What Meditation Type Is Best For You?

Yoga Nidra involves much more than the popular "body scan" meditation that you see everywhere. It is actually a traditional yogic technique which, beyond mere relaxation, helps you to expand your awareness and program your subsoncious mind according to your intentions.

Mountains are icons of stability, grounding, and stillness. In this meditation you will use the power of active imagination, affirmations, and body awareness to make your body feel as still and unshakable as a mountain. As a result, you might feel calm, solid, relaxed, and self-assured. Before you get started, make sure you have an image in your memory of what a great mountain looks like. If not, just google Uluru or Mount Everest to give you an idea.

The eyes are the most powerful sense, and, just like the mind, they are constantly moving and restless. The principle of this ancient and unique meditation is: still your eyes, and you still your mind. You will need a candle for this exercise, and a table or chair to put it on, so that it’s at eye level, and an arm-length away. For safety reasons, make sure to close all the doors and windows, so there are no draughts.

In this meditation, we will drive the mind to turn inside in search of “internal sounds”. As a result, it gets quieter, subtler, and sharper. For this practice a quiet environment is desirable. If you can’t get access to one, then using earplugs is a good idea. Otherwise the external sound will compete with your attention for hearing internal sounds.

This meditation was a technique I developed based on the Buddhist Loving-Kindness meditation. The principle is the same: to learn how to create emotional states inside of you without an external stimulus. This brings a great sense of emotional independence or liberation. Just like with loving-kindness meditation, some people will love this practice, and others might feel frustrated thinking they cannot generate the feeling. If you are the latter, then take it easy, accept your experience as it comes, and learn to give a bit more power to your own imagination.

The technique of Antar Mouna (“Inner Silence”) was developed by Swami Satyananda of the Bihar School of Yoga, based on ancient Tantric practices. It is a technique that focuses on developing a strong awareness and mindfulness before introducing concentration and thoughtlessness into the mix. This technique is especially helpful for those that have a very restless mind, and are otherwise unable to concentrate by using other techniques. You start by getting to know yourself, your mind and your senses, and this already calms down the mind and puts some order into the chaos.

Today’s meditation is, in a way, the most advanced and subtle technique in this course—that is why I left it for last. We will work with the subtlest of all objects—consciousness itself. You will be guided to turn away from thoughts and perceptions, back into the pure I Am. Self-enquiry (atma-vichara) is a meditation technique that originates in the Advaita Vedanta tradition, and was updated and popularized by the modern sage Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950).

Today we will review the meditations you experienced in this course, and go through some guidelines for choosing the ideal practice for you.