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beetsmyth
USA
104 Posts |
 Posted - May 05 2012 : 6:13:20 PM
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Does anyone have any tips or advice for meditating in hot humid weather? Some days its so bad its just overall irritating to be in such heat & humidity considering we have summer just around the corner.
Any tips? |
Edited by - beetsmyth on May 05 2012 9:18:51 PM |
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faileforever
USA
190 Posts |
Posted - May 05 2012 : 6:28:26 PM
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Hi beetsmyth 
I just wanted to share a few techniques i use in the hot weather. I'm sure you've already tried a fan? but also maybe try meditating in one of the cooler, darker rooms in your house or have you tried meditating directly after your morning shower so the water can keep you cool? Hope you find some relief. Thanks for sharing, friend |
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beetsmyth
USA
104 Posts |
Posted - May 05 2012 : 9:20:23 PM
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Yes of course we have the house w/ a/c blasting. We can use fans, cool baths, shade, etc. What about outside, in forests, in nature?
Thanks for the tips, much appreciated. |
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cosmic
USA
821 Posts |
Posted - May 05 2012 : 10:24:49 PM
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What I used to do was meditate shirtless, but wrap the shirt (or a towel) loosely across my shoulders. That way, I could use it to fan myself or dab the sweat off my chest.
It's not ideal, but better than going without meditating.
AUM [img]icon_heart.gif[/img] |
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whippoorwill
USA
450 Posts |
Posted - May 05 2012 : 10:40:16 PM
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We live in the Chicago area with no air conditioning. There's usually a week in the summer when it's over 90 degrees in the house.  
I roll up washcloths around a bit of lavender, put them in a bowl, pour some water over them and stick them in the fridge. Then I put them around my neck. It does a pretty good job of keeping me cool. You could try the same with washcloths in a cooler of ice if no fridge is available. Or just a wet washcloth on the neck if there's not even a cooler. If you're lying down, a wet towel on the chest under a fan works fairly well too.
Good luck!
Oh! I just remembered a technique that we did in a Yoga asanas class to cool down after we were all sweaty. Our teacher told us to purse our lips, kind of like we're making an exaggerated "W" sound and suck the air in and blow it out through the pursed lips. We only did it once, but it seemed to work pretty well then. I'll have to remember that one for this summer.
P.S. Does anyone know what that technique is called? If not, I'll ask at my next class. |
Edited by - whippoorwill on May 05 2012 10:43:52 PM |
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axelschlotzhauer
Germany
150 Posts |
Posted - May 06 2012 : 03:17:49 AM
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I think it is called sisali breath with rolling the two tongue halves into a pipe. Through this pipe you draw air inwards. There is a second pranayama exercise I do not remember.
Having this way cooling air you can distribute it to parts especially in the brain you need this cold element using the difference of your body warmth and air. Well the body should be warmer as usual like the air but needs sweating for keeping cooler. But the head in concentration may be still hotter.
Bathing, showering as yogic cleanliness in the beginning and sauna feeling afterwards
cooler may help but disturb the chi and prana needing a toweling, oiling and massaging intervall afterwards.
Axel |
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maheswari
Lebanon
2516 Posts |
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axelschlotzhauer
Germany
150 Posts |
Posted - May 06 2012 : 09:56:01 AM
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 good links and practical website. Thanks. See my tongue,
Animals cool often by the tongue. ssssss is a kundalini sound lke a cooling snake.
The outbreath through the nose has also a cooling effect in lines through the brain.
Axel
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whippoorwill
USA
450 Posts |
Posted - May 06 2012 : 4:20:05 PM
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Thanks for the links, Maha!
Have you done these Pranayamas and do you have any experience with how well they go with the Spinal Breathing Pranayama? If I do these pranayamas to cool down, should I cut back an equal amount on the spinal breathing? I was wondering what effect they have in terms of possible overload...
I guess I'll cautiously experiment a bit this Summer and report back here.
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axelschlotzhauer
Germany
150 Posts |
Posted - May 06 2012 : 6:22:55 PM
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I think the difference lies in the use of ssss as a mantra. Kundalini mantras like Hongsau seem not to be used in AYP whereas for SRF sees it as I am he I am the spirit.
http://www.yogananda.com.au/pyr/pyr_hong-sau.html
Mentally breathing the spinal cord upwards seems not possible this way but going a channel behind the spine downwards to the tailbone.
I got also cold fingers by this breath.
Axel |
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maheswari
Lebanon
2516 Posts |
Posted - May 07 2012 : 02:06:53 AM
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dear whippoorwill
these 2 pranayamas are named minor pranayamas....so you can use them without worrying about overloading....they are safe....
but off course you can always cautiously experiment |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - May 07 2012 : 06:26:53 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by beetsmyth
What about outside, in forests, in nature?
Well, since you are asking this in an AYP forum, I would like to add:
http://www.aypsite.org/31.html
A: There is great benefit in being outdoors in beautiful places, but not necessarily in meditating there. To be able to appreciate the profound beauty of nature is the greatest joy in life. For what greater purpose could we be here than to enjoy the infinite sea of harmony in and all around us? Regular meditation gradually cultivates our inherent ability to appreciate the beauty in life.
But remember what we are doing in meditation. We are easily picking up the mantra and letting it go however it will. Then we are picking it back up again when we realize we have been off it. This procedure we do for twenty minutes twice a day. We do not meditate for a particular experience while we are doing it. The purification process has its own way to go. We cannot direct it or predict it. We do the easy procedure of meditation and let it happen.
So, doing the meditation procedure is not about sitting on a mountaintop or in any particular place, except to take advantage of the best place we have available at meditation time where we will have the least distraction.
Jesus said, "Go into your closet to pray."
This is the idea. Meditation is an inner process, so we withdraw to
do it.
If we are on an airplane, in a waiting room, or on top of a mountain, we may not have a choice, so we make the best of it and meditate there. As discussed previously, it can easily be done. However, we do not go sit outdoors on a mountaintop for the purpose of meditating. It's much better to be in the cabin where it is quiet and subdued. Then we can meditate, go inward, with the least stimulation of the outer senses. Later on we can go out and appreciate the grand display of the valley below, having soaked ourselves with the perception-illuminating qualities of pure bliss consciousness. Close your eyes then, if you wish, and be one with the glory of nature all around you. Enjoy!
Wish you all the best. |
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axelschlotzhauer
Germany
150 Posts |
Posted - May 07 2012 : 08:07:49 AM
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This is more a beginner's stage as the parable of Martha, working and lstening in the kitchen, and Maria sitting and meditating to the feet of Jesus shows.
The answer of Jesus is normally interpreted that he lauds Mary and disapproves with Martha asking Mary to help her.
Meister Eckhard interpretes the answer that Mary is a beginner in meditation with insufficient concentration wkereas Martha is advanced being able to commune with Jesus also doing most attentively her work.
Zen masters appreciate this story very much also for questions of the higher self and lower ego of Mary. Their highest rank like in working Sufi monasteries is in the tradition of Hui Neng the cook. Being welcomed by him is a privilege.
As there is only a beginning non-advaita found until yet on this list the philosophical action of Meister Eckhart influenced much by Avivenna or Ibn Drushd, and Huineng as the negation of non-advaitic astral stages has to be shown: the separation of work and astral dreams
of spiritual listening and experience is uplifted by the simple answer of Huineng against the poem of the later Northern patriarch of Zen.
He says that there is no mirror to be cleansed as in the other poem as an idiotlike answer but with high dialectics on emptiness and primordial awareness.
Ok the question was meditation with hot and humid weather. Better to sit in nature and on high mountains with advanced meditation and open eyes imbibing beautiful sights than cooking youself in your appartment.
Axel |
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Radharani
USA
843 Posts |
Posted - May 09 2012 : 03:21:13 AM
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| As Shanti pointed out, location is not important to the AYP meditative practice per se, which is inwardly focused and does not depend on surroundings. Having said that, you can also use the heat and humidity as a different sort of meditative exercise: simply allow yourself to experience it without judgement and return to the mantra. Whether distracted by internal or external "scenery" or phenomena, return to the mantra. |
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axelschlotzhauer
Germany
150 Posts |
Posted - May 09 2012 : 3:57:11 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Radharani
As Shanti pointed out, location is not important to the AYP meditative practice per se, which is inwardly focused and does not depend on surroundings. Having said that, you can also use the heat and humidity as a different sort of meditative exercise: simply allow yourself to experience it without judgement and return to the mantra. Whether distracted by internal or external "scenery" or phenomena, return to the mantra.
An advanced practitioner as Martha in Jesus visit to their house is not distracted by "scenery" and surroundings as such a person does not lose like a Zen monk his inner concentration and awareness by work and open eyes.
Here Mary is nearly doing tratak to Jesus while Martha works for her guests in the background nearby. They are sisters of the highly advanced yogi Lazarus returning to life into his already stinking corpse after four days.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:...qXbomnAz3FAQ
Luke 10:38 ^
Now, while they were on their way, he came to a certain town; and a woman named Martha took him into her house.
Lukas 10:38 ^
Es begab sich aber, da sie wandelten, ging er in einen Markt. Da war ein Weib mit Namen Martha, die nahm ihn auf in ihr Haus.
Luke 10:39 ^
And she had a sister, by name Mary, who took her seat at the Lord's feet and gave attention to his words.
Luke 10:40 ^
But Martha had her hands full of the work of the house, and she came to him and said, Lord, is it nothing to you that my sister has let me do all the work? Say to her that she is to give me some help.
Luke 10:41 ^
But the Lord, answering, said to her, Martha, Martha, you are full of care and troubled about such a number of things:
Luke 10:42 ^
Little is needed, or even one thing only: for Mary has taken that good part, which will not be taken away from her.
Jesus did not say that Martha shall sit also to his feet as she listens anyway whilst working.
Like SRF ministers she is in nirvikalpa samadhi in the pituitory gland
in the selfless service of others. But AYP seems not to know that.It is not only the right of the leaders following Maharshi´s divine art approach enjoying nature instead remaining in the hot appartment.
Axel
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Jul 14 2012 : 8:46:36 PM
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I don't know. I have relatively little difficulty falling into deep meditation.
But all my practice and ability goes out the window when the weather is hot and humid. My body simply cannot function very well; I cannot think clearly, I cannot move quickly, I generally feel awful. There's not really much to be done about it. Some people can handle that weather and others cannot from my experience. |
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tonightsthenight
846 Posts |
Posted - Jul 15 2012 : 1:54:37 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by whippoorwill
We live in the Chicago area with no air conditioning. There's usually a week in the summer when it's over 90 degrees in the house.
I roll up washcloths around a bit of lavender, put them in a bowl, pour some water over them and stick them in the fridge. Then I put them around my neck. It does a pretty good job of keeping me cool. You could try the same with washcloths in a cooler of ice if no fridge is available. Or just a wet washcloth on the neck if there's not even a cooler. If you're lying down, a wet towel on the chest under a fan works fairly well too.
Good luck!
Oh! I just remembered a technique that we did in a Yoga asanas class to cool down after we were all sweaty. Our teacher told us to purse our lips, kind of like we're making an exaggerated "W" sound and suck the air in and blow it out through the pursed lips. We only did it once, but it seemed to work pretty well then. I'll have to remember that one for this summer.
P.S. Does anyone know what that technique is called? If not, I'll ask at my next class.
I just thought I'd say, as bad as that sounds Whippoorwill, try a New York summer without any AC. Two to three months of temps in the 90s to 100 F with 75%+ humidity in a bad year. At night, temps will often stay above 80F in the city. There is rarely any wind and sometimes it even gets hotter in the evening. The city is a heat sink so it releases the daytime heat every evening. |
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How to meditate in Hot/Humid weather?
