As mind-body practices, yoga and meditation present many advantages. Nonetheless, should you observe one with out the opposite, you may not be getting essentially the most out of both behavior. You’ll be able to 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 observe and vice versa.
Why Ought to You Observe Yoga and Meditation Collectively?
Meditation and yoga work collectively synergistically to profit one another. Some sorts of yoga, together with kundalini yoga and sure types of hatha yoga, already embrace meditation within the observe.
“In yoga, meditation is all the pieces,” says Sam Rudra Swartz, a licensed meditation instructor and hatha yoga teacher. “The poses put together the physique, the respiratory practices assist put together the thoughts, and then you definitely spend this time alone together with your [thoughts] the place you place effort towards concentrating on precisely one factor,” whether or not it’s your breath, a mantra, or sensations in your physique.
Plus, the bodily observe of yoga might help you to be extra aware in your meditations. “A constant hatha yoga observe is essential so as to have the ability to sit nonetheless in a tall, upright, alert pose that can facilitate this focus for meditation,” says Swartz.
Yoga additionally focuses on the breath by way of pranayama, that are respiratory strategies that preserve you calm and centered. With a constant meditation observe, you might be making ready your physique and thoughts for this breath work throughout yoga poses and constructing focus and focus by way of every move.
Observe these workouts sufficient and also you would possibly begin to discover their results in your on a regular basis life as properly.
“We’re taught that yoga is all a couple of calm and centered thoughts, in order that all the pieces you do all through your day is a meditation,” Swartz says. “Your complete day could be a part of your observe.”
Do You Meditate Earlier than or After Yoga?
“There is no such thing as a steadfast rule as as to if or not you observe one or the opposite first,” Swartz says. Nonetheless, historically, a yoga observe helps a meditation observe. Within the authoritative textual content, The Yoga Sutras, bodily observe (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 finest very first thing within the morning when life is quiet and the solar is rising. “In the event you’re an early riser and need to align with the deeper traditions of the religious observe, meditate as early as doable,” he says, then do a light observe.
Later within the day, you would possibly need to move earlier than you sit. “In case your observe is kind of rigorous, you’d need to finish your bodily observe with a minimum of 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 have interaction in a single or the opposite, your thoughts and physique will thanks for adopting these historical practices to your trendy life.
The advantages of yoga
The advantages of meditation
- Meditation can enhance your well-being and supply extra advantages to your thoughts, like serving to elevate temper and ease stress.
- Researchers now know meditation can change your mind construction and thus assist preserve it wholesome. Information from the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences means that meditation would possibly assist protect each grey and white matter within the mind, which might help gradual age-related decreases in each.
Prepared to realize all the advantages of meditation and yoga? Begin with Yoga52 or Beachbody Yoga Studio, which have courses and applications for all targets and talent ranges.
Mix one class every week with meditation. In the event you’re new to the observe, BODi options guided meditation applications in Sound Meditation or Unstress that vary from 10 to 45 minutes in size.
