Are you the creative backbone of your organization? Or are you the multi-tasking family person who is frequently out of breath? You have something in common with millions of other beautiful people who are just in time or behind time for most things in life that have to be done, usually at the expense of things that they always wanted to do.
If you are part of the knowledgeable percentage of people who have made an invaluable investment in yoga for meditation, then you are halfway through the solution for unwanted stress and wasted time. If you have time or stress problems you may want to take up yoga and or the meditation side of yoga.
The purpose of life, when simplified, translates into a quest for happiness. And happiness is about balance and fulfillment. That is the true human nature. However, in our journey through life, our body accumulates toxins and oxidants, our minds get overcrowded with unwanted prejudices and emotional garbage and our smiles becomes more difficult to share. Enter yoga: an effortless, scientific and powerful discipline of general wellness that "yokes the body and mind" into harmony with each other and with the subtle environment.
The effects of meditation for yoga are stupendous. Yoga originated millenniums ago in India-the spiritual heartland of the world and that yoga has been received because of the benefits it offers for self-realization.
Due to the time tested methods passed down from the great Yoga Masters, yoga has reached into the hearts and homes of people even in today's modern world. From relieving chronic physical ailments and emotional stresses, to simplifying the concepts of life, and awakening that spark of creativity and providing extra life force energy, yoga is creating waves of sensation in physical, emotional and mental well-being, and is recommended for just about anyone who wishes to take the plunge from mediocrity to excellence. After all, only a healthy body and a stress-free mind can incubate personal and professional breakthroughs.
What were less known until recently by the general western populace were the effects of amalgamating meditation with yoga, without which the true potency of yoga remains untapped. Meditation is the art of letting go of negative emotions and physical blocks by suspending the five senses and experiencing the subtle energy (prana) in the present moment. The body and mind thus bounce back with enormous energy, rejuvenated with a calm dynamism that is critical in today's living. Yoga for meditation complements both yoga and meditation. Yoga trains the body for more agility, flushes out toxins by cleansing the system. This prepares the body to be receptive to the benefits of meditation. Meditation mandates a certain degree of stillness in the body for the subtle life force or prana to flow to all the channels (nadis) of the subtle body, and thus rejuvenate the glands and strengthen intuition. And yoga instills this much-needed stillness in body, and equanimity in mind, for meditation to happen effortlessly.
Yoga teaches simple postures called asanas that attend to all limbs of the body. The asanas attend to both over-stressed and under-used body parts, and improve the flow of oxygen to those parts. Yoga is performed in tangent with a set of breathing exercises called pranayamas that ensure that the muscles get adequate oxygen when training. Pranayama also increases the lung capacity, the importance of which cannot be over-emphasized when knowing that most individuals today use only thirty per cent of lung capacity! With pranayama, there is that much more oxygen going into our lungs, which means that much more life force is going into the cells of our body and brain, and that much more productivity can be achieved without compromising our natural peace of mind. Pranayama helps makes yoga an effortless and enjoyable experience.
Yoga for meditation starts with meditation by settling down in a comfortable posture, preferably the cross legged lotus posture. With attention on the breath, and awareness of sounds around, meditation is about gradually moving inwards towards the thoughts in the mind and emotions, pleasant or unpleasant. It is about accepting situations as they are which is extremely important for our peace of mind, in today's less tolerant world.
Having anchored this equanimity of mind, and rid the mind of negative impressions, one can rest deeper through meditation and let go of hurt feelings or trauma. The five senses are also rejuvenated as a result of this and we can work and play better after mediation. Yoga for meditation is the journey from conflict to harmony, from comfort zones into courage zones, from the worldly clutter outside to the balance and bliss inside each one of us. In short, it broadens our vision for our future and deepens our roots in happiness.
Lisa Michaels is a yoga expert. For a free 10 part mini course on Meditation for Yoga please visit http://yogatraininganswers.com/
