1. 17 Aug



    “How do I know if I’m meditating?

    We often don’t recognize that a meditative state is arising because it doesn’t fit our idea of how it’s supposed to be. We think it’s supposed to happen immediately or that we’ll see colors or go into a deeply altered state. But if you’re like many people, the effects of meditation may not really show up while you’re sitting. Instead, you’ll feel them later in your day—in subtle shifts of mood, feelings of calm or well-being, the capacity to intuit solutions or get along better with the people in your life. Meditation works under the surface, creating new neural pathways, shifting the way hormones interact with each other. And then the more mystical aspects of meditation begin to show up during your sitting practice.

    Yoga Journal’s Meditation Revolution - Day 9

     

  2. 17 Aug



    Getting into meditation is a knack, and for most of us it takes a while to discover that knack. As you sit to meditate, meditation itself will teach you how to meditate. After a while, you’ll find that you know how to just “be” so that meditative states begin to arise.
    — Yoga Journal
     

  3. 16 Aug



    The purpose of mantra repetition is not for you to keep repeating it indefinitely. It’s to let the mantra connect you to the current of meditation that is always going on within you.
    — Yoga Journal
     

  4. 16 Aug



    mantra = a word or group of syllables repeated silently to help quiet the mind.
    — Yoga Journal
     

  5. 16 Aug



    If you’re still struggling with meditation, don’t worry—you’re not alone! It’s a practice that takes time to master.
    — Yoga Journal
     

  6. 15 Aug



    Indian tradition compares the mind to a king who has not been given a proper seat. Until the king is seated on his rightful throne, he will be restless, dissatisfied, and even quarrelsome. But once he is seated, he becomes calm and begins to manifest his royal qualities. Our job in meditation is simply to keep the mind pointed in the proper direction, directing it back to its seat again and again.
    — Yoga Journal
     

  7. 15 Aug



    Often when you are deeply settled, thoughts continue to drift across the screen of your awareness. Even when the thoughts slow down a buzz of mental static might remain. Much of the meditator’s art lies in knowing how to work with thoughts and ultimately, how to let them dissolve into the subtle fabric of the mind.
    — Yoga Journal
     

  8. 13 Aug



    As you start the weekend it may be tempting to take a break from your meditation practice. Try to keep up with it, sticking to the schedule that you’ve developed. This regularity in practice is the magic in meditation.
    — Yoga Journal
     

  9. 11 Aug



    Journaling after meditation also allows the meditation energy to express itself. Sometimes a poem comes out, sometimes you find that your inner being has a teaching to share. Sometimes you can ask yourself a question and receive an answer that comes from the deepest part of yourself.
    — Yoga Journal
     

  10. 11 Aug



    As you grow more comfortable turning inward, you’ll develop an innate sense of what you need each time you come to your meditation seat.
    — Yoga Journal