What are the perfect kinds of yogic meditation methods and practices?
As a meditation trainer, many yogis ask me how one can mix meditation and yoga. And in fact, you’ll be able to’t be a correct yogi with out practising meditation.
Check out the Eight Limbs of Yoga by Patanjali. Just one limb is to do with bodily poses (asanas). A lot of the relaxation (Dharana, Samadhi, Dhyana, Pratyahara) are concerning the thoughts.
There’s a purpose for that.
Yogic meditation methods like Trataka, Kundalini, Chakra Dhyana, Bhakti and the Sadhguru Isha Kriya, even simply respiration meditation, can rework your thoughts.
Let me present you the perfect yoga meditation methods.
11 Finest Varieties Of Yogic Meditation Methods & Practices
Right here is my number of the perfect yogic meditation workouts.
Only a heads-up: I’m going to start out with a main methodology after which share some extra critical yoga meditation workouts, so you’ll be able to select which you need to do primarily based on whether or not you’re a newbie, intermediate or whole yogini.
1. Do meditation whereas doing yoga
Which one of many 28 types of yoga is your favorite? Whichever one it’s, meditate whilst you’re doing it.
There are all various kinds of yogic meditation, like mantras, mudras, kundalini, Nada yoga, and extra. Nonetheless, for those who’re new to the follow you would possibly like to easily begin being extra conscious if you are doing yoga. This can be a nice entry level and a simple method to mix meditation and yoga.
2. Nada Yoga
All proper, time for the primary conventional methodology and probably the greatest yogic meditation approach on this record: Nada yoga.
Nada yoga is sound meditation. [Wiki] Right here’s how one can do it.
- Begin taking part in some stress-free therapeutic sounds, like a Tibetan singing bowl or some Kundalini Yoga music.
- Take a snug place with good posture. The best method is whereas doing Shavasana. Lie on the bottom in your again. Be certain that your backbone is comfy (place a blanket underneath the small of your backbone for further consolation). Rotate your ankles out a bit of. Let your neck chill out and elongate. Shut your eyes.
- Focus your thoughts on the sound of the music you’re listening to. Let your thoughts relaxation on the music. If ideas enter your thoughts, merely label them as you’d in Vipassana after which proceed meditating on the sound. Your thoughts will start to calm, and you’ll begin to really feel like you’re one with the music. Proceed to meditate on the music.
- As soon as you’re feeling like you’re one with the music, start to tune in to your inside sound. Take heed to the sounds of your thoughts and physique. Meditate on these sounds. Intention to be one with these sounds. Hold meditating on this sound till you hear the final word sound that’s “Para Nada”, the common sound manifesting in “Om”.
If you need to be taught extra about nada yoga I extremely advocate the e book The Regulation of consideration, Nada yoga and the best way of Interior Vigilance by Michael Edward Salim.
3. Mantras
Mantras are throughout faith and spirituality. And they’re a yogic follow too. Some individuals suppose mantras began in yoga, though that is positively not the case.
Mantras are prevalent in Kundalini Yoga. So, in case you are searching for methods to activate Kundalini power, you would possibly like to start out chanting numerous mantras resembling “Sa Ta Na Ma” and “Wahe Guru.”
Deepak Chopra [founder, The Copra Center] states that “mantras function a automobile for the thoughts to transition from variety to unity”. If you focus your entire thoughts on a mantra you obtain unification of the thoughts.
4. Chakra Dhyana
Within the e book Chakra Concept And Meditation, yoga trainer Paul Grilley explains that the chakras are power centres via which prana (life pressure) flows. The factor is, your chakras can get blocked, and this causes all method of bodily and psychological well being problems.
Thank Patanjali we are able to meditate on the chakras to open them and get prana flowing as soon as once more. Doing so presents quite a few well being advantages and is a wonderful method to enhance common wellbeing.
5. Third Eye (Ajna Chakra)
Should you thought, “Third Eye Meditation is simply one other chakra meditation” then give your self a cookie since you’re proper. The factor is, Third Eye Meditation is essential. It calls for its personal place on this record of yogic meditation methods.
Within the e book The Secret Doctrine vol. II, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky states that hundreds of years in the past people had a 3rd eye within the brow and that this eye steadily shifted inward. This “Third Eye”, in accordance with Richard Cavendish [Man, Myth and Magic – Volume 19] is the gateway to notion past atypical sight.
To open the third eye, we use the yoga meditation strategy of Ajna Meditation. This often combines the Shambhavi Mudra (Eyebrow Gazing) with conventional meditation. That is stated to develop the 5 siddhis:
- Trikālajñatvam: understanding the previous, current and future
- Advandvam: tolerance of warmth, chilly and different dualities
- Para Citta ādi abhijñatā: understanding the minds of others
- Agni arka ambu viṣa ādīnām pratiṣṭambhaḥ: checking the affect of fireplace, solar, water, and poison.
- Aparājayah: remaining unconquered by others
Right here’s how one can do Third Eye Meditation.
6. Trataka (“Nonetheless Gazing”)
This is without doubt one of the greatest yogic meditation methods for cultivating inner-stillness and focus, in accordance with the Journal of Conventional and Complementary Drugs [source]. And in accordance with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh [Dynamics of Meditation] it opens the thoughts to psychic powers.
Right here’s how one can do Trataka:
- Place a lit candle on a desk or shrine a couple of metre or so in entrance of you. Sit shut, however, , don’t burn your face on the candle.
- Repair your gaze on the candle
- Meditate on the flame of the candle.
- Maintain your gaze nonetheless and proceed to meditate on the flame. Take 25 breaths
- Now shut your eyes. You will notice the candle in your thoughts’s eye.
- Meditate on the psychological picture of the candle for an additional 25 breaths.
Once I follow Trataka I’m instantly extra capable of focus.
7. Bhakti Yoga meditation
Bhakti yoga meditation approach is without doubt one of the extra religious kinds of meditation in yoga. In actual fact, it is without doubt one of the trinity of meditations described within the Bhagavad Gita in accordance with Michael C. Brannigan [Striking a Balance: A Primer in Traditional Asian Values].
After we do Bhakti, we meditate on a deity to attain oneness.
Should you’re a religious individual, you’ll love this. You’ll positively have heard Sadhguru and Paramahansa Yogananda discussing this one, and it actually is a marvellous methodology,
Right here’s how one can do Bhakti.
8. Dhyana Yoga (Jnana)
A lot of my college students have spent years doing asanas however solely simply gotten into the psychological features. Once they ask me “What’s meditation in yoga”, I say Jnana.
Dhyana is the oldest yoga meditation train and was first talked about within the Upanishads. There’s a passage in Upanishads (classical Hindu textual content) when Arjuna talks to Lord Krishna about Dhyana. He says that the yogic path contains devotional service (bhakti), motion (karma), meditation (dhyana), and data (jnana). To correctly stroll the yogic path, we should follow all these features.
Yoga jnana is about growing profound oneness by breaking down the hole between consciousness and actuality. Deep stuff, proper? That’s why I wrote a whole information to Dhyana meditation for you.
In accordance with the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Drugs, there are vital advantages of this methodology, which you’ll be able to examine right here.
9. Kundalini Yoga Meditation
Oh boy. Kundalini meditation. Everybody likes tossing out the phrase “Kundalini” prefer it had been this yr’s must-have style merchandise. So, what’s kundalini meditation? It’s a yoga meditation approach delivered to the West by Yogi Bhajan.
We use kundalini meditation to awaken kundalini power (highly effective female power dormant on the base of the backbone). In accordance with Om Swami [Kundalini: An Untold Story], this power represents the divine female power of the goddess.
10. Kriya Yoga Meditation Methods
Kriya yoga is a group of meditative workouts taught by Indian yogi guru Paramahamsa Yogananda.
These things is deep. Actual deep. Most likely too deep on your common yoga-pants fanatic. However for those who’re cool sufficient to be a correct religious yogi, you then’ll like it.
Kriya yoga contains totally different ranges of pranayama, mantra, and mudra practices. These are stated to assist religious improvement in accordance with Timothy Miller, creator of the e book America’s Different Religions.
Yogananda acknowledged that the Kriya Yogi is devoted to “directing life to the six centres of the backbone that relate to the zodiac.”
For an instance, learn my information to Kirtan Kriya Meditation.
11. Tantra:
I do know: your mother advised you that Tantra is that this intercourse cult factor that Sting was concerned with. Nicely, your mother solely obtained a tiny little bit of the story. As a result of whereas Tantra does embody some sexual methods, it’s method deeper than that.
Tantra is about as deep as Marianas Trench—that’s deep, actual deep. It entails every kind of meditative strategies and contemplations. There are 108 meditations within the textual content Vijnanabhairava Tantra alone, and several other of them are profound.
I regarded on-line for a wonderful information to Tantra meditations, however I couldn’t discover one! So, I’ll write one for you guys after I get round to it (subscribe to our e-newsletter for updates).
12. Pratyahara
Pratyahara isn’t a strictly meditative yogic follow. It’s extra of a yogic thoughts coaching system that entails closing off exterior stimuli to guard your thoughts. In accordance with Patanjali, Prathyahara is “Withdrawal from the senses”.
It’s about eradicating detrimental affect out of your life. The factor is, for those who do that and in addition meditate, you’ll have the healthiest thoughts ever. That’s why I wrote this in-depth information to Pratyahara yoga.
In accordance with Patanjali, yoga meditation begins with Pratyahara, which clears the thoughts prepared for meditative practices.
13: Samyama
Samyama meditation approach is the deepest and most profound of all yoga meditations. That’s why I wrote a whole information to it. Click on the earlier hyperlink to be taught all about it.
Abstract
I’ve taught everybody from five-year-old children to the aged all of the various kinds of meditation in yoga. All of them obtained one thing out of it. And you’ll too.
Right here’s the humorous factor: Everybody is aware of concerning the bodily kinds of yoga. But subsequent to nobody is aware of about yoga meditation methods like Samyama—besides yoga lecturers and we yogis who’re passionate concerning the yogic philosophy (which in all probability contains you, proper?).
Every of the methods above has its personal advantages. As an illustration, Trataka is a wonderful method of cultivating inner-stillness and focus. Nada Yoga, then again, is a profound method of simulating the parasympathetic nervous system to create a deep sense of leisure. And mantras provide myriad advantages relying on the precise mantra you select to recite.
As a result of every of the strategies presents its personal distinctive advantages, I extremely advocate attempting all of them.
Oh and yet another factor earlier than I overlook, you may additionally prefer to attempt one of the crucial fashionable yogi-methods proper now: Breath Of Hearth Yoga.
If you need to know extra about yogic meditation methods workouts, I like to recommend Mild of Life by B.Okay.S Iyengar, an exploration of the combination of thoughts, physique, soul and feelings to attain the true yogic way of life.
Need to be taught yogic meditation? E-book a web-based meditation lesson with me at present.
Paul Harrison is a meditation trainer with 20+ years of expertise and a deep ardour for serving to others. Identified for his empathy and genuine method, he’s devoted to guiding people and groups towards mindfulness, readability, and well-being.
