As mind-body practices, yoga and meditation present many advantages. Nevertheless, should you follow one with out the opposite, you may not be getting essentially the most out of both behavior. You may really 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 profit one another. Some sorts of yoga, together with kundalini yoga and sure types of hatha yoga, already embody 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 respiratory practices assist put together the thoughts, and then you definitely 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 may help you to be extra aware in your meditations. “A constant hatha yoga follow is necessary 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 targeted. With a constant meditation follow, you’re getting ready your physique and thoughts for this breath work throughout yoga poses and constructing focus and focus by way of every movement.
Observe these workouts sufficient and also you may begin to discover their results in your on a regular basis life as nicely.
“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 will 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. Nevertheless, 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 comfy, to arrange 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. “For those who’re an early riser and wish to align with the deeper traditions of the religious follow, meditate as early as doable,” he says, then do a mild follow.
Later within the day, you may wish to movement earlier than you sit. “In case your follow is sort of rigorous, you’d wish 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, lots 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 in your trendy life.
The advantages of yoga
The advantages of meditation
- Meditation can enhance your well-being and supply extra advantages in 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. Knowledge 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 may help gradual age-related decreases in each.
Prepared to achieve all the advantages of meditation and yoga? Begin with Yoga52 or Beachbody Yoga Studio, which have courses and packages for all objectives and ability ranges.
Mix one class every week with meditation. For those who’re new to the follow, BODi options guided meditation packages in Sound Meditation or Unstress that vary from 10 to 45 minutes in size.
