Before meditation practices

[nine tailed fox]

I was wondering 

 

What do you guys do before sitting for a meditation to relax your mind and body ???? 

 

What can we do to make our body and mind ready for meditation ??? 

[子泰]

use meditation to relax your mind and body for the day

[Seeker of Wisdom]

Sometimes I'll briefly counteract each of the five hindrances: craving by contemplating contentment, malice by metta, restlessness by relaxing (developing the attitude of taking a break from noise), torpor by trataka (focusing hard on a spot on the wall or something to rouse energy), and doubt by taking refuge in the Three Jewels and contemplating the achievability of what I'm doing. Two minutes at each stage is a nice way to get in a balanced, inspired frame of mind in only ten minutes.

 

Normally, though, I just start meditating straight off.

 

IMO it's a key thing that the mind we cultivate with is also the mind we do everything else with. Spend the whole day feeding it junk, and you can't expect it to be serene and limber the moment you're cross-legged.

 

One thing that really helps is finding a practice you can keep running all the time, outside formal sessions. Ideally, from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep. That sort of momentum gets results. It might be the same as what you do on the cushion - in which case, that should be some great momentum if you can keep at it.

 

The other thing that helps is virtue - thoughts, words and actions supporting rather than undermining what you're trying to do on the cushion. Not in some moralistic 'oh how shameful' sense, more in a 'getting irritable doesn't feel skilful, let's work on patience a bit', or whatever.

 

Hope that helps.

[Kubba]

Yoga or other practice of movements. After it usually you dont think too much and just fall... Fall...

 

It mimick the natural process of kryias. Most of the time they start with movements and end up in sitting

Edited August 6, 2015 by Kubba

[Fate]

I've been practicing between two different modes of thought.

 

One- Meditate right after waking. In this way you are closest to the unconscious and no mind that you want to explore and reach with meditation. Alan Watts and Osho both say you don't even need to get out of bed, just lie there flat etc.

 

Two-I've been doing my Taiji and Qi Gong sets before meditation the past few days. I don't know if my meditation is just progressing naturally or if meditating is easier after I generate presence from the other practices, but I'm able to go deeper into relaxation this way.

 

Experiment, see what works, listen to your body.

[Tung]

I do high jumps, to get some cardio exercise, then i do some leg stretches.

 

Don't want to get to exhausted from jumping, just enough so the body gets a bit warm and is alert.

Also i want to keep my cardio so its a good time do it before meditation so that way i do both.

[Jonesboy]

You can do a few things.

 

A 10 min asana routine will help. AYP has a nice little routine. You can also do some Sun Salutations.

 

Pranayama practice before meditation is always powerful. Alternate Nostril Breathing is a nice one to start with if you don't have one already.

 

Yidam practice is very powerful.

 

If none of that sounds good to you, you can always focus on your breath and then do a body scan. I always find doing the body scan calms the mind for meditation.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Tom

[LAOLONG]

I smoke and drink coffee

[soaring crane]

light calisthenics like arm swinging and bouncing, plus some basic stretching and slapping

[doc benway]

I was wondering 

 

What do you guys do before sitting for a meditation to relax your mind and body ???? 

 

What can we do to make our body and mind ready for meditation ??? 

 

9 Breathings of Purification

Tsa Lung

[Sebastian]

In Spring Forest Qigong, the Master recommends doing qi-gong or any kind of active exercises before meditation, and not the other way around. 

 

That's what the Shaolin Monks do. It makes sense, movements tire you slightly and lead to rest / stillness. Sitting full of energy may lead to restlessness.

 

Immediately before meditation, you could do joint opening exercises and rotational exercises. 

[Songtsan]

Deliver excess shakti to the ground state by allowing spontaneous kriyas to perform themselves through the body until the distracting energies have found their place.

[Songtsan]

Ideally, aspire to enter meditation 24/7. Permanent cultivation. It's what's for dinner.

[Sebastian]

Thanks for adding your perspective, Sebby. Regarding "Sitting full of energy may lead to restlessness," I hear you.

 

To reduce the discomfort of restlessness during cultivation, my routine is the opposite of what you suggest. After a meditation session, having collected highly refined qi, I then do about half an hour to an hour of movement. Either some tai chi, somatics, or a relaxed walk. Movement of the body with increased qi allows blockages in the channels to be broken through.

 

Good to hear of other ways people cultivate!

 

Thanks. I also do a closing qi-gong after meditation with gentle rotational exercises, patting and tapping for about 15 minutes. It's the SFQ closing exercise basically. I know that what you suggest is really the best though. I try to go for a short walk to settle the chi afterwards. If I can't go outside, sometimes I just walk inside my house very slowly akin to walking meditation. 

 

It seems Motion - Stillness - Motion fits the best for me in terms of a practice structure.

 

On a finer level, the ideal routine for me is something like this

 

Qigong - Stillness - Closing or "Waking Up" Qigong you could say - Taichi or Walking

 

I don't do the last step nearly as often as I should though. I think it's something great that's underrated. 

[thelerner]

Before I sit down I'll stretch and shake a little to loosen up.   After sitting I'll circle my body around a few times to find a good balance, usually a bit more forward lean to counter act my tendency to sit too far back.  Then I'll go through a Vispassana saying, either a long version or short. 

The short being:

I am not my thoughts

I am not my body

I am not my emotions.. past.. future.. possessions.. desires.. 

I am breath and awareness.

 

The longer version would include reasons why I'm not those things.. ie not my thoughts- they are ephemeral, passing like clouds in the sky, they are a tool,  best kept quiet.  I am not my body- it is my vessel, a valued possession I'm intrusted with.  I am not my emotions.. I acknowledge them and let them settle like ripples on a pond.. That kind of thing.  I probably make up slightly different wordings each time.  But its an important reminder to get into a proper state.  

 

When I was operated on last year and they were fiddling with tubes leading into my heart I heard the surgeon say 'Well this isn't going well' and because I've repeated 'I'm not my body' so many times I didn't particularly feel much fear.  Course it could have been the drugs.. 

[SonOfTheGods]

 Create a personal Pavlovian conditioned- trigger mechanism, that puts you in Alpha Level, instantly

[soaring crane]

Create a personal Pavlovian conditioned- trigger mechanism, that puts you in Alpha Level, instantly

For example?

[SonOfTheGods]

For example?

 

I use this one-

 

Tongue to roof of mouth, eyes upward- sword fingers touch... and I'm gone

______________

 

When you achieve Alpha Level, mentally affirm to yourself "when I do this (your prefered personal Pavlovian conditioned- trigger mechanism) I will enter this state of mind immediately"

 

Do this for a couple of weeks and this trigger will circuit you there instantly = it's basic reprogramming

______________

 

This also works for anxiety issues, fear, insomnia, pain,  etc- use a trigger to connect you to a desired condition

[kio]

My goal is to reach the full lotus, so before I meditate I do a number of 'yin' yoga stretches to increase the flexibility and openness in my hips, lower back and legs.

 

I usually burn sage and use it to purify my energy channels while I'm doing yoga.  It's one of the most relaxing things I've ever done in my life.

[Kubba]

Don't need to fixate yourself on full lotus, half is good enought too or even less than that

[kio]

Full lotus is so kool though

 

The koolest of all asanas!

[Kubba]

Yes, looks so stable . I mean don't force it- there is noone to impress with lotus and the satisfaction will wanish too . But when you harm yourself then you will have to recover some time and might not be able to exercise. So I mean dont put too much attention to it. gradually you wil gain flexibility as much as your body needs, and if the full lotus will be needed then it wil come by itself . Yoga by itself brings a lot of peace of mind, even through simple exercises that dont put too much stress to the body- have fun

Edited August 9, 2015 by Kubba

[bamboo]

Nine tail,

 

you need to stretch the body before meditation either using asanas or qigong warm up stretches. This will help to open the channels and increase circulation to unblock congestion. Meditation comes after asanas and pranayama/breathing practice in the limbs of Yoga don't forget. It's the same in qigong too.

[silent thunder]

I like to shake for a while.

[Brian]

So then I am doing it backwards.

I tend to do both -- I usually do a moving qigong set prior to a meditative session and I always end a meditative session with either the specific Stillness-Movement closing sequence or with another moving qigong set (depending on mood, time, etc.)

 

I find a qigong set places me in the shifted state from which stillness is reached quickly and I find movement after stillness is an extension of that stillness -- walking with one foot in the sun and one in the shade, so to speak.