If, anywhere during this meditation exercise, you start to feel uncomfortable or nervous, stop where you are and make your way back through the steps you have taken to the beginning. When you’re ready, you’ll go further. After all, you don’t need me to tell you it’s about the journey, not the destination.
1) Either sit in a comfortable cross-legged position or lie comfortably on your back. If you are sitting up, sit on the folded edge of a blanket — just your sitting bones, not your thighs — to release your lower back and tilt your pelvis slightly forward.
2) From either position, let your palms face the sky in a gesture of reception. If you are sitting, the backs of your hands will rest on your thighs or knees. If you are lying down, the backs of your hands will rest on the floor about six inches from your body.
3) Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths in through your nose. Feel your body relax more and more deeply with each exhale.
4) As you continue slowly and steadily breathing through your nose, start to think about the earth. Feel, smell, be it — rich and loamy and full of life. Feel yourself grounding. Let your body become the earth. Take your time.
5) Once you have fully experienced and melted into the earth, start to become the mist that rises from the ground in the early morning. Let that mist become water — moving without effort, shapeless and yet not shapeless, cool and fresh. Be the water, feel it fill your mind so everything is the water. Take your time.
6) When you have fully become the water, start to feel the water heating and rising as steam. Let the steam become fire. Become the fire — heat and ethereal form, dancing, ephemeral. Enjoy it for as long as you’d like.
7) When you have become the fire, start to become the pale hint of light at the very edges of the flame. Let it fill your mind, lose your edges as it is edgeless. Take as long as you need to find this space.
8) When you have fully experienced the light at the edge of the flame, let it go out and become complete blackness. Search in your mind for any hints of light and let them extinguish. Feel the silkiness, the inkiness of the blackness. Let it fill your mind; let whatever form is left to your body meld with it. Remain here for as long as you need.
9) When you have fully experienced the blackness, see if you can experience complete nothingness. No color, no form, no movement. Just emptiness.
10) When you are ready, from the nothingness, return to the blackness. Notice the familiarity of it as you return. From the blackness, move toward the light at the edge of the flame. Then, taking your time, to the fire itself. As you move through the fire, become the mist that travels down to the water. Flow with the water as it runs into the earth. Take a moment to be the earth before you start to return to your form.
Take your time returning to the present moment before you open your eyes. Let your body be still as you come back to yourself. When you move, move consciously, aware of the space, quiet, time, energy you have created in your day.
Use this meditation any time you are trying to calm your mind, whether at the start of an asana practice or in preparation for meditation. It is not the only way to move toward stillness, but it can be an especially useful one if you are feeling buffeted by the things in your life and want to avoid being knocked off your feet.
1) Find a comfortable place and position to sit. If you are cross-legged on the floor (the favored position for meditation), place a folded blanket under your sitting bones to gently tilt your pelvis forward. This small action will lengthen your spine and create more effortless space for breathing. You may place your hands palms down on your thighs or knees with the first thumb pressing against the nail of your first finger to bring your mind inside.
2) Close your eyes and observe yourself breathing. Do not make any judgments or try to change anything. Instead, actively enjoy the process of breathing.
3) Take a few moments to note the smell of the air, the light through your eyelids, the feel of the place in which you are meditating. Take your mind outside of your body to a sense of the room, the birds calling outside an open window, the hum of a lamp or a space heater. Feel safe and grounded in the middle of all these things going on outside you.
4) When you begin to feel grounded and safe in your spot on the floor, turn your mind once more to your breath. Feel the inhale lift from the base of your spine, traveling up the front of your spine so your navel and your heart rise. Feel the exhale move down the back of your spine, releasing the tension from your neck and shoulders, grounding you more firmly into the earth. Sit with this calming circle of breath as you feel your energy settle.
5) As you are ready, tease out the edges of your breath, folding it over your entire body. Feel the inhale move all the way to the top of your spine, where your neck meets your skull, and beyond, to the point between your eyebrows. Feel it move all the way down, pressing the bottoms of your shoulder blades into your back to support your heart. Let it move out your shoulders and hips, out the crown of your head, through your fingertips. Just maintain a calm rhythm, a curious observance of the movement of breath through your body. Note how this movement carries away tension when you don’t let yourself be carried away with it.
6) If you feel an urge to move in any way, let the movement happen. See if you can continue the calm, rhythmic, circular breathing — up the front of your spine and down the back — as you let your body move. Try to keep your eyes closed and let the mind observe, not intrude.
7) When you are ready to let your body be still again, sit up and return your attention to the circular breath. Welcome any feelings of being grounded, of being still even with the motion around and through you, of your heart lifting and shining. If thoughts come — and they will — let them slip away with the movement and return to your stillness.
8) When you are ready, return one more time to your stillness as you gently allow your eyes to open. As your body moves, experience how it is possible to be still in the midst of motion.
With thanks to Erich Schiffman; the basic exercise and premise are his, although these particular instructions are mine.
1) Find your comfortable seat. Or, if you prefer, you can try Expanded Heart Breathing lying down. Be sure that, whatever your position, you are well supported so you can effortlessly let your shoulder blades slide down your back and your sternum lift. You want to be certain there is space to physically open your heart.
2) Close your eyes and take a few breaths through your nose. Observe yourself breathing and let outside distractions start to fall away.
3) Begin consciously sending your breath into your chest. Let it fill your chest from the bottom up. Feel how your lungs expand as the air fills them and then deflate as the air leaves. Then watch how the sides of the lungs fill with each breath, and the backs of the lungs.
4) Start to breathe more deeply, observing as your lungs expand. Then turn to how the expansion fills your entire ribcage, from your floating ribs up to your collar bones.
5) Very gently, let the air stretch your lungs and the intercostal muscles between your ribs. Note how, like any stretch, when you surrender to it, it feels good.
6) Inhale fully and hold your breath for as long as it’s comfortable. Don’t strain, just experience the sensation of being fully expanded. Exhale slowly and with consciousness.
7) After a few rounds, start to shift your attention to the emotional/energetic feeling that this opening generates. In other words, start to watch your heart opening energetically. Experience it as a kind of spiritual stretch.
8) Continue for as long as you’d like, exploring the sensations of opening your heart.
9) Come out of it slowly, allowing your breath to return to normal before moving in any other way.
10) Take a final moment to return once more to the sensation of your heart opening before finally, gently, moving your limbs and allowing your eyes to open.
Notice if you see the world in a different way.
1) Find a comfortable place to sit on the floor and a comfortable position. Choose something that feels good to you — cross-legged, half lotus, full lotus, or even on your knees. If you are in one of the first three positions and find your spine collapsing so your shoulders curve inward and you can not lift your heart and breathe fully, place a folded blanket under your sit bones.
2) Take a few moments to center and devote this time to yourself. Place your hands on your knees or thighs (again, whichever is most comfortable for you), palm down, thumbs pressing against the fingernail of your first fingers.
3) Breathe through your spine, bringing your awareness to your body and to how you are feeling at this moment. Don’t judge. Just observe.
4) When you are ready, bow forward just as far as is comfortable for you. You may need a bolster or some blankets to lean on, unless your hips are quite open and it is comfortable for you to fold all the way to the floor. Again, be generous with yourself. Find something into which you can sink and surrender.
5) Bring your hands in front of you with your elbows bent outward, and place your hands together in prayer position, or angeli mudra. This is a position of offering.
6) Bow your head so that your forehead rests either on your hands or just below your hands, in the diamond formed by your arms. Let your forehead press into whatever is supporting it, awakening your third eye, or the site of true wisdom.
7) Take a moment to feel your body physically opening. Your arm position is naturally bringing your shoulder blades onto your back, freeing your heart and making space for your spine to lengthen. Try gently drawing your navel in toward your spine and up toward your heart and note the release this brings to your lower back. Allow your tailbone to sink more securely toward the floor or blanket. Allow your neck to become long as your forehead presses into the floor with equal security. Let your shoulder blades slide toward the sides of your body, releasing tension.
8) Now start to follow your breath in a circuit of giving and receiving: From your heart, breathe in as if the breath were tracing a path from your heart through your left arm and up to your left palm. As you exhale, watch the breath move from your left palm through your right palm, down your right arm, and back into your heart.
9) Start to see how the left side of your body contains the conduits for receiving. With each breath in through the left side of your body, feel the energy of reception. Let go and truly receive. As you exhale, see the energy of giving moving through the right side of your body. Note how both originate and end in your heart.
10) If you feel moved to do so, start expanding your circuit of giving and receiving. Feel the reception move from the base of your spine up through your heart and your left arm, then down your right arm, through your heart, and all the way to the base of your spine. Here you find a way toward opening to the past hurts you may hold in your hips; you can let go of them and receive what is out there for you, and you can in turn give back, further letting go of anything from your past that might hinder such giving.
11) Don’t have any preconceptions of what you should feel or how your body should relax. Just let it happen as you continue to follow and explore the path of giving and receiving.
12) When you are ready to come out of your meditation, slowly draw your attention back to your body. With care, taking your time, press yourself back up to an upright seat. Open your eyes and take a few moments to adjust. Notice how you feel and see if you can take this lesson into the rest of your day.”
1) Either from a comfortable seat or in savasana — or, frankly, anyplace you have a few moments to close your eyes — close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.
2) Focus your mind on an instant of joy — some event that caused your heart to leap with happiness. As you experience that leap again, hold onto it. Let it play through your body.
3) As you breathe and relax, try to let go of the image of the event that caused the joy. Let it slip away so that all that remains is the feeling of joy.
4) Play with where and how the joy is moving through your body. If there is a spot that feels solid and unmoved, concentrate on it and once again summon the image that causes you joy. Send the response directly to the place in your body that needs it.
5) The event that inspired your joy — and many other thoughts unfolding from it — will likely return. Part of the practice of meditating, however, is releasing such thoughts over and over again. Each time you let go of the thoughts and focus on the unfettered joy, you’ll experience a new moment of happiness. In this sense, there is nothing wrong with the mind’s natural inclination to wander. Just bring yourself back time and again to the feeling and let go of the thoughts.
6) Eventually, settle your focus on your heart. Let the joy you are awakening awaken yet more joy. Let your heart expand. Let this be your meditation.
In classes, I have students use a folding chair for a prop in this pose. At home, you can use a chair with a space in the back through which you can stick your feet or a couch, usually with the cushions removed. Be creative and find the right place to fully experience this pose.
1) Lie in front of the chair or couch with your head away from it (so you are looking down at it) and your lower legs on it. Use blankets to help adjust the height so that your sacrum (lower back) is comfortably pressed against the floor and your knees are bent at a right angle. Your body will look like a step: torso horizontal on the floor, thighs vertical between floor and chair or couch seat, and calves horizontal resting on the chair or couch seat.
2) If it feels good, place a folded blanket or bolster under your lumbar spine for even greater support. How high the blanket goes depends on how limber your back is. Do not push yourself — restoratives are all about comfort. You may also choose to roll the blanket the long way (so it is not too fat) and place it under and along your spine with a wrinkle at the top to support your neck.
3) You may also place a rolled towel under your neck for support.
4) Once you have arranged your props — take your time to make it worthwhile; all vacations require a little planning — lie back and close your eyes. Let your arms drape by your sides at about a 45-degree angle to your body, palms facing up in a gesture of reception. Let your shoulder blades slide down your back as if they can support your heart.
5) With your eyes closed, take a few moments just to breathe gently through your nose and adjust to your position.
6) Then consciously let your body relax. Scan it for places of tension and release the tension into whatever is supporting that part of your body. Let each inhale be a search for tension and each exhale a release of it.
7) Slowly let your breathing take over. Simply observe your inhales and exhales instead of initiating them. Feel as if the breath moves through you, carrying tension away with each exhale.
8) Stay here for ten or fifteen minutes or longer. You’re on vacation.
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1) Wherever you are, find a place you can sit comfortably with your eyes closed and no fear of interruption for a few minutes.
2) Close your eyes and take a very deep breath in through your nose. At the top of the breath, see if you can inhale a little bit more to really expand and release your lungs. Exhale slowly and completely, listening to the sound of your breath as it leaves your nostrils.
3) Keeping this already increased sense of calm, imagine all the weight of the thoughts in your head being lifted with your next breath. Then let them fall with your exhale, slipping down out of your head toward your chest. Take as many breaths as you need to let all the weight come out of your head. Feel the lightness around your temples.
4) On your next inhale, find where the weight has migrated — likely near your heart. Let your heart expand with your inhale, and let you exhale move the heaviness down toward your seat. Continue to inhale and exhale, moving the tension down your spine.
5) When it reaches your sit bones, place your hands next to them or on some other surface. Feel your feet firmly on a surface as well. Then work on inhaling into the tension and exhaling it into the surfaces supporting you (the chair, floor, whatever hands, feet, and sit bones are touching).
6) After you have moved the tension out of your body to the waiting Universe, take a few breaths to feel the lightness of letting the Universe in. Inhale the goodness and ease around you.
7) When you are ready, slowly allow your eyes to open and look at the world in a new light. Take your time moving back into your day, being conscious of the lovely lightness you have created inside and of how easy it will be to recreate it if the tension returns.
Opening Without/Within Meditation
1) Find a comfortable seat, preferably on the floor. I discourage chair-sitting if you can abandon it for a time because it’s not great for our lower backs. Sitting on a bed or a couch is fine, but you are unlikely to find a solid foundation. Instead, try the floor and lots of blankets. Place one or two folded blankets under your sitting bones (not your thighs) as you sit cross-legged and see if you can maintain this position for several minutes. You can place folded blankets under your legs as well if they would like some extra support. Another lovely option is to lie back, perhaps with the blankets under your knees to release your lower back.
2) Wherever you are, turn your palms toward the sky, close your eyes, and focus on your breath. Be lulled by the gentle sound of your inhales and exhales as you breathe in and out through your nose. Let them grow longer and slower. Start to notice the pauses between the inhale and exhale, and between the exhale and the inhale.
3) Next time a thought comes into your head, don’t try to chase it away. Instead, open out, leaving it behind and insignificant.
4) Start to explore this place you come into when you open out. As thoughts intrude, open out again. Remember, yoga is a practice, not a final resting place. Your thoughts will intrude, over and over, and you will gently continue to open out again.
5) When you feel you have reached a place where your thoughts are not intruding as rapidly, an outer opening with which you have become familiar, start to open in. There’s no set way for doing this; it’s about what opening in means to you. One way to start is to picture your heart as a lotus blossom with thousands of petals opening and opening.
6) Be in this place of opening out and opening in for as long as it feels good to you. When you are ready, return your attention to your breath. Take a few moments to breathe in and out deeply and consciously.
7) When you are ready, open your eyes. Maintain the feeling of opening out and opening in as you draw your hands to your heart in namaste mudra, prayer position, the position of offering. Bow to your heart to acknowledge all that is there, even as your hands in front of your heart represent the offering of what you have inside. In this moment, you may feel a deep connection to everything around you.
1) Find your comfortable seat for meditation — a place where you can breathe fully and let your heart lift. This may mean sitting on the edge of a blanket or in a chair or lying on the floor.
2) Close your eyes and take a few moment to be aware of your breath. In particular, focus on the spot where the breath enters your nostrils. Feel it as it enters and exits.
3) As you are ready, following the feeling to other senses around your body. Consider what is touching you and what isn’t touching you but is nearby. Don’t imagine; feel.
4) Slowly let your consciousness take in the space in which you sit. Start with your personal space, then open up to the room, the building, your spot in the world. Don’t imagine and don’t force. Just become aware. If at any time you feel overwhelmed, come back down to your place on your mat. Find the space in which you feel safe and acknowledge it.
5) As you become aware of your place in some larger space, start to let go of your focus on it. Let yourself feel rooted in the consciousness and let your mind relax. It doesn’t need to go anywhere else. Instead, it can let go and just be. You are safe because you know where you are. There is nothing your mind needs to do at this moment other than rest.
6) Be in the place and let it take you where it may. You may feel your heart begin to open. You may find yourself going other places inside. Let it happen organically; don’t force it. Root it in an awareness of yourself as part of something larger.
7) If your mind starts chattering, just come back to where you are. Feel your seat. Or be aware of what sits right behind you. Gaze out of your forehead, letting your eyes see. As with any meditation, you may have to return to this place again and again. But it’s the returning and restarting that gives you the gift of finding your place anew.
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This meditation/visualization is best practiced in savasana, but you may practice it in seated meditation (or elsewhere) as well.
1) From whichever position you choose, close your eyes and take a few moments to find your breath and let it bring you to the present moment.
2) When you are ready, start to visualize a sandbag sitting on a shelf. Take your time to absorb what it looks like and, slowly, what it feels like. Let yourself feel like the sandbag. As you do so, let go of fretting about how it looks and just become it.
3) Now imagine one corner of the sandbag is hanging off the shelf. Not enough to disturb your equilibrium. Just enough so that, when a small hole opens up in the corner of the sandbag, the sand can begin to flow out of the sandbag and toward the earth.
4) Feel yourself emptying out with the flow of the sand. Particularly if you are in savasana let your muscles relax and your body soften. In any position, let your mind empty like grains of sand as well.
5) You may find yourself emptying steadily from just that one corner of the sandbag. But if you need to, you may let another corner of the sandbag slide off the shelf so that sand can empty from a small hole in it.
6) Notice when you encounter clumps of sand and when the flow is smooth. Notice if there are bits of sand that try to stick in the bag. Be gentle with them; just let them go.
7) Once the sandbag is completely empty, see if you can sit just like this, empty and light, for several minutes.
8) When you are ready, start to deepen your breath and return to your body.
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Practice this at any time — with meditation, with your asana practice or just sitting at home with a particularly ornery child. It’s quick, easy, and hands down the best part of my yoga practice.
1) Find a comfortable seat. Close your eyes and take one or two deep breaths to center yourself.
2) If you can, sweep your arms out to the sides and circle them to meet overhead, as if gathering the energy around yourself. (Sometimes, I know, this is not possible when you are sitting at home with an ornery child. On the other hand, sometimes it will stop that ornery child in his or her tracks and give you a moment of peace.)
3) Bringing your palms together overhead, lower them to your heart as if drawing the energy around you in toward your heart. Feel the connection to your heart.
4) If you’d like, chant one long, beautiful ohm. Feel the vibrations of the sound, how they are the vibrations of the Universe, and how this simple ohm reminds you of your place in something big and beautiful.
5) Raise your hands — palms still pressed together in angeli mudra — a position of offering — to your forehead, over your third eye chakra. (This chakra, the site of wisdom, sits between and a little bit above your eyebrows.) Chant shanti with a true feeling of bringing peace to your mind.
6) Lower your hands — still in angeli mudra to the area around your throat chakra (site of communication). I usually center them between my mouth and my throat. Chant shanti with a true feeling of communicating with peace to all you meet.
7) Lower your hands to your heart and chant shanti with a true feeling of bring peace into your heart.
8) Bow your head to your heart in honor of the peace that resides there and in honor of yourself for taking a few moments to remind yourself of the importance of peace and of your ability to spread it in the world through your thoughts and your actions.
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