As body body practices, yoga and meditation offer many benefits. However, if you practice one without the other, you may not benefit as much as possible. You can actually improve your experience both on the mattress and on your pillow by combining both.
Here’s how meditation can deepen your connection to your yoga practice and vice versa.
Why should you practice yoga and meditation together?
Meditation and yoga work together synergistically to get one another. Some types of yoga, including yoga Kundalini and certain forms of Hatha Yoga, already include meditation in practice.
“In yoga, meditation is everything,” says Sam Rudra Swartz, a certified meditation teacher and Yoga Hatha instructor. “Posses prepare the body, respiratory practices help prepare the mind, and then you only spend this time with your (thoughts), where you make efforts towards focus on exactly one thing,” be your breath, a mantra, or the sensation in your body.
Plus, the physical practice of yoga can help you to be more aware of your meditations. “A sustainable practice of yoga Hatha is important in order to be able to sit still in a long, right position, the alarm that will facilitate this concentration for meditation,” says Swartz.
Yoga also focuses on the breath through Pranayama, which are respiratory techniques that keep you calm and concentrated. With a stable meditation practice, you are preparing your body and mind for this work work during the poses of yoga and the concentration of buildings and concentration through each flow.
Practice these exercises enough and you can begin to notice their effects on your daily life.
“We are used to that yoga is about a quiet and focused mind, so that everything you do all day long is a meditation,” says Swartz. “Your whole day can be part of your practice.”
Do you meditate before or after yoga?
“There is no steadfast rule whether or not you practice one or the other first,” Swartz says. However, traditionally, a Yoga practice supports a meditation practice. In the authorizing text, Yoga sutrasPhysical practice (Asana) is supposed to be stable and comfortable, to prepare for longer, sedentary meditations.
However, Swartz says it is okay to be flexible for what you do before. Some meditations work best the first thing in the morning when life is calm and the sun is rising. “If you are an early riser and want to approximate the deepest traditions of spiritual practice, meditate as soon as possible,” he says, then make a gentle practice.
Later during the day, you may want to flow before sitting down. “If your practice is quite rigorous, you will want to complete your physical practice with at least a few minutes of deep relaxation and meditation,” he says.
What are the benefits of yoga and meditation?
Yoga and meditation have many documented and researched benefits, many of which overlap. Whether you get involved in one or the other, your mind and body will thank you for the adoption of these ancient practices for your modern life.
The benefits of yoga
The benefits of meditation
- Meditation can strengthen your well -being and provide additional benefits to your mind, how to help increase mood and relieve stress.
- Researchers now know that meditation can change your brain structure and thus help keep it healthy. Data from the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences suggest that meditation can help maintain gray and white matter in the brain, which can help slowly lower age -related.
Ready to win all the benefits of meditation and yoga? Start with Yoga52 or Beachbody Yoga Studio, which have classes and programs for all goals and skill levels.
Combine one class per week with meditation. If you are young in practice, Bodi contains meditation programs run in sound or unsafe meditation ranging from 10 to 45 minutes in length.
