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Yoga and meditation are two practices that support and encourage each other. Although it is not necessary to meditate when you practice physical yoga styles like hatha yoga, it always aids in the purpose for which you do yoga. Your skills of concentration and relaxation are honed by yoga, which forms an ideal platform for the deep aspects of meditation to rub off their benefits on you.
What is meditation?
Yoga principles are based on the interconnection between every living thing in this universe. Meditation is the direct experience of this interconnection. The word yoga stands for 'union'. And union happens when the mind falls silent. Mental silence is brought about by being aware of the senses and relaxing the nervous system.
Meditation is a state of pure consciousness. It is beyond the state of concentration. Concentration is only a means or a step towards meditation. When we concentrate on some object like a flower, we train all our senses towards it and establish full contact with it. In the state of meditation, which is the next step, we realize that we are not separate from that object. We come to the deep awareness that everything in nature is connected.
How to meditate?
Just as there are several styles of yoga, there are innumerable ways of meditating too. Meditation usually starts with concentration exercises. These include the use of sound, the use of imagery, gazing, breathing or observing a physical sensation. For example, you may be asked to chant a mantra like OM, recite a prayer or phrase, visualize some physical form of a deity, gaze at the light of a candle, observe your breath, or observe some sensation like heat.
You are then guided into higher levels of meditation by utilizing the creative power of concentration. Once you are into a deep state, you don't have to do meditation; you just have to be. Various styles of meditation guide you in their own respective way and let you experience the oneness of nature.
Benefits of meditation
Before the ultimate benefit of self realization, meditation showers immense physiological and psychological benefits. The health benefits are a reflection of your mental and physical wellbeing. Yoga and meditation together are a wonderful means to lead a life of quality. At the very least, meditation helps you manage stress better. Alertness and awareness levels rise, which make you feel more alive.
When you do meditation after a yoga session, it helps you assimilate all the benefits of the session. It helps you release all muscular and skeletal effort. The mind then immediately relaxes as we consciously liberate ourselves from every effort, physical and mental. This is why you must never skip the savasana at the end of a class, as savasana is like a precursor to meditation.
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