Looking for ways to improve your overall physical and mental wellness? Yoga and meditation may just be the kind of practices to incorporate into your daily life.
In the same way that you would embark on a physical fitness journey, healthy diet and lifestyle, or simply ensuring you get an adequate amount of physical exercise in each day – yoga and meditation can also form part of your physical, and spiritual journey.
The physical postures required for yoga practice focus on the use of your core muscles, as well as helping to tone and condition other muscles in your body, such as those in your arms and legs.
Yoga is also wonderful for helping to improve your balance and posture and there are multiple possible health benefits too when yoga is incorporated with yoga meditation.
Meditation is the practice of centering yourself, focusing on your breathing, focusing on being present and still in the very moment. Meditation can help ease and calm your mind, and the specific breath control with both yoga and meditation may help to improve your overall immune system and help in reducing psychological stress.
If you’ve never taken part in yoga practice or meditation practice, you may not know exactly what they entail. It’s very similar to attending a Pilates or group workout class but instead of sweating it out to vibey music, you work through yoga and meditation practices.
Yoga practice is slightly more physical than that of meditation, however, yoga does actually include some meditation and that’s what we refer to as yoga meditation.
Yoga is a focus on movements and specific yoga poses, working your core muscles and guiding your body towards balance and strength whilst working your mental focus.
The same control of breath and focus that takes place during meditation can take place during yoga – except with the addition of physical stances and postures that work your muscles and balance.
Yoga meditation tends to happen at the end of the movement and balance postures and poses phase of a yoga practice. This is referred to as Savasana.
The physical sensations you can experience during yoga practice are along the lines of stretching and physical flexibility mixed with muscle fatigue from extended poses and postures. During meditation the bodily sensations that can be experienced are more of an overall relaxation and calm.
Yoga can help to improve sleep quality, muscle tone, balance and mental focus – wonderful wholesome workout focusing on the body, mind and soul.
Meditation is more of a mindfulness practice, in which you sit and focus on nothing else but the present moment and your awareness. Meditation is not a practice that just anyone can sit down and choose to do at any given time.
It’s a skill that is learnt through hours and hours of focus and practice. To sit in the complete present moment, focusing on nothing but complete self awareness. Quietening your own thoughts.
There are many meditation practices that guide and teach the art of meditation to people who are looking to learn and master this fine art.
10 minutes of meditation is said to equal about 44 minutes of quality sleep time. Imagine slotting in a 45-minute power nap into the middle of your day – it would make the world of difference.
Meditation practice can also improve mental alertness and mental focus. Consider mediation as a form of mind body engagement.
The psychological benefits of meditation far outweigh the time and patience required to learn this new skill.
Meditation has been proven to provide physical benefits as well as the mental benefits. Meditation practice has shown to lower blood pressure. *
Anapanasati, or mindfulness of breathing, is one of the main Buddhism traditions and is incorporated throughout the varying mindfulness programs available today. **
Meditative practices and meditation techniques can help one to improve their levels of awareness, improve mental focus and psychological alertness.
A meditative practice may be carried out at a meditation retreat. If someone is experiencing high levels of psychological stress or burnout, a retreat with daily meditation and experienced guidance could help to create a relaxation response in the most stressed individual.
This form of intensive meditation practice has become more popular and, today there are many meditation and yoga retreats that can be booked where you spend a weekend or more practicing and learning about this Buddhist tradition.
This form of group meditation is one of buddhist traditions where spiritual growth is the core focus. Pure consciousness being the ultimate goal.
These two practices, yoga practice and meditation practice, can be incorporated into your daily life. You don’t need to take a yoga class every single day to improve your mental well-being.
Simply including yoga poses or postures into your daily life – when taking desk breaks or at the end of your workout to cool your muscles down can result in significant improvements to your physical and mental well-being.
Including a 10-minute meditation practice during your lunch break can create enhanced alertness and focus and help to reduce stress during a busy work day. A meditation practice before you sleep at night may also bring about significant improvements to your sleep quality.
Regular practice of both yoga and meditation practices may help in reducing stress, improve overall mental activity, mental well-being and creating a good posture.
Amongst the many other benefits, daily meditation techniques will help to create a break in your day, especially the busy lives that we lead.
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