What do we do with our Body when we are Meditating?
In Meditation, proper posture is very important. It involves the right posiitoning of the different parts of the body. In this section, know what to do with your body when Meditating:
What to do with our eyes
Seeing and observing through our eyes is one of our five senses which influence our meditation. When we look through our eyes we direct our attention outwards. Stress and tension often go together with restless eyes. When there is danger our pupils become wider, when we relax our pupils become smaller. Our eyes have a direct relation with the activity of our thinking. We can meditate with our eyes open or closed. We can also meditate with eyes that are half open and that stare. Experiment with the various possibilities and discover your own favourite eye position. We will outline the various characteristics:
- Closed eyes
When we keep our eyes closed this helps us to direct our focus more inward. We are not easily distracted by things or situations that we can see in front of our eyes. A disadvantage is that we will more easily start to daydream, to think or to fall asleep.
- Open eyes
When we keep our eyes open this helps us to focus more on things that are taking place outside ourselves. This makes it easier to apply the technique and the philosophy of meditation in our normal daily lives. But: a good concentration is a requirement. Bot internal and external stimuli can distract you and this makes this position for many people a bit more difficult than the closed eyes position. If you prefer to meditate with your eyes open it may help to sit down in front of a wall or in very peaceful surroundings to minimise the risk of distraction. Keeping your eyes open may also be useful if during meditations you have a tendency to fall asleep.
- Eyes half open
The half open but staring position is a combination of the possibilities mentioned above. As we get more restless we close our eyes a little more and as we get more sleepy we open our eyes more. This position is also called looking with a soft focus. Sometimes during your meditation your eyes will automatically open or close and that is fine. Those who wear glasses had better do their own experimenting as regards the question whether they like meditating with or without their glasses better. Mind: meditating with your eyes open without wearing your glasses can cause sleepiness.
What to do with your head
The position of the head is very important. Visualise as if a string is attached to the top of your head and that this string keeps your head in its position. The head should be well-balanced and without any effort it should be suspended on top of your spine. The chin is a little drawn back and this causes the neck and shoulders to relax. If you draw back the chin too much and your head hangs forward this may make you sleepy and bored. If your head hangs too much backwards this makes your thoughts become more active and you become more restless. When you sit up straight with an outstretched neck it feels as if your head becomes more or less weightless. This means that it is important to be well-balanced so that you can be aware of your thoughts without getting lost in them.
What to do with your mouth, your jaw, and your tongue
We often close our mouth slightly when we are meditating. This means that in general our mouth is closed without pressing the jaws together. The jaw is an area where tension easily manifests itself. When we relax we often see that the lower jaw more and more begins to droop and the mouth opens a little in the form of a circle. It looks a bit as if you get a lazy, soft look on your face. That is fine and a sign that you are relaxing. It is a good thing to keep your tongue against your palate. This means that it cannot start to roll and according to Deepak Chopra it also helps to stop your inner dialogue. He not only applies this trick when he is meditating but also when he is playing golf and wants to hit the ball with full concentration.
What do we do with our hands
The arms are very heavy. When the hands do not rest on something the shoulders have to carry everything. During our meditation our hands rest on our knees or in our lap. This has as a result that the arms can relax. The tradition is to let the hands rest on the thighs or the knees with the tips of the thumbs and the forefingers of either hand touching each other in chin mudra. In the chin mudra position the Chi, Ki or Prana (energy) in the meridians is supposed to be able to stream freely to the finger tips and back through the arms. If you do not like this position then you let your hands rest in an open position on your thighs or knees.
The Dalai Lama and many monks often meditate in the position of meditative equilibrium. In this position you place your hands four finger-widths under your navel, the right hand on top of the left hand and you put your thumbs together in such a way that they form a triangle. The placing of the hands in this way has to do with the area in the body where the inner warmth is produced.
In magazines you often see pictures of hands in a prayer posture. This position is used by some people before or after a meditation to express their gratitude for the session or for other things but this is certainly no obligatory part of every form of meditation.
It is good to experiment with various positions of your hands. In the long run it is important to get a fixed pattern in your posture so that your body will recognise this posture as a meditation posture and will associate it with relaxation. This will help you to get into a deep meditative state more easily and faster as soon as you start to meditate.
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