Skin, the human canvas, provides a text that tells us a lot about who we are and even what we are. People have for thousands of years tattooed and pierced their bodies in self expression. It only makes sense that the outside reflects what they got going on inside. It makes sense that if we want a greater self-awareness of who we are that reading, really reading, our outer body can give us a lot of information.

No, my intention isn’t to drive the desire to meditate out of you. Quite the contrary: The next few posts on RootLock.com will have to do with a practical means of becoming comfortable with meditating. This post, well, this post gets the dirty work out of the way: It’s about why trying to meditate can be anything but relaxing. Then later, in the next few posts, we'll talk about a couple of Practical Ways that you can find mindful meditation in your life and on a daily basis.

I emphasize breathing in my yoga classes, perhaps obsessively so. But I have reasons. Breathing is perhaps the most important aspect of the yoga practice. Yoga helps create a stronger and more flexible body. Determination, discipline, and focus also result from a yoga practice. Yet it is correct breathing that allows each of these to fall nicely into place.

Arguably stress is a result of past occurrences while anxiety is the result of future concerns. The key to key to eliminating them from our lives is to become Present. How do we become present? We Breathe.

The greatest barrier to meditation for most of us is the setting still. It’s ironic that just setting there for an extended periods can be hard on the body. The hips hurt. Setting Lotus style (a no go for me at this point) is hard on the knees. And after a few minutes the butt starts to hurt. And depending on your seating arrangement, whether seated on a mat or on a pillow, it is difficult to keep a strong, lifted posture. When the slouch happens, it’s a major distraction for me.

Simply put: It’s hard to meditate when you are constantly dealing with physical pain and posture alignment. If you are interested in developing a deep meditation practice, at some point you’ll have to find your way into a formal seated posture. In the mean time we can benefit from mindfulness in other ways, one being walking meditation.

Finding our first thoughts seems counter intuitive when it comes to meditation. We tend to feel that thinking is what we are trying to avoid in meditation. It is ironic though that we never really realize how much we think until we try to meditate or enter deep prayer. At least that’s how it is for me. Discovering how the mind works and its relationship with our thinking and emotional selves allows us to eventually find the freedom of thought that is often the goal of meditation…