Meditation: More Essential Than Ever in 2021
The new year is always a great time for turning inward, reflecting, and setting intentions. But we should avoid the trap of thinking that the challenges that arose in 2020 will magically dissipate because it’s a new year. What we can do is shift our orientation toward the challenges in our lives, and in the world.
There is no doubt that we live in intense times. And, of course, all yoga practices can help with that. But the simplest and most effective practice for feeling, like Arjuna in The Bhagavad Gita, that no experience in your life is overwhelming is to meditate consistently.
In addition to a pandemic and political upheaval, we are living in the shadow of the Information Age, constantly bombarded with information, surrounded by screens. Some people are thinking about how to change our gadgets to make us less distracted. But the real solution lies within. We just need the tools to move into a more healthy and sane relationship with our own consciousness.
Meditation is one of those tools.
What Is Meditation?
Meditation is a yogic practice for gaining mastery over the mind, and the self. In meditation we are shifting from an identity with the mind to identifying with our higher self, our awareness, our consciousness. Meditation is also a technique for quieting the mind and accessing this deep stillness within, where we have access to an infinite field of potential within us. By increasing our experience of stillness, the mind gets out of the way and we are able to develop a deeper relationship with reality, to see reality more clearly.
Meditation is not an escape from reality. Rather, it is a preparation for it. You could even say that meditation is a revealer of reality, because what we consider to be reality is almost entirely a product of our perception. —Yogani
The Benefits of Meditation
Meditation is a form of yoga and, like yoga, starts to shift you from identifying with your mind to identifying with your awareness, the stillness at the root of your being. You move toward a state of unity. It also helps you to:
Feel calmer, stabilizing your nervous system
Experience increased clarity and focus
Be less reactive, and more adaptable
Have more compassion, experience more acceptance, of yourself and others
Gain greater access to your intuition, that small, quiet voice that guides you to your best decisions
Increase access to stillness, and your inherent bliss nature
Consciously choose your thoughts instead of being at the mercy of your thoughts — moving out of a victim state
Plant seeds of intention in the infinite and fertile field of silence to grow taller trees of creativity and fulfillment
About My Meditation Course
Inspired by all of this, I am offering a 4-week meditation course starting February 3rd, 2021. In this course you will learn a traditional meditation technique that is simple and accessible, yet powerful, and adapted to modern times. Elemental Meditation is a mantra-based meditation technique that also incorporates a subtle breath kriya from the ancient Himalayan Yog-Vedantic tradition. The technique is simple and approachable yet powerful and highly effective.
I am also giving away one free spot in the course.
Why Mantra?
A mantra-based meditation technique is superior to visualization techniques or techniques that rely solely on the breath because it uses the tendencies of the mind to bypass the mind and go more deeply with minimum effort. The mind is wired to think, to repeat thoughts. So we give it a special kind of thought to use its natural tendencies to quiet it.
What’s Included In the Course
In the course we will go through all the elements of this meditation technique and start to establish a consistent meditation practice together.
There will be weekly live instruction and practice sessions over Zoom. You’ll also have access to recordings of all the sessions in case you can’t make a session.
Starts: February 3rd, with two time slot options per week: Wednesday evenings (NY time) and Monday mornings.
Length: 4 weeks, plus 5 months of regular (optional) follow-up
Weekly time commitment: ~90 minutes, plus your meditation time
Private consultation with me to receive your personal meditation mantra based on your astrology.
Regular community checkins: Throughout the course and after the course for 1 week, 1 month, and then 5 months after the course, just to check in and make sure you’re still maintaining that essential consistency.
Six months of access to my premium weekly yoga group: A $240 value
Meditation is the most important and nurturing thing you can do for yourself, and for others in your life. When you meditate you become the best version of yourself. In fact, meditation is the key to true liberation and abiding bliss.
So if you’re tired of being at the mercy of your thoughts join me in the course. It only takes a month to develop this essential habit that will completely transform your life.
And it’ll be FUN! I promise. Please comment on this post with any questions you might have.
About Elemental Meditation
Elemental Meditation is a mantra-based meditation technique that also incorporates a subtle breath kriya from the ancient Himalayan Yog-Vedantic tradition. The technique is simple and approachable yet powerful and highly effective.
My Experience with Meditation
I’ve been teaching different styles of yoga for over a decade and I’ve been meditating for over 20 years with different styles: Breath awareness, Qigong and some other techniques. Until last year I was living in India studying some advanced yoga and meditation techniques with different masters in the Himalayas, where I learned the simple and powerful techniques that I will be sharing with you.
