How To Sit Properly For Meditation

If you struggle to sit on the floor in your meditation posture, this video was made for you. In this talk, I share all the props that you may have laying around your house that you could use to support in your meditation practice. We review proper posture and how to use props to find more comfort and ease in your daily meditation practice.

Transcript

Hello, Meditators, And welcome to this video on how to sit properly for strict, Traditional meditation. If you don't know me, I'm Jane. I have been a Buddhist devotee for the past 11 years, And a lot of my journey was figuring out how to sit comfortably in a meditative posture that felt good to my body, That didn't hurt my body. And through all of my years of training, I have a lot to say on this subject. Meditation practice and finding comfort at ease keep watching I am going to share a lot with you today So my number one rule of meditation is that we do not sit flat on the ground. We just don't. We do not sit flat on the ground, And I will show you why. When I am sitting flat on the ground, I am using so much effort to keep my spine tall. So when we're sitting flat on the ground this is the posture that my body automatically wants to make you can see how I have a curve in my posture and my central channels are not open my spine is not elongated my heart is not open we want to be in a nice tall posture like this so that energy can flow up and down through our central channels but when I am sitting on the ground like this I'm using my hip muscles my core my back I'm using so much energy to keep myself seated upright like this and it's just not the way my friends so my rule is we don't sit flat on the ground we sit on something anything yay high to get your pelvis up and off the ground Now, The first thing I have here is a traditional meditation cushion that is full of mustard seed that I made myself, But I never recommend to go right out and get a meditation cushion. So I'm going to show you all of the other things that you can sit on. This is a traditional meditation cushion. I really like the ones that are shaped like a half moon that kind of have this crescent shape to them. That's my preference. Things that you might have around your house that you can use for meditation as well because I did not actually buy myself a real meditation cushion until years and years into my practice I just used what was around the house so the first thing I grabbed is this folded blanket and even the way I had it folded up sitting in my house is perfect and I will show you why because this is just a little bit height for my hips and now there's just that little bit of height for my hips my legs can open comfortably on the ground and all I need to do is tilt the pelvis forward and my spine is going to get nice and tall so a folded blanket is always a good idea a folded towel I sat on a decorative pillow for years I just found this in my house I love these pillows this is also great this is great allowing me to roll that pelvis forward last thing I grabbed was literally the king pillows from my bed you are absolutely look at how comfy that is so easy so perfect you do not need to go buy a meditation cushion right away use the things that you have around your house So once you've found something you're going to sit on, Oh, And you can also sit on a chair. It is completely appropriate to sit on a chair Once you find something to sit on, We are going to get into posture. And I want you to know if you're a Westerner and you grew up like I did, Where kindergarten was in a chair. All of grade school was in a chair. We go to work and we sit in chairs. For us Westerners. . . Sitting in a chair is what we're used to. So sitting on the ground to meditate is going to be very, Very uncomfortable. And all my time at the Buddhist temple with our beginner students, I would notice at that 20-minute mark, They did not want to sit on the floor anymore. We start to get really fidgety. We start to get really restless. And for so many of us Westerners who want a strong meditation discipline, It is this posture that is such a barrier for us to get into a comfortable practice, Which is why I spend so much time talking about proper posture. So once you've found what you're gonna sit on, Get all these props out of the way get the clutter out of the way I'm gonna go back to my meditation cushion because this is my preference And we're going to sit on that cushion, Okay? We're going to do this together, And we're going to see what happens. Now, I want to have my left leg in first and my right leg in front, Just like this. We're not crisscrossing ankles. We are having them staggered right in front of each other. Then from here, Tilt the pelvis forward and let the spine get tall, And notice the way that my hips start to open as I tilt my pelvis forward. Rest on the lap now for me I have been practicing for so long that I can let my knees completely touch the ground and I can let my feet comfortably sit staggered here so my spine is tall I'm comfortable I could sit like this for hours in ease but it took me a long time to be able to have my hips open enough to sit on the ground like this. So let's make some adjustments if your hips are not opening all the way. So if you sit down on the ground and you're like this, That's great. You could totally hold your arms like this. You could also take a yoga strap around your legs and lock it and hold yourself like this. Super traditional, Lots of yogis in the Himalayan. Use a strap to just hold them comfortably so it really is about how open your hips are so if your hips are opening a little bit more this is a great time to grab those pillows off your bed fold them in half on either side of your knees. Squeeze them on in there and then look at that. My knees are so cozy and nice and open. I sat like this for years because my hips were not open enough to let them sit on the ground and it was twisting my knees. So we can really hurt our knees when we're trying too hard to sit on the ground. So we can do this again. My left leg is in. My right leg is in front. They're not crisscross. We're not cutting off the portals of the body. They're nice and easy there. So we can use cushions there. And then also, I have pretty short arms, And sometimes I like to rest my arms on something. So we could take another prop. Blanket and just rest your hands comfortably like so so this is another way that we can find comfort and ease in our posture there are so many ways and I want you to feel comfortable using as many props as many cushions as you can to find a comfortable posture for yourself Now, The idea is that some leg is on the ground. We could sit like this. We could sit like this. We could sit like this. We could sit like this. Let yourself move around and find that way until eventually you are able to mimic what i'm doing here which is sitting comfortably a traditional posture so again as you find your way in let's tilt that pelvis forward spine gets tall shoulders roll back hands are resting on the lap chin is tilting ever so slightly forward gazing into space in front of you Options for mudras are leaving the hands just right here in the posture of comfort and ease. Another option is the posture of equanimity, Left hand under right, Thumbs barely touching. And sometimes for my more fidgety clients, My more fidgety students like myself, Sometimes I will just grab my hands and let them rest on my heel like this because holding my hands can help me feel a little bit anchored and focused sometimes. Now, If you want to sit on a chair, Please do if sitting on the ground is not working for you. If you are in any pain sitting on the ground, You're never going to get to that meditative state that you want. We are not here to push through pain. We're here to listen to our bodies and honor our bodies. So if we are in too much pain trying to figure out how to sit on the floor. Sit in a chair, And continue working on your body so that your body can eventually sit on the floor. If you are sitting in a chair, Make sure you have both those legs rooted into the ground, Resting the arms on the lap. We don't want the chair to lean back too far. We want to make sure that the central channels are perpendicular to the earth so that we can feel that connection from the universal spirit running through our bodies and connecting us down into the earth, Okay? Is key the second you start to feel pain move around stretch it out get up shake it out try to sit back down again as I said for so many of us the biggest barrier to our meditation discipline is sitting comfortably sitting at ease for a long time So if you are unable to get to this position and you want to learn more, You might not know that the yoga, Asana yoga practices and the qigong practices are amazing physical practices that will help you find a more comfortable posture in your seat. So if you need help there, Do some yoga stretching, Do some qigong, And this will help you get more comfortable in your posture. If you have any more questions, Please reach out to me. You can send me a message. You can join my gorgeous friends group. You can sit in on one of my live classes and ask questions. I want you to be comfortable in your meditative posture, And I want to help you find what that posture is for yourself. So I hope that this was helpful today. I hope you learned something new. Drop a review. Let me know what little nugget of wisdom helped you today. And I'll see you in my next video. Thank you. Bye-bye.