Rajyoga Meditation
Meditation is the journey inwards, a journey of self-discovery or, in fact, re-discovery. Meditation is the time taken for quiet reflection and silence, away from the hustle and bustle of daily living. Taking time out enables us to come back to a centered place of being. In our modern world, the pace of life is growing ever faster and we are losing touch with our true inner peace and power. When we no longer feel grounded, we can experience ourselves pushed and pulled in many different directions. It is at this point that we start to experience stress and a feeling of being trapped. Gradually, over time, this feeling leads to illness and disease, as our mental, emotional and physical health is thrown out of balance. Rajyoga meditation is a form of meditation that is accessible to people of all backgrounds. Rajyoga meditation is a meditation without rituals or mantras and can be practiced anywhere at any time.
Rajyoga meditation is practiced with ‘open eyes’, which makes this method of meditation versatile, simple and easy to practice. Meditation is a state of being in that place just beyond everyday consciousness, which is where spiritual empowerment begins. Spiritual awareness gives us the power to choose good and positive thoughts over those which are negative and wasteful. We start to respond to situations, rather than just reacting to them. We begin to live with harmony, we create better and happier, healthier relationships and change our lives in a most positvely.
Why Meditate ?
Most of us have very busy minds and a thousand things to think about. This is why it is crucial for our well-being to give rest to our minds with daily shots of being truly at peace with ourselves and our world.
Rajyoga is a simple method to rise above our chattering mind and find that peace. Every day. It helps us know and experience who we really are inside – separate from the many different roles we play and the labels we are given. We call it ‘soul consciousness’.
Understanding, valuing and trusting this inner self, the soul, and its natural qualities and strengths bring greater self-confidence, balance and meaning to our lives. Barriers that have come up between us and others – or even between us and a Higher Energy or God – start to dissolve.
Anyone can meditate. All that’s required is a bit of understanding and know-how and regular, dedicated time to practice and find out how to make it work for us.
Our courses, events and meditation sessions are free because we don’t want money to be a barrier to anyone wanting to learn this ancient skill. So we cover our costs with voluntary donations from those who themselves benefit and choose to support our work.
Benefits For Health & Well-Being
There’s quite a bit of research as well as anecdotal evidence to indicate that meditation practised regularly can contribute significantly towards our general health and wellbeing. How? Being able to bring ourselves into a feeling of peace and wellbeing is a really powerful and valuable life skill. Then, even when things aren’t going ‘right’ – or rather, especially then – we are able to deal with the situation more easily. With a calm, clear mind we save our energy, see the bigger picture and are more likely to make better decisions.
How? Being able to bring ourselves into a feeling of peace and wellbeing is a really powerful and valuable life skill. Then, even when things aren’t going ‘right’ – or rather, especially then – we are able to deal with the situation more easily. With a calm, clear mind we save our energy, see the bigger picture and are more likely to make better decisions.
Stress, anger and fear, although understandable, only make things worse for us. They put an additional strain on our physical health and our immune system. Practicing Raja Yoga meditation helps us understand better the roots of these strong, toxic feelings that can overtake us and replace them with thoughts that are constructive and in line with our inner values and the natural capacity for love, peace and wisdom inside each one of us.
How To Meditate ?
Just as there are many ways to relax and exercise our bodies, there are lots of different ways to meditate. All meditation methods give our minds something to focus on.
For example, some people meditate by concentrating on a candle, others on a mantra and others use affirmations.
Rajyoga meditation is about experiencing soul consciousness – becoming aware of ourselves as spiritual beings, souls, independent from our physical identities. Having this consciousness of the inner self helps to free us from any self-limiting beliefs and habits we may be stuck in, and to start to think and act in a way that’s more in line with our inner values.
We observe our thoughts and choose to direct them to take us into a positive experience with that understanding and from that perspective. We speak to our minds gently but firmly, reminding ourselves of who we really are inside and our inner qualities and strengths. The self respect this brings us leads us to feel quite differently about ourselves, those around us and the world around us – and what our priorities are in this moment.
It’s good to fix a special place to meditate regularly – a comfortable chair – or on the floor, if you prefer – but it’s important to stay alert. In fact, it doesn’t have to be sitting down but the concentration is usually better that way!
Sometimes we can try too hard in the beginning, thinking that we have to ‘get it right’ straight away. We just need to keep going with our practice and accept where we are at. Learning to meditate is a gradual process, so we need to take it easy, be patient and be kind to ourselves.