Search - Yoga Zone - Meditation: Two Complete Sessions (Beginners) on DVD

Relax. Sit Back. Explore Your World

Betti Trapp | 08/24/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I love this tape. Sometimes I have to motivate myself to pop it into the VCR and actually do it, but Alan Fingers calming voice is enough to get me started. He starts with postures that are supposed to align you and get all of your being into focus before you meditate. He introduces some very powerful tools to catch those stray thoughts and turn them into calming ones. He speaks softly, slowly, calmly, as though you had all the time in the world. When at last you do enter the calming phase of the meditation itself (and I was able to do this the very first time), it's so free, so far removed from work and kids and noise and hassle, that you don't want to leave. Alan Finger allows you to explore this realm for awhile, and then come back to yourself. I always feel fabulous afterwards, but i think I need to do it every day, because the fabulous feeling only lasts until the next crisis occurs! Put it this way; It cannot hurt, you can gather some very insightful thoughts into yourself, and if nothing else, you have had 30 minutes of quiet. I usually darken the room, light some incense, and enjoy."

A nice introduction to meditation.

Betti Trapp | 03/29/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Yoga Zone 2 meditation sessions are a good way to learn how to meditate or to get back into meditation. They give good tips on how to make yourself more comfortable in the positions and encourage beginners. I found the breathing exercises most helpful and the stretching exercises really help to calm you in preparation for meditation. If there had been some guided meditation, the video would have been a perfect all round meditation tape."

Introduction to Meditation w/ Alan Finger

Yoga Dad | 01/29/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In spite of the fact that I've been doing Yoga every day for the past 9 years, I still have a hard time sitting still(when it comes to monkey mind I'm "King Kong" :)). Yoga as a moving meditation seems more suited to my nature.

That being said, I do want to get better at seated meditation and this program is an excellent way to begin. It's long enough to let you taste the practice without being so long that it's overwhelming.

As always, Alan Finger does a masterful job of leading you through the practice. The first segment starts seated with some preliminary breath instruction. Then you move on to gentle Yoga stretches to prepare you for the longer seated meditation to follow. There are some Cat-Extended Seal stretches, Potted Palm series (seated forward bends and twists) and then a one leg forward bend, but rather than bending over the straight leg as you typically would in Janu-Sirsasana you bend more over the bent leg. This enhances the release in the hips.

After the more active segment you are led through alternate nostril breathing which is supposed to balance your brain. That is followed by some Kriya breathing in which you visualize the energy moving from the bottom of the spine (while firming the perenium/mula bandha) and follow the energy upward on the in-breath imagining the sound "Hum", then following the energy down the spine on the out breath w/ the inner sound of "Sah".

He also gives a mantra, "Mang" (pronounced "Mahng"), which you can use silently to help you have a point of focus along with the instruction to place a bit of saliva on your third eye center to help you create a focus on that area.

The second meditation is a chakra practice which starts with some gentle stretches to prepare you for sitting. Then Alan Finger guides you through the chakras from bottom to top using different images (which are related to specific colors) to focus on as you bring your attention to those areas.

I can see that this is a practice that I will need to implement into my life frequently in order to learn to quite my mind as well as my body. I always enjoy Alan Finger as a teacher because he really emanates sincerity without ever being preachy or self righteous. He also has a joyous quality that comes across in every program of his that I have and I have quite a few at this point.

If you want to learn more about Alan Finger (and other Western Yoga teachers) check out the excellent book "Yogi Bare" by Philip Self which contains interviews with many of the most notable Yoga teachers in the West (such as: Baron Baptiste, Rod Stryker (a student of Mani and Alan Finger), Bryan Kest, Donna Farhi, Gabriel Halpern, Richard Freeman, Lillias Folan, Rama Birch, Rodney Yee, Vyass Houston (Sanskrit Scholar), Patricia Walden, and many others)


Namaste"