Metta Yoga ~ The Power of Meditation ~ Lexington, Kentucky

Begin each yoga session with a short meditation--paying attendion to your inhalation and your exhalation. Whenever you sense your mind wandering, simply come back to your breath. This will ground your energy and keep your attention fully in your body, while allowing you to be completely awake and aware of what is going on around you.

Then move into your asana practice, a body-based moving meditation designed to help you understand who you are, how you react to or embrace your experiences and how you experience those around you.

End your practice with Metta, or loving-kindness, meditation. If yoga helps you discover who you really are, then metta meditation reminds you to bring loving-kindness to that journey. Metta practice will remind you that you are perfect just the way you are and that your life's work (dharma) is to spread that sense of joy out into the world.

A Loving-Kindness Practice

Sit comfortably with your eyes closed, inhaling and exhaling with ease. Repeat this mantra over and over again:

"May I be peaceful
May I be happy
May I be safe
May I awaken to the light of my true nature
May I be free"

If your mind wanders, gently bring it back to those words and start again.

In Metta meditation practice, we cultivate Metta towards ourselves, so that we experience less internal conflict, and learn to appreciate ourselves more.

Metta Bhavana is an ancient meditation leading to the development of unconditional loving-kindness and friendliness. The Pali word Metta means love, friendliness, or loving-kindness; Bhavana means cultivation or development. Thus, in the Metta Bhavana practice we are cultivating love, or friendliness, or loving-kindness.

Metta is something you feel in your heart. It is a positive emotional state towards ourselves as well as others. As a result of practicing Metta we become more empathetic, more considerate, more kind, more forgiving, and in general, more loving, friendly people.

The complete Metta practice has five stages.
We cultivate Metta for:

Ourselves

A good friend

A “neutral” person (someone we do not have any strong feelings for)

A “difficult” person (someone we have conflicts with or feelings of ill will towards)

All sentient beings

This practice helps us to bring more harmony into our relationships with others, so that we experience fewer conflicts, resolve existing difficulties, and deepen our connections with people we already get along with. We can also learn to appreciate others more, concentrating more on their positive qualities and less on their faults.

"It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and my sister.."

~ Thomas Merton

The Winter Blahs
Getting Started
The Power of Meditation
Accept and Embrace
The Vinyasa of Life
The Power of Om
Be Kind to Yourself
Stand Your Ground