All good yogis do it, right?

And if we don’t, we keep it hidden like some dirty little secret that we sweep into the closet when our friends arrive for a visit.

I did yoga for seven years before I once even attempted to sit still to meditate. All that “ohming” in classes I attended never once spoke to me or even WHISPERED some deeper meaning … I never “heard” any ANSWERS but only realized I had a long way to go before I could resist the urge to scratch my nose and sit in peaceful bliss like all the other good yogis.

What no one ever bothered to tell was that there are many ways to meditate.  Meditation is not about emptying the mind. It is about being able to focus on ONE  object…

solely.

That may be a little hard at first. We are so used to multitasking that it is hard to put the brakes on that warp speed we seem to always move at.  So in our yoga classes, we work to give that “monkey mind” ONE object to focus on. Think of it kind of like an anchor, tethering you to the present moment.

When we begin to meditate, we start with the breath as that anchor.

So try this….

Remember in 10 Little Rules for Finding Your Truth …

our first Rule is Be Still. Take a moment and revisit your book. Find your mountain pose (you can even do it sitting) and just feel how the breath moves in the body. Encourage the breath to first fill the belly then draw the breath up into the rib cage. From there, draw the breath into the chest. Imagine the torso expanding like a three-dimensional box….

From side to side, front to back and top to bottom.

Once you can follow the breath up … try to release that breath first from the chest, then slowly from the ribs and finally the belly. It’s that easy. This is called Dirga Breath or 3 Part Breathing.

So just in the last few minutes you have practiced this breath you have begun a simple meditation practice. Try taking 10 rounds of breath this way periodically through your day. Recite in your mind as you breathe … belly, ribs, chest … as you inhale. Then as you exhale, in your mind repeat … chest, ribs and belly.

When you release the assumption that in order to be a true meditating yogi you need to sit like a pretzel and not move for an infinite amount of time …

the rest will slowly evolve.

More techniques to come!

Micki