Sunday Meditations

"I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways."

~Psalm119:15

Namaste

The quiet is unusual this morning. Children are still sleeping. Supportive Husband Guy has left for work. I've finished my first cup of coffee and the cat is quietly barking at the morning doves. Perfect time to meditate and practice yoga.



This is a practice I started years ago. Recently I have neglected meditative yoga for fitness focused yoga. One is not better than the other but as I learn how interconnected all aspects of life are I find meditative yoga integral to my total health. It brings body, mind and soul together.

I struggle to calm my mind at times. It runs off on me leaving me feeling much like the mouse in "If you give a mouse a cookie." Thankfully, most of the time it isn't worry that runs off in my mind but randomness. Meditative yoga brings me back to center and calms those mouse, cookie, milk thoughts.

There are many ways to meditate. The Yoga Journal has some great articles on different methods and ways to meditate as part of a yoga practice. Each person will find a different method right for them. It is part of the amazing design of humanity.

My personal practice begins with reading a Psalm. One verse will always stand out at me. That verse usually has key words within it that give the verse meaning. I cling to those words, focus on them. Usually they are about the character of God, but it changes depending on my circumstances and need at the time. I use those words to control my breathing. They become the count to my poses. Because I do have children and I find silence almost as distracting as loud noise I typically put some quiet instrumental acoustic music on in the back ground. For me the music cannot contain words. External words are a jarring distraction but the quiet rhythm of the instruments helps bring all the focus together.

I don't have a set time or routine for my meditative yoga practice. Today for example I practiced for about twenty minutes. I stopped when I felt centered, calmed and my body felt the mild exertion of the different poses I had moved through. The poses I do are typically not planned during meditative yoga. I move from pose to pose as it comes to me. There is a natural transition but no plan. When I first began practicing yoga I had a plan. I needed one because I didn't know the many different poses by memory nor did I understand how to transition from one to another with ease. If you need a set plan for your poses there is nothing wrong with that at all.

Is there room for meditation in your week? What do you do to bring body, mind and soul together?

Namaste

Keep chasing perfection, people. Eventually we are going to Catch Excellence. 

Follow @CatchExcellent