Posture
I want to talk about meditation postures. Is there a right or a wrong way? The answer is there's no right or wrong way—it is simply what is most comfortable to you. When I first was learning, one of our non-negotiables with our teacher was to sit down, have your back straight, and your head free with your eyes closed. This was mainly to prevent you from falling asleep. I really love when Jon Kabat-Zinn, they call him the godfather of mindfulness, says that in mindfulness and meditation, falling asleep is an occupational hazard. So if it happens, it just means you're tired, so don't get all up in arms about it. What I find that works for me is I meditate two times a day, once in the morning, and then once in the late afternoon before I have dinner. In the morning I sit with my legs crossed. Not like full padmasana lotus position, but I just kind of sit with my legs crossed. Sometimes I still sit in a chair and sometimes I sit on the ground. I'll occasionally use a zabuton, like a cushion that keeps your pelvis above your knees and kind of opens your hip angle, and that's kind of nice. I sit because I have been horizontal for the past eight hours sleeping, so I'm ready to get up and get going. In the afternoon though, I find that I like to lay down for my second meditation, and sometimes I'll lie on the ground on a yoga mat, or if I have a carpet there, that's good. Just something soft, and I might put something under my head or under my neck if the surface is kind of hard, maybe a small pillow or blanket. It just depends. Jon Kabat-Zinn talks about lying down in his MBSR clinics and compares this practice to the yoga pose Shavasana, also known as corpse pose. A lot of times at the end of a yoga class, we'll finish by lying on our backs and just kind of feeling the residue of what you've been doing with the breathwork and the bodywork. They have said that the corpse pose is one of the hardest poses. This sounds strange because you're just lying still, right? But lying still and being still are actually pretty hard for us because our nature as human beings is to be doing all the time. When you're lying there in Shavasana, you have to surrender to the past and the future. So you have to lie there in the present. That's the thinking behind that pose. The theories are they call it corpse pose because you're dying to these beliefs—beliefs that you have about your past and your future that are no longer in your control. Only the present moment is. That's why they think it's a difficult pose, because you really have to master that. So first in the morning I sit for my meditation, and then in the afternoon I like to lie down because I've been on my feet all day running around. I don't think that one is better than the other. I have never fallen asleep when I've been laying down for my meditation, and I think it's really just up to you what is most comfortable to you. Just know that you have choices. You don't have to sit with your legs crossed if it's uncomfortable, and don't let that be the thing that doesn't allow you to meditate. I meditate on airplanes all the time, mostly at takeoff and landing. I used to say a Hail Mary because I'm a nervous flyer, but now I meditate. Trying to control your circumstances to make sure you have the "best" meditation isn't really going to help you, because you're not really meditating to be a great meditator. You're meditating so that you can navigate your life with more real ease. The real benefits show up in your life after the practice. So sit down, lie down, do whatever you want to do. That's the real goal, and that's what's good for you.
