How long can you sit without moving? Do you know? 

Do you think you can’t meditate? When someone mentions sitting meditation, do you instantly say, “That’s not for me. My mind runs so fast!” 

Are you always stressed and don’t know how to calm yourself down? Perhaps you don’t even know that something as simple as sitting and breathing for 5 minutes a day can help you find peace, happiness, and abundance. I happen to know that it does. 

I always overestimate the time I think I can sit and meditate without moving. “I’ll sit here for 20 minutes,” I say. Then, I swear 20 minutes is up, and I look at the clock, and only 7 minutes went by!

Sitting meditation isn’t easy. I find it to be more challenging, physically and emotionally, than yoga postures, but I also find it to be the most effective way to train the mind so that you can let go of anger, stress, negative habits, and also become less reactive when a tough situation arises.

First – the breath: For these particular meditations I’m suggesting below, the breath should be deep breathing with sound. You might know it as Ujjayi. The breath is created from the back of the throat, and only in and out through the nose. You should be able to hear your breath. It should mimic the same sound as if you were using the breath to fog a mirror. You can read more about it here.

Here’s your checklist before you begin:

Second – The Meditation: I’m going to explain below a few simple ways to meditate in a way that will work for you. The great thing is that you have the option to take it to a deeper level, or stay right where you are. It’s going to help no matter what.

A. Count the length of your breath:

This is my go-to-way of meditating when I can’t find my focus. When I started practicing Ashtanga, one of the things I noticed was that my breath was too short, and in order to slow down my practice, I had to train myself to slow down the breath. 

Here’s how:

• Start to breathe deep, and get to a point of a steady breath
• Inhale for the count of five
• Exhale for the count of five
• As you inhale: Bring the breath up through the pelvic floor and the belly, all the way up through the crown of the head
• As you exhale: Bring the breath down from the crown of the head, all the way through to the pelvic floor

Once you have the count to a-steady-five, slow it down to six, and then seven, and just continue lengthening the breath each time you practice. If your mind wonders or becomes distracted, no problem, just bring it back to the beginning. 

B. Count Each Breath:

When I was in Nepal, Christian Bernert led the meditation study of the of the retreat, and he taught us to count each breath as a way to keep the mind focused. I found this to be extremely effective.

Here’s how:

• Start to breathe deep, and get to a point of a steady breath
• Inhale and then exhale, and say to yourself, “one.” That’s one breath.
  
• Repeat above, but next time, say  two, then three, and just keep continuing the count silently for each full breath.

Your mind will probably wonder, so if you lose count, just start back at one. The more you practice, you will be able to increase the space between distractions.

C. Visualize the Breath:

This is the technique I use in my yoga classes when I’m getting ready to ease my students into Savasana. When you have a visual, you can focus your mind on that one point, which leads into a deep meditative state of mind. 

Here’s how:

• Start to breathe deep, and get to a point of a steady breath
• On your inhale, picture the breath like a snake moving up through the base of your spine. Picture the breath moving up through, and then hovering over the crown of the head. When you get to the top of your inhale; see if you can inhale a little more. 
• On your exhale, picture the breath like a snake moving down through the crown of the head, moving it all the way through the base of the spine, and into the earth. When you get to the bottom of your exhale; see if you can let a little more go.
• Keep the breath slow and steady, picturing the snake moving up and down through each chakra, and really try to feel the connection of rooting into the earth, and expanding into the depth of the universe.

A daily five minute meditation will create a pattern that you can always go back to during any stressful time. You’ll find that sometimes being completely non-reactive, or waiting to react has a better result that reacting out of emotion and impulse. You’ll make better decisions about what battles to choose, and what battles could create suffering in your life. 

Sitting meditation is a totally different beast than asana practice, but it is a great compliment to it. 

Do you have a way of meditating that works for you? Did you try these, and which one was your favorite and why? Did you come up with your own variation? What does your meditation space look like. Answer whatever you’d like to share below!

Namaste,

Monica

PS. See my favorites for meditation here: