Combining yoga and meditation: why it's beneficial!

Everyday life is, as is often the case, jam-packed, and you struggle to relax and fall asleep? These symptoms point to a hectic and stressful daily routine. Today's challenges aren't always easy to handle, which makes it all the more important that we find methods that allow us to relax. Learn why and how you can combine yoga and meditation in particular in this article.

Yoga is so much more than you think

As we've written in many of our articles, this millennia-old teaching offers a way to focus your life more on yourself and your own spiritual development. Ultimately, however, it's not just about that: Yoga practice helps you achieve relaxation and simultaneously connect your body, mind, and soul.

This practice, derived from Buddhist teachings, helps strengthen, stretch, and mobilize your muscles. Therefore, if you're sedentary all day, integrating Hatha Yoga, Yin Yoga, or Vinyasa is recommended. As you move your body, you relax your mind—breathing brings you even deeper into yourself.

In summary, one could say that yoga, because it combines so many aspects, is already somewhat like meditation. Therefore, yoga exercises are much more than just movement.

Oasis of peace: Meditation for relaxation

Many people carry countless baggage from the past: beliefs, behavioral patterns, thoughts, conditioning, and a great deal of external pressure. If you want to overcome these issues, accessing yourself is the first step. You can achieve this with the help of regular meditation.

As a beginner, it's important that you take enough time on the cushion . Learning to meditate isn't particularly easy, especially at first—your mind will often wander as a result. It's important to continually focus your attention on your breathing and your body; it's okay if you wander off. In this context, it's a great advantage to do some physical exercises (yoga) beforehand. This will help you ground yourself in your body and help you relax. This is probably one of the reasons why the combination of yoga and meditation is so effective.

More tips for beginners:

• You may find it difficult to motivate yourself at first. Therefore, it's advisable to sign up for a meditation course that requires attendance, or to set an alarm every day to meditate for five minutes. Everyone has to find the perfect way to integrate meditation into their daily routine.
• The place where you meditate must be chosen carefully. Especially at the beginning, it's difficult to go somewhere very noisy. Instead, a quiet spot in your home with comfortable furnishings is a better choice. A yoga mat with a cushion, a blanket, and a few essential oils will create a comfortable atmosphere and make it easier for you to enter a trance more quickly.
• Get your partner, girlfriend, or friend together and meditate together – it can help.
• Guided meditations lead you into a relaxed state so that you can more quickly feel how effective they can be.

Conscious morning routine with yoga and meditation

In Buddhist traditions, the morning is a special time, filled with mindful movement, meditation, and pranayama (breathing techniques). Those who start the day this way can be assured that everything will run more smoothly—with less stress and better health.

Of course, the start of your morning routine should always be based on your intuition. You can also adapt this sequence to your needs.

It is important that you:

• Give yourself a lot of time
• Concentrate on yourself and combine meditation, breathing exercises and yoga
• Get involved in the new routine and give it time to take effect

If you manage to make this routine a permanent part of your daily life for a longer period of time, many benefits await you:

• less stress
• rarer thought carousels
• better body awareness
• more mindfulness towards yourself and others
• more successful days

1. Yoga

Yoga exercises help you consciously connect with yourself. You notice where you have pain, you stretch and strengthen your muscles, and you boost your metabolism. This can stimulate your digestion and stop your morning thoughts from racing. A more intense workout will help you lose excess weight and start the day full of energy.

These yoga styles inherently contain meditative elements:

• Kundalini Yoga (very spiritual practice to awaken your life energy and bring it from the tailbone to the head)
• Hatha Yoga (here asanas and breathing are important)
• Jnana Yoga (asanas to help you on your path to truth)

2. Meditation

Once you have completed these physical exercises, you can sit on your pillow and reflect.

• Where in your body do you feel pressure?
• Where does it feel wide, where does it feel narrow?
• Do you feel any pain?

By being so connected to yourself, you can now more easily let go of thoughts. During the meditation practice, you first concentrate on your body and then on your breath. Let all thoughts go and feel what changes within you.

There are many guided meditations available, so you can choose the right type for you.

3. Breathing technique

With the help of various breathing exercises, you can connect with your physical being. Wim Hof's breathing techniques are particularly valuable for flooding your entire body with plenty of oxygen. This can strengthen your immune system and change old brain pathways. It also helps strengthen your parasympathetic nervous system (the brain hemisphere responsible for relaxation, boosts regeneration, etc.).

There's also the fire breath, where you breathe in and out quickly. This can make you feel full of energy. Breathing techniques also help massage and strengthen the internal organs.

Conclusion: The perfect combination for your well-being

You consist of body, mind, and soul—to ensure harmony, you need to combine different practices. In other words, yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises are perfectly aligned and can promote holistic health. Yoga primarily focuses on your body; meditation cleanses your mind, and breathing helps you better sense your solid energy bodies while simultaneously reshaping your mind. This results in your soul feeling at ease in your body, allowing you to follow your soul's path.

Do you already combine these three methods? If so, what are your observations regarding your well-being?