Mia Godwin

HLTH 1240
Mr. Arndt
10/03/14

Meditation and effects on my health

My heart health has been something I have had to be aware of my whole life. I have had a
bicuspid pulmonary heart valve all my life requiring visits to the cardiologist every four years to get an
EKG and a Echocardiograph. Three months ago I got news that I have a pulmonary embolism which is
a blood clot in my right lung. Meditation can help heart heath in many ways, as well as help side effects
from the medication, and help with the coping of life changing medical news like this. Meditations has
made an impact on my life and health that I am very grateful for.

Meditation can make a huge difference in your stress level. The release of stress and rhythmic
breathing from meditation can effectively help heart palpitations. Heart palpitations can happen from
having a bicuspid pulmonary heart valve. Palpitations is when your heart begins to beat fast, slow, or
irregularly. Stress is a high cause of heart palpitations many studies have shown that meditation can
help stress one was done by John Denninger a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School. I have
personally seen meditation help my stress and stop my heart palpitations. There are medications for
palpitations but I prefer to meditate.

There are many types of meditation that can help heart palpitations the one I personally enjoy is
called heart rhythm meditation. This is where you align your breath with your heart beats and use your

full lung capacity. This is very effective on palpitations. It helps me to control my heart beat making it
so I can slow it, speed it up, or regulate it. There are different rhythmic patterns there is the swinging
breath where your breath of your inhale and your exhale are equal. I practice by doing eight beats with
my inhale and eight beats with my exhale. There is also the square breath where the holding time
equals the breathing time, for example eight beats inhale sixteen beats hold and eight beats exhale. This
is something have made a part of my meditations. This meditation does involve feeling your heart beat
which I found difficult at first but I am getting used to it.

I also have a pulmonary embolism. It was very difficult for me to hear this news. I went in to
the ER because I thought my appendix was bursting due to saver pain in my right side: it turned out to
just be swollen lymph nodes causing the pain. I was in the hospital for 12 hours I had lots of blood test
done and a CT done. Luckily the technicians cold barely see the blood clot in my lung so they did a
second CT showing the blood clot in my right lung. They told me I was going to be on blood thinners
for three months and if I get another blood clot I will need to take the blood thinners for the rest of my
life. This was very hard for me to hear I don't want to take medication every day for my whole life. I
have done everything I can to avoid that but meditation has truly helped me deal with the stress,
emotions and side effects from this event in my life.

Blood clots can cause high blood pressure this isn't something that I have to be to worried
about. It is much more of a concern if I were to have more blood clots. Even though it isn't a huge
concern of mine I still like to keep an eye on it. High blood pressure and meditation has been studied
many times one was done by Scripps Translational Science Institute and Chopra Foundation. They
worked on a study using wireless health sensors. Making it possible to see the direct effects of
meditation on the heart. With these devises they can study blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature,
and other vital signs: although they don't expect the final results until next year but they did see a

difference in there vital signs including blood pressure. Meditation is a way for me to effectively forget
my concern with high blood pressure but also not over worrying about it and giving myself more stress
by taking medications that are suggested for it.

Meditation not only can help with my heart health but it also helps with side effects from the
medication I take for my pulmonary embolism. The main side effect I experience is lack of energy. I
take Xearelto and after I take my medication I experience exhaustion for five to six hours after. I have
seen that meditation is very effective agents this side effect. Through breathing meditation you can gain
more energy. Concentrating deeply and breathing is the key in this. The deep breathing stimulates your
brain and helps your mind work more efficiently. It also helps fill your blood with oxygen sending
more oxygen to your brain and the rest of your body. Letting go of the stress and or aces and pains and
can also help to feel more active and awake. Merely letting your body sit and jest be helps gain energy.
Pain is another side effect of Xearalto during my meditations I have been able to concentrate on the
pain and let it go this isnt always effective but most of the time at least relieve the stress from the pain.
I dont enjoy taking daily pills so being able to solve these problems with meditation is something that
is very important to me.

I have made the gain of energy and the release of pain a part of my meditation for weeks now
and it has been a tremendous help. I have done different hand placements to help this as well as
concentrating on my pain. I have placed my hands open on my knees imagining energy flowing in to
my hands and through my body this has helped me gain energy. I have also tried putting my hands with
my fingers of one hand overlaying the fingers of the other hand, with my tips of my thumbs touching
concentrating on centering my energy. As I do these had placements I will imagine the breath going in
to the parts of my body that hurt and as I breathe out I imagine the pain coming out of me as my breath
does. These are some of the most important part of my meditation.

Another way that meditation helped me is it has helped cope with the stress of finding out
things like blood clots especially in your lung blood clots are a dangerous thing. If I didn't find out
through coincidental hospital visit I could have lost a lung putting me on oxygen for the rest of my life
or the chance of it moving to my heart or brain possible causing a stroke or worse. I have had to deal
with a lot of changes and emotions because of this but meditation has given me a chance to evaluate
everything and come to terms with it. My life has changed since I got this news but it has changed for
the better. I have come to feel lucky for finding out early rather than feeling unlucky for it happening.

I have made healthy changes in my life and gained a lot from meditation. It has helped with my
heart health, with the side effects of my medications, and coping and moving on with what I have
experienced. I plan to continue working on my health by continuing in the heart rhythm meditations
and dealing with concerns as I get through the pulmonary embolism. I am excited to have our silent
meditations in class I feel I will really get good chances and time to do these meditations. And get
better at them so my shorter meditations at home get better.

Feature, Jeanie Lerche DavisWebMD. "Meditation Balances the Body's Systems." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2014.
"Wireless Sensors Used to Study Meditation's Effect on Heart Health."Scripps Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2014.
"What Are Treatments for Heart Palpitations?" LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 17 Aug. 2010. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.
"Skipping a Beat the Surprise of Palpitations." Skipping a Beat the Surprise of Palpitations. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-22/harvard-yoga-scientists-find-proof-of-meditation-benefit.html
"Heart Rhythm Meditation." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Aug. 2014. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.
"Wireless Technology Meets Research: Wireless Devices Document Meditation's Immediate Impact on Brain and Heart
Function." News. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.
"Mobihealthnews." Mobihealthnews RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.
"Meditation For Increased Energy: How & Why It Works - 6 Reasons - EOC Institute." EOC Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2014.