The Types of Meditation: Which one is Right for You?
Love or hate it, meditation is the most important part of your yoga practice yet its usually the hardest part to commit to. Most people think meditation is sitting as still as possible with your eyes closed and trying to think of nothing ... yet that's completely different from how we do things in the Kundalini Yoga lineage!
Sure, sitting quietly in stillness can be part of it, but in Kundalini Yoga there are many different styles of meditation using different techniques to still the mind and focus your awareness. Some people love to chant mantras (no, it's not the same as singing...!), others prefer to use breathing techniques (there's so much more than just taking deep breaths...). What's important is finding a type of meditation that works for you, where you can let the outside world fall away to find peace and stillness within.
Meditation in Kundalini Yoga
Most people do not know what meditation actually is. In mainstream culture meditation is portrayed as something only 'spiritual’ people do. However meditation is for everyone and anyone and can be done from anywhere (yes laying down in bed counts!). It is the deliberate process of letting go of the constant stream of thoughts running through your mind (citta vritti) and moving into a place of stillness. Through the use of refined patterns, meditation creates a communication between you and your mind, and between your mind and your body.
The difficult part of meditation is keeping the mind focused. This is why we use tools and techniques such as breathing (pranayama) and mantras to give the mind something to focus on rather than letting your thoughts take over. It's important to know that there will still be moments during meditation where you find yourself making a grocery list in your head or mentally composing an email to a colleague. This is natural and bound to happen, even for more seasoned meditators. Krishna Das even teaches that these moments are the wins, where you notice the mind wandering and come back to focused awareness. The gist of it... meditation is a practice that is not meant to be perfect! It's called a 'practice' for a reason... The best way to start is to try out all of the different techniques until you find one that works for you.
“Practice is not about how you feel while you are doing it. You are planting seeds.”
Benefits of Kundalini Meditation:
Develops the Neutral (Meditative) Mind.
Releases reactions and unconscious habits, subconscious fears and blocks, and builds the spontaneous and intuitive link to awareness itself.
Resolves core issues of stress-producing patterns.
Takes you from a finite to an infinite perception of reality, by connecting you to the clarity of the soul.
Promotes a sense of well-being, inner peace, stability, and calm.
Develops your intuition and inner wisdom
Encourages mastery over transforming emotion to devotion.
Promotes the ability to focus energy, enhancing effectiveness and efficiency.
Promotes clarity of mind, mental awareness, and the ability to be present.
Develops the frontal lobe of the forehead, which controls your personality and ability to plan / project into the future.
Breathing Meditation (Pranayama)
Most people will be familiar with breathing meditation in its most basic form - long deep breathing. However, in Kundalini Yoga we go beyond taking deep breaths and use a variety of dynamic breathing techniques focusing on the rhythm and depth of the breath to effect and manage different energy states of health, consciousness, and emotions. The mind follows the breath so focusing your attention on breathing patterns help to still the mind and come into a place of inner peace. Some common breathing techniques used in Kundalini Yoga include Breath of Fire, Alternate Nostril Breathing, Sitali Pranayama and the One Minute Breath.
Explore breathing techniques in the Learn to Meditate Course on Golden Yogi Online (Get 30 days free here)
Mantra Meditation
Don’t be put off by the word mantra (its not as woo woo as you think)! Mantra meditations focus on a word or phrase that is either chanted out loud or repeated silently in your mind. Chanting mantras is a conscious method of controlling, cutting through thought patterns, and directing the mind. By chanting a mantra you channel the positive power of that mantra whether it is prosperity, happiness, or love. The mantra you choose to chant can be as simple as “Let Go” or “Sat Nam” or can even follow spiritual songs and music (check out our carefully created playlists). By repeating the mantra it allows you to go into an hypnotic trance by allowing the mantra to take over the mind so you can enter into the neutral meditative mind. The most common mantras used in Kundalini Yoga are drawn from ancient teachings that are estimated to go back as far as 1000 BC. Before you decide mantra isn't for you, give it a go and take note of how you feel at the end of the practice. Often mantra is the magic ingredient to accessing a clear mind and deep meditation.
Explore mantra meditations in the Learn to Meditate Course on Golden Yogi Online (Get 30 days free here)
Other Meditation Techniques
Moving Meditation
No, sitting still is not a requirement of Kundalini Meditation! It is common in Kundalini for hand and arm movements to be used in meditation such as Meditation to Open the Heart which uses arm movements to expand the energy from your heart space.
Visualisation Meditation
Another common technique used in Meditation is visualisation. This Laya Yoga Meditation uses a visualisation combined with mantra (chanting), bandhas (body locks) and drishti (eye focus) to take you deep into a place of stillness to uplift your consciousness.
Where should I start?
The best way to start is to try out a few different meditations to see what resonates with you. Meditation is something that can't be learnt from reading a book or reading an article. The transformation comes through experiencing regular meditation in your own everyday life.
We reccomend starting with a course such as the Learn to Meditate 11 day course on Golden Yogi Online. This will take you through a range of different meditation techniques to help you find what works for you. Join me for the 11 days and discover what works for you!