How to start yoga posture training at home?

Yoga posture training (asana) prepare the body for long meditation. Start your practice at home or join a yoga studio. If you join a club, you will find modern variations of Hatha yoga, which focuses on the purification of the physical body as leading to the purification of the mind.
Modern styles of yoga in the West mostly emphasizes yogic poses, choose either a slow or fast-paced style according to your taste. However, if you choose to start your practice at home, here are the fundamentals to make it authentic.

1.
Choose a dedicated quiet area in your home where you put your skidproof yoga mat (or a big towel).
2.
Schedule regular asana sessions (10-90 min). Set goals for your overall yoga practice (e.g. physical exercising, manage stress, spiritual fullfilment, peace, self-awareness, etc.).
3.
You may want to include rituals such as burning incense and chanting a mantra  before and after class (e.g. ashtanga yoga mantra, this mantra is also set to music by Madonna, “Shanti”).
4.
You may want to put on relaxing music during yoga posture practice instead of doing it silently (e.g. Chinmaya Dunsters - Buddha moon or Regas relax album).
5.
Before assembling your personalized sequence, learn the Sun salutation sequence (surya namaskar), a dynamic sequence consisting of gracefully linked asanas to create flow of movement. You link your breathing with the poses, and inhale during one pose and exhale during the following and so on.
You can include this sequence as a warm-up in your everyday practice. This sequence train your attention as it forces you to focus on your breathing, an essential component of the meditation practice.
Here is a chart that shows you how to do it:

6.
Following your warm-up, start with a simple series of poses including standing poses, inversions, forward bands, twists and backbands, the poses you like. (in the book, "Mind-transformation: Yoga and Buddhist meditation techniques" you find a chart of 100+ asanas).
 Be sure to stay well within your own comfortable capacity. Properly done asanas should feel relatively effortless. For making yourself capable to perform advanced poses, you need to gain strength and stretch the hamstrings, quadriceps, shoulders, and hip muscles slowly over several months.

Assembling asanas (sequencing) is one of the most difficult parts when designing a workout. In a well-planned sequence each pose makes the next pose easier and accessible. There are some fundamental points you need to consider to avoid injuries and allow smooth flowing of postures:
· warm up with floor poses like Sun salutation sequence (surya namaskar);
· group similar poses together;
· move from less difficult poses to more difficult;
· standing poses precede forward bends and backbends;
· avoid twists directly after backbends; never mix forward bends and backbends;
· insert neutralizers e.g. child pose (balasana); cat pose (marjaryasana) cow pose (bitilasana);  and
· always end your practice with a relaxation pose Shavasana).

I developed three full workouts:
A. Short, easy, relaxing sequence before meditation:
Yoga pose (asana) sequence before meditation ...tranquility yoga flow

B. Whole body preparatory 90min workout:
Yoga pose (asana) Preparatory sequence ...90 min workout

C. Specific backbanding preparatory workout:
Yoga pose (asana) Backbending prep sequence

7.
During asana flow breathe slowly and deeply through your nose, and hold each asana for 3-5 breath or as long as you wish.
Focus your attention on the posture or on your breathing.
You may keep your eyes closed, or there is a prescribed point of focus for each pose (dristhi, e.g. nose, between the eyebrows, navel, thumb, hands, feet, up and left or right side).
End your practice with corpse pose (savasana), 10-20 breaths or 3-5min.

Do not forget that the practice of Yoga postures is only the first step toward self-awareness since it helps to focus your attention on breathing or body posture. Next, it is advisable to learn the oldest effective meditation technique that can change your life for the better.

The oldest effective meditation to become a yoga master

If you like it, do yoga daily. And you may want to expand your practice to lifestyle and diet. Here is some posts that show you the basics:
Lifestyle commandments of yoga: "your character becomes your destiny"

20 min low resistance strength training for yogis: essential daily upper body training with dumbells

Yoga diet: authentic curry of india

3 relaxing meditation techniques from three traditions (Hindu, Theravadin Buddhist, Japanese Zen)

Compassionate communication: the end of conflicts and unhappiness

☆ The End ☆

Meditation misunderstood: Concentration or meditation?

Meditation practices can be classified based on attentional mechanism or the physiological state they induce.


Concentration (Sanskrit: dharana, and called Focused Attention Meditation in scientific literature) is  forcing the mind to hold the attention on a chosen object ignoring everything else (“one-pointedness of the mind”).
Concentraction provides the power by which meditation can penetrate into the deepest level of the mind. As the practitioner advances, the depth and steadiness of attention improve, the flow of attention is kept without distractions.
The chosen object for concentration can be anything including external or internal objects, usually the referred meditation objects evoke feelings of harmony and tranquillity (e.g. candle flame, yantra, breath, part of the body, chakras, visualization of a hindu deity, or empty space within a jar, or a person, or scenery, or emotions such as compassion).

Meditation (Sanskrit: dhyana, and called Open Monitoring Meditation in scientific literature) has an unlimited number of objects since instead of focusing the attention on any object, the mind just monitors and fully aware of the intruding sensations (thoughts, emotions, sensations, sounds, smell, memory, or images), without making judgements about them or attaching/focusing to any of them. The goal of the witnessing practice is to be attentively present.

Meditation in practice
Most meditation practices are complex and require both focused and distributed attention.
In the early stages of meditation, some type of concentration is used (e.g. breathing, chanting “om” mantra, gazing a yantra or candle flame, visualizing chakras), until the easily distracted and incessantly moving mind  has cooled down (“monkey mind”, Sanskrit: kapicitta).
The concentration is temporary, and is broken by interruption of thought patterns and sensations. You train the mind by repeatedly bringing the attention back to the object of focus (e.g. breathing) when the attention is drifting away. Notice the rising and fading of thoughts, sensations of the body, emotions, desires, images and memories without getting involved in them. 

When the concentration is not interrupted for a sustained period of time, you enter the stage of meditation. By practice, the mind wanders less and the gap (“empty space between the thoughts”) lengthens, the attention is not focused on anything in particular, the mind is stilled, quiet and empty, free from desires and not disturbed, which is the goal of meditation.

The three essential steps of concentration:
Step 1. Concentrate on the object (e.g. breathing)
Step 2. Notice that attention is drifting away
Step 3. Bring your focus back repeatedly


Which meditation method is best for you? 

Meditative practices also can be classified on the basis of whether they produce relaxation or arousal (arousal is a wakeful state of enhanced cognition and emotions). Meditation techniques from different traditions induce distinct physiological and cognitive influences, therefore the choice of meditation technique greatly influence the outcome of the practice.

For instance, Tibetan Tantric Buddhist deity meditation produces arousal, therefore it is useful when optimal cognitive performance is needed and may not be the optimal choise for stress reduction. Whereas Vipassana, in which you watch your breathing with awareness and observe the self in the moment, induces relaxation and build your mental focus and awareness.

Mindfulness meditation, which is a modern adaptation of Vipassana, can be practiced throughout the day during daily activities (e.g. while speaking pay attention how you speak the words; while walking be aware of your body movements etc.). This practice gives you the real perspective on yourself, you can see yourself exactly as you are (e.g. angry, greedy, ignorant, selfish, envy, boastful, irritated). Accept the facts without trying to deny or justify them. This self-discovery also provides the opportunity to defeat self-deception, change your negative qualities and modify your behaviour and thinking.


Here you can learn Vipassana:
Sit in a comfortable position keeping the back upright and balanced. Inhale and exhale slowly and deeply, and focus your attention on the movement of your breath from moment to moment, and withdraw your focus from other objects.
When awareness wanders away from your breathing, sensations will appear (thoughts, feelings, emotions, memory, sounds, smell). Just recognize that the mind has wandered, as well as the content without judgment or without reacting to or involving in them. Label each sensation with a general mental note such as “thinking”, “hearing”, “feeling”, “memory”, “smelling“, and redirect the attention to the breath.
The goal of this witnessing practice is to be attentively present. By practice, random thoughts and sensations will fall away, and you remain in the present moment.
Here you find detailed guide how to do it: 
The oldest effective meditation

If you find hard to concentrate, start with yoga posture training, it forces you to pay attention to your breathing or the posture of the body. How to start yoga posture training at home

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