Dwelling in the Lotus Heart
(Adapted from a Shiva Rea meditation, Prana Flow®)

By visualizing your heart as a lotus flower, you begin to create a safe, comfortable place for your mind to settle.
As you inhale, breathe into your heart. Begin to visualize a lotus flower inside your chest that is gently spreading its petals open with each inhalation. And as you exhale, just dwell inside the lotus flower.
Focus on the sensation of an expanding heart.
When thoughts arise, allow them to pass through you like the changing light of the day, or imagine them resting on the flower like water on its petals.
Dwell inside the lotus of your heart, feeling the qualities of unconditional love emerge.
When you are ready, bring your hands together in Anjali Mudra, the Salutation Seal, and complete your meditation with a moment of gratitude, reflection, or prayer to integrate the energy of your meditation into your life.

Metta (Loving Kindness) Meditation
may I be filled with loving kindness
may I be well
may I be peaceful and at ease
may I be happy

Expand this meditation to encompass those
you love, those you don’t love, and to all beings.

BEGINNING GLOSSARY

Asana: pose or posture
Prana: universal life force
Pranayama: breathwork
Sadhana: yoga practice
Savasana: Corpse Pose or Pose of Surrender - the final pose in a practice
Yoga Sutra: one of the seminal works on yoga
Patanjali: Indian sage who compiled the Yoga Sutra in 200 CE
Shanti: Peace
Om or Aum: a sound vibration. It is used as a mantra or chant. Many classes begin or end with the chanting of Om.
Namaste: a salutation. “The light within me honors the light within you.”
Sat Nam: a salutation. “Truth is my identity.”
Anjali Mudra: hands together, as in prayer, at the heart. Sometimes known as “hands in Namaste”.
Vinyasa: poses flowing together linked by the breath, e.g. Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutation)

SELECTED RESOURCES

Books

Heart of a Yogi, Doug Keller
Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga, Rodney Yee
Mindfulness Yoga, Frank Jude Boccio
Yoga for Your Type: An Ayurvedic Approach to Asana Practice, David Frawley
Hatha Yoga Illustrated, Martin Kirk & Brooke Boon
Yoga: Mastering the Basics, Sandra Anderson & Rolf Sovik
Yoga: Your Home Practice Companion, Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center
Yoga for Dummies, Georg Feuerstein & Larry Payne
Moving Inward: The Journey to Meditation, Rolf Sovik
Commit to Sit: Tools for Cultivating a Meditation Practice, from Tricycle
The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice, T.K.V. Desikachar
The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing, Dr. Vasant Lad

DVDs

Complete Beginner’s Guide, Jason Crandell
Foundation Poses for Strength and Stamina, Natasha Rizopoulos
Bending & Twisting Poses for Flexibility, Natasha Rizopoulos
Balancing Poses for Focus & Energy, Natasha Rizopoulos
Yoga for Well-being, Jason Crandell
Kripalu Yoga Gentle, Sudha Carolyn Lundeen
Kripalu Yoga Dynamic, Stephen Cope
OM Yoga, Beginner & Intermediate Classes, Cyndi Lee
Kundalini Yoga, Gururmukh
The Still Point, John Daido Loori, Roshi (for meditation in the Zen tradition, Zazen)

CDs

Yoga Sanctuary: A Guided Hatha Yoga Practice, Shiva Rea
OM Yoga, Cyndi Lee
Guided Mindfulness Meditation, Jon Kabat-Zinn
Guided Meditation, Jack Kornfield
Ayurveda, Dr. Vasant Lad

Magazines

Yoga Journal magazine
Yoga International
Shambhala Sun
Tricycle

The deepest insight will not come from studying someone else’s sutras, though they may be of some help. Seeing comes into being through the study of yourself in daily life.
~ Ganga White