Meditation: Coping with Stress & Sickle Cell

When my means of transporting my wheelchair fell apart, I was under a serious amount of stress. For nearly three months I was consumed with thoughts as to how I was going to get out of the dilemma I was in. I was so stressed that it was beginning to impact my health, and I worried it was going to land me in the hospital; something I’ve avoided for almost three years now.

The anxiety I felt caused an odd tingling chill to run up and down my spine. My skin itself felt as though it was shivering. My whole body had a faint dull ache.

When I began feeling this way, I decided to start meditating. As can be read in “More on Meditation” and “Controlling Your Pain,” I use to meditate three times a day; always before taking pain medication. The past year or two, I’ve been hit and miss with that practice. But being as stressed as I was, I knew I needed to resume my meditation sessions to help calm myself down. And it worked.

Sometimes I used audio recordings of singing bowls. Other times I used my own singing bowls. Regardless of which I used, the benefits were immediate. While meditating, I often recited various phrases in my mind. Here are some examples:

   • “My mind is calm. My body is relaxed. I am totally at peace.”
   • “I am mentally calm. I am physically relaxed. I am totally at peace.”
   • “I am filled with light and laughter.”
   • I may imagine Jesus Christ is reaching out to me, touching me with his hand, and saying to me, “Your faith hath made thee whole.”

I also adopted the practice of ending my meditation sessions with a prayer. By combining prayer with meditation, I felt a greater level inner calm. At the close of each meditation session, the physical stress and mental anxiety I previously felt, had vanished. There is zero doubt in my mind that my meditation practices helped keep me out of the hospital during these past few stressful months.

All through my life meditation has been of huge importance to my physical, mental, and spiritual health. In regards to my chronic pain, my doctors marvel that I’ve been on the same pain medication regiment for many, many years. I haven’t had to increase my dosages or change prescriptions for some time now. I explain to them this is because I use a variety of techniques to mentally manage my pain along with my medications. Meditation is my first tool in managing my pain. Pain medication is the second.

Whether you use it for stress or for pain management, I hope you also learn to use the powerful tool that is meditation.