How Can You Get the Most from a Meditation Session?

By Sangeetha Saran

Meditation is a special practice that can provide many positive benefits. While meditating, certain attitudes and actions can have negative effects on meditation, suppressing some benefits of the process. In order to have a positive, pleasant experience, it is important to ensure a proper mindset, both going into and during each meditation session. Following these few simple tips can help each meditation experience be more positive and powerful.

Prepare the Mind

Be sure to meditate in a calm, safe place that is free of distractions. Before beginning to meditate, take a few moments to clear the mind and relax the body. By taking deep breaths and completely relaxing the muscles in the body, the mind will be able to let go of any tension, allowing a more tranquil atmosphere. This can also be achieved by placing the mind in a joyful state by thinking positive and compassionate thoughts.

No Need to Hurry

Many things in life, such as appointments and work tasks, are on a set schedule and must be completed in a timely manner to meet specific deadlines. However, with meditation, it is quite the opposite. A full meditative experience cannot be rushed and cannot be accomplished in just a few minutes. It is important to let each meditation progress at its own speed, unhurried by any outside pressures. Allowing the mind ample time to enter a wholly peaceful state fosters an overall improved experience.

Distractions Happen

While meditating, especially in early stages of practice, it is common for the mind to wander and be distracted by external thoughts. It is important to know that this is a normal occurrence and that eliminating these distractions takes patience and time. While practicing meditation, it is essential not to allow self-criticism to occur, as these thoughts are inhibitive to effective meditation. Thinking positively and aiming to consistently improve focus will nurture an encouraging and relaxing environment.

Experience the Full Benefits of Meditation

Meditation can be a beneficial and soothing experience for the mind and body as a whole. Each experience can provide useful personal insights that can be adapted and utilized in daily life going forward. Though perfecting the practice of meditation requires considerable repetition and patience, there are many steps that can be taken daily to improve each individual session, leading to a more fulfilling meditative experience.

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Yoga With Guided Imagery

By Michael Gleason

Time off from work or getting away so we can hear ourselves think can be a challenge.  Sometimes the furthest we can get away physically is in our homes and mentally employ yoga with guided imagery, often referred to as Yoga Nidra.  Yoga for relaxation/Yoga Nidra translates to roughly “induce sleep”.  Imagine being able to fall asleep either a little faster or have a more restful, longer sleep without waking up or insomnia-related feelings.

Yoga with guided meditation means closing your eyes to the material world and feeling the tongue from the inside of the month.  You will want to give yourself an intention for this yoga course on the way to sleep.  As you consider your own intention ask yourself about how your life would look if your desires or ambitions finally manifest.  After saying this intention to yourself three times let it go.  This will allow this yoga with guided imagery to have a more solid foundation. 

Many students have later said that yoga with guided imagery has made them feel buoyant, as though they were floating on clam waters.  As you “float” through different transitions (day/night, dusk/dawn, and the four seasons of the calendar year).  Continue to breathe deeply from 10 to zero.  Be sure your heart is “aware” of your counting back so you can float and empower that intention to have a positive impact both on your life as well as your family, friends, and co-workers.  

That scenario is for when you are going to bed, able to squeeze in a weekend nap, or are travelling and need a distraction from either plane turbulence or the horns honking while taking a bus.  

If you are at work or school and can steal away (in the good sense of the word) 15 to 20 minutes or if you are able to use your meal break there are some general Yoga Nidra principles you can employ without falling asleep.  This will enable you (also in the good sense of the word) to take on the day’s monotony or any emotional challenges with greater ease. 

Yoga with guided imagery is routinely done in the corpse pose, lying on your back with your palms up.   You typically see yoga students experiencing the guided imagery at the second half of the class or for the remaining 15 minutes of class when the mind-body-connection should have either been established or furthered after previous practices.  Hopefully your instructor will know that a lot of sleep in the Western world can too often be a glorified cat nap with many issues from the previous day still unresolved.  Many yoga students with headaches or PTSD have admitted that yoga with guided imagery has helped alleviate the symptoms.  

Moreover, yoga with guided imagery is a way to reclaim being a human being vs. a human doing. The steps for yoga with guided imagery are below.  There normally isn’t a modification for any of this.  If your yogi isn’t using guided meditation and imagery be sure to see if they are willing to add it.  It is a great enhancement to your practice. 

-  For a change, actually start in corpse pose;

-  Place your initial awareness on your right foot then up to the right knee, thigh, and hip;

- Repeat this process on the left leg;

-  Start to “maneuver” your awareness through your body and relax each limb and appendage as you go;

- Continue to take slow, deep breaths in and out; 

-  When ready roll over onto your right side and remain in the fetal position for a few minutes; 

-  Deliberately work your way back to the seated pose, really appreciate the deep breaths in and out; 

-  After Yoga Nidra/yoga with guided imagery other medical concerns may not feel as symptomatic such as depression and anxiety

Resources

  https://www.doyogawithme.com/content/yoga-nidra-sleep
  https://www.yogajournal.com/meditation/make-meditation-easier-try-yoga-nidra
  https://www.burrenyoga.com/sitemap/yoga-tips/yoga-nidra-relaxation/
  https://www.abebooks.fr/Yoga-Nidra-Induce-Full-Body-Relaxation/22533525777/bd
  https://www.artofliving.org/us-en/yoga/health-and-wellness/yoga-nidra

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Yoga with Goats

By Michael M. Gleason

Many yoga poses are named after animals – pigeon, down-dog, and cobra – but only recently have live animals been incorporated into the practice itself. Enter yoga with goats.  What started in Oregon and Arizona is moving across the United States.  First, this is the chance to become more connected with your animal spirit.  While interviewing Sally Susinno, RYT-200 of Wellesley, Mass., she pointed out that, in addition to this being an adorable idea, it is a chance to connect with any and all spirit animals.  Susinno did caution that while practicing yoga with a cat or dog climbing on you that goats have hooves and may not be as comfortable and goats are not indoor animals for a reason. 

In general, yoga with animals is ok.  The fun and comical elements of yoga with goats means having their cuteness likenesses climbing on you during practice.  The No Regrets Farm in Oregon had tried yoga with goats on a lark.   This leads to either getting deeper into the practice and blocking out the merriment of the goats and kids.  Or, because of life’s stresses, getting into your pose and being able to laugh at yourself while the goat tries to nuzzle or cuddle up.  It also means watching your balance as to avoid stepping into something uncomfortable.  If you are doing the yoga outside or in a barn you will want to wear socks or pack a change or socks and shoes.

Wellness and Goats  

The Oregon farm, No Regrets, is owned by Lainey Morse.   To combat the stresses of everyday life she added her pet goats to her practice and started advertising.  As a result, she now has a waiting list.  Urbanites are coming out to her farm to utilize the wellness advantages of yoga but also the aesthetic of the goats.  Having their cute likenesses and watching them frolic gets a laugh from people who might otherwise may not have been under a lot of stress or just in a bad mood.  

Though there currently is not a goat pose in yoga there is already a goat element.   A favorite yoga pose is Virabhadrasana or warrior pose.  The name of the posture is routed in Hindu mythology.  A powerful priest made a sacrifice but did not invite his daughter who was married to the god Shiva.  This lead to a serious argument resulting in Shiva creating a Virabhadra (hero + friend) and ordered the destruction of the priest’s guests.  After a long ordeal, the priest is reborn but with a goat’s head.  It could be argued that yoga with goats was going to be inevitable.  

Something else to consider when practicing yoga with goats: these are innocent animals.  In this modern age of virtual reality and needing technology more and more to stay connected yoga with goats means seeing something in nature that is innately playful.  In addition, the comical antics of the goats running under people’s legs during partner yoga and bridge pose, the lack of stress from these animals means they are nimbler.  Think of the people in your current and past yoga classes who are there to rush through the poses and get into corpse pose and then leaving.  Seeing a flexible animal parade around means stopping and looking at your postures and your level of fun.

    

Resources

  http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/12/health/goat-yoga-oregon-trnd/
  http://www.npr.org/2017/01/12/509444278/want-to-try-goat-yoga-theres-a-waiting-list
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virabhadrasana_I

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A Week in the Life of a Yoga Instructor - Organizing Your Time

By Kathryn Boland

Do you have a certain structure in which you organize your time - such as monthly, weekly, daily, seasonally or annually? Does that help you to organize yourself personally and professionally? We yoga instructors are busy, with many moving parts and pieces to handle. It’s therefore beneficial to have some sort of time framework, fitting within a week or some other set structure of time. 
                 
It can help us to have clarity over what we need need to, want to, and can accomplish. This framework of course requires flexibility, as things can change at any point - with new classes, projects, et cetera. We also typically don't work the conventional 9-5 week. We could be working 12 hours on a Sunday, but three on the following Monday and Tuesday. The next Sunday could be free, but we sub several classes on that Monday and Tuesday. An effective framework, and attitude towards it, can help us to organize ourselves in the midst of this inconsistency - rather than being restrictive (as one might first think). 
                 
By and large, yoga instructors have weekly classes (apart from substituting other classes and events such as workshops and trainings). I personally frame my time in a weekly structure probably because of that. If using this structure, a first step is to lay out what we want and need to fit within a week. This helps us to see things such as how many classes we can reasonably teach and “sub” within a week. That guides decisions such as our private student rate and which type of classes we seek out. Other things that  it's best to account for are sequencing, ongoing Education and Research, promotion and marketing, and even our own practice. 
           
This helps us to stay accountable to ourselves for doing these type of things that we don't technically need to do, but which are certainly helpful professionally. It's helpful to also account for personal things down to the level of housework, shopping, errands and time for family and friends. It can be easier than one might realize to fall behind or otherwise neglect these things, because we truly have no designated weekend or time off - unless we create it - without that conventional 40-hour week.
          
It’s also wise to account for traveling time. For yoga instructors, that can mean the difference between a feasible or not feasible schedule. So, the pieces are laid out. In a weekly structure, for instance, the next step is delegate things to certain days of the week when they might best fit. Again, it’s best to be flexible and let that shift week to week or in the longer term (because it will most likely have to at some point). All of that being said, let's look at what a yoga instructor’s week might look like.

(All time adds up to 8-12 hrs)

Monday- teaching three classes, one hour each of promotion and research, three hours for travel  

Tuesday- teaching one class and a workshop, taking one, networking lunch, two and a half hours for travel 

Wednesday- teaching four classes and social media, website work, three hours for travel 

Thursday- teaching three classes, subbing one, one hour of reading continuing education materials, two hours for travel 

Friday- teaching one class, lunch with a friend, taking a class, personal errands and shopping, two hours for travel 

Saturday- teaching one class and one private, taking a class, a family phone call and a movie with a friend, three hours for travel 

Sunday- housework, laundry et cetera personal matters - catching up on bills and emails, home practice for sequencing for the following week's classes, personal and professional journaling, meditating, a day at home so no travel

How to put your framework into action? The first step is to get it down in writing, in the way that works best for you, digitally or handwritten. Either way, it can be revised at any point. It might be helpful to periodically look back at it with a mindset towards if any changes would be helpful to you. If digital, you might be able to copy (or otherwise instantly transfer) your schedule into a following week, making any necessary changes. 
         
You could also write this out with longer-term actions and goals of weeks in a month, months in a season, or seasons in a year.

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Closing Yoga Classes in New Ways - 3 to Try

By Kathryn Boland

Have you noticed yourself, or your own teachers, closing classes without smooth transitions from peak poses or significant hip-opening postures into Savasana? Perhaps you’ve served students for whom the traditional Savasana shape, Corpse Posture, is not sufficiently grounding or comforting? In a prior article, I offered some poses that can be fresh ways to open up classes, apart from the common Child’s Pose and Easy Pose, that still effectively open up classes.

The same is true of closing classes; sometimes there can be a lack of grounding, de-escalating poses that effectively lead into Savasana, and the traditional Corpse Posture shape fails to lead some students into the integration and calm that Savasana can offer. Read on to learn of three such poses that can be incorporated into the ends of classes, as lead-ins to Savasana, or be the final posture for students to take in class. Namaste! 

1) Viparita Karani

This mild inversion allows for length and ease through the spine, as well as a mild inversion effect (if Inversions might not have effectively fit into the class sequence prior to just before Savanasa, and/or deeper inversions wouldn’t be appropriate for the students at hand). You can guide students to their own section of wall, just as one might when teaching Headstand, Handstand, or Scorpion Pose.

In fact, Viparita Karani could be an effective way to draw energy down after cueing such poses. You could also have students place blocks underneath their sacrums and stay right where they are. If not from those deeper inversions, you could guide students into Viparita Karani from supine poses such as Bridge Pose, Supine Twist, and Figure Four. Guide students to let their backs melt into their mats, and that release to seep into the front side. Notice the breath and heart-rate begin to lower, and observe the quality of thoughts.

           

It is easier, for most people, to keep the mind focused on the practice when balancing or sinking deeper into Warrior II Pose. For many people, the true challenge of practice comes with maintaining the mindfulness in less active poses. From Viparita Karani, one can smoothly enter into Apanasana (Knees-Into-Chest Pose), Happy Laughing Baby, or right into Savasana. Allow this pose to be a smooth bridge from the cannon of yoga postures in a class into its final resting pose. Or, if against a wall, students could take final relaxation right from here.

2) Supta Baddha Konasana

Guide students to come unto their backs, if they’re not already there. Supta Baddha Konasana can be entered into smoothly from poses including a supine twist variation, Bridge Pose or its supported version, Fish Pose, or Apanasana. Have them put bottoms of feet together, letting the knees fall wide - with blocks or a rolled/folded blanket just above the backs of the knees (very lower thighs).

That supportive prop use isn’t essential to practice the pose, but it’s advisable for anyone with lower back and/or hamstring complications. And it can feel restful for anyone, contributing to the effect of lowering the heart rate in order to have a truly integrative, rejuvenating Savasana. As this article overall is arguing, our bodies and minds cannot just immediately enter that state of final relaxation. We need to ease into it. As instructors, it’s our task to create the conditions in which that can happen.

Energetic cues, such as softening the shoulders, face, and back body, can help that calming process. Have students face their palms up to help the shoulder girdle release. From here, to enter Savasana, have students simply lengthen their legs. If they have props underneath the lower thighs, they’ll need to inch them down to stay in the same place in the body. Or, if they have that blanket roll or fold there, they can take a final relaxation here (because of gravity’s effect, taking the shape unsupported for a long period could be too extreme of hip and inner thigh-opener).

3) Happy Laughing Baby/Floating Baddha Konasana

           

Have students, also on their backs, take their knees outside of their side bodies (towards their armpits, ankles stacked over feet). Guide students to have their feet parallel, toes behind heels. If that’s inaccessible, flexibility-wise, have students take a “floating Baddha Konasana”, knees very wide and bottoms of feet together in the air. If you notice that students technically can enter Happy Laughing Baby, but have to lift their heads and/or lower backs to do so, advise them that it’s better for them to take Floating Baddha Konasana.

Struggling just to enter the pose will detract from the ease we mean to build, to lower the heart rate and generally activate the parasympathetic nervous system, as we enter Savasana. As with the two prior options, guide students to notice any remaining tension and attempt releasing it with the exhale. From here they can take a Supta Baddha Konasana, Viparati Karani, or go right into Savasana.

Floating Baddha Konasana could be a final relaxation shape, if comfortable and relaxing for a certain student, yet it might be an extreme amount of stretch if sustained. Supta Baddha Konasana could be a more mild option here. They can know that all they need to do here is breathe and be, just as they are. Their practice, for today - whatever it was - was enough.

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