Meditation Techniques

Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana Pranayama)

How to do this Meditation

Follow Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W7oUZ8EVbI

Sit up straight or lie down (the idea is to maintain a straight spine throughout the meditation).
Extend all five fingers of your dominant hand.
Curl down just the index and middle fingers to create the “mudra” (hand sign) for the meditation.
Close your eyes.
Block the right nostril with your thumb and breathe in.
After inhalation, release the thumb and block the other nostril with your ring and last finger (maintain the mudra).
Breathe out through this nostril and then breathe in again from the same nostril.
After inhalation, switch to blocking the other nostril.
Breathe out and breathe in again from the same nostril.
Repeat this procedure for as long as you want.
When you are nearing the end of your practice, stop the switching motion.
Keep your eyes closed.
Observe the slowing of your thoughts.
Sit with the person you are.
After a while, put your palms together and rub them.
When you start to feel the friction and the warm, gently cup your eyes with them.
Take a deep breathe in, and as you exhale, slowly open your eyes.
Let your hands come down.

How does it work?

The goal of switching your fingers is that it returns your attention to the present. The way the mind works is that it has a thought, which leads to further thoughts. Every time a thought is fed, it starts to beget another thought, and eventually, your thoughts start to breed, which leads to an infestation in your mind. This leads to anxiety.

Thoughts have a certain amount of energy and momentum. If you feed the thought, the momentum is conserved and the thoughts lead to anxiety when they become overwhelming.

When we meditate, the momentum of our thoughts still persists, but when you have to return your attention to the present, then you stop paying attention to the thoughts and consequently, you stop feeding them. Even if a thought pops up, you can return to the practice and the thought will drift away.

The longer you do the practice, the fewer thoughts are going to pop up. The goal of this process is to enter a “no-mind” state, which is consciousness without mental activity. The more you let your thoughts go, the more you are going to enter a state of consciousness where there is no thinking. In that state, all you are is pure awareness, and that is the goal.

When should I do this?

Start with 3-5 minutes per day for 3 weeks. You can gradually increase it as you feel comfortable. You can set a timer to do this, but you can also keep doing it until you are done doing it. You will know when you are done doing it — remember, that is okay, and don’t be judgemental about yourself. Simply focus on doing it.

Bellow’s Breath (Kapalabhati Pranayama)

Kapalbhati is a sequence of forceful exhalations followed by a series of passive inhalations.

How to do this Meditation

Follow Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86sYinrLuPA

Sit up straight and relaxed. Contract your stomach forcefully and have a sharp exhalation through the nose. Repeat this sharp exhalation a few more times.
After a couple of inhalations, you will notice that you have run out of breath. On the next exhalation, you will notice a rubber band effect. You will automatically take a passive “rebound” inhalation before your next exhalation.
If you severely run out of breath that you cannot exhale, take a breath, but let your focus be on the exhalation. After that, give yourself half a second to inhale.
Close your eyes, take a deep breath in once and start to perform ten exhalations.
Pause for a moment and observe any sensations in your body.
Take a deep breath in and perform twenty breaths.
Pause for a moment and observe any sensations in your body.
Take a deep breath in and perform thirty breaths.
Observe any sensations in your body. Feel the space that you occupy and observe the stillness. Then at your own leisure, slowly come back.

How does it work?

The Stillness After the Practice The space after the practice is the whole point. It is not just the breaths themself. After you are done with the thirty breaths, sit with the way you feel. Some people might feel relaxed or focused and others might experience constriction or tightness. Both of those are fine — the idea is to sit with the way that you feel. If you feel tightness or constriction, breathe deep into the area of constriction. As you take a deep breath in, feel the vertebra in your neck and spine expanding.

This meditation is particularly useful for anxiety. An anxious mind is a mind full of energy — it wants to go as fast as possible. What Kapalbhati (bellow’s breath) does is meet your mind at the speed that it is at, and then gently slows it down. Forcing the anxious mind to slow down is not effective. If you run with the anxiety for a little bit, and then start to slow down, the mind will slow down as well. It is similar to a dog that is really excited. If you try to make it sit still, it will not work. But if you run with it for a bit, and then slow down and stop, it will slow down as well.

Third Eye Meditation

How to do this meditation

Follow Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lOTZRpOvxY

Take your middle finger and hover it a centimeter from the middle of your eyebrows (don’t touch).
You might feel a tingling sensation.
Close your eyes, sit up straight and focus on the sensation.
After a minute, relax your hand and direct all your attention towards that sensation in your forehead.
If you have trouble concentrating on the spot, just feel the spot.
Try to imagine that your attention is a ray of light and its moving into the spot or even out of the spot.
When you’re ready, slowly exhale and come back.

How does it work?

People think that meditation is only about calming your mind, but actually its about experiencing wonderful and amazing things. It’s about feeling sensations that you would not feel otherwise. It is about cultivating inner experience.

Breath + Third Eye Meditation

Follow Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1955CTVDc_o

Close your eyes
Sit up straight or lie down on your back
Notice the temperature of your breath
Notice the temperature from inhalation and exhalation
Notice where it feels cold throughout your nose and check each area with its own separate breath
Move your focus down to your the back of your throat
Now move your focus to your center eyebrow area for 5 breaths
Follow the breath wear it goes and focus on where the breath moves

Do this meditation for a week, every day, and see where within your body you see a temperature change. Pick a spot and see what you can feel. Do not let your mind get in the way.

Triphasic Breathing Meditation

How to do this meditation

Follow Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5qgaKHMw1I

Hold your chest as steady as possible and as you breathe, push your stomach out. As you breathe out, pull your stomach in. When you breathe abdominally, your chest and shoulders barely move. This is the first phase of the breathing.
Now, mindfully expand your chest and breathe more, after you’ve breathed into your belly. This is the second phase of the breathing.
Now, breathe into and raise your shoulders, after you breathed into your belly and chest. This is the third phase of the breathing.
Close your eyes, sit up straight, and do five rounds.

If you feel dizzy, take breaks between your breath.

Can you change the way you subconsciously breathe during the day?

Yes. If you practice breathing then you will train yourself to breathe less from the chest and more from the abdomen. You can train yourself to breathe deeper and slower.

If CO2 levels being too low lead to dizziness, does CO2 levels being too high do the same? Absolutely not. Spiritual experiences during meditation are believed to be due to toxic levels of CO2 in the brain. If you meditate on a regular basis, your body acclimatizes to low levels of Oxygen and high levels of CO2 and a very low respiratory rate.

When your CO2 is elevated, your brain tells you to breathe more, so you can breathe off that CO2. But when you meditate, your brain acclimatizes to the high level of CO2 and starts to recruit other mechanisms that do not require rapid breathing. When you meditate on a regular basis, you begin to have a very low respiratory rate, but it does not damage you.

The other thing that is really fascinating is how meditation prevents heart attacks. When your heart is starved for oxygen, it sends signals to create collateral circulation. When your arteries get clogged, the amount of space through which blood can travel to nourish your heart slows down. As you get a blocked artery, your heart begins to become starved for oxygen. Then it does two things.

It sends signals to dilate the arteries, which facilitates more flow. The other thing that it does is that it sends signals to create more blood vessels — angiogenesis. When you meditate for prolonged periods of time, your oxygen levels start to go lower (but not in a damaging way) and it sends signals to your heart to create collateral circulation. So if you meditate regularly and you develop a blocked artery, then the damage from that artery will be significantly less because your body has created alternate paths of circulation.

Is it normal for meditation to go really well at first then get really difficult after a while?

The tricky thing in meditation is that the way that you enter the no-mind state in meditation is by having no expectations. The first time you meditate, you do not know what to expect, and that is when you can sit fully with the experience. Once you sit with an experience, then that creates an expectation to have that experience again, which makes it hard to meditate. The most difficult spiritual experience to have in meditation is the second one, not the first one. This is the most common challenge in meditation.

Recognize that for some time it is going to be harder to get that meditation going again. When you have thoughts such as “oh, this is not working”, just return to the technique. Return to the breath. Ignore whether it is working. If it is working, that’s fine, if it is not working, that’s fine too. Focus on the technique. That is what got you there in the first place, and it is what will get you there again.

Yoga Nidra

How to do this meditation

Follow Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2RhXCugEW4

Lay down on a comfortable surface
Stretch your feet out and put your arms by your side, palms facing up
Let your ankles fall to either side
Feet the weight of your body sinking into the surface
Notice that with each breath, your body lifts off the bed a tiny bit and with each exhalation, you sink back down.
With each exhalation, try to sink into the bed a little bit more.
Take a deep breath in and curl your toes. Curl for a few seconds, and then relax and exhale.
Pause for a few moments and take a deep breath again. This time, curl your toes and flex your ankles. Hold it and feel the tension for a few seconds, then relax and exhale.
Pause, breathe in, and this time curl your toes, flex your ankles and clench your calves. Hold for a few seconds, feel the tension and energy and then let it go. Exhale. Repeat this process, moving body part by body part up the body.

Order of Reference

Here is the order for reference. At each step, add one body part, hold for a few seconds and relax.

Curl toes
Flex ankles
Clench calves
Lock knees
Tighten thighs and hamstrings
Clench Buttocks
Ball hands into fists
Take a regular breath and breathe out. Feel the residual warmth.
Twist forearms
Curl biceps
Clench abdomen
Curl chest in
Pull back in (Imagine you are trying to crack an egg in the middle of your back)
Clench jaw and tighten forehead
On the last round, feel the wave of heat going through your body. Feel that energy, warmth and power. Then let it go — relax.
Feel the person that you are. Feel the peace, the blackness, the residual heat.
Come back. Big, deep breaths, slow exhalation. Let your body and mind re-awaken. Slowly open your eyes.

Bee’s Breath Meditation (Shanmukhi Mudra and Bhramari Pranayama Meditation)

Shanmukhi Mudra

Shanmukhi Mudra is sanskrit for “Sealing of the Six Gates”. The purpose of this Mudra or gesture is to close off your awareness outside of you body and concentrate your awareness inside.

Place your pinkies at the corners of your mouth
Place your ring fingers on the grooves of your nostrils
Place your middle fingers on the inner corners of your eyes
Place your pointer fingers on the outer corners of your eyes or on your forehead
Push your thumb onto the Pinna (outer ridge your ear)

Bhramari Pranayama

Bhramari Pranayama is sanskrit for “Bee’s Breath.” As a bee flies from flower to flower, so does the mind. The purpose of this Pranayama or breathing technique is to prevent your mind from wandering and getting distracted during meditation.

All one has to do is buzz or hum like a bee after every breath.

Guided Sound Meditation

How to do this meditation

Follow Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VaHh9EUcfE

Close your eyes and sit up straight.
When the bell rings, detect as much of the oscillation in sound as you can
Who is listening? Think of the person that you are. Think about your gender of who is listening?
Think about the location you occupy. Do you have a location? How do you know where you are? What do you feel?
Who is listening? What is their name? Are you that person or are you just the listener?
Listen to yourself and hear what you hear.

There is a person or place within you that is free from the hardship of life. So when you are dealing with the hardship of life, ask yourself what would the listener do. Ask yourself why life is hard?

Life is hard because your problems are present all the time. The listener would just do what they need to do because they do not care. The future and the past paralyzes you. Yet the listener is focused on the present. So be more like the listener and just do it.

Ujjayi Pranayama (Darth Vader Breathing)

Follow Along: https://youtu.be/yWLCto4p_yM?t=567

Another technique you can do is: Ujjayi Pranayama, aka Darth Vader breathing technique in our community.

Close your eyes and contract your throat in the way that you would create Darth Vader’s breathing.
Breathe in and out.

Yantra Trataka (Fixed Point Gazing)

Follow Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBdgpxqYkQ0

Trataka is fixed point gazing, so, for the meditation, the goal is to stare at a certain point and avoid blinking. You will find that your eyes will try to close to hydrate or from the strain, so counteract this by closing to a half-lidded gaze. If it is too strenuous, then close your eyes. This meditation will difficult initially but will get easier with more practice.

Flow state is not a state of stress, rather it is relaxed focus. Just like the second phase of Trataka, if you you strain too much, then you push away the afterimage. But if you relax too much, then you pull back the afterimage.

Dr. K chose to stare stare at the Shri Yantra in this exercise.

Close your eyes first, sit up straight, and take a deep breath in and out. Calm down first.
Slowly open your eyes and focus on the red dot in the center. Avoid looking at anything else.
Then as more time passes, while staring at the red dot, let your focus and attention “spread to the yellow triangles.
After each deep breath, let your focus expand out to the next set of triangles: green triangles, black triangles, red triangles, blue triangles, red pedals, yellow pedals
As you take your final deep breath after the yellow pedals, you can close your eyes, and notice the afterimage as you close your eyes.
Look at the center of the afterimage with your eyes close, and you can even spread your attention from the center of the after image as well
It will be hard to keep the image in your mind, but if you relax your gaze the image can come back. If you hold on to the after image too tightly or strenuously then it will float away.
Finally after some time, put your hands together, rub vigorously to generate some heat, and cup your hands over your eyes as you breath in and out.
Let you hands down and slowly open your eyes.

OM Chanting

Follow Along: https://youtu.be/43gyezZiarQ

Chanting is a powerful mediation technique where you chant mantras that generate certain spiritual energy. Om Chanting is comprised of holding the sounds “AH,” “OH,” and “MM.” The goal is to projects as much energy out through the chant as possible.

Begin by keeping a straight back
Take a few deep breath and relax yourself
Chant “AH,” “OH,” and “MM” with as much energy as you can.
As you are chanting focus on the feelings that come out of the chanting.
Do 7 to 10 rounds of chanting and then take a moment to sit quietly

You can even modify this meditation by the amount of breaths, change the deepness of the breaths, change the vibration and energy of the chanting to get different effects.

Mula Bandha Meditation

Follow Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bniu1U6wvR8

The Kundalini chakra system is a system of Chakaras or energy hubs, and these energies hubs that governs attributes in your life. This specific meditation is a Muladhara Chakara meditation, which helps you control your anamalistic instincts.

For example, third eye meditation works on the undi chakra, which works on intuition. Dr K has cultivated this mediation through multiple years of practice, and thinks that it is the source of his psychiatry prowess. He believes this because it studies have demonstrated that different meditation stimulates different parts of the brain, and strengthens those areas.

For this meditation, you are going to do pelvic floor exercises and flex that muscle. So we are going to contract, which will feel like you are sending energy upward, and hold that position.

Then you are going to breathe out and release

Close your eyes, and take a deep breathe in and contract
And on exhalation, you release.
You will do this for 7 to 10 rounds and spend sometime to relax or go into a different meditation.