to follow the guided steps in the meditation and practice each day.
And there are physical and emotional benefits. MRI scans showed that activity in areas of the brain associated with self-focus and suffering decreased, and activity in areas associated with compassion increased. Eleven areas of the brain were changed in a positive way. Clinical trials showed increases in measures of immunity, happiness, and overall brain balance and integration as well as decreases in cortisol, heart rate, anxiety, and pain. One study found that twelve minutes a day of EcoMeditation over eight weeks was enough to kickstart positive brain changes. These gains were maintained over time with consistent practice.
EcoMeditation helps the brain to develop emotional regulation “hardware,” as bundles of neurons fire and wire together in new ways. This forms a foundation for peace. As Church writes, “Brain change sparks life change.”
The Seven Steps
EcoMeditation has seven steps that are repeated throughout the 20-minute meditation. Simply follow the guidance while listening to the meditation.
Tap over the heart to relieve stress.
Relax your tongue on the floor of your mouth. This signals your vagus nerve, which connects all your organ systems, to relax.
Imagine the volume of space inside your body, especially the space behind your closed eyes. This helps to generate big alpha waves.
Slow your breathing to 6-second in and out breaths. This helps put you into heart coherence.
Imagine your breath coming in and going out of your heart area.
Imagine a beam of energy connecting you with a person or place that makes you feel wonderful. This puts you into deep coherence.
You direct a beam of compassion to a part of your body that is suffering or in pain.
It’s possible for anyone to reach an elevated state the first time they try EcoMeditation. And if you do, what do you do afterward? As the Zen proverb says, “Chop wood. Carry water.” Bring this joy into the tasks of your daily life. To learn more about EcoMeditation, see this study in Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, a peer-reviewed journal.
To learn more about mindful living, creativity, and possibility, visit my sister site, Pando Unlimited and sign up for my weekly Life Lyrics email. It’s inspiration for your week! You can also get my free e-booklet Putting Down Roots: 9 Practices to Help You Make Friends With Your Mind.
If you are new here, welcome! These meditations are meant to be shared. Please send them to someone who would benefit from them. Thanks for supporting my work and adding a little more peace to the planet.
