Meditation and Yoga, one of the key pillars our programs, address the spirit aspect of Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat’s mind-body-spirit approach to healing. Our programs’ daily schedules incorporate several activities to awaken the higher self, bring about awareness, become centered, quiet the mind, break through old patterns and with practice and dedication eventual liberation.
It is important to know that Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat is open to patients from all faiths, religions and spiritual disciplines. Those not interested in the spiritual aspect of our programs can substitute with their own activities. Patients may choose to spend meditation times in prayer for example.
We use the following methods to nurture and awaken the spirit:
Conscious Eating
As we age, eating becomes an automatic behavior. Our eating habits are controlled by our conscious and unconscious thoughts, feelings and belief systems. As we strive to find inner balance, food serves multiple healthy and unhealthy purposes from marking our social events to quenching our emotions. We like to share eating with our family or friends to strengthen our emotional ties and sense of belonging and we use food to celebrate important life events. Eating has become a social activity that supersedes the desire to eat to live and we eat not just to satiate our hunger but to mask our anxiety.
Conscious Walking
At Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat we teach conscious walking to cultivate mindfulness. The practice of mindfulness and conscious walking bring a state of deep relaxation that can only be experienced in the absence of mental chatter. The mind constantly entertains an internal dialogue ranging from random thoughts, to worrying and obsessive thoughts. This continuous chatter gets in the way of our true peace of mind and profound physical and mental relaxation. The benefit of conscious walking come from the fact that the mind cannot focus on two simultaneous processes: awareness of the physical activity of walking and ideation. Choosing awareness precludes thinking. Therefore, engaging consciously in a physical activity like mindful walking disrupts negative thinking patterns of the mind such as obsessive thinking for instance. As thoughts arise, we become aware of them. Intentionally, we turn our focus away from thoughts and towards the walking process. As we do so, we detach from thoughts and disrupt pathological thinking pattern.
Mindfulness
At Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat we use mindfulness in the treatment of many mental and physical conditions. Mindfulness is a powerful method to find true and permanent happiness. It bypasses the chatter of the mind that is our source of misery. Often the search for success and power is based on feelings of insecurity or low self-esteem. Success and power never quenches the thirst for success and power because success and power does not heal insecurity. Fears and worries about the future and regrets over the past can eat away at us in the present moment and life is not lived and enjoyed because the mind is either in past (regret, sadness, blame, resentment) or anxious about the future (worry, fear). Mindfulness brings us to the present with full attention and in contact with our higher self and full potential.
Osho’s Dynamic Meditation
Osho’s dynamic meditation is a fast, intense and thorough way to break old, ingrained patterns in the bodymind that keep one imprisoned in the past, and to experience the freedom, the witnessing, silence and peace that are hidden behind these prison walls. Osho’s meditation techniques are used to reduce stress, increase creativity and personal power and find peace of mind, inner calm and stillness. During the hour long meditation you will experience some active techniques (Chakra breathing, Nataraj, No Dimensions, Kundalini, Vipassana) that involve sound, breathing, movement, dance and stillness. You will taste the fullness of peace that will be with you forever.
Vipassana
Vipassana means to see things as they really are. The word, Vipassana, in the ancient Pali language of India means “insight”. Vipassana is a way of self-transformation by using self-observation. In other words, to observe oneself and to see things as they really are within ourselves. This inward looking and honest revealing of how things truly are within: thoughts, emotions, judgments, ego-statements, behaviors, actions, etc. bring changes and liberation from suffering. The only way to experience truth directly is to look within. We have been conditioned to look outward. We are interested in what is happening in the outside world. We look outside ourselves to blame. We look outwards to see what others are doing. With Vipassana sitting meditation we take time to look within and to examine ourselves, our own mental and physical structure, our own actions, our own reality. Through this practice of self-enquiry we become known to ourselves and we can set ourselves free from the forces within ourselves.
Yoga
Yoga means union of the mind and body with the breath. Yoga is primarily concerned with obtaining a peaceful state of mind and a healthy body.Yoga promotes the free flow of the prana/“life force” throughout the body. If the prana is flowing freely, the body will be able to heal itself from disease and prevent future illness. Yoga postures are designed to tone, strengthen and align the body. These postures are performed to make the spine supple and healthy and to promote blood flow to all the organs, glands and tissues. Yoga is a modality that uses physical postures and controlled breathing to lengthen and strengthen the spine, increase flexibility, calm the mind, improve concentration, and promote relaxation. Yoga can also contribute to a greater sense of equilibrium in states when experiencing acute cravings, insomnia, agitation, etc.