As mind-body practices, yoga and meditation present many advantages. Nonetheless, in the event you follow one with out the opposite, you won’t be getting essentially the most out of both behavior. You possibly can truly improve your expertise each on the mat and in your pillow by combining the 2.
Right here’s how meditation can deepen your connection to your yoga follow and vice versa.
Why Ought to You Observe Yoga and Meditation Collectively?
Meditation and yoga work collectively synergistically to learn one another. Some kinds of yoga, together with kundalini yoga and sure types of hatha yoga, already embrace meditation within the follow.
“In yoga, meditation is every little thing,” says Sam Rudra Swartz, an authorized meditation instructor and hatha yoga teacher. “The poses put together the physique, the respiration practices assist put together the thoughts, and then you definately spend this time alone together with your [thoughts] the place you set effort towards concentrating on precisely one factor,” whether or not it’s your breath, a mantra, or sensations in your physique.
Plus, the bodily follow of yoga can assist you to be extra conscious in your meditations. “A constant hatha yoga follow is vital so as to have the ability to sit nonetheless in a tall, upright, alert pose that may facilitate this focus for meditation,” says Swartz.
Yoga additionally focuses on the breath by pranayama, that are respiration methods that hold you calm and targeted. With a constant meditation follow, you might be making ready your physique and thoughts for this breath work throughout yoga poses and constructing focus and focus by every move.
Observe these workout routines sufficient and also you may begin to discover their results in your on a regular basis life as effectively.
“We’re taught that yoga is all a few calm and targeted thoughts, in order that every little thing you do all through your day is a meditation,” Swartz says. “Your complete day may be a part of your follow.”
Do You Meditate Earlier than or After Yoga?
“There is no such thing as a steadfast rule as as to if or not you follow one or the opposite first,” Swartz says. Nonetheless, historically, a yoga follow helps a meditation follow. Within the authoritative textual content, The Yoga Sutras, bodily follow (asana) is meant to be regular and cozy, to organize for longer, sitting meditations.
Nonetheless, Swartz says it’s OK to be versatile about which one you do first. Some meditations work greatest very first thing within the morning when life is quiet and the solar is rising. “In case you’re an early riser and need to align with the deeper traditions of the religious follow, meditate as early as attainable,” he says, then do a light follow.
Later within the day, you may need to move earlier than you sit. “In case your follow is sort of rigorous, you’d need to finish your bodily follow with no less than a couple of minutes of deep rest and meditation,” he says.
What Are the Advantages of Yoga and Meditation?
Yoga and meditation have quite a few documented and researched advantages, a lot of which overlap. Whether or not you interact in a single or the opposite, your thoughts and physique will thanks for adopting these historic practices to your trendy life.
The advantages of yoga
The advantages of meditation
- Meditation can increase your well-being and supply further advantages to your thoughts, like serving to elevate temper and ease stress.
- Researchers now know meditation can change your mind construction and thus assist hold it wholesome. Information from the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences means that meditation may assist protect each grey and white matter within the mind, which can assist sluggish age-related decreases in each.
Prepared to achieve all the advantages of meditation and yoga? Begin with Yoga52 or Beachbody Yoga Studio, which have lessons and applications for all objectives and talent ranges.
Mix one class per week with meditation. In case you’re new to the follow, BODi options guided meditation applications in Sound Meditation or Unstress that vary from 10 to 45 minutes in size.