Getting your body ready for meditation

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Permalink Reply by Kumari de Silva on December 25, 2011 at 10:17pm

i found my foot would fall asleep when I first started, and now it doesn't because somehow I got used to sitting that long. If I were to teach someone new I would recommend they start with a shorter time period than I did and work up to 25 or 30 minutes. Starting with 5 minutes is fine.

I have issues with a hip injury which made sitting the traditional style very uncomfortable for me. When I started out, I would meditate lying down. I figured meditating at all was better than not - right? I'm glad I started.

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Permalink Reply by Leire on January 4, 2012 at 5:12pm

Namaste!

Well, I´m not used to stay longer than 10 or 15 minutes in meditation, and when I was in Yoga Vidya in september, doing half an hour of meditation, in the morning and at night, I hurt my shoulder quite bad. I still haven't arranged it. And now sometimes the pain even gets to my neck. I think it is the "levator scapulae" (sorry, I don`t know the name in english). Trying to get my posture properly, and taking my shoulder down and backwards, it started to hurt and got worse repeatin g it every day.

I've found that is much more difficult to do diafragmatic breathing being sitting than laying down.

Until you have the strenght to keep a straight back posture (upper back) there is a lot of tension in the body to be able to meditate. The same happens with the knees when they don't touch the floor. And if you help yourself with the wall, or pillows, you never get the strenght and flexibility to keep the posture.

I've found myself thinking about other things, even when i'm mentaly reciting my mantra (at the same time).

I hope it helps a little bit.
Love and best wishes.

Om Shanti

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Permalink Reply by Swami Saradananda on January 5, 2012 at 7:49am

OM
Dear Leire
If you want to develop a meditation practice, it is best to make a determination to sit for at least 20 minutes. this is because it takes your body about 10 minutes to completely settle down. If you are sitting for only 10 minutes, you are not actually doing any meditation,

I'm sorry to hear that you heart your shoulder, but it is probably because you weren't sitting properly. There are many asanas you can do to prepare your body for meditation. Perhaps you can join my Asana Intensive in Hause Yoga Vidya in Westerwale - 25-29 March. I hope to be working with helping people to prepare their bodies for meditation.

RE:I've found that is much more difficult to do diafragmatic breathing being sitting than laying down
Again, this is probably because you are not sitting properly, so you are putting presure on the diaphragm

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Permalink Reply by Swami Saradananda on January 5, 2012 at 7:41am

OM - for stiff shoulders, try Gomukasana - Cow's Head Pose. If you can come to Germany in 25-29 March, I will be teaching an asana intensive in Haus Yoga Vidya, Westerwald that will deal specifically with problems like this.

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Permalink Reply by Heiner Koch on January 6, 2012 at 10:37am

thank you for the tip with Gomukasana. Can you tell me why this exercise effectsthe shoulders? I do it quite frequently and feel it in the hip and lower back.

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Permalink Reply by Swami Saradananda on January 5, 2012 at 7:43am

OM - Sorry Kumari, but it is not possible to meditate lying down - you will tend to fall asleep. Better to sit in a straight-backed chair with feet flat on floor, if you cannot sit cross-legged.

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Permalink Reply by Kumari de Silva on January 6, 2012 at 3:41am

at the time, the issue was that I couldn't sit - had a rather traumatic back injury - now I meditate sitting

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