Meditation is one of the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga. Meditation can help a person calm his/her mind down and continue the journey towards super conscious state. Attaining the real knowledge of the purpose of life is next to reaching God. Meditation is the technique that helps you achieve the real purpose of your birth – ultimate union with God.

If taken down to daily life, meditation is the best stress reliever. Meditate for 10 minutes a day to stay calm and collected throughout the day. Meditation immediately brings down the levels of stress hormones in your blood. Meditation also helps you bring down blood pressure. It can also act as a treatment to different diseases including heart diseases.

People try hard to manage the hectic daily schedule. People need some option to stay calm for at least a few minutes a day. Yoga meditation is the perfect method to quickly attain calmness of mind, identify the solutions for problems they face and to approach life in a more positive manner.

Meditation is the easiest method of concentrating your thoughts to a single point of focus. Almost all people achieve this focus at different times in their lives. You achieve this state when you are deeply involved in any activity. The activities can be as simple as playing with your baby or the time you are deeply involved in an office assignment. The point is – no other thoughts come to disturb you.

While meditating we achieve the state of deep focus. The experience of deep focus helps you solving your day-to-day problems and to manage your life better.

Meditation is relaxed and high alert state at the same time. It is heightened awareness without worries. Practicing meditation teaches you how to concentrate first on breathing, then on a specific point inside your body and then on everything you do.

Yoga states meditation is not a religious process. The requirement of yoga meditation is simply understood by the benefits it brings. It relieves mental stress and strengthens mind. It also pacifies body and regulates bodily functions.

Yoga practice is started and ended with meditation. Yoga practitioners must take five minutes each at the beginning and end of a yoga practicing session.

Kundalini chakras are energy centers where kundalini energy rest in dormant state. The chakras are physical realities and one can locate seven chakras on one’s body along the spinal cord region. A chakra literally means a wheel. The chakras are in continuous spinning motion at set frequencies.

According to Kundalini concepts, these energy centers have lotus like petals. The one at the base (Mooladhara chakra) has four petals and the highest one (Sahasrara chakra) chakra has one thousand petals and resembles the light of thousand suns shining together. There can be many thousands of sub chakras located at the areas of lower chakras.

The seven major chakras are briefly explained below

1. Mooladhara Chakra (Sacral Plexus or Root Chakra)

Mooladhara chakra, shaped like a four-petal red lotus is located at the base of the spine. This chakra represents earth element and is responsible for material world.

2. Svadhisthana Chakra or Sex Chakra

Svadhisthana is of the shape of a six-petal vermilion lotus, which is responsible for the conduct of the person.

3. Manipura Chakra or Solar Plexus Chakra

Manipura chakra has ten blue petals and is responsible for the knowledge of physical existence.

4. Anahata Chakra or Heart Chakra

Located at the heart level and on the spinal cord, Anahata chakra is of the shape of a vermilion or deep lotus with 12 petals.

5. Visuddha Chakra or Throat Chakra

Visuddha (means pure) chakra is located at the top of spinal code. Its shape is of a lotus with 16 purple petals.

6. Ajna Chakra or The Third Eye Chakra

Ajna (means command) chakra is like a lotus of two white petals, situated in between the eyebrows. It is responsible for concentration and intelligence.

7. Sahasrara Chakra or Crown Chakra

Sahasrara Chakra is like a lotus with thousand petals. Its appearance is like 1000 suns shining together. This chakra synchronizes all knowledge and cosmic realization. This is the meeting place of Kundalini Energy and Siva. Awakening this chakra requires so much efforts and complete surrender before the almighty.

The chakra are awakened by either concentrated meditation or by clearing the energy path for the kundalini energy to uncoil from its dormant state. Kundalini energy awakening is recommended only under the guidance of a teacher.

A yoga practitioner may come across countless types of meditation techniques. The objective of the yogi is to identify the yoga meditation technique that is appropriate for him/her.

Yoga meditation requires you to concentrate on a focal point inside or outside your body. Some meditation techniques tell you to concentrate on void or emptiness, which is hard to achieve.

Meditation is not a thinking process in itself, but allowing free flow of thoughts, but on a focal point. Swami Vivekananda once said mind is like a chariot and thought is like horses. Controlling the thoughts in a certain direction is necessary to take the life in the right direction.

A yogi doesn’t suppress his/her thoughts. During meditation, the thoughts are naturally calms down take a finite shape. Deep meditation takes you to a state of super consciousness, which is called Samadhi.

The different types of meditation are:

Mantra Meditation
Trataka Meditation
Chakra Meditation
Raja Yoga Meditation
Nada Yoga Meditation etc

Different yoga meditation techniques tell you to take a comfortable meditation posture. Lotus posture is the preferred yoga meditation pose. There are other meditation postures too.

The person then concentrates on his thought. It is then time to concentrate on any focal point. Kundalini energy centers (chakras) or any point on, inside or outside his/her body is where the thought process concentrated.

The most effective mantra is OM. It is a single letter in Sanskrit language. The O is pronounced deeply like a long O as in go, show, low etc. M is pronounced after a long O. The sound can be something like ohm.

People who do not appreciate the universal sound of OM replace the mantra with numbers 1-2-3- Â…

Chant the mantra as you exhale.

The practitioner can also apply visualization techniques while meditation. Here instead of mantra, the yogi visualizes successful actualization of his/her life goals.

According to yoga, a mind and a pyre have similar destructive qualities. Fear and selfishness leads to different bad thoughts and negative expectations. These all are emotions that affect our mind, all of which are destructive too.

Fear is the biggest enemy of man. It leads to all kinds of thoughts and worries. Selfishness also causes stress. Never allow any negative thoughts affect you. Yoga practitioners tell you to deal with the moment you are currently in. Deal with the problems at hand. Never worry about solving a problem that would occur ten minutes from now. Or donÂ’t think about enjoying your moment in a more fulfilling manner once you are out of office. Enjoy the task you do and find pleasure in whatever you do, even when dealing with tough problems.

It is just the same as worrying about things that are past. You canÂ’t change the minute that has passed by. Choosing how to spend this moment and minute will determine how will be prepared to spend the minutes that are coming your way. The important point is to do what is best for you at this very moment; it will naturally prepare your way for your future events.

This starts with thought process. We become what we think. Self fulfilling prophecies attack our mind in large numbers at different times. DonÂ’t fall prey to destructive thoughts.

According to yoga, mind and body are closely related. Aadhi (struggles of mind) causes vyadhi (stuggle of body that is disease). Negative thoughts weaken all our body and perceiving power.

According to yoga, each type of thought produces a specific kind of liquid in our body. (Modern science says living things produce certain hormones or pheromones while triggered some emotion like fear, pleasantness, appetite, etc). The liquids produced as a result of thoughts (comparable to adrenaline rush in animals and humans when afraid or something or got excited) can negatively or positively affect the body.

When these liquids accumulate in our body, it causes several diseases. Therefore it is necessary to keep yourselves away from Kama-kroda vicharas (sexual or angry thoughts).

The result of such thoughts will be accumulation of negative energies in our body, which is destructive to both mind and body.