As a Physiotherapist I believe that practicing exercises prescribed to improve your movement patterns is a form of meditation. If you don’t have focused attention and repetition, changes will not happen as desired.

If you’ve ever been injured and needed rehab, you’ll know that without practicing your physical exercises your physical body will not recover as quickly and efficiently as it could. And when it does recover, it might have compensations that lead to new injuries.

Bringing awareness to the physical body is the first step in learning to meditate.

What does it mean “to be aware of your body”? Being aware of all sensations – not only the “painful” sensations but also the pleasant sensations and not being attached to either of them. Being aware of your breath. Where do you breathe? How even is your breath? In and out … is there a rhythm?

A lot of research shows how important it is to be focused on what you are doing to be able to make new brain cells and integration. To learn is to pay focused attention and to repeat the process until it becomes automatic. So you can actually meditate in different ways – by exercising your body and paying attention to each single breath and body position, how you are moving your legs and arms, how relaxed is your system.

Through meditation, we bring ourselves to a higher awareness where our energy body is able to receive divine energy or spiritual energy.

If you want a strong, fit, healthy body then you need to have a plan for diet, exercise and rest. Athletes, for example, know that rest is essential in order for their training efforts to be assimilated and integrated by the brain. If they push too hard and over-train, they risk injury. The same goes with our energy body. To best receive and channel spiritual energy, we need a strong, fit and healthy energy body.

Would you pour fresh coffee into a mug that still has left over coffee from yesterday? No you wouldn’t – or at least I hope not! 🙂 For best-tasting coffee, you would dispose of the old coffee (physical exercises), wash the mug (breathing exercises – visualisation) and then pour the freshly-made coffee into the mug (spiritual energy during meditation). Similarly, to best receive the downpour of spiritual energy available during meditation, we must first clean our energy channels. This is achieved through Purification of which there are two main types: Physical Purification and Inner Purification.

Physical Purification involves eating a proper nutritious diet, sufficient proper physical exercise, proper breathing and abstaining from vices like addictive drugs, smokes and large quantities of alcohol. Purifying the physical body through physical exercises before meditation is critical. It prepares the body (both physical and energy) to withstand increased amounts of spiritual energy. The process of clearing the system further allows spiritual energy to flow with minimal resistance during meditation resulting in a strong, fit and healthy energy body.

Similar to achieving physical body results, if you want to have strong, toned muscles and be fit and healthy, you must have an exercise program and a schedule to train regularly a few times a week. If you stick to it, you’ll see results after a few weeks (although everyone is different). Then once you have achieved the results, you know that if you stop practicing your exercises you’ll start to decrease your muscle strength and after a while your fitness level won’t be the same either. So based on that, you can make a conscious choice… if I stop exercising (or if I never start) my physical body will not be fit, strong and healthy. It’s the same analogy with meditation. Practice regularly, have a routine. Start slow, once or twice a week then gradually increase. You’ll feel the difference, I guarantee.

Inner Purification, or character building, is equally critical. Meditation augments both the strengths and weaknesses (virtues and vices) in our character. Just like a fertilizer does it for the soil in gardening – the plants you want will grow faster and more nutritiously, however, the weeds will also grow. So we must work on our personal weaknesses in order to become a better person and experience spiritual growth. We must actively “pull the weeds out” of our emotional and mental garden. We do this by being mindful (not fanatical) of what we think, feel and say, by practicing inner reflection and firm resolution in accordance with the 5 Virtues as specified by Master Choa Kok Sui:

1. Loving Kindness & Non-Injury
2. Generosity & Non-Stealing
3. Accurate Perception & Correct Expression
4. Constancy of Aim and effort & Non-Laziness
5. Moderation & Non-Excessiveness

It’s much easier and more powerful meditating in a group. Please come and join our regular meditation groups. For more details visit our Meditation Classes and Schedule page.