A Guided Practice to Prepare for meditation

Listen to Meditation Preparation

I want to show you how to prepare for meditation and do so successfully. Last week I reached a personal milestone: 1,008 consecutive days of meditation. Although I've meditated regularly for over a decade, I've never fully committed to a daily sadhana (practice).  

It was not for lack of interest; I knew the benefits of meditation. 

But I did not understand exactly how transformative a daily routine would be versus something I "fit in" a few days a week. 

The results of my daily sadhana are not only perceptible on my face, but in every aspect of my life. I've achieved great things over the last 1,008 days, wrote a book for diabetes, brought my A1c levels down consistently under 6.5%, and gracefully navigated through significant challenges and losses.  

​I share my story with you to encourage you to do the same and I want to show you how. 
It is a no-brainer that meditation is beneficial; however, many do not know how to practice, or they have tried only to give up after a few days, weeks, or even months later. 

To those people, I ask, "Are you preparing for meditation"? 

Yes, prepare. 

Most likely they aren't. 
Just as you would warm up before exercise to avoid injury, maximize performance, meditation also requires preparation. 

Otherwise, it can be an uncomfortable and fruitless endeavor. 

Complete meditation practice trains the mind to turn away from worldly distractions, become established subtle aspects of awareness, and eventually transcend all objects to abide in the one, eternal truth. 
On a more practical level, meditation helps us look at ourselves from a different perspective, overcoming obstacles, making better choices, irradicating stress, and receiving more joy from life experience. 

Let's be realistic; we do not always have time to do all the physical and breathwork to prepare to sit. Because of this, people often skip practice altogether. 

I want to show you how to prepare with a quick and easy method to maximize your meditation experience. 



The sages knew that the way to enter the state of meditation was to use the breath to still the mind.

It is a process called prana dharana. 
Prana—the vital force—travels in the body on the wave of the breath. Dharana means concentration in Sanskrit. The breath sensitizes the mind to prana, and thorough attention, allows the mind to perceive what is otherwise invisible. 
When you meditate on the breath, you notice that the breath's jerkiness and strain correspond with mental distractions. 

According to Swami Rama, "Those who do not want to practice pranayama can still practice meditation, but without breathing awareness, a deep state of meditation is impossible."

A Practice to Prepare for Meditation - Prana Dhanana

Steps of meditation prep:

1. Pure breathing - breathe consciously checking-in, presenting your awareness. Resolve tension in the breath. (1-5 minutes)
2. Transition to a natural breath flow. Notice the origin of the inhale just in front of the nostrils. Witness the inhale rise up and into the nasal cavity, link with the joyous sensation. Do not try; simply allow the mind to notice the feeling of the breath in and out. (1-2 minutes)
3. Continue to relax your effort. Surrender mind into the feeling of the breath. As the breath becomes more smooth and subtle, presence develops, and thoughts subside. 
4. Allow awareness to rise from space just below nostrils to the point between the eyebrows on the inhale. On the exhale from eyebrow center to origin just below the nostrils. (1-2 minutes)
5. Then, from the eyebrow center to the midbrain and back to the origin point. (1-2 minutes)
6. Now the mind is sufficiently awakened to a presence in the form of prana. Let go of the origin point just beyond the nose and sense the movement of breath localized in the mid-brain. Like a lighthouse flashing, perceive or feel the presence expand from mid-brain on the inhale and return to mid-brain on the exhale. The more you relax effort, the brighter awareness the presence becomes. (1-5 minutes)
7. Rest in the presence of awareness. (As long as you like)
8. Options to continue to meditation: continue to watch the pulsation of breath if the mind is distracted. Feel mantra arising naturally from the still point. Direct presence to a chakra and meditate on that region. Or rest in undivided transcendent awareness.