Life already feels full – filled with activities and responsibilities, so where can we put in the activity of meditation? That’s the beauty of Raja Yoga; you can fit it in anywhere.
At home
You don’t need a special room or allocated space, any quiet corner or comfortable chair will do. Make a regular appointment to meet up with your innermost self. In time, you’ll probably find a particular place that you’re drawn to, where the vibrations of your own stillness and reflective practice create a little place of peace. Visit whenever you like. Visit often.
In your workplace
Wherever you work, a little creative thought can suggest a place for meditation: quietly holding the phone to your ear for a moment or two while listening to the silence within, instead of a voice on the phone. Or walking down a corridor with a file can give you a few minutes of peacefulness away from your desk. Your colleagues won’t notice you meditating, but they may notice your new calmness.
While traveling
The time you spend going from one place to another, on foot, travelling by bus or train can be used to visit your internal space of stillness. The open-eyed method of Raja Yoga meditation makes this inner journey possible and practical.
Outside or inside
The whole world offers itself to you to select your own special place to connect with yourself and the One. On a sunlit beach or in a supermarket queue, a serene riverbank or a dentist’s waiting room, a bench in a city square or a patch of grass somewhere. Everywhere is a fine place to become still and silent. Pick your own place of peace.
Quiet among crowds
As you learn how to create a quiet room within yourself, you’ll find that you can slip into it at any time. When there are people around you, or when the world is noisy or challenging, step into the quietest place on the planet – the silent space of the soul.
Alone or in company
The most beautiful experiences of meditation can occur when you’re just on your own, only in the company of the One. There are also places and times when you might choose to meditate with others. All around the world there are Raja Yoga centres and quiet places of peacefulness where anyone can visit to share moments of calm. In some places these are called ‘Inner Space’.
There are particular times, too, when like-minded people choose to meditate in unison around the world, with the understanding that sharing positive thoughts at the same moment can increase the power and reach of their good wishes.
World Meditation Hour
The tradition of creating one hour of peace around the world began in 1978 and it takes place on every third Sunday of the month. The aim is to share good vibrations and donate love and peace for the world and all the people on our precious planet. If we remember that this world is, after all, our global home, then together we can shine a ray of hope that will shed a little light to help to heal our world.
Retreats – spaces of calm
Besides creating oases of calm and quiet throughout each day, we might sometimes choose to take time out of our normal routine to go on a spiritual retreat. Going on any form of retreat can be the first step that we take to re-connect with our inner ‘self’. We may have the thought to get away from things externally, to make some physical changes outside, by taking time out. But what about the true re-treat, where we go deep within to the core of our being? When we work on ourselves, we can return to the space inside where we can re-connect with our own true ‘self’. This is the spiritual ‘self’, that which is at our core, that part of us that does not change.
Taking time out through the process of meditation is a journey in itself. Meditation allows us to come back to a place of inner balance, where our thoughts, feelings, energy and time are used in a way that has value and is worthwhile. Everything depends on our stage of awareness and an understanding of our true identity. At this point we start to open the door to more positive experiences in life. We start to value things of a spiritual rather than a material nature. We begin to create a values-based, quality life, where we can afford to be generous and loving. Our thinking becomes clearer and our decision-making power increases.
The real re-treat helps us to re-turn – to get us into a space where we can re-connect to our truth, to understand, to experience and to answer the age old question, “Who am I?” It is only then that we are both at the beginning and the end! This is where this question ends and the experience begins. Enjoy the journey.
First thing in the morning
The moment you open your eyes and know you are awake is a great time to start meditating. Start by greeting yourself, the powerful positive soul you are. And then greet the One who never sleeps.
At mealtimes
Before you eat, you can sit for a moment, meditating on the good fortune of having food to eat and with the understanding of how our thoughts affect our food, what we think, do and become. Filling our food with powerful thoughts of gratitude and grace means we feed ourselves too, with all good things. [Also of interested: The Mindful Kitchen.
Throughout the day – Traffic Control
We are all drivers on the highway of life, and every now and then it is good to check the direction in which we are travelling. When we drive our car on the road we have to stop at every traffic light, so perhaps we can learn to take advantage of these traffic light moments during the day to practise some meditation. In the same way, by pausing our thoughts from time to time we can check and re-direct them, and create a method to make positive changes that will help to put our mind back into neutral.
Taking short peace breaks for the mind gives us a chance to re-focus our thinking, and helps to put the mind back into the right gear to create a positive flow of thoughts and feelings. By doing this, we will find that our day will run more smoothly and peacefully, because ‘traffic control’ moments allow us to maintain balanced thinking.
At night
Before you sleep is a good time for your final meditation of the day. Book yourself a little time, as part of your bedtime routine, to sit quietly with yourself and reflect on the day – considering what was well done and what could be done differently tomorrow. Deliberately close up the ‘files’ of the day’s activities and put them away in your mind, so you can bring the day to a close and allow yourself to slip into sleep, untroubled and at peace.
Anytime
Whenever you arrive at a moment of anxiety or indecision, uncertain of the way forward, that could be a moment to go ‘within’ and await an answer.
In a moment of gratitude and pleasure, why not share it with the One.
When frustrated, lonely, tired or happy, uplifted, optimistic – all these are moments to find power to deal with negatives and times to enjoy and enrich the positive – anytime is time for a moment of meditation.
Anyone and everyone who wants to can use, and benefit from, Raja Yoga meditation. Some choose to come to our center once a week to confirm a connection, others incorporate meditation into their daily lives, yet others add meditation to their other spiritual practice. It all works and it all enriches the lives of those who choose it. Those who make use of Raja Yoga meditation include people who:
- have spent time searching for spiritual solutions, and now find something they did not find elsewhere.
- have achieved and gained much in their lives, and come to wonder, “Is that all there is?”
- have experienced difficulty and challenge in their lives and seek extra power to help them.
- have a deep desire to deepen their understanding of, and connection with, the Divine.
- have a wish to use their own energy and good wishes to bring peace to the world and share the sense of well-being and contentment they have found with other souls in the world.
