The first thing to learn in meditation is how to sit effectively.
There are two important principles that you need to bear in mind in setting up a suitable posture for meditation.
your posture has to allow you to relax and to be comfortable.
your posture has to allow you to remain alert and aware.
Both of these are vitally important. If you're uncomfortable you'll not be able to meditate because of discomfort. If you can't relax then you won't be able to enjoy the meditation practice and, just as importantly, you won't be able to let go of the underlying emotional conflicts that cause your physical tension.
From reading that, you might well think that it would be best to meditate lying down. Bad idea! If you're lying down your mind will be foggy at best, and you may well even fall asleep. If you've ever been to a yoga class that ends with shavasana (the corpse pose), where people lie on the floor and relax, you'll have noticed that about a third of the class is snoring within five minutes.
Forget about meditating lying down. The best way to effectively combine relaxation AND awareness is a sitting posture. You don't have to sit cross-legged, or even sit on the floor.
Remember: you may think it looks really cool to sit cross-legged, but if you don't have the flexibility it takes to do that then you'll simply suffer! Make it easy on yourself. Choose a posture that is right for you.
There are many different ways to sit for meditation, including using chairs, sitting astride cushions, using a bench, and various ways of sitting cross-legged from the simple tailor position to the full lotus. ...
You can meditate perfectly well in an ordinary dining-room or office chair. The only thing you have to do to modify the chair is to raise its back legs by maybe an inch or so (2.0 to 2.5cm). ...
Although you can use a chair to meditate on, it's not as satisfying as sitting on the floor. Somehow, being on the floor gives a more "grounded" feeling....
In the full lotus, the feet rest on the opposite thighs, with the soles pointing upwards (if you have pain in your ankles then stop! and find an easier posture)....
A slumped posture does not allow us to be alert and to remain aware while meditating. When you slump, you may also experience tension in the neck and shoulders. ...
The solution for over-arching is generally to adjust the angle of the seat or (and this is more common) find a lower seat, or to make an adjustment to the angle of the pelvis.
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In order to create good conditions for being aware, you need to have an open chest, with a sense of spaciousness across the front of your chest between your shoulders....
Once you've been through your body, become aware of your body as a whole. Then center your awareness on your belly, sensing the calming, rhythmic motion of your belly as you breathe in and out.
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