Episode 1- Beach scene meditation.
Hi there, patient listeners. Thank you for inviting me in through your ears and into your mind. This podcast is made firstly for my patients - if that is you then I hope you enjoy the relaxation exercise and that you are going well.
If you don't know me personally then you are most welcome to listen too. But be patient. Like all good things learning to relax or to meditate takes time and practice; the good thing is that the practice is easy and enjoyable.
I won't rehash the whole episode here - in a nutshell I outline why I think quiet contemplative activity is important and teach you a simple relaxation exercise.
If you want to find out more about the science behind it this page is a good starting point - it contains links to many scientific articles about the benefits of relaxation.
Meditation will lower the levels of your stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenalin, and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system which provides the so called "rest and digest" response. This balances out the much better known "flight or fight response". It will improve your blood pressure, your mood, your immune system, your sex life and a whole host of other things. Of course it won't singlehandedly fix major health problems - its not magic - but you will be surprised how much better you can cope with things when you are meditating regularly.
Here is another article - published 2018 - about the effects of meditation on the brain.
A few ackowledgements. There are some sound effects that I found at freesound.org which you can hear during the recording. The particular contributors were laurent, m-newlove and haldigital97, who recorded the boat, the gulls and the waves respectively. And I would like to aknowledge my teacher and colleague Dr Alan Fahey, who taught me the relaxation techniques I used on the recording, as he as taught scores of health professionals in Australia and South East Asia. There is a link to his website on the home page.