(Koch Vision)
2002
What is it?
Two half-hour meditation sessions hosted by Yoga Zone's Alan Finger.
Who is it for?
Newcomers to meditation will get a lot out of these sessions. If you have been practicing Yoga for a while and want to go deeper within, these meditation sessions will help. If you don't have a regular Yoga practice, that's okay - there are only a few simple poses at the beginning of each session to ease you into the sitting segment.
What to expect:
As originally taught, the poses, or Asanas, of Yoga were meant to be learned to prepare the body for meditation. Here in the Western world, we have it backwards Ñ we get into the poses and then it occurs to some of us that maybe it would be nice to learn some meditation. These two simple sessions presented by Alan Finger of Yoga Zone are effective yet still palatable for the Western mind. They start off with a few easy sitting postures to prepare the body, and then Finger leads you through the actual meditation. The first session uses a couple of breathing exercises, or Pranayama - Alternate Nostril Breathing, and Kriya Breath (both are energy transmuting exercises that are also known outside of Yoga). The second session is a Chakra balancing meditation. Both meditations calm the mind nicely and offer a refreshing pause. They're pleasant introductions to meditation - they're not too esoteric, they're easy to follow and (important for Westerners new to meditation) they don't last too long. It's surprising how much more intuitively the mind works with a regular meditation routine. Yoga Zone's meditation sessions aren't the be-all and end-all of meditation, but they are a good place to start.