I have had a love-hate relationship with meditation most of my life.

As a child I was stuck between two contrasting schools of thought. Firstly, that of my parents who practiced meditaiton regularly and went to weekly group and secondly, that of my the rest of my Catholic family who, upon discovering that one of my many uncles had taken up meditation, managed to convince themselves that what he actually did was levitate.

I kid you not.

So I was never really sure about it all. As a teenager I tried meditation with the folks and it was all very calm and peaceful but my teenage mind kept wandering to more important things like eyeliner and Led Zepplin.

Meditation got put in a box that wasn’t really opened for a long time.

Then Yoga Teacher Training came along and the albatross of meditation reared its ugly head once again. Everything suddenly became more competitive. How many hours and hours of yoga and meditation practice we did each week, how many raw vegetables we’d eaten, how calm we remained. I was working full time in coporate law back then and the chance of me doing more than twenty minutes of yoga practice outside of class was minimal, let alone meditation, and as for raw vegetables…..intravenous coffee more like!

I tried everything. I got up in the morning before work to sit, I tried sitting before bed, I joined meditation groups (and left them within weeks) and nothing worked. The asana practice of yoga was going swimmingly, I soon got to a point where getting on my mat in the morning was as much a part of my routine as cleaning my teeth, but the meditation just wasn’t happening. Whenever I tried to sit I felt like I was being confronted with a battalion of things I just couldn’t or didn’t want to face.

So back it went in its box. Yoga is a moving mediation right? I was working along the right lines.

And I guess I must have been because over recently I have started something that resembles a regular meditation practice.

And it came from nowhere.

Because I realised (as Amy Palko did this week also), that it doesn’t have to be hard.

That meditation isn’t about sitting cross-legged on the floor (yes, shock horror, a yoga teacher who abhors sitting cross-legged), amidst incense smoke, for hour upon hour.

That just 5 minutes a day is a huge achievement.

That the important thing is to be able to sit quietly with yourself each day.

That even if 1000 crazy thoughts come into your head in those five minutes , you’re doing it just right.

And that already, things are changing.

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Five Minute at-home Meditation Practice

Want to give it a go at home? Try this.

Take a comfortable seat. If you’re comfortable sitting cross-legged then that’s good, but if not sit in a chair – one where you can ensure you have straight spine – and plant the soles of both feet firmly on the floor.

Place the hands on the thighs in any way that feels comfortable (you can place the hands in Chin Mudra if you like, but it’s really not necessary).

Set a timer for 5 minutes.

Close your eyes and listen to your breath.

Once you have settled into a nice even rhythm of breath, begin to count the breath like this:-

Inhale 30, Exhale 30
Inhale 29, Exhale 29
And so on, all the way down to 1.

Your mind will wander. Observe that, don’t judge and bring it back to the count.

You might lose count. That’s OK, just start again from 30.

When your timer goes off, stop counting, wherever you are and stay seated with the eyes closed for another few breaths.

Slowly open the eyes and continue with your day.

(Note: if you don’t have a timer or don’t want to use one, 30 slow even breaths takes about 5 minutes).

So how is your Spring into Yoga Challenge going? I’m really starting to allow myself to let go in Janu Sirsasana and Baddhu Konasana, probably more than I ever have done before. It just goes to show that sometimes you just have to streamline your practice and concentrate on weak spots and just observe what happens. Of course, now I’m aware of some progress in these two asanas, it’s time to start thinking about my nemesis posture – dhanurasana. But maybe more on that next week!

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Yesterday I looked at a very physical aspect of yoga, so today I thought I’d look at one of the ways yoga helps us emotionally. The other day Diane at the Everything Yoga Blog posted about using yoga to diffuse anger, so here is a practice to let go of frustration, anger and other negative emotions to help us stay calm and focussed.

All of us have a breaking point, when frustration takes over and we just want to scream. Even yoga teachers! Some of you may even have experienced frustration in a yoga class when somebody has taken what you believe to be “your” space in the studio. Persistent irritations and frustrations can lead to more serious stress. The trick is to deal with it as soon as you are aware of it, and to deal with it healthily.

When you reach your limit, be it at work or at home, rather than take it out on those around you try to let it go. It only takes a few minutes!

First try to find somewhere quiet where you will not be disturbed – the copy room or the ladies bathroom (although I should point out that I did once have a male boss whose work he deemed so urgent as to follow me into the ladies), take a seat if you can and take a few deep breaths. Slowly become aware of your posture, release your shoulders, straighten your spine, open your chest.

As you begin to notice your breath slow down and lengthen start to imagine the breath moving through the body.

As you inhale, imagine the breath moving from the soles of the feet to the top of the head. As you exhale imagine the breath moving from the top of the head to the soles of the feet.

When you are ready start to visualise yourself letting go of all the tension stress and tiredness with each exhale, and with each inhale feel as though you are drawing in vitality and energy.

After a few minutes you should feel calmer, more relaxed and able to face the rest of the day! After a few practices, you will find you are able to do this practice anytime anywhere, letting go healthily.

Anyone who has ever practiced any form of yoga or meditation will have experienced the monkey mind. The monkey mind jumps from one thought to another like a monkey jumping from tree to tree, and it does it at the most inappropriate moments.

In the second verse of his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali talks about chitta vritti nirodhah or the ability to control and still the movements of the mind so that the true self or Atman can be seen without distortion or distraction. Only then are we truly practicing yoga. Only then are we truly practicing meditation. Only then are we able to enter sat-chit-ananda, a state of conscious bliss.

Apart from very brief and occassional moments; one notable one in a hotel room in Katmandhu, the state of sat-chit-ananda has mostly eluded me mainly because of the constant distraction of my monkey mind.

We’ve all been there, sitting on our meditation cushions pretending to look calm and serene when really our mind is racing ten to the dozen like a duck’s legs as it paddles along, producing a stream of consciousness of which Joyce would be proud.

“Goodness I’m uncomfortable.”
“I wonder if I’m sitting up straight enough.”
“I’m hungry.”
“Must remember to buy some washing up liquid on the way home.”

etc.

It happens in asana practice as well.

“Hmmmm… she’s very bendy, I wish I looked like that.”
“oooh nice yoga trousers/tattoo/navel piercing.”
“I’m hungry.”
“Must remember to buy some washing up liquid on the way home.”

And I don’t know about you dear reader, but even away from my mat and cushion my monkey mind is in overdrive. Whilst looking for one thing, I will find another and begin an entirely new search at a wholly impractical time. I will be distracted by a shiny button and right now the monkey mind is in overdrive about an exciting new development in my writing. Now this is all well and good, but there is a time and a place for everything.

In this year of mindfulness it is more important than ever before for me to be conscious of my monkey mind and at least attempt to deal with it when it strikes.

Personally I have always found focus on the breath the best way to bring the awareness back to the present, to the here and now. One practice that works for me is feeling the breath travelling up and down the body and this can be done anytime, lying, sitting, standing, during asana practice, whilst doing the washing up, wherever you choose!

As you inhale visualise the breath travelling up the body from the soles of the feet to the top of the head, filling up the whole body with energy and vitality. As you exhale visualise the breath travelling down the body from the top of the head to the soles of the feet taking with it tiredness and tension. A few rounds of this breath can soon bring you back to the moment, and the task in hand.

As for the achievement of of chitta vritti nirodhah, well all I can do is keep practicing. Maybe one day. In the meantime I take solace in something Tara once told me. Like sleep, we can set up the perfect environment for meditation, but like sleep, we cannot force it to come.

Namaste!