Give yourself a simple, daily brain and body refresher. When you do this meditation, don’t worry about getting it wrong, or even about getting it right. The time you spend listening to the mantras, gently breathing, lightly shifting your fingers, and following the bells, is a gift of healing to yourself.
Stress is a normal part of life. Sadly, unrelenting and constantly emerging stress is a threat to your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. And while you can’t change what’s ‘out there,’ you can tend to what’s ‘in here.’
The negative effects of chronic stress are considerable. Beyond cognitive decline and memory loss, stress also affects numerous neurobehavioral phenomena, from anxiety to depression to various abnormal behaviors and unconscious self-defeating compulsive actions.
Stress, Meditation, and Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention: Where The Evidence Stands
This well-researched mantra-based meditation includes small hand movements with spoken word and silence. It’s simple, it’s effective, and it creates healthy results fast.
KK has also been shown to improve sleep, decrease depression, reduce anxiety, down regulate inflammatory genes, upregulate immune system genes, improve insulin and glucose regulatory genes…
Stress, Meditation, and Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention: Where The Evidence Stands
Timed Intervals With Bells
Use or download this mp3 of the timed intervals as you perform this meditation.
You will hear a bell sound at the beginning and then at each interval. You will hear the bell sound 3 times to indicate the end of the 12-minute meditation.
How To Do Kirtan Kriya
from Stress, Meditation, and Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention: Where The Evidence Stands
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) License
KK, utilizes the following five specific actions:
Breath: In KK, the breath is allowed to come naturally.
Posture: One can sit comfortably in a chair or on the floor.
Sound: KK prescribes very specific sounds.
Hand position and finger movements: KK uses a specific fingertip movement sequence.
Focus of concentration: KK utilizes a unique focus.
KK can be performed by those of any age with memory loss and various degrees of impairment, with appropriate supervision. Moreover, the benefits accrue from the very first practice session. Most significantly, it takes only one 12-minute session a day using a recording to obtain the benefits of KK and requires no other training sessions, seminars, retreats, additional practices, or costs.
KK is a multifaceted, multisensory exercise that engages and activates conscious awareness. It increases cerebral blood flow to important anatomical brain areas and, as discussed below, has numerous other benefits, both in caregivers and those with cognitive decline.
Posture
The practitioner can sit comfortably in a chair with their feet flat on the floor. The essence of the posture is to be comfortable and sit with the spine straight with only the natural curvature.
Breath
The person simply breathes naturally as the meditation unfolds.
Eyes
Eyes are closed.
The sounds
KK uses the sounds, Saa, Taa, Naa, Maa. The tune to which these sounds are sung is the first four notes of the familiar children’s song, “Mary had a Little Lamb.” That is, the notes are “Mar-y had a.” The jaw should remain relaxed as you sing.
The finger movement
With the hands on the knees, the thumb is touched to each of the other four fingers in sequence.
Both hands perform the same movements simultaneously.
On Saa, touch the index fingers of each hand to the thumbs;
On Taa, touch the middle fingers to the thumbs;
On Naa, touch the ring fingers to the thumbs;
On Maa, touch the little fingers to the thumbs.
The sequence is always forward: thumb to index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and pinky; never backwards.
The visualization
The sound is visualized coming down from the top of the head, and out the middle of the forehead in the center, lined up with the nose like a capital letter “L”. One may think of this action as sweeping through like a broom.
The sequence
The sounds Saa Taa Naa Maa are utilized while also performing the movements with the fingers of both hands. At the same time, the sound is visualized flowing in through the top of the head and out the middle of the forehead in an L shape.
When outside thoughts intrude, simply return your focus to the sounds and visualization.
1.For two minutes, sing out loud.
2. For the next two minutes, sing in a stage whisper.
3. For the next four minutes, say the sound silently to yourself.
4. Then whisper the sound for two minutes
5. Complete the sequence by singing out loud for the last two minutes.
This will complete the 12-minute meditation.
To come out of the exercise, inhale very deeply through the nose, stretch your hands above your head, and then bring them down slowly in a sweeping motion as you exhale through the nose. Take a couple of deep nasal breaths before opening your eyes and resuming activity.
Brain Health Increase
Fortunately, the improvements in blood flow to a variety of areas in the brain show up in SPECT scans. Here we see the frontal lobes showing increased cerebral blood flow. Better blood flow results in better brain health and function.
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