Meditation for beginners

Meditation is an enormous part of the yoga practice. However, most people who come to a yoga class are there for physical activity, so it is often not given that much focus.

We often hear people say, “I can’t meditate because I can’t stop thinking.” Interestingly, even great meditators wrestle with their thoughts. Meditation is simply witnessing the pictures and thoughts, while you allow the mind to slow down. Even when the mind has slowed the thoughts may remain.

There is no such thing as a bad meditation. Meditation teaches us to meditate. Like all things yogic, it is a practice. It is important that you are gentle with yourself when meditating, the mind does not respond well to harshness. Over time, the mind begins to listen to what you are asking of it, and you build your mental muscle and your ability to focus. With that comes an ability to hold better focus on other things in life, the mind can become resistant to boredom, worry or depression.

Meditation is just sitting with ourselves. Meditation allows us to experience our deepest state/Self while life happens around us. Building a relationship with our own Self and consciousness requires patience, commitment, and tolerance. Meditation provides a place for the mind to rest while you settle into your essential nature. It is always going to be new.

When you come to practice meditation ensure that you are in a comfortable position and drop any expectations about how you are going to meditate. It is best to take a seated position and to soften your eyes. Your eyes are the dominant sense, so it is important to withdraw this sense to draw yourself inside. You can focus on the sounds in the room, from the big sounds and then into the subtler sounds, teaching yourself to draw awareness to more subtle impressions.

There are literally hundreds of techniques you can use to help the mind settle. The techniques are simply doorways you can walk through, and you should work with one that you like. You should be able to relax within the technique. We outline a few techniques below:

• The easiest technique is to focus on the breath and either slow or extend the breath. To remove strain, balance the longer breath with the shorter one. You focus on your breath until you enter a still, quiet place and then you can let the technique go. You will notice that your breath changes with your meditation depth, when you are anchored inside you don’t need as much prana so your breath will naturally slow down or pause.
• The OM meditation technique is about repeating a word that has no meaning. The word is more about the vibration and the sound rather than the meaning. You repeat the OM with the breath.
• You can focus on noticing the pause between the inhale and the exhale and let your awareness drop into the pause, and let the pause expand your awareness as well.

When we discuss meditation, we often talk about finding the witness state, this is an advanced practice. This is about watching your thoughts and then being aware of who is watching your thoughts. You develop a sense awareness of who is watching your thoughts and witnessing without becoming engaged in the thought itself. The Self empowers the mind, but our ordinary mind can’t find a way into it, meditation offers our way into it.

It is important to begin a home meditation practice. Like any other muscle you must build up your capability overtime. Begin with two minutes and extend that by a minute each week until you are comfortable with ten minutes. If you can, build up to a daily 20-minute meditation practice.

All our Yoga to Transform courses include guided meditations that support you to develop a meditation practice, while also supporting the reprogramming of your subconscious mind according to the course theme. Learn more about our courses here: Yoga To Transform