Take Ajapa breaks to enhance your meditative experience

A common complaint from the practitioners of meditation is that in spite of having a good meditation session they can't carry that meditative state throughout the day. The calmness and blissfulness fades away as the day proceeds and daily chores of life take over. There are several ways to overcome this problem. One of them is - taking Ajapa breaks! Let's see how.

• Pick five (or more) short time slots scattered throughout the day. You can either decide some fixed timings (11 AM, 2 PM etc.) or you can pick them based on some activity (while waiting for bus, before meeting or conference call etc.). You can even pick them randomly but ensure that they are not too close to one another.
• During these time slots just do five (or more) Ajapa breaths. You need not go to a separate place. You don't need your meditation seat. Just do them wherever you are. You might be sitting in a chair or standing at your desk or walking towards the canteen. Remember, one Ajapa breath is one inhalation with SO and one exhalation with HAM.
• During this exercise do not aim for higher level of concentration or focus. Just become aware of the breathing process consisting of spontaneous, relaxed, and deep Puraka and Rechaka. You may even think about the calmness and bliss you experienced during your main meditation session. Mentally try to recreate the same feeling of happiness during these five breaths.
• You can switch between SO-HAM and HAM-SAH variations once you make this a daily habit. Use SO-HAM for the first Ajapa break, then use HAM-SAH for the second Ajapa break and so on.
• Just like you take tea / coffee breaks, snack breaks, and lunch break make Ajapa breaks a part of your daily life. You will soon find that you are able to carry the meditative mood throughout the day and the quality of your meditation will also improve.

Bipin Joshi is an independent software consultant and trainer by profession specializing in Microsoft web development technologies. Having embraced the Yoga way of life he is also a yoga mentor, meditation teacher, and spiritual guide to his students. He is a prolific author and writes regularly about software development and yoga on his websites. He is programming, meditating, writing, and teaching for over 27 years. To read more about him go here. More details about his Kriya and Meditation online course are available here.