You have looked at yoga meditation, and it looks like something that can give you benefits. You now have two courses that you can take. Either do meditation at home or go to yoga meditation classes. There are many benefits of yoga meditation classes, and we will be taking a look at them in this article.

In this article on the benefits of yoga meditation classes, you will find:

* Benefits Of Yoga Meditation

* Benefits Of Yoga Meditation Classes Vs Benefits Of Yoga Meditation At Home

* How To Find A Local Meditation Class And Get The Benefits Of Yoga Meditation Classes

* Benefits Of Yoga Meditation

Yoga is a form of meditation which has been practiced in some Asian countries for centuries. The benefits of yoga meditation are immense. Peace of mind is one of them. When you begin meditating, you will find that your thoughts are like a busy highway! You just seem to have so many. You may even be saying you don’t have the time to meditate.

When you meditating, you will find that your mind becomes clearer, and you feel more serene and peaceful. Less stress becomes apparent in the face of adversity, and you can take life in its stride.

* Benefits Of Yoga Meditation Classes Vs Benefits Of Yoga Meditation At Home

The question is now that you want to start getting the benefits of yoga meditation, how do you start? There are benefits of yoga meditation classes, and there are benefits to meditating at home.

With Yoga, there are several postures and ways of doing meditation. The benefits of yoga meditation classes verses doing it at home, is that you can learn exactly how to do those postures. You also get to ask your class teacher questions you may have, and get answers to them. Some more benefits of yoga meditation classes, is that you get to meet like minded individuals, and also have more of a commitment to continue.

Doing yoga meditation at home is an option if you simply can’t go to yoga meditation classes, though you would not be getting the full benefits of yoga meditation classes. You will not learn the correct postures, etc. But, still there is hope!

There are many yoga books, and yoga DVD programs that can help you get started in the meditation techniques of yoga. One problem however, is that if you do, do the meditations at home, and learn techniques, then if you decide to go to a yoga meditation class after, you may not see all the benefits of yoga meditation classes. For example, we are creatures of habit. Often when we learn something, even if we are doing it wrong, it can be hard to correct.

* How To Find A Local Meditation Class And Get The Benefits Of Yoga Meditation Classes

Getting the benefits of yoga meditation classes is possible today. There are many yoga meditation classes in the west, and finding one locally is possible. Whether you are in the US, UK, France or Germany or wherever in the world, you can find a way to get the benefits of yoga meditation classes. A lot of these classes can be found online now, and a simple look around some sites can help you find what you need.

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Meditation requires an individual to sit in a particular position for longer period of time. This process has a lot of health and mental benefits on the meditator. However, there are also certain problems one faces while engaging in meditation. These include strain in Back, back pain, distraction, pain in the neck and the like.

If you want to meditate, don’t worry about these problems striking you at any time. There is a solution available for all the problems one faces while meditating.

Meditation cushions have been invented to provide prefect meditation posture, proper alignment and comfort to the meditator. A meditation cushion can help deepen your meditation practice. It will facilitate you to enjoy deeper state of inner awareness.

Most people do not understand why they require a meditation cushion.

Here are some reasons to convince you why a meditation cushion is so important to you when meditating:

a) Proper support

When meditating, one requires adequate support. Without this the body will succumb to the shape of the surface on it rests. This usually results in a lot of damage to hips, shoulders, spine and head to misalign. This ultimately results in a lot of discomfort. Meditation cushions are used to enhance the posture and level of comfort while meditating.

b) Posture

Some of the common meditation postures include the half-lotus, traditional full-lotus, chair sitting, kneeling and lying postures. Meditators usually use more than one posture for meditation. This requires the ability to meditate in any of the sitting or kneeling postures. Meditation cushions help in improving great postures and engaging in various meditation postures.

c) Proper alignment

This is very important to sit in a proper position and get good benefits from it. The spine needs to be erect with the lower back curved inside, the upper back curved out slightly. The neck should be curved in slight and the head level.

The alignment lets you support the body in a natural way. A meditation cushion provides the best of comfort and also work towards minimizing stress one tends to experience on the spinal components.

d) Comfort

No matter what position you desire to take on while meditating, you need to focus on your comfort level in order to benefit the most. Meditation cushions are specially designed in a fashion to provide great comfort to the meditator.

These are available in various styles, shapes and sizes. You would not face any discomfort such as back pain, stress, distraction, spinal problems or pain in the neck if you use meditation cushions while meditating.

When purchasing Meditation cushions, try to look for what is available on the market. Understand the benefits of using each type of meditation cushion and then decide on purchasing one.

You may also look for various options available on the internet.

If you are learning to meditate under the guidance of an instructor, you can take help of this instructor to purchase a particular type of meditation cushion that will be suitable for you.

Meditation cushions are really helpful in providing great comfort when practicing meditation. Buy one now!

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A guided meditation with Bridget Woods Kramer, a leading Anusara yoga teacher, filmed on the clifftops of Cornwall, England. Bridget is Anusara’s UK representative and main certified Anusara teacher having studied with John Friend, the founder of the Anusara school of Yoga since 1994. Bridget travels all over Europe giving Anusara immersion workshops, Teacher training’s, and in depth study courses. ‘Be Still’ Music by kind permission of Rafael Szaban Produced by Rafael Szaban (www.indigoseamusic.com). Music available to purchase at www.omshop.eu Yoga workshops with Bridget available from www.omshop.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Sogyal Rinpoche explains that there is much more to meditation than saying mantras and burning incense. Find out more – www.rigpa.org

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bit.ly Take a time-out and recharge yourself! More amazing meditation recordings from here: bit.ly enjoy .
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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www.katoniahouse.com presents a complete chakra balancing & healing session. Working from the base chakra up to the crown chakra using unique sounds and colors. You are left feeling totally refreshed and energized! Get the extended version of this featured meditation video and 29 free chakra balancing and healing mp3 audios from this site.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Meditation is a mental exercise. It is a means to retreat from your daily routine in your own space of silence and peace. Meditation should not be seen as a religious practice or the latest fad. By practicing meditation regularly, you are in more control of your emotions, your energy levels increase, and your perspective on life can change (for better) because of the relaxation. Meditation is hard and it cannot be perfected. The key is being quiet in your mind. Below are a few simple things to do in order to meditate correctly.

Position: Sit down. Find a comfortable spot anywhere in your home or anywhere else where you can spend a few minutes without being disturbed. It is important to sit with your back straight. Following any special wrist or feet position is not a rule as any unusual body position can cause pain and hence distractions. Sit comfortably. Accessories such as incense, candles, or cushions can be added to the environment but remember meditation is what you’re aiming for, rest are all superficial additives, which you will not think about or feel while you’re in ‘breathing’.

Breath. Breathing is what keeps us alive. We never think about it and we never really give nature the credit it deserves for making breathing so simple an effortless. While meditating feel your breathing. Feel the air moving up your nostrils as you inhale and feel is exhaling. You will notice a slight pause after exhaling and before inhaling. Do not experiment with your breathing rate; keep it as normal and natural as possible. This is the only activity or task that you do in meditation – breathe. As you focus on your breathing, you will realize that this effortless and natural process gives you the oxygen your heart, your brain and the rest of your body needs to function properly.

Get lost in the dark space. Close your eyes when you meditate. Do not allow any thoughts to wander in your mind and only focus on breathing. During all this, what is that you see? You may forget to notice what you see, which is perfectly normal. If however you notice the dark space inside your eyes, use that to let yourself lose. In doing so, you do run the risk of letting your imagination run and hence think – but remember thoughts are to be ignored. So do not be too imaginative, like do not imagine yourself flying in that space, but allow yourself to look deep into space. The deep darkness and the spotless fluency in you can bring peace to you with its silence.

Don’t be hard on yourself. Meditation is not easy. It cannot be perfected, so do not expect yourself to be perfect at it. By being imperfect I mean, that when you meditate you will get random thoughts, maybe even ideas. You will not notice when you strayed and started thinking about something. At this time you will let your judgmental side kick in and right yourself off as being incapable of meditating. That is not right. Everybody can (and should) meditate. The key here is not to judge as it is only natural to drift. When you notice yourself getting any thoughts, do not try to fight them, simply move the thoughts aside and get back to your breathing. Evan a regular practitioner’s mind can go adrift every time she meditates, but she would know better than to judge herself.

Set an alarm: You can decide how much time you want to meditate. Usually 20 minutes a day is a good practice. When you sit down to meditate without a timer, you run the risk of thinking about the time and being tempted to peek at the watch sometime during meditation. When meditating its easy to lose track of time. Only after 1 or 2 minutes, one can feel that a lot of time has passed and perhaps one must check the time. All these thoughts are unnecessary distractions that you must make sure do not exist at all. The solution to this is to use a timer. Set the timer for as many minutes as you plan to meditate. If you set the timer at 10 minutes, you will not worry about exceeding the time limit, in case you have errands to run. Remember, your only activity is to sit down and breathe without thinking about anything. Therefore, to make sure that you prevent such distraction setting a timer is a good option.

Meditate when you can. (1) Traveling in a bus; (2) Waiting in a queue; (3) Waiting for someone to show up; (4) Taking a break from work.
Meditation, not necessarily, should only be done in the serene Himalayas, or in a quiet candlelit room. You can meditate wherever & whenever. Moreover, meditation can be done for just 1 or 2 minutes. All you need to do is, give yourself a moment, and just breathe. In just one minute you can feel relaxed and at ease. Repeat this couple of times a day, whenever you can and whenever you feel like it. Meditation is like your own personal retreat from the world around you, to a world of peace and quiet.

Best time to Meditate. There is no ‘only best time’ to meditate. Meditation should be done only when you feel that it is a good time to do so. Some like doing it in the morning, while others in the evening or even late at night. Moreover, it’s not mandatory to meditate at the same time everyday, as long as you spend some time everyday with yourself in deep meditation.

Meditation is a skill. It requires regular practice. The study of Meditation is a science while practicing it is an art. Meditation takes away your stress. Meditation allows you to take some timeout from your daily routine of work and people, and provide your brain some time to rest. So, if you’re suffering from anxiety, hypertension, excessive stress, emotional troubles, or you’re simply overworked, Meditation can be a wonderful and simple way to help you by keeping your mind healthy.

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Meditation is a group of mental training techniques. You can use meditation to improve mental health and capacities, to improve your motivation for your goals and also to help improve the physical health. Some of these techniques are very simple, so you can learn them from a book or an article; others require guidance by a qualified meditation teacher.

WHAT IS MEDITATION

Most techniques called meditation include these components:

1. You sit or lie in a relaxed position with closed eyes.

2. You breathe regularly. You breathe in deep enough to get enough oxygen. When you breathe out, you relax your muscles so that your lungs are well emptied, but without straining.

3. You stop thinking about everyday problems and matters.

4. You concentrate your thoughts upon some sound, some word you repeat, some image, some abstract concept or some feeling. Your whole attention should be pointed at the object you have chosen to concentrate upon.

5. If some foreign thoughts creep in, you just stop this foreign thought, and go back to the object of meditation.

The different meditation techniques differ according to the degree of concentration, and how foreign thoughts are handled. By some techniques, the objective is to concentrate so intensely that no foreign thoughts occur at all.

In other techniques, the concentration is more relaxed so that foreign thoughts easily pop up. When these foreign thoughts are discovered, one stops these and goes back to the pure meditation in a relaxed manner. Thoughts coming up, will often be about things you have forgotten or suppressed, and allow you to rediscover hidden memory material. This rediscovery will have a psychotherapeutic effect.

THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION

Meditation has the following effects:

1. Meditation will reduce stress and give you rest and recreation.

2. You learn to relax.

3. You learn to concentrate better on problem solving.

4. Meditation often has a good effect upon the blood pressure.

5. Meditation has beneficial effects upon inner body processes, like circulation, respiration and digestion.

6. Regular meditation will have a psychotherapeutically effect.

7. Regular meditation will facilitate the immune system.

8. Meditation is usually pleasant.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HYPNOSIS AND MEDITATION

Hypnosis may have some of the same relaxing and psychotherapeutic effects as meditation. However, when you meditate you are in control yourself; by hypnosis you let some other person or some mechanical device control you. Also hypnosis will not have a training effect upon the ability to concentrate.

A SIMPLE FORM OF MEDITATION

Here is a simple form of meditation. By this meditation technique, you should concentrate in an easy manner. This will allow foreign thoughts to pop up. These are handled one by one as they appear. You proceed as follows:

1. Sit in a good chair in a comfortable position.

2. Close your eyes and relax all your muscles as well as you can.

3. Stop thinking about anything, or at least try not to think about anything.

4. Breath out, relaxing all the muscles in your breathing apparatus.

5. Repeat the following in 10 – 20 minutes:

– Breath in so deep that you feel you get enough oxygen.

– Breath out, relaxing your chest and diaphragm completely.

– Every time you breathe out, think the word “one” or another simple word inside yourself. You should think the word in a prolonged manner, and so that you hear it inside you, but you should try to avoid using your mouth or voice.

6. If foreign thoughts come in, just stop these thoughts in a relaxed manner, and keep on concentrating upon the breathing and the word you repeat.

As you proceed through this meditation, you should feel steadily more relaxed in your mind and body, feel that you breathe steadily more effectively, and that the blood circulation throughout your body gets more efficient. You may also feel an increasing mental pleasure throughout the meditation.

THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION UPON DISEASES

As any kind of training, meditation may be exaggerated so that you get tired and worn out. Therefore you should not meditate so long or so concentrated that you feel tired or mentally emptied.

Meditation may sometimes give problems for people suffering from mental diseases, epilepsy, serious heart problems or neurological diseases. On the other hand, meditation may be of help in the treatment of these and other conditions.

People suffering from such conditions should check out what effects the different kinds of meditation have on their own kind of health problems, before beginning to practise meditation, and be cautious if they choose to begin to meditate. It may be wise to learn meditation from an experienced teacher, psychologist or health worker that use meditation as a treatment module for the actual disease.

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A meditation technique where one focuses on the field or background and embrace all the perception around that field is called Mindfulness Meditation. It is in contrast to another meditation technique called concentration meditation, where one channels all the energy and focus on one specific object or subject, blocking all distractions around.

In mindfulness meditation, the meditator is trained to have an open focus of all the inter-related senses coming from the immediate environment while concentrating on a unifying object or a foundation from which to channel all the other senses that is being absorbed or experienced.

For instance, a person using mindfulness meditation can focus on his or her breathing, while at the same time incorporating other senses around him or her, like the sound of leaves on swaying tree branches nearby, a faint music playing, or the perception of movements from other people from a distance. The meditator incorporates his or her breathing in harmony with these surrounding senses.

In concentration meditation, the meditator holds attention on a single specific focus of thought, which could be a prayer bead, or a thought-based anchor for concentration like a mantra or repetitive prayer.

There is no argument on which of the techniques is better. Those who have developed a higher level of concentration also shift easily between mindfulness meditation to concentration meditation or vice versa in a single meditative session.

While concentration meditation trains the mind to withdraw all attachment beyond the self to develop full self-awareness, mindfulness meditation encourages the mind to recognize elements beyond the self to be able to know the whole self as a constitution of all the other elements.

Instead of being distracted, the meditator should acknowledge the existence of things beyond the self and incorporate it in harmony with the awareness of existence at that particular time and space to get a holistic perception of self.

Mindfulness meditation has a similar concept in the religion Buddhism, which also gives high importance on the practice of meditation to achieve self awareness and clarity of the mind. This is the Buddhism meditation technique called Vippasana, which advocates for various mind practices for the purpose of developing insights and general wisdom by seeing the true nature of the self along with the true nature of the surrounding realities. This is in contrast to the technique Shamatha, which develops one’s ability to focus the attention on a single point, unobstructed other realities beyond that point. This is the counterpart of concentration meditation.

In the western forms of meditation, there are concentration techniques devoid of any mystical or rigid religious beliefs. Still, mindfulness meditation finds it way in many of the modern schools of meditation, particularly in yoga, which promotes peace of mind by suspending realities filled with worries and fears, cleansing the mental state by invigorating mental relaxations and absorbing fresh perceptions like mind control, free will, and the presence of guidance and protection from a higher source.

Absorbing these positive states of mind requires mindfulness meditation, as it recognizes surrounding elements that are helpful in developing a healthier and renewed perception of the self.

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There was a time when meditation or no meditation was a serious question for me. I come from a Protestant background where in my view (which is admittedly biased) prayer was a practice of reciting important-sounding words. I struggled for years with the concept of prayer. It did not make sense to me that in church other people should pray on my behalf, but then I thought that was just me being the rebel again, and I kept quiet about it.

Outside of church I read books about prayer, and the prayers of other people. Still, there was this feeling inside of me that it is not quite right. Eventually I gave up on figuring out what prayer is about and just got on with life.

Of course I had conversations with God in my head, but none of the books that I read described these conversations as prayer. The conversations were also quite one-sided, because I told God what he/she needed to know about my life. Listening to God did not even cross my mind, because at the time I thought “If I cannot see God, then I also cannot hear God”. I intuitively knew that there must be something or someone out there, but the thought that this someone or something was able to actually speak to me was too far-fetched for me to accept.

You will agree with me that having a one-sided conversation is quite lonely, especially when you want reassurance in times of need and encouragement in challenging times. All the time I felt a need to confirm that there is someone on the “other side” that was hearing me.

I kept searching and was introduced to meditation. I tried it initially because it was not recommended in my culture – the church was there to take care of my religious needs and that should have been enough. However, sometimes the way to get me to do something is to put obstacles in my way – especially if the obstacles are based on fear and misconceptions that I can expose.

I found meditation to be quite an interesting experience. It definitely helped me to relax. I always felt calmer and more secure after meditating.

I was surprised when I discovered that meditation does not mean losing your consciousness. I had this perception that when you meditate you actually leave your body, only to discover that during meditation I am still fully in charge of the process. I could compare it to driving a familiar route every day. I know exactly where to slow down, where to turn, how long it will take me to get to my destination, and I simply drive.

If you show me detail pictures of buildings or other landmarks along the route, I might not be able to recognise them, even if I have travelled the same route every day for a year. The reason for this would be that I in fact go into a meditative state while driving when the route becomes familiar, and my mind gets occupied with other things like planning my day or having a conversation with a passenger.

The same happens during meditation. This is because meditation is an inner journey. I still remain in charge of the route, and I can return to “reality” any time I want to.

I initially found that guided meditations work much easier for me. Meditation requires a still mind, but at the same time meditation stills the mind. Getting the balance right is not so simple when your life is in turmoil or when finding a quiet place to meditate in a busy household is a challenge.

Saying to yourself that you must clear your mind of all thoughts so that a meditation can be successful is like saying to yourself that now is not a good time to think of a yellow elephant. Guess what picture just popped into your mind? Yes – the same happens when you focus on having no thoughts in your mind. Suddenly all the thoughts tumble into your mind.

This is where guided meditations made a huge difference to me. Rather than focusing on clearing my mind, I was able to focus on the guided meditation. As a result I experienced the benefits of meditation much sooner.

Before I got to understand that I create my own reality and my own future, I experienced fear, anxiety and even depression. These also disappeared with meditation.

Probably the biggest surprise for me was to discover that while in a meditative state I have access to images, thoughts and information that made a massive positive difference to my life. Initially I thought that these images, thoughts and bits of information are just my imagination, and I was surprised at how active my imagination was.

But then I discovered that what I received during meditation somehow had a either a direct or a subtle link to what I experienced when I was not meditating. I tried to ask questions while I was “awake”, and found that I received very interesting answers while I was meditating.

Eventually I realised that meditation is probably a form of prayer – but meditation is about listening rather than about talking.

I am still working on this, but I think that prayer is a way of asking, whereas meditation is a way of getting answers. This definition works for me, because I get many answers during meditation – and it works even better when I first ask the questions and then do my meditation.

Not all the answers come during meditation. I have discovered that there are more coincidences and more synchronicity in my “waking” life, and often things just happen around me that make me feel “yes – there is another answer”.

The fears, anxieties and depressive feelings have disappeared, and instead I am much more at peace with myself, especially during uncertain times. And I believe that I have found a way of listening to God. It is quite comforting to know that my communication with God is no longer one-sided.

I have decided to use my experiences and provide guided meditations to other people who may want to try meditation but are not sure how to do it. I still benefit even from recording the guided meditations. Every time I do a meditation, I feel more in control of my life and my thoughts.

An link to an example of a guided meditation, as well as guidelines on how to practise meditation, is available on my purple blog.

I wish you a lovely journey, and trust that you will benefit from meditation as much as I do.

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