Peace of mind in a stressful world: Shirley H-L Wang teaches the simple blessings of meditation and energy healing.

Many doctors suggest to their patients to meditate daily for there are so many reports that tell us meditation can delay, control, or completely avoid chronic diseases such as cardiac disease, aids, cancer, as well as lesser diseases, such as colds, fatigue, and migraines. Meditation can also balance hyperactivity, attention-deficit disorder (ADD), and depression. In this country, there are over ten million adults that meditate on a regular basis, They understand that sitting on a cushion is much cheaper than surgery! If you learn mediation, I hope you are doing it for more than medical reasons, but seek it because of its ability to provide peace of mind in this stressful world.

The miracles of nature were brewed in silence. The huge wheel of the universe rolls gently. Compared with nature, we live in a noisy age. If we want to keep ourselves pure, we have to have a lovely, peaceful moment everyday. We all know that to take a shower and restful sleep can clean and refresh our bodies, but how do we clean and refresh our minds or souls? A living person needs food, water, air and sunlight, but also chi, bio-magnetic energy, the energy that comes from the universe.

If you are excited, your breath will be short and quick. If you are calm, your breath will be slow and smooth. Thus, by training yourself to breathe slow and smooth, you can calm your breathing and calm your mind.

Now, try to look forward at a spot. Breathe in with your nose slowly and breathe out with your mouth unhurriedly. Do this five times, and then close your eyes. Breathe normally, but slowly. How do you feel? Quite calm? Whenever you do meditation, try to breathe this way.

Before we learn meditation, there are some exercises we have to do:

Sitting Position: Cross your legs, sit on a cushion with your buttocks on only the front one-third of the cushion. Your knees should be on the carpet, covered with a blanket.

Twist your waist: First put your hands on your knees, straighten your upper back, and rotate your torso from left to right three times. Then do the other way around.

Head exercise: Palms on knees, torso straight, nod your head from front to back and from left to right three times.

Massage: Using one hand, massage the opposite shoulder, arm, elbow, wrist, and fingers. Then do the same with the other hand for the opposite side of the body.

The purpose of these exercises is to relax your body. Now we can do meditation.

In a sitting position, with your legs crossed, do your breathing exercises. Breathe five times, in with your nose, out with your mouth. Make sure all your breathing is done slowly. Now, close your eyes. Try to meditate for 15 to 20 minutes at least twice a day. When you finish meditating, massage your body before standing up.

There are three main methods of meditation:

Breathing: Concentrate on your breathing. Count your breaths from 1 to 10 then 10 to 1. Do not think of any other things.

Chanting: Just say "ohm." Recite a sutra or incantation.

Relaxation: Do nothing. Just relax. Keep your body unrestrained, comfortable, and free to move.

You can choose whatever method is easiest for you. There will be many thoughts that will come into your mind. Do not follow their steps, for they will leave you in a few seconds, and you will forget them anyway.

If you do meditation consistently, you will feel chi go through your chakras (energy centers) gradually. If your instructor opens your chakras, you can accomplish this stage quicker. When your chakras are opened, you will get chi easier. As we mature, experience physical and emotional traumas, and navigate life's frustrations, the color of our chakras fade and their frequency of their vibration slows. Only chi can clean and refresh our chakras and keep them vibrating regularly.

When you can get chi from meditation, you can heal yourself and others. The easiest way to do this healing is to put one hand on your Crown Chakra (on the top of your head), and the other hand on the point which you want the healing. For example, if you are suffering from a stomachache, put one hand on your Crown Chakra, and the other on your stomach. Then, close your eyes. Probably in a few minutes, you will feel the ache disappear. For more intense pain and chronic conditions, fifteen or twenty minutes with hand positions on a daily basis will be needed. You can use the same method to help other people.

There is one thing that you have to remember. When you are helping other people, do not consider that you are responsible for the healing. Your help only stems from a loving heart. When you come to this stage of meditation and healing practice, further study can help you access a deeper level of healing.

Shirley H-L Wang was born in Taiwan and was trained in Chang-Sheng Xue (a form of energy healing) and became a volunteer to help hospitalized patients. One morning, Shirley drew back her curtains to find over thirty people in her garden waiting for her to awake so she could work on them, so she decided to teach others to do this form of healing. By the time Shirley derided to move to the States, she had trained hundreds in Chang-Sheng Xue, and she now teaches at Edgewood College of Georgia School of Oriental Medicine. Shirley feels that it is in our nature to help each other, and we receive the healing energy from the cosmos for free. So when she teaches or heals people, she does not charge them.