The other’s about venturing off the meditation cushion completely!  Meditation whilst swimming’s what it’s all about.

Meditation Cushions – What is a meditation cushion? Basically these are aids in meditation that do not offer any back support because they help lengthen the spine and correct your alignment so you are able to breathe better, increase blood flow and …

Meditation while Swimming | Peaceful Effect Blog – Venturing off the Meditation Cushion · Can Learning New Words Solve World Hunger? September is National Yoga Month · Free Herbal Remedies Ebooks Now Available · Invite Your Dog To Join Your Next Yoga Practice …

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This document I found has a lot of useful information on which positions you can use, either sitting in a chair, on a meditation cushion or meditation stool, and also includes a nifty checklist to run through just before you begin your practise, which should increase your comfort and relaxation whilst sitting.

There’s also a YouTube link to footage of a talk on how to sit.  It’s about 10 minutes long, but contained therein are lots of very useful tidbits of information.

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If you’re lucky enough to know or be a tailor, that’s a great resource to make your own meditation cushion.  Places that sell kapok or buckwheat hulls are a dime a dozen so it’ll be easy to make and fill them!

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Support Your Spine and Your Focus – If you can’t find a meditation cushion, there are other options – options you have in your house every day. A thick, rolled towel or folded blanket placed in the gap between your bottom and the floor serves the purpose. …

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Generally speaking, the round shape is better for larger people, as it gives support over a larger area, or if you don’t mind sitting with your feet a bit farther from your body.  The half-moon or crescent shape is better for people who like to sit with their feet very close to the body.

The other resource I found was this squidoo lens, Zen And The Art Of Choosing Meditation Cushions

Hope you find it useful.

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I realised today that although this blog is all about how to get to the right posture and how a meditation cushion can get you there, some people may not actually be able to sit with correct alignment of the spine, perhaps because of injuries, habitual bad posture or back pain.  There are hundreds of reasons why.  That’s OK, because the right alignment is not really something you can concsiously do, or perhaps consciously maintain if you’re doing your meditation practise.

 I’ve been teaching Taiji for some years now, and some of my students haven’t been able to maintain a straight spine, either because of habitual bad posture, old injuries or simply tension built up in their muscles over the years of incorrect alignment.  One man I taught was a bodybuilder and his upper body was so overdeveloped he couldn’t physically hold his spine in the right shape.  Other students hold their spine correctly during the class but instantly lapse into the old ways when class ends.

 Habitual bad posture can be corrected by making the body aware that it is holding itself incorrectly.  Meditation is also a gentle way to remind your body what the right structure is, because your body will naturally want to sit in the right posture once your muscles start to relax.  Trust your body, don’t force it and it will tell you which way to move to sit more comfortably.  Gradually, over time the body will start to gravitate towards the most comfortable posture, i.e. the correct alignment.  Regular practise will give your body a regular reminder, and keep the process going.

 Sometimes the right position can feel wrong, because poor posture sometimes becomes a habit.  Trust your body rather than yourself and never force anything (After all “forcing” things is not really what meditation is about is it?)

 This comes with a disclaimer though, as you must never try to force your body into the correct alignment.  Doing so might cause injury if your body is unable to hold the posture you believe you should be holding.  If you’re in any doubt, serious discomfort or pain, go see your doctor about it.

 In summary, if you find you can’t sit with a perfectly aligned back, it’s not a big deal, as you’ll naturally start to gravitate towards what is correct.  Go see your doctor if you’ve got severe discomfort or pain.

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I was looking around for information on what happens to your back when your hips aren’t elevated properly, and I found this site, Prapattiprops.  It’s power for the cause on why we all need a meditation cushion if we sit regularly.  Now this site has a sizing poster (follow the link on the site) that tells you all you need to know about how your back slips out of alignment if your hips are too high or too low, or not elevated at all.

In general terms, your spine is designed to sit with three curves in it if our alignment is perfect.  If our sitting position is not correct it can cause our spine to drift out of alignment and place pressure on various parts of our back, in the long run this could cause or exacerbate back problems.

If your hips are sitting flat on the floor or not elevated at all, the spine curves back, and this tends to make you crunch in an attempt to stabilise yourself and hold yourself vertical.  If you check out the poster on the website above, the graphic shows how your spine gets all scrunched up, and this is going to put pressure on your lower back, which isn’t comfortable if you’re sitting for a long time.

Likewise, if your meditation cushion is too big and your hips are too high, it causes excessive curvature of the lower back, again putting pressure on it.

Sitting for too long in the wrong position is bound to cause some stiffness, and might even give you some pain, neither of which will help your back, nor will they help your meditation.

So in summary, the graphic on Prapattiprops sums it up beautifully, getting the wrong size for your cushion will cause curvature and pressure on the lower back, you’ll be able to tell because you won’t feel comfortable whilst you’re sitting, and you can adjust the height of your meditation cushion to find your correct alignment

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Try this for an exercise.  Slump and slouch, really crinkle your body up.  Put on a sad face, and now try to feel cheerful.  If you get that far (I usually start giggling halfway through the exercise) you’ll probably notice that it just feels wrong.  A cheerful soul wants to stand tall, stick his chest out and smile.  Even the simple act of smiling can have a lifting effect on our mood.

So, when we sit and meditate, it is important to become aware of your posture as any slumping, slouching or drifting off into sloppy positions can have an affect on our meditation.  Different traditions have different thoughts on what the ideal posture is, but they all have a common element, the hips should be slightly elevated, thus allowing the spine to be straight.  It should be straightforward to achieve this position of you are sitting in a chair, but if you are sitting on the floor, using a meditation cushion will help you get your hips in the right place.

The easiest way to get it is to simply imagine your head is being drawn towards the ceiling by an imaginary force.  It’s a head-fake but it works beautifully.  So long as your hips are slightly elevated, the head-fake will work wonderfully.

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Quite difficult actually, when your back and neck start hurting, legs go to sleep and knees seize up, an uncomfortable body does not make for a still mind.

Most of these are due to structural or postural issues. The hips should be elevated so the spine sits straight, an alignment that helps the body support itself more naturally. Using a meditation cushion that’s right for you can help you find this alignment and make you sit more comfortably whilst meditating.

There are loads of meditation cushions and meditation furniture out there, and we’re all different so it’s useful to understand the differences between the various bits of furniture and which would be most helpful for you.

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