Teaching Meditation - The Physical Flashcards
What are some key points regarding posture in meditation?
The posture must be comfortable yet allow the student to stay alert—this is why meditation is not generally practised lying down.
When lying down, the mind does not. have the same clarity or alertness as well as sleep is more likely. If the student has an injury or medical condition that prevents them from sitting postures, they may choose to sit on a chair or lie down if their condition does not allow for a chair.
Subtle changes in posture can affect mental state and mood. It is important to teach the correct posture and its importance and to reassure students so they are not worried or preoccupied with perfectionism.
It is important to be comfortable and to sit correctly. Discomfort will only be a distraction. It is important to give the students options to adapt their posture. Encourage them to listen to their bodies and discover what is right for them. Reassure them that it is okay to move and readjust their posture if necessary. Encourage them to be mindful when they do so rather than moving with restlessness or agitation.
Why is it important to sit upright during meditation?
It allows the proper energy flow up the spine.
The back should be straight but not forced in an unnatural way or create tension. The shoulders should be relaxed, and you should not slouch. Slouching is prevented by rolling the shoulders back and down slightly. The hands must be supported by placing them in the lap, for example. This prevents tension in the arms and shoulders.
How should the chin be placed during meditation?
The chin should be tilted downwards slightly.
This allows for correct alignment of the spine. Ask your students to imagine a string pulling them upwards at the crown of the head as a way to find the correct chin position and help to straghten the spine and relax the muscles of the neck.
What is essential to ensure if the student is sitting in a chair?
They are not leaning on the back of the chair as this will create an arched back.
Ensure they are not making contact with the back of the chair and they are supporting themselves. Some contact at the base of the spine is OK and can help to keep the back upright.
Students with certain back problems may require the extra support of leaning back in the chair, so be mindful of such exceptions. The feet must be flat on the floor.
If the student has a condition in which lying down to meditate is the only option, what should they do with their head?
It must be supported by a cushion or a block, creating the correct angle of the chin, as mentioned in the sitting postures.
One option is to have the knees bent, with the feet flat, placed where the knees would be if the legs were straight (taken from the Alexander Technique - and is referred to as the Alexander semi-supine position). The heels can be slightly angled outwards if necessary to prevent the knees from leaning outwards.
What considerations should be factored in about the face during meditation?
It should be relaxed, with a space between the teeth and the tip of the tongue resting on the roof of the mouth, just behind the teeth.
In Taoist meditation, this tongue position is believed to connect two main energy meridians in the body that go up the front and back of the spine. The Du Meridian starts at the perineum and goes up the back and over the head until it reaches the upper palate of the mouth. The Ren Meridian begins from the tongue, down the front of the body via the throat, chest, and abdomen, and leads back to the perineum.
In more advanced meditation positions, such as the full lotus, the palms can be placed on the soles of the feet, which completes the connection of Chi pathways. The reason the lotus position and variations have been used for centuries (aside from the many other benefits) is that they help to energetically ground the body, which is a good foundation for working with the Kundalini. As students begin to explore more advanced postures, remind them to stop if any pain or discomfort arises.
What considerations must be considered for students who have not meditated before and breathing?
When teaching meditation, new students who have not meditated before may need time to adjust to deep, diaphragmatic breathing, especially individuals who, due to higher stress and anxiety levels, may be more accustomed to shallow, chest breathing.
Visualisations can be a helpful way for students to guide themselves towards this new way of breathing. Some examples may be imagining a balloon in the belly area that inflates and deflates as they inhale and exhale. Regardless of the technique, the first step is to remind students to slow down the mind, and the body will follow.
Another helpful technique to help new students adjust to deeper breathing is to ask them to lie down and place one hand on the lower abdomen and one on the chest so that they may begin to observe whether the lower abdomen or chest is rising most. The intent is to keep the chest still with the belly rising as the breath becomes deeper.
Anapanasati is a beneficial option regardless of whether it is part of the meditation techniques you teach. The mindful state developed during this practice will help to slow the mental chatter, allowing the student to become more aware of how the breath is functioning in general. Since the technique is about observing the breath rather than breathing in a specific way, Anapanasati can be a good foundation before going on to teach more specific breathing techniques.
To manage discomfort during meditation, what does the student need to become?
Aware of it.
Through mindfulness of physical sensations, the student can observe the sensation for what it is without the mental commentary or judgement that makes it appear worse. In observing, instead of reacting to discomfort, the student learns to develop better control over their automatic responses.
The longer the session, the more likely it is that discomfort will be experienced. Discomfort is the natural result of too much physical inactivity and can sometimes be experienced as pain. How to manage the pain or discomfort depends on its cause. For example, bad posture that leads to pain should be corrected.
Sometimes, there may not be an obvious cause of pain. Changing positions may not ease the pain, or the relief may be temporary. Being mindful of the pain rather than judging it leads to the awareness that despite the presence of pain, suffering is optional, as is the mental component that causes it.
What are some of the unusual sensations that may come up during meditation?
Pain
Tiredness
Agitation and Anger
Pain is a label given to a collection of physical sensations. It is a concept rather than an objective thing in itself. In addition to pain, other sensations such as tingling, itching, restlessness, and muscle tension may arise.
Again, mindfulness and non-reactivity are the keys to dealing with it. If you are guiding a meditation, talk the students through what to do if they are feeling any unusual sensations. Tell them to notice the sensation, to inspect it, so that they may observe the sensation for what it is without the conceptual overlay.
This approach leads to acceptance and keeps the mind in the present moment. Reassure your students beforehand that any discomfort does not mean that they are doing the meditation incorrectly. Make them aware that not every session will be the same and that they should not have expectations of how they should experience it. Depending on the type of meditation, having an intention is okay, but there is a difference as far as the expectation is concerned.
Take care to respond appropriately if the student is experiencing a physical symptom that is beyond the scope of what is expected during meditation, such as dizziness or anything that may require the student to stop the meditation and/or seek medical attention. Ensure that you are approachable and that students are comfortable seeking advice if something does not seem right.
If meditating with eyes closed, students may be encouraged to continue the meditation with eyes open if they are experiencing drowsiness. However, it is not necessary to fight tiredness. Many people have disrupted sleep or not enough rest in their busy lives. This is one reason they may be seeking meditation in the first place.
When they allow themselves to be at rest enough to meditate, the tiredness they have been repressing can come to the surface. Teach students to allow it to be as it is and, again, not to judge or feel like their meditation practice has been ruined by tiredness.
Through regular meditation practice, students may resolve issues around tiredness in their lives. Meditation may then become a more energising experience as the mental chatter that consumes a lot of energy lessens. Finding a balance between rest and alertness means that students may experience both ends of the scale before finding that balance.
Other measures to prevent students from experiencing tiredness during meditation are to advise them not to eat a heavy meal too soon before the class and to open the windows if it is not too cold outside to allow the fresh air in, which will help to keep everyone alert.
Students are most likely to experience agitation, anger, or both because they have expectations of what ‘should’ happen during meditation. This may especially be the case for individuals who tend to be harsh on themselves.
The first step in overcoming this is to persist in being mindful, always bringing the attention back to the breath and creating the awareness that it is unnecessary to identify with feelings of frustration, anger or agitation. Patience and self-control can be developed more easily when the students are aware that their reactive responses can be overcome and are not essentially part of themselves.
These feelings, especially regarding the self-concept, can actually be a good sign. Signs of disruption of the layers of perceptions covering the true self show that change is happening. When these experiences come to the surface, the student can begin to experience the purification and transformation that meditation offers.
Persistence long enough will overcome these feelings, and stillness will follow. Reassure students that these feelings are a normal and natural part of the process and that they will develop the skill to move through them.
