Alrighty,
So meditation seems super interesting to you,
But yoga,
Not so much.
Is it possible to get benefits from meditation without having to do all the yoga?
In this video we will explore the connection between yoga and meditation.
But heads up,
Yoga is not a requirement.
Okay,
Let's get started.
Yoga and meditation are often practiced together and there's definitely a school of thought that yoga is the preparation that the body requires so it can sit for long periods of meditation.
But that doesn't mean that you have to do yoga before you do meditation.
The word yoga means union,
Union between the body and the mind.
So in that way you can see that,
You know,
Yoga asana,
Yoga poses with the body and meditation with the mind,
They do sit really nicely together.
Often yoga classes will incorporate some meditation as well,
Though that's not always the case.
But there's absolutely no requirement,
You don't have to do yoga in order to do meditation.
And especially when you're building a meditation practice,
You want to kind of remove as many obstacles from that as possible.
So if you can just sit where you're sitting and close your eyes and count your breaths or whatever,
And you can just do that without having to change clothes or roll out a mat,
It makes it so much easier.
Do I think doing yoga before sitting down to meditate is good?
For sure.
Do I think not doing yoga means the meditation is wrong?
Not at all.
I love the way that both yoga and meditation make me feel after I've done them,
You know,
I've never regretted rolling out the mat or sitting to meditate.
But sometimes I struggle to get there,
You know,
The motivation to get started can sometimes be hard to come by.
So again,
For me,
It's about removing those barriers.
You know,
If I,
If I want to build a meditation practice,
And I feel like,
Oh,
But I've got to do 40 minutes of yoga first.
I'm just not going to do it,
You know,
Even though I love doing yoga.
If it's a barrier,
It's a barrier.
And I don't think that's what we want while we're building a habit.
So if you want to do both,
Do both.
If you just want to do yoga and not meditate,
Cool.
If you just want to do meditation and not yoga,
Also cool.
Just whatever works.
If you can spare five minutes to count your breaths,
Then don't complicate things.
You can maybe work up to yoga later if you're interested in doing that.
But for the first few weeks,
It's about getting that habit in place and you don't have to do anything fancy and you don't have to do yoga.
For now,
Just remove all obstacles to meditation and just sit just for two minutes a day,
Whatever you want.
You don't have to find a beautiful forest.
You don't have to have a $90 meditation cushion.
You can just sit right where you are and meditate.
So I'll see you back here next week.
See you then.
