6 Tips For A Great Meditation Posture

The 3 keys to a good meditation posture

1) Alignment of back, neck and head in a comfortable and natural way, do not bend forward, do not lean neck forward, just sit upright with chin slightly down. To help with alignment, imagine a string attached from the center of the crown pulling you upward. Also try to raise the chest slightly to prevent sagging.

2) Relaxation of the muscles, especially the neck, shoulders and face. The position should be comfortable. The arms should hang effortlessly, with the hands in the lap or lightly on the knees. The legs should be comfortable and relaxed and if your knees do not touch the floor, you can support them with additional pillows to ease any pain in the hips.

3) Body stillness means stability, not easy to move, with a sense of balance. To find your balance point, you can gently rock back and forth and forward and back until you find a sense of the center of your posture. It is important to sit very still for the duration of the meditation.

6 tips for a great meditation posture

1) Let your spine be like a stack of coins. In classical Buddhist texts, the explanation for maintaining good posture is to imagine that your spine is a stack of coins. These instructions may have been before x-rays and chiropractors educating us about the natural curvature of the spine, but the point still has great value. It gives a nice sense of balance and stability when you imagine the stack of coins, and if you lean too far forward or back or too far to the left or right, you can easily imagine the coins falling over.

2) Become a puppet on a string. Imagine that you are being held up by a string coming from the center of your head. Get a feeling of the string lifting you up. This helps lengthen the spine and draw the energy upward, leaving you feeling lighter and straighter. To make this a great pose, use your inhale to pull up as you are pulled up by the string and use your exhale to relax the shoulders, neck, arms and, most importantly, the facial muscles. Use this inhalation and exhalation to achieve beautiful alignment and relaxation – the benchmarks for great posture.

3) Sit like a mountain. An important element of good posture is stillness and stability. A great piece of advice from Meditation Masters is to sit like a mountain, motionless, stable and also majestic. Once you have developed alignment and relaxation in your posture, imagine that you are like a mountain and use that visualization to keep you straight and still. Also, your posture should be deep

rooted in the earth, grounded and stable. The key here is to remain unmoved and extremely still with the splendor of a huge mountain.

4) Find your center. A good meditation posture is perfectly balanced in your center of gravity, it should not be too far forward or back, not too far to the left or right. To get a feel for this balance center, after you sit down, gently move your upper body back and forth and from front to back and around until you find that spot right in the middle. This is also a great way to relax and release tension. As you get used to this, you will get a feeling of your center and after gently rocking your body will naturally come to rest in the center.

5) Let your body reflect the state of mind you achieve during meditation. To begin meditation practice, develop a perfectly balanced mind, balanced between not being too tense but not too weak. A good meditation posture reflects a state of mind in which you are alert and relaxed at the same time. The biggest obstacles to a balanced and calm mind are agitation – overthinking and drowsiness or sluggishness. Good posture helps combat these two obstacles by reflecting the perfect balance between being upright and alert and being relaxed and comfortable.

6) Perfect symmetry. A good meditation posture is symmetrical. Your right side of your body should be a mirror image of the left side. This is especially relevant for knees and shoulders. Adjust your posture so that your knees are at the same height and the shoulders are also perfectly flat. Keep your hands in your lap or on your knees, but make sure they are a mirror image of each other. Have someone take a photo of you sitting in your meditation position so that you can clearly see where further adjustments can be made.

There are 6 traditional seating styles –

1. Full Lotus
2. Half Lotus
3. Burmese
   – are all located on the front of the pillow and use the 45% angle to create a natural arch in the lower back
4. Sitting in a chair
   – don’t try to use the backrest – just sit on the front of the chair.
5. Kneeling on a pillow on its side –
6. Kneeling on a stool.

*Experiment to discover what suits you best.

Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation and has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who lived in a retreat hut for six years and studied and practiced meditation full-time. He now has over twenty years of experience teaching meditation. Chad likes regularly
Meditation retreats on the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Online meditation coachingprovides three online programs – The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to gradually guide people from the basic principles of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of consciousness.
Breathwork to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and
The bliss of inner fire This is a Buddhist tantric method to clear energy blockages and connect with the clear light of bliss. You can also get Chad’s free ebook now Insights on the go.