This piece about meditation is a follow up to my yoga post last week. Meditation is actually 99% of yoga. Meditation can be done sitting Indian style, half lotus or full, or sitting in a chair. Meditation is what you practice after you’re done doing with physical yoga. The beginner usually starts at 5-15 minutes in the morning and before sleep. The more advanced yogi brings that up to 1-2 hours in the morning and at night.
To understand meditation you need to understand the definition of yoga. Yoga means “uniting the soul with spirit.” When you meditate you are leaving the conscious mind and entering the subconscious and superconscious mind to enter an advanced state of peace, freedom, and joy which exists in every human being behind closed eyes.
Meditation can improve your life by changing the blue prints that are stored in your subconscious. All your conscious thoughts get stored in the subconscious and form negative or positive habits or habitual thoughts. The best way to free yourself of these bad habits is to meditate. Techniques of meditation get passed down typically from a guru or someone who has renounced materialism to help humanity.
When I was 6 years old I chose to follow my guru Paramahansa Yogananda who brought Kriya yoga to America back in the early 1900’s. Meditation helps you to be more aware and expands that awareness eradicating ignorance all together.
For the beginning meditator there are some very basic techniques one can start with. First, you start by sitting in a chair with your hands on your lap with your palms turned upward. The inner part off your hand should be grazing your belly with a completely erect spine and chest slightly pushing outward. Stomach should be pulled in subtly and chin parallel to the ground. Start by closing your eyes and turn your gaze upward toward your spiritual eye at the point between the eyebrows. Make sure your not crossing your eyes.
Now inhale through your nose for 10 counts. Hold for 6 counts and then exhale for 10 counts through your mouth. Do this for 10 reps and you’ll notice a great feeling of peace will come over the mind. Once you’re done with the breathing exercise you can sit still with your gaze turned upward, eyes closed still, and enjoy that sense of peace you cultivated imagining yourself expanding outward.
Try to keep all restless thoughts from bombarding the mind and enjoy that expanding peace. If you want to go on to more advanced meditation you can check out yogananda.org for different techniques of meditation. Try to meditate 10-15 minutes in the beginning and then start to increase the time as you get more comfortable.
When you sit and meditate you are freeing your mind and expanding it. Eventually it will expand into cosmic consciousness and the awareness of everything in the universe. Meditation benefits you by uniting you with everything you’ve ever wanted. Your true self lies behind closed eyes!
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