As mind-body practices, yoga and meditation present many advantages. Nonetheless, in case you follow one with out the opposite, you won’t be getting probably the most out of both behavior. You may really improve your expertise each on the mat and in your pillow by combining the 2.

Right here’s how meditation can deepen your connection to your yoga follow and vice versa.

Why Ought to You Apply Yoga and Meditation Collectively?

Meditation and yoga work collectively synergistically to learn one another. Some sorts of yoga, together with kundalini yoga and sure types of hatha yoga, already embrace meditation within the follow.

“In yoga, meditation is every little thing,” says Sam Rudra Swartz, a licensed meditation trainer and hatha yoga teacher. “The poses put together the physique, the respiration practices assist put together the thoughts, and then you definately spend this time alone together with your [thoughts] the place you set effort towards concentrating on precisely one factor,” whether or not it’s your breath, a mantra, or sensations in your physique.

Plus, the bodily follow of yoga can assist you to be extra conscious in your meditations. “A constant hatha yoga follow is necessary so as to have the ability to sit nonetheless in a tall, upright, alert pose that may facilitate this focus for meditation,” says Swartz.

Yoga additionally focuses on the breath by pranayama, that are respiration strategies that preserve you calm and centered. With a constant meditation follow, you might be getting ready your physique and thoughts for this breath work throughout yoga poses and constructing focus and focus by every stream.

Apply these workout routines sufficient and also you would possibly begin to discover their results in your on a regular basis life as properly.

“We’re taught that yoga is all a couple of calm and centered thoughts, in order that every little thing you do all through your day is a meditation,” Swartz says. “Your complete day will be a part of your follow.”

Do You Meditate Earlier than or After Yoga?

“There isn’t a steadfast rule as as to if or not you follow one or the opposite first,” Swartz says. Nonetheless, historically, a yoga follow helps a meditation follow. Within the authoritative textual content, The Yoga Sutras, bodily follow (asana) is meant to be regular and comfy, to arrange for longer, sitting meditations.

Nonetheless, Swartz says it’s OK to be versatile about which one you do first. Some meditations work finest very first thing within the morning when life is quiet and the solar is rising. “When you’re an early riser and wish to align with the deeper traditions of the religious follow, meditate as early as doable,” he says, then do a light follow.

Later within the day, you would possibly wish to stream earlier than you sit. “In case your follow is sort of rigorous, you’d wish to finish your bodily follow with at the least a couple of minutes of deep leisure and meditation,” he says.

What Are the Advantages of Yoga and Meditation?

Yoga and meditation have quite a few documented and researched advantages, lots of which overlap. Whether or not you have interaction in a single or the opposite, your thoughts and physique will thanks for adopting these historical practices in your trendy life.

The advantages of yoga

The advantages of meditation

• Meditation can increase your well-being and supply further advantages in your thoughts, like serving to elevate temper and ease stress.
• Researchers now know meditation can change your mind construction and thus assist preserve it wholesome. Knowledge from the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences means that meditation would possibly assist protect each grey and white matter within the mind, which can assist sluggish age-related decreases in each.

Prepared to realize all the advantages of meditation and yoga? Begin with Yoga52 or Beachbody Yoga Studio, which have courses and applications for all objectives and talent ranges.

Mix one class every week with meditation. When you’re new to the follow, BODi options guided meditation applications in Sound Meditation or Unstress that vary from 10 to 45 minutes in size.