Meditation

21 June, 21

In the Western World yoga is mostly known for its asana practice on the mat. If you studied sacred scriptures you would discover that physical movement was not a part of original yoga traditions in India. Thousands of years ago practitioners focused on expanding spiritual energy using breathing techniques and mental focus while seated in a lotus pose. Once embraced as a lifetime spiritual path in order to achieve higher states of consciousness today is yoga primarily seen as a physical exercise. Asana as we know it today, is only one part of this ancient practice. There is nothing wrong with being attracted just by the physical aspect of yoga. In fact it prepares us for the following stages and at the same time gives us an opportunity to get in touch with our bodies and our minds. However, if reduced only to postures and movement we are missing out the real essence of yoga.

While ancient yogis were all about stilling the mind in order to experience ultimate reality and move toward self-realization, nowadays meditation is mostly seen as a powerful tool to help us remain in the present state of being and to manage our stressful hectic day to day life.When we start meeting ourselves as we are - we become more aware of our monkey mind. Meeting the monkey mind means becoming aware of our restless, uncontrollable, loud thoughts. Analyzing our past or worrying about the future, we are always stuck listening to our own inner dialogue that prevents us from living the life of here and now. Practice of meditation gives you the opportunity to identify the fluctuations of the mind while helping you to strip away the layers of ego that more often works against us than for us.

There are thousands of studies out there talking about the great benefits of meditation but as my pranayama teacher back in India used to say to us -”Don’t believe anything I say and go try it for yourself!”