Five Steps Closer to Calm

If it's hard for you to still your mind to meditate, the senior teachers at Kripalu Center have developed a five-step approach that could help. Follow these steps and allow yourself to fall into a deep meditative state that will reveal a closer connection to the present and help calm you when you're upset.

1. Breathe. Focusing on your breathing is an essential practice that draws your awareness inward and helps you experience the presence and flow of energy.
2. Relax. The more you relax, the more you deepen awareness of sensation.
3. Feel. Let your sense of feeling move beyond physical sensation. Acknowledge who you are as a being of energy.
4. Watch. Sense who you are as a witness; be a scientist observing phenomena arising in and around you.
5. Allow. Sense who you are with no preferences. Be present to the process of your life unfolding moment by moment.