Consciousness in Meditation

Class (3) on Tuesday 2nd December moved things on a bit as we began to explore methods for maintaining consciousness during meditation.

Preparation

As usual we started with our preparation exercises (see the blog for class (1)).  With regular practice at home these exercises are becoming easier to remember and are really helpful for settling the mind and beginning the process of meditation.  Some might even say the exercises are a moving meditation when done slowly, patiently and with total attention.

Whatever the movement in each exercise we avoided compressing any joints in the body by focusing on extending - whether we were rolling our heads, arching our backs or opening and closing our fists we concentrated on extending.

Shivasana

Following on from last weeks practice in shivasana (corpse pose) we began by ensuring the arms and legs were slightly spread with palms faced up and the whole body loose.  Then we tensed and released every part of the body five times before resting completely into corpse.

We gave attention to the whole body lying on the floor, not any specific part of the body, the whole body.  Plenty of time was given to being with the whole body, experiencing the whole body.

Kneeling

So far during the classes we have practised meditation in crossed legged, standing and shivasana postures and compared the experiences in each.

Today we spent ten minutes meditating in a kneeling posture. Focus was given to alignment as with the standing postures. And we also allowed ourselves to bring the stillness of the mind from the previous shivasana into the kneeling pose.

Breathing

I introduced the class to the concept of swara yoga. 

According to the ancient text Shiva Swarodaya throughout each day we all experience cycles between the two major nadis, energy channels, ida and pingala. There is an excellent illustration of the way these two channels wind up through the central chakras on himalayanacademy.com.

When the right nostril is clear pingala is the dominant channel and corresponds to the left hemisphere of the brain. When the left nostril is clear ida is the dominant energy channel and corresponds to the right hemisphere of the brain.

We will be discussing this in more detail at today's class.  For now it is sufficient to understand that each active channel flows for a period of 60-90 minutes at a time after which there is a transfer to the opposite channel.  The transfer takes approximately 1-4 minutes during which both nostrils are clear and sushumna, the central energy channel, flows. (Have another look at the illustration referenced above and you will see the vertical central channel. This is sushumna.)

During the last class we sat in cross legged position and practised "nadi sodhana" wherein we used the fingers to alternate the nostrils whilst breathing. By clearing both nostrils we stimulate flow through sushumna which aids the practice of meditation.

Creating the State of Yoga Nidra (Conscious Deep Sleep)

The practice of yoga nidra is growing in popularity and yet it is often misunderstood. The practices taught in yoga nidra classes are not in and of themselves "yoga nidra", rather they are techniques to help us reach the state of yoga nidra. We are aiming to adjust the frequencies in our brains to a level known as "delta", 1-3.5 Hz per second, complete relaxation of mental, emotional and muscular tension. Later in the course we will be discussing the benefits of attaining a delta state whilst remaining conscious. Meanwhile students will already begin to notice some interesting results from attaining this state even if it's just for a few seconds or minutes at a time.

During the class we returned to shivasana and applied two useful techniques: 

1) awareness of the space between the body and the floor

2) alternate nostril breathing without using the hands i.e. just using the mind to control the nostrils

3) experiencing lightness and heaviness in sequence

4) experiencing heat and cold in sequence

At today's class we will be recapping some of the work done in class (3) before moving on to some more techniques for yoga nidra.

Author: Andy Lucas Spring to Mind Meditation Brighton

Daily Awareness

Putting Meditation into Practice

(Adapted from an idea by Steve Andreas in his book Six Blind Elephants)

At the end of the second class the following practice exercise was set up.

Each day ask yourself the following question: 

“What would I do differently today if I was living more consciously and experiencing more prana, or as if I was living more consciously and experiencing more prana?” 

Among all the things that come to your mind, choose the smallest, most minimal but concrete thing and put it into practice. Every day, choose a small but concrete thing as if you had already started building more prana and as if you were already experiencing greater consciousness, and voluntarily put it into practice. Every day choose something different. 

Posted by: Andy Lucas, Spring to Mind Meditation Brighton

Meditation - Experimenting with Postures

Thank you to everybody from the Tuesday group who came along to the second class on 18th November.

Preparation Exercises

It was great to see how well everybody is remembering the preparation exercises taught the week before.  And it was also encouraging to hear how you are all noticing the effects of doing these simple exercises and how it helps the meditation.  In a couple of weeks we will start to explore one or two additional exercises you can use.

Standing Meditation

Meanwhile continuing our exploration of meditation in different postures was very illuminating.  I would encourage you to carry on practising standing meditation with hands in prayer position at least once each day for about ten minutes.  

On Tuesday you began to develop an awareness of alignment and how you could make very small subtle changes to your body allowing your mind to become stiller.  Sometimes for some people these tiny adjustments can be done very quickly whilst others may find it takes a few minutes before the body feels totally aligned - eventually it becomes very intuitive.

Shivasana and Meditation

We also had time to contrast the experience of shivasana (corpse pose).  This posture can be challenging.  A certain amount of mindfulness is required to avoid either dropping into sleep or experiencing "monkey brain" (where the mind starts becoming preoccupied with lots of thoughts).

Now you have observed how your mind behaves in various postures you can discover the differences you can make with some ancient and very simple techniques. Practising meditation in shivasana can be assisted by various methods of mindfulness, guiding the direction of consciousness.  In fact these methods will begin to have a positive effect in how your mind behaves in ordinary day to day activities too.  

We will be working with some of these techniques during class (3) this evening.

Author: Andy Lucas, Spring to Mind Meditation Brighton