In the Spirit of Change Muslim Meditation and Psychotherapy

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In the Spirit of Change Muslim Meditation and
Psychotherapy

• Safdar I. Chaudhary, MD
• Medical Director
• S'eclairer

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Life is a Journey
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Art of Healing
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Beginners mind

• Breathing by belly.
• Non judgmental
• Images of Islam and Muslims

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Bathing in unity

• Sometimes we work very hard in one are of life
  without success. Later we discover that what we
  have learned by failing is more important than
  anything we could have learned by succeeding.
• This is why Muslim Sufis teach using methods that
  other may consider insignificant.
• Instead of conveying obtrusive philosophies and
  bundle of facts, the sufi works through story,
  silence, dreams, the art and music.
• Some call this way of working Unlearning

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Addiction in the U.S.
3-4 MM cocaine addicts
12-15 MM alcoholics
1 MM heroin addicts
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Wired and weird
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What is a sign of stress for you?

• Physical (body)
• HeadachesNervousnessRashesStomachachesFast
  heartbeatPerspirationIncreased urination

• Mental (mind)
• Lack of ConcentrationForgetfulnessPoor
  performance at workUnable to studyCarelessness

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How do you balance the stress in your life?

• Stay aware of your signs of stress. If you are
  having signs of stress, follow the tips to avoid
  stress overload (distress).
• Since stress will be with us the rest of our
  lives, it is important to know some ways of
  dealing with stress.

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Short Term Pain vs. Long Term pain

• Short term easy to deal with
• Long term can be exhausting

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Insomnia Anonymoos
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Short Term Pain vs. Long Term pain

• Short term easy to deal with
• Long term can be exhausting

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Autoimmune Reactions

• Our body reacting to itself- causing multiple
  illnesses
• Similarly our emotions causing harm / grief to
  ourselves.

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Islam Muslim

• Islam is a mystery to most Westerns. And yet,
  Islam has contributed to Western thought and
  culture for over a thousand years.
• Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all
  monotheistic faiths, the roots of which go back
  to Prophet Abraham.

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Islam

• Quran clearly states that Islam is not a new
  teaching, but a continuation of the perennial
  Truth taught by Moses, Jesus and other great
  prophets.

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Muhammad

• In Islam Muhammad is revered as a great prophet
  and exemplary human being, but he is in no way
  consider divine.
• There is no ordained priesthood in Islam. All
  Muslims enjoy equal access to God (
  Allah)
• In Islam human-being is the heights form of Gods
  creation, meant to serve as Gods deputy on
  Earth.

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Quran 11136

• We believe in God,
• And what has been sent down to us, and what has
  been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael
• And Isaac and Jacob and their offspring,
• And what was given to Moses and Jesus
• And all other prophets by the Lord.
• We make no distinction among them

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Five Pillars of Islam

• Bearing Witness There is no god but God
• Prayers- five times per day
• Fasting- During the month of Ramadan
• Charity ( Zakah-Annual obligatory charity)
• Pilgrimage- Hajj to Mecca once in life time

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Prayers

• God Allahs names and its attributes

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• O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of
  a male and a female and made you into nations and
  tribes that ye may know each other (not that ye
  may despise each other).

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LATINIZED AND ENGLISH NAMES OF ARABIC ORIGIN

• The concepts developed by the Arab (Muslim)
  astronomers and scientists were widely studied in
  Europe and became the basis of modern astronomy
  and science.
• Algebra - Derived from al-Jabr
• Algorism, Algorithm -Al-Khawarizmi

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Muslim slaves had influence on blues music is the
instruments they played.

• Drumming, which was common among slaves from the
  Congo and other parts of Africa, was banned by
  white slave owners, who felt threatened by its
  ability to let slaves communicate with each other
  and by the way it inspired large gatherings of
  slaves.

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Muslim traditions and American blues music,

• The adan, the Muslim call to prayer thats heard
  from minarets around the world, and Levee Camp
  Holler, an early type of blues song that first
  sprang up in the Mississippi Delta more than 100
  years ago.
• Upward of 30 percent of the African slaves in the
  United States were Muslim, and an untold number
  of them spoke and wrote Arabic, historians say
  now.

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Some musical thoughts

• These slaves practices eventually
  evolveddecades and decades later, parallel with
  different singing traditions from Africainto the
  shouts and hollers that begat blues music.
• African Muslim slaves influenced later blues both
  through their musical style and through their
  instruments

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A one-string benta (top left), and a
Creole-bania (top right), an ancestor of the
American banjo.
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Music A form of meditation

• So slaves who managed to cobble together a banjo
  or other instrumentthe American banjo originated
  with African slavescould play more widely in
  public. This solo-oriented slave music featured
  elements of an ArabicMuslim song style that had
  been imprinted by centuries of Islams presence
  in West Africa, says Gerhard Kubik, a professor
  of ethnomusicology at the University of Mainz in
  Germany. Kubik has written the most comprehensive
  book on Africas connection to blues music,
  Africa and the Blues (1999, University Press of
  Mississippi).

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History changes things,

• To trumpeter Barry Danielian, Muslim prayers are
  very musical. You hear what we as Americans
  would call soulfulness or blues. Thats
  definitely in there.

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What is the place of Meditation in Psychotherapy
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• Some clinical experiences
• Psychotherapy and Biological Science
• Medications and their limitations
• Medications vs. Meditation
• Or collaboration and integration
• Meditation with Medication and Psychotherapy

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Islam Sufism

• Prophet Muhammad ( Peace be upon him) said,
  There are as many paths to God as there are
  souls

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Muslim common disciplines

• Devotion
• Service
• Remembrance
• Mediation
• Retreat
• Self analysis
• Wisdom
• Self discipline
• Community

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Devotion- Path of the heart

• Souls love and longing for the God, the Beloved.
  
• The eyes of the dervish who is in true love see
  naught but God his heart knows naught but Him.
  God is the eye by which he sees, the hand with
  which he holds and the tongue with which he
  speaks.

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Service- Sister of Devotion

• As our hearts open with love of God, we realize
  that all hearts yearn for God, and God is hidden
  in every heart.
• God placed a divine spark in our hearts and it is
  waiting to burst into flaming love and joy.
• If we realize that every heart contains God then
  as an essential aspects of our spiritual journey,
  we have to serve others.

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Help heal the injured heart of others

• Every kind word or glance softens our heart, and
  every hurtful word or act closes or hardens our
  heart
• If someone sits with me and we talk about the
  beloved
• If I cannot give his heart comfort, If I can not
  make him feel better, about himself and this
  world
• Then Hafiz, quickly run to the mosque and pray
  for you have just committed the only sin I know

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Remembrance

• Prayers is practice of remembrance, as are
  meditation, spiritual chanting and spiritual
  study.
• Remembrance fuels our devotion and service.
• Muslim seek constant remembrance, never
  forgetting that we are in the Gods presence,
  constantly feeling God within us.

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Meditation

• There are many forms of meditation- most common
  is introvert meditation in which the mediator
  remains still, seeks to quite the mind and find
  God in the depth of that stillness.
• Extrovert meditation, in which chanting and
  repetitive movement focus mind and body on God.

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Effective Listening

• Learning to breathe slowly and deeply quiets the
  mind and turns our attention inward to become
  more conscious of inner processes.
• Healing from within only occurs when we are quiet
  and listen to our bodies.

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Diminishment Al-Khafid

• When you are guided to this pathway, take the
  opportunity to honor the part of your being that
  may feel small, immature, depressed or diminished
• Divine depression is one of the name of God.
• There are moments when honoring what seems like
  the least in us may be the most important thing
  to do.
• Sometimes your worst is good enough.

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Dissolving Chains Al-Halim

• When you are guided to this pathways take the
  opportunity to feel the ropes that entangle you
  stretching until they dissolve and fall away
• Suddenly an expanded state of awareness' can come
  upon us.
• Many people experience this when walking in
  nature, being in love, or playing a sports.

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Contemplation

• Contemplation -another form of meditation. Study
  the verse of Quran seeking their deeper meanings.
  
• In addition to Quran, Muslims also read the book
  of nature and book of ones life.
• Each verse of Quran is called an Ayah, literally
  a sign.
• Each verse is sign of God and so is everything in
  nature

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Nature a sign of God

• Where ever you turn there is the face of God.
• One hour of Contemplation is worth sixty years of
  worship Muhammad
• Each tree
• Every sunset
• The wind and the rain
• Day and night
• Life and death

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Life is a Journey
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Community of People
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Addiction to Wellness

• Being mindful

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What is a sign of stress for you?

• Emotional (feelings)
• Bored- Sleep difficulties Anger outbursts
  -MoodinessPoor sleep- NightmaresSad/depressedSc
  aredWithdrawn-exhaustion
• Fighting /marital discord /poor parenting

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Breathing is both voluntary and involuntary

• When we inhale, heart rate increases, and when we
  exhale, heart rate decreases.
• By consciously lengthening exhalation, we can
  learn to slow down heart rate.
• We know that under stress, the sympathetic
  nervous system is aroused, and we breathe faster.

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Under stress, the sympathetic nervous system is
aroused, and we breathe faster

• The simplest intervention to diminish the
  adverse affects of chronic stress is to
  consciously calm the sympathetic nervous system
  by breathing slower and deeper. The ability to
  consciously shift the functioning of the nervous
  system is a powerful tool for treating and
  preventing many chronic illnesses.

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Be happy
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These and other resources

• Available in near future at website
• www.seclairer.com
• safdar3_at_gmail.com
• 412-427-6828