Meditation Styles

Sorting through meditation styles can be a lot like sifting through yoga-class schedules when you are a new practitioner.

To begin:
Broadly defined, “mindfulness” refers to any practice in which you concentrate and try to remain aware of your experience moment to moment. That experience is anchored by an object (like the breath), a sensation (like walking), a sound, a visual, or more, and ultimately aims to cultivate mental stability. Some of the following styles of meditation relate to mindfulness, some take the practice further—to a deep level of inquiry—and some rely on different techniques like using an object or manipulating the breath to change your state of consciousness. Like mindfulness, some are rooted in Buddhist tradition, while others stem from a lineage of Hindu meditation practices.

If you are ready for enlightement
Try vipassana: This Sanskrit word essentially means “insight.” It refers 
to a variety of meditation techniques that help the practitioner access 
a deeper level of consciousness, see “reality,” and experience impermanence. In classical vipassana, a 2,500-year-old Buddhist tradition, you 
first focus on breath awareness. Insight may come naturally, once you’ve calmed the mind, or you can add advanced techniques that involve 
dissecting arguments and concepts, and using props.

If you want to practice at your desk
Try Dzogchen: This is a form of Tantric meditation that asks you to be aware of everything, meaning it is “object-less” or “nondual.” You practice with the eyes open and avoid labeling thoughts, feelings, or sensations.

If you need to find forgiveness
Try lovingkindness meditation: Popular in the West, this practice 
is similar to some Tibetan traditions around developing compassion, 
but is essentially a relatively new form of meditation. You repeat a mantra related to freedom from fear and suffering, shifting your intention to 
different people in your life and yourself.

If you want an out-of-body experience
Try Transcendental Meditation: A form of Hindu meditation, 
or Vedanta, the goal is to … transcend, or rise above all that is impermanent. While in a seated meditation pose, you focus on a mantra and actively change the breath in order to alter your state of mind.

If you are looking for more energy
Try Kundalini meditation: Kundalini is a yoga practice, but also a philosophy and the name of energy in Tantric yoga practices and Hindu spiritual practices. This energy rises through the chakras, from the base of your spine to the crown of your head and onward. In Kundalini meditation, you are using your breath to move energy upward in an effort to change your state of mind, while also waiting for that moment when energy is reduced to a simple, pure form, similar to when you sleep, orgasm, or die.

If you have trouble sitting still
Try qi gong: Similar to Kundalini, qi gong is a Taoist method 
of meditation that uses the breath to circulate energy through 
the body, and eventually alter consciousness.

If you need rules and guidelines
Try zazen: A very exacting Zen practice with prescriptions for 
how to maintain the eyes, hands, and posture, zazen is a nondual practice that means simply to sit, as the Buddha did thousands 
of years ago. You sit, without a focus on an object, until your innate ability to see reality emerges.

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The seventh chakra

The seventh chakra, called sahasrara, is located at the crown of the head. “Sahasrara” means thousand-petaled and represents a thousand-petaled lotus flower.

7th Chakra’s Natural Element: Thought
This energy center is associated with the element of thought, connection to spirit, universal consciousness, enlightenment, wisdom, unity and self-knowledge.

Life Motif of the Crown Chakra
Working with this chakra indicates an interest in a higher purpose and an elevated way of being. You are ready to let go of misunderstandings about who you are and why you are here.

Signs of Blocked Sahasrara Energy
Complications that come from this chakra can be confusion, imbalance, a lack of connection to the manifest world, unfocused, hyper spiritualization (aka too much meditation not enough laundry) and an inability to function practically.

Energetic Benefits of Aligning the Crown Chakra
Working toward enlightenment is a worthy endeavor for anyone. This is the gateway to super-consciousness where it is no longer possible to experience yourself as separate from anything or anyone.

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Navigate your change with Inspirit Yoga Studio Orlando

7 Ways to Navigate Change Like a Yogi
Most of us who practice yoga will, at some point, find ourselves facing internally motivated choices that can radically alter our lives. That’s when we need to learn how to bring our practice off the mat so it can help us birth the emerging self that change promises to bring forth—and support us as we work through the fear and confusion that change can bring.
Yoga—in its widest sense—can give us the strength and insight we need to navigate the most radical forms of change. Equally as important as the practices of yoga are some of yoga’s basic (and highly applicable) teachings—the recognition that we affect the exterior by working on the interior.
1. Know That Change is Inevitable
The Buddhist Doctrine of Impermanence, annica, tells us that change is inevitable, continuous, and unavoidable. Everything changes. Just realizing that fact can protect you from turning to that most disempowering of reactions to change: “Why me?
2. View the Change as an Initiation
In traditional societies, every phase of life was regarded as an initiation into a new way of being and was marked with a ceremony that often asked the initiates to step into the unknown in some way, whether it was observing a prayer vigil, spending the night in darkness, or answering questions that tested their skills. The change itself, if you go through it consciously, is the doorway into the next stage of growth—one that propels you into a deeper relationship with yourself and the world.
3. Meditate Through Uncertainty
The deep uncertainty that arises during processes of change is perhaps the most daunting part of the experience. Why? Because a true change process will involve surprises, reversals, false starts, and periods of coming to a dead halt. In these moments, you’re likely to experience fear, anxiety, anger, irritability, sadness, grief, and the physical and psychological contraction that often goes along with feeling uncertain and unclear. It’s much easier to stay steady through a life-change process when you have a meditation practice, because meditation teaches you how to keep going back into your center, the core awareness that is your contact point with the Self and that aligns your individual consciousness with the heart of the universe.
4. Uncover Your Truest Desire
Self-inquiry, or atma vichara, is the core yogic process for navigating change. It’s a simple but effective process of asking yourself core questions such as, “What is my true desire in this situation?” or “What outcome would be the best for everyone?” As answers surface, write them down.
5. Set a Strong Intention
The next step is to make a sankalpa—a clearly articulated, affirmative statement about what you intend to do. When you make a true sankalpa, you call on the power of your personal will and align your personal will with the cosmic will. If you have gone through the self-inquiry process and have a sense of what your true desire is, you should be able to make a sankalpa that is in line with your truest wish. The deeper the alignment between your core desire and your intention, the more likely you are to successfully initiate a life change that supports that alignment.
6. Take Action, One Step at a Time
The very heart of the practice of yoga is abhyasa—steady effort in the direction you want to go. So when you are initiating a life change, consider the steps you need to take to make it happen, again using the technique of self-inquiry. Once you’ve thought things through, it’s crucial to take action. Effective abhyasa, in the yoga of life change, is to take things one step at a time so you avoid feeling overwhelmed.
7. Practice Letting Go
One of the positive byproducts of making a life change, from a yogic perspective, is the opportunity that it gives you to practice vairagya, which is usually translated as “detachment,” or letting go. That means letting go of the past; letting go of the way that things used to be; letting go of your fear, your grief, your old relationship, your old job. But you don’t want to let go in a “hard” way, forcing yourself to be a samurai of change. Instead, let yourself grieve the losses or feel the anxiety. Then breathe out and imagine that whatever you’re holding on to is flowing out with the breath

We're here to help you navigate your change. Come visit.
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Yoga Poses to Boost Creativity - Inspirit Yoga Studio Orlando

5 Poses to Boost Creativity

It happens to the best of us: We carve out plenty of time in our schedules. We make sure we’re well fed and well rested. We tidy up our surroundings so that there’s nothing else to do but create. Yet, when we sit down to actually make it happen, our minds are as blank as the white screen we sit staring at. As someone who writes for a living, it happens to me far more than I’d like to admit. Although I’m a writer, this cycle of stifled creativity shows up in other places in my life, too. When I’m uninspired in the kitchen, I end up eating the same meals over and over again. I stare blankly at the clothes in my closet as I try to get ready to go somewhere thinking, How can someone have so many clothes and yet nothing to wear?! Even my yoga practice suffers when my creative mind hasn’t been nurtured. While sometimes a few cups of coffee and a long walk in the sunshine can get things moving, nothing is more effective at boosting my creativity than a good yoga session. The right poses in the right combination almost always clear the cobwebs in my mind to make way for new ideas and motivate me to create great things–whether it’s a blog post or a fabulous dish for a potluck.

Here are 5 poses that help be get the creative juices flowing:

Pigeon Pose. It’s common knowledge among yoga students that we store emotions in our hips, so hip-openers like Pigeon Pose can help people release a lot of negative emotions. But the hips and pelvis are also a center for creativity. This part of the body is aligned with the second chakra, which represents creative energy (as well as sexual energy and reproduction). Honestly, I don’t know that much about chakras, but I know from experience that taking Pigeon Pose on both sides and forward bending with my forehead pressing into the ground for a few minutes is the best medicine for blocked creativity.

Seated Garudasana (Eagle Pose). This is another hip-opener that I love to do whenever I feel creatively blocked. As an added bonus, it’s also a shoulder stretch. Since I hold a lot of tension in my neck and shoulders, it’s a good way for me to soften both tension and any apprehension that might be holding me back from self-expression.

Headstand. There’s something amazingly grounding about Headstand. It offers a fresh perspective, which is crucial to creating. And it can’t hurt that this pose brings a little extra oxygen to the brain.

Child’s Pose. You can’t force creativity. Sometimes all you need to do is relax, take a break, and let the wisdom bubble up naturally. Child’s Pose helps me do this when I feel like I’ve run out of steam.

Seated Meditation. Spending a few minutes in seated meditation always reminds me that I’m a part of something so much bigger than myself. Connecting with this idea, puts me in the right frame of mind to hone my craft and put my creations out into the world.

Let's get creative together!
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7575 Kingspointe Pkwy Suite 21
Orlando, Florida
(407) 203-6866