Meditation and Your Autoimmune Disease

Your Whole Health

Do you meditate? Do you know the impact of meditation on physical health? Meditation is a spiritual practice and you are a whole person. Your spiritual health impacts your physical health. Today we’re going to talk about meditation and how it impacts your autoimmune condition and your physical health.

I practice Biblical meditation: focusing on Scripture and God. I do not believe that emptying my mind and letting somebody else guide my thoughts is spiritually healthy. So when I talk about meditation, I’m talking about it in that context. The research that I’m going to cite, they looked at it from other contexts.

What is meditation?

Meditation is a habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts. It is a practice where you silently calm or focus your mind for relaxation or spiritual reasons.

Meditation started to gain popularity along with yoga in the early 2010s. Meditation is popular in many of the Eastern religions. Some meditation practices also advocate the clearing of your mind. For these reasons, many Christians look upon meditation as an evil and shun anything that mentions it.

There’s one big problem with this, though. The Bible tells us that we should meditate. Perhaps not in the sense that Eastern religions do, but we are supposed to be meditating.

Meditation is Biblical

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)

In this culture of go-go-go, where multitasking is applauded, and rushing is the norm, meditation is good for your body, mind, and spirit.

Meditation is mentioned many times in the Bible. Here are just a few:

• Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. Psalm 1:1-2
• Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Joshua 1:8a
• May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD. Psalm 104:34
• I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. Psalm 143:5

It appears that the Bible expects us to spend time in meditation—specifically, we are to be meditating on God and God’s word. Rather than emptying our mind, meditation in the Bible is all about filling our mind with God’s truth.

Health Benefits of Meditating

• Reduce stress
• Enhances the immune system
• Control anxiety
• Increases sense of well-being
• Lengthen attention span
• Reduce age-related memory loss
• Increase positive feelings and kind actions
• Help fight addictions
• Improve sleep
• Control pain
• Regulate blood pressure

References: Healthline and ScienceOfPeople

How to Practice Meditation 

We all know how to worry. When you worry, you take one thought or idea and:

• turn it over and over in your mind.
• look at it from every angle.
• bring it to the forefront of your mind many times during the day (or night when you cannot sleep.)

Biblical meditation is similar, and yet, completely opposite. When you meditate on God’s Word, you take one verse or aspect of God and:

• turn it over and over in your mind and heart.
• look at it from every angle.
• bring it to the forefront of your mind many times during the day (or night when you cannot sleep.)

Try Biblical Meditation Today:

1. Ask God to speak to you through His word.

This exercise in slowing down our racing minds to focus on just one thing helps us to better hear God’s gentle whisper.

2. Pick a verse

You might pick a verse that speaks to something you are struggling with or an aspect of God you want to focus on. Here are a few verses to get you started.

• Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)
• [Jesus said,] “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 (NIV)
• Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” John 6:35 (NASB)
• Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. 3 John v2

3. Write it out

Slowing down to actually write out your verse will help you focus on it. Writing brings both parts of your brain together—the creative side and the analytical side.

4. Read it to yourself

Read the verse several times. Try emphasizing different words each time and see how that changes the meaning and connotations for you.

I am the bread of life.

I am the bread of life.

I am the bread of life.

I am the bread of life.

I am the bread of life.

5. Place the verse where you will see it often

• Snap a photo and use this verse as the unlock screen for your phone.
• Place a sticky note on your mirror.
• Put it in your pocket.

6. Try journaling your verse

I love the three-column method taught here by Journal and Doodle Bible study author, Kari Denker. After writing out your verse word for word, you put it into your own words, define anything you need to, wonder about the verse, notice the verse, and apply the verse.

Spiritual Practices Like Meditation & Your Immune Health

You are a whole person. Your body, mind, and spirit all need to be healthy to experience true, whole health. Your body, mind, and spirit are all impacted by your diet and environment. Just as the flower of my logo would look broken if one of the petals was tiny or damaged, your health relies on all five aspects.

Meditation can be a powerful practice to enhance your spiritual health, mental health, and physical health. Will you use it in your own autoimmune plan of care?

Images used in this post by Patrick Schneider, Fransiskus Filbert Mangundap, Jessica Mangano, and Sincerely Media on Unsplash