Meditation Warming Up: Stretching - The Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar)
If you can sit up straight without any support for a quarter of an hour or longer, this exercise is superfluous for you. But: if you regularly experience aches while sitting it may help to do some yoga exercises before you start to Meditate. Yoga and Meditation go well together. In classical yoga physical exercises are only a stage on the path to samadhi or enlightenment. The seventh stage on the path of a yogi is Meditation. Yoga exercises not only help against aches, but they also calm down your mind. Very handy when you are tense and want to start Meditating. If you want to know more about yoga or want to find a special exercise for certain joint problems or muscle problems we advise you to surf to our ABC-of-Yoga site. We have selected the greeting the sun exercise for you. The greeting the sun exercise is a well-known yoga exercise, which is very effective for the warming up of your muscles and the calming down of your mind just before a yoga session or a Meditation session.
The Sun Salutation
The Sun Salutation is an excellent warming up exercise that loosens up our muscles, removes stiffness in the joints and helps our mind to focus. Greeting the sun is an elegant series of movements. It consists of twelve positions and deals with our entire body. Each posture is a reaction to the previous posture. The body is stretched in many ways. And we use our breathing very actively. If you do this exercise every day you will increase the flexibility of your backbone and you will get a trimmer figure. When you do this exercise as a warming up before your Meditation it is advisable not to do it too fast. It is not good to start Meditating exhausted and sweating. Try to do each posture as perfectly as possible and do the entire greeting the sun exercise at least twice to achieve sufficient effect. Good luck!
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STEP 1: Stand on your yoga mats and start with the Yoga Mountain Pose. Bring your palms together in prayer position. Exhale.
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STEP 2: As you inhale, raise your arms overhead, keeping your palms together.
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STEP 3: Exhale and then bend forward until your hands touch your feet.
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STEP 4: As you inhale, step the right leg back, arch back and lift your chin.
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STEP 5: Exhaling, step the left leg back into plank position. Keep your spine and legs in a straight line and support your weight on hands and feet.
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STEP 6: Retaining the breath, lower your knees, your chest and then your forehead, keeping your hips up and toes curled under.
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STEP 7: Inhaling, stretch forward and bend back. Keep your arms straight.
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STEP 8: Exhaling, curl your toes under, press down into your heels, and lift your hips.
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STEP 9: As you inhale, move your left leg back, with the top of the foot stretched out flat on the floor, and lift your chin.
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STEP 10: Exhale and then bend forward until your hands touch your feet.
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STEP 11: Inhaling, stretch your arms forward and over your head. Slowly bend backward from the waist.
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STEP 12: Exhaling, gently come back to Tadasana.
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