Meditation is a cornerstone of yoga. The
postures and movements of yoga are designed to make the body ready for meditation. Yoga strengthens the abs and the back
so that a student can sit comfortably for long periods of time. It also aids in flexibility of the spine, so that the
body's natural energy can flow easily. Yoga postures and breathing techniques serve to bring the right and left
hemispheres in sync, balancing one's thought processes and helping with focus and concentration.
True meditation - the absence of thinking or reacting in response to stimuli - is
extremely difficult to achieve. When people say that they are "meditating", they are actually practicing one
of thousands of techniques which are designed to quiet and focus the mind and eventually lead toward the ultimate
goal of meditation. Here is a very simple technique that anyone can use to begin a practice of meditation.
1. In an ideal situation, there would be a soundproof meditation room, specially decorated
with inspirational objects and/or paintings, that you could access any time you wanted to. So, let's get real.
Very few of us have such a place to go to, but we can generally find a place that is quiet and comfortable, where we
can remain undisturbed for 20 minutes or so. Turn off your phones and pagers, or have calls forwarded to someone else
during the time that you plan to meditate. If this is impossible - (having lived through two 24/7 jobs at the Safety
& Health Director for two major federal agencies, I do understand the inability to turn off the pagers
& phones!) - pick a time when you are unlikely to receive any calls. (I have known students who were
so dedicated that they set their alarms in the middle of the night so that they could wake up and meditate relatively
undisturbed at 2 or 3am.)
2. Try to meditate at the same time each day. You will
find that your body and mind will become attuned to a rhythm and you will be able to achieve a relaxed state much more
easily.
3. If there are distracting sounds in the environment,
you may want use headphones and listen to "white noise" or specially designed background sounds which balance the
right and left hemispheres of the mind.
4. Sit comfortably, with your spine as straight as possible.
If you place yourself into a totally reclined position, you may fall asleep. If you have difficulty sitting up straight,
you may use a hard back chair or sit with your back against a wall. [If you have problems sitting up straight, it may
be due to weak back muscles or weak abs. Some yoga poses which may help include cat/cow (back); bridge (back);
forward bend (back); double leg raises (abs); and variations of the boat (abs).]
5.
Close your eyes. Make some micromovements to get yourself in a comfortable position - - comfortable enough so that you
won't have to move for the duration.
6. Now, simply begin to focus on the breath. Feel the
breath coming into your nose, into your lungs, and filling up your body. Then allow the breath to slowly exit, feeling
and sensing the entire path of the breath. Repeat this over and over.
7.
As you continue, slow the breath down and attempt to make the breath even. In other words, allow your inhalations and
your exhalations to be approximately the same length. Don't force anything. Let go of the effort. Simply
"be" in the moment.
8. During this process, thoughts will come and go.
It happens. Allow the thoughts to simply flow away, like logs drifting down a river. Don't give them any energy
and allow them to simply float away. If you fight thoughts, you simply create more. Don't get discouraged.
This can take a lot of practice. Even monks who have practiced daily for years can have "off days",
so don't give up. The effort is worth it and the benefits are indescribable. You want to attain the ultimate
in "witness awareness" - being the "perfect" observer.
9. You
may want to use a timer at the beginning, especially if you are doing your practice in the morning before you have to
go to work! Don't use an alarm clock or anything which is really loud or jarring. Even though you may
not think that you have reached a deep state, your system doesn't need a shock like that. If you use background
sounds, like ocean waves, you can use the soundtrack to gauge your time. Once you really get established in a
meditation practice, you can get lost in it and time will simply fly by. (One time I sat for meditation and didn't
really think I was successful, so I decided to get up and get something to eat before I attempted it again. However,
when I got up, I saw that 3 hours had gone by - not the 3 or 4 minutes that it seemed.)
