Meditation: Then and Now

"To really open your eyes, sometimes you have to close them."

Slow Down

Most of us are judged in life by how quickly we can get things done. Because of this, it's hard to develop the opposite mindset: one of slowing down, getting centered, and relaxing.

Many yoga classes start with a transitional period between public life and the privacy of the practice. In this period, students can simply build awareness of their own breath in order to prepare mentally, physically, and spiritually for practice. For some students, this process of slowing down is extremely difficult. Continually rushing from one activity to the next, many people are used to being hurried and impatient, so much so that it's almost impossible to relax and get centered.

If this is true for you, ask yourself: Am I rushing because I'm under stress or am I under stress because I'm rushing? Is it always necessary to hurry so much? Would you be able to run your life just as effectively at a slower pace? If so, take some small steps to slow it down, one day at a time.

Ready to Meditate?

Prepare to meditate in spacious awareness with simple routines to balance your energy and focus.  

An article by Janice Gates. She is president of the International Association of Yoga Therapists and author of Yogini: The Power of Women in Yoga.
 

Meditation can be challenging. Even after you've had a taste of its benefits and long for those sweet moments of inner calm, clarity, and deep connection, it can be hard to just sit. If you're like most people, you may find that one day your mind is speeding into the future, your body feels agitated, and you can't sit still, while the next day you're so lethargic that you can hardly stay awake. Don't be discouraged. Resting with ease in meditation doesn't magically happen. But there is a path to help you get there: Through your breath, you can tap into the flow of prana (life force) to increase, decrease, or focus your energy, bringing you into a state of balance and making it easier to sit with relaxed attention in meditation.

Are You a Chest or a Belly Breather?

Try this: Rest one hand on your abdomen and one hand on your chest. Watch which part of the body rises and falls when you breathe normally. The part that rises highest indicates the type of breather you are.

The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation

taken from: http://www.dhamma.org/en/art.shtml

Everyone seeks peace and harmony, because this is what we lack in our lives. From time to time we all experience agitation, irritation, dishar­mony. And when we suffer from these miseries, we don't keep them to ourselves; we often distribute them to others as well. Unhappiness permeates the atmosphere around someone who is miserable, and those who come in contact with such a person also become affected. Certainly this is not a skillful way to live.