Relaxation as a therapy

“Healing our mind is crucial, because otherwise our problems become endless. We may use medicine or some other external means to heal a particular disease, but the disease will return unless we heal our mind. If we do nothing to heal our mind, there is always the danger that we will again create the cause of the disease, that we will repeat the actions that caused us to become physically unhealthy.”
 
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Tibetan Buddhist Lama)
 
One of the teachings of Buddhist philosophy is that all our illnesses arise from our  minds.
In recent times there has been a lot of research on meditation and its health liveanddare.com/benefits-of-meditation/ .
But how does meditation and the associated feelings of relaxation help heal the body
It is believed that in a click of a finger our mind has 81 thoughts across The nine zones of consciousness
If our life experience at the time is focused on specific events for example we feel threatened, our 81 thoughts will all focus on our self preservation. As time progresses the energy of the body reacts to this constant stream of thoughts "The Qi is the horse the mind is the rider"  ( The Philosophy of Illness ) and the meridian network of the body and the energy flowing through it becomes imbalanced. Our bodies systems which are not connected to self preservation become deficient or empty of energy and the bodies systems which are connected to self preservation become excessive or full of energy as they prepare for conflict. As the conflict continues the energy in the meridians influeneces the mind and the mind influences the energy in the meridians creating a continual loop of physical and mental suffering.
 
During meditation our thoughts become focused on being relaxed and away from conflict. The body begins to relax as thoughts of tension and conflict disperse and the energetic flow of the meridians in the body begins to harmonise itself with the environment, because the mind is no longer in conflict and the energy of the body is no longer stagnated or held in the meridians by a conflicted mind.
As the energetic body harmonises with the environment as the mind relaxes, subtle energetic blockages release in the meridians, these releases often trigger images and memories in the mind and in our dreams, physically we feel the body move in 5 certain ways or we get a slight Energetic sensations as the energy is rebalanced with the environment. The 5 elements.
 
By observing and analysing the dreams,images and movements it becomes possible to understand the root of the illness and to form a treatment strategy based on the TCM mind body connection.