5 Steps to Setting Up Your Meditation/Yoga Space

By: Premadasa Gangadeen

As we move into this year’s fall/winter season, we are gifted with an opportunity to set ourselves up for a period of inner reflection, hibernation and capitulation. This ultimately leads to greater awareness and strengthening of inner-focus and overall well-being.

With dedication and fortitude, we can control how we choose to meet the coming spring, a time of renewal/rebirth in the best way possible as the best versions of ourselves. Any unnecessary items taking up space in our lives can and should be shed during this coming winter period provided we give it our appropriate attention. There is an unlimited possibility of options of what we could attract to fill in to this newly-created space. My advice would be to focus on anything that draws in peace, love and joy. If you feel uncertain of what that may be, take some time to be still and quiet to listen and then follow the guidance of your heart.

From a practical perspective, I prescribe Yoga and meditation. These techniques and teachings are available and accessible to all throughout so many avenues and they are a simple and effective tool for total health and wellness. One need not start with a goal or desired result or expectation to justify or force a regular practice. The simple act of conducting practice to spend time with and to get to know oneself in a graceful and loving way is more than enough to allow for a natural blossoming benefit for body, breath, mind, intellect and spirit.

Start with the basics of any practical technique of your choosing andbuild it up from there as your practice deepens. Below are five simplesteps to observe and support you on your way. Enjoy the journey!

1. Designate and reserve a specific area in your living space suitable for your practice exclusively. Try to ensure adequate lighting control and fresh air access if possible.2

2. Clean, tidy and purify the space regularly. Be sure to only store pertinent articles required for your practice within the designated space.

3. Make an appointment with your practice space once or twice daily for a specific period of time. Be punctual and commit to your attendance and attention to your practice.

4. Find the ease, play and joy within your practice. Let go of any sense of expectation or goal. Pay close attention.5

5. Reserve some time at the end of your practice to journal your thoughts, observations and feelings and then let all of that go just as one pulls a plug in a tub releasing the water to let it flow down, out and away.