Are You Meditating or Just Relaxing? - by Mehtab, Yoga Yoga's Founder

And then there was the yoga teacher who decided to lie down and "meditate" while his class was in deep relaxation. He woke up 8 hours later with a note tucked in his pocket - "You were relaxing so well we did not want to wake you. Love, Your Students."

What is the difference between relaxation and meditation? Even your teacher may not know the answer to this one. But you will after you read this.

The story about the sleeping yoga teacher is true - only his name is withheld to protect his dignity. Obviously even he was confused about what it means to meditate and to relax. No wonder many students are also uncertain about the role of meditation since their only experience of stillness of mind may only occur during relaxation at the end of class.

So you might suppose that one simple distinction between relaxation and meditation is that you do not snore during meditation. But even that proves not to be actually true. In one research study on meditators that measured rapid eye movement (REM), it was discovered that a significant amount of time they thought was spent in meditation was actually spent sleeping instead.

Even experienced yoga students may be spending as much as 40 to 50% of their meditation time actually sleeping. This is such a common occurrence that some meditative traditions assign a person to awaken sleeping meditators with a sprinkle of water, a chiming bell, or a hearty whack with a bamboo stick.

So sleeping is definitely not meditating. But is relaxation meditating? Maybe.

According to yogis, the meditative state is a fourth state of consciousness. There is the normal waking state, the sleeping state, the dreaming state, and the meditative state.

While mental and bodily activity all remain low during the meditative, sleeping and dreaming states, awareness in the meditative state remains high - even higher than in the normal waking state.

So the key distinction is the level of awareness.

Full relaxation plus high awareness equal meditative state. Full relaxation plus low awareness equal sleep (or pre-sleep state). And full relaxation plus negative awareness equal TV (or a similar drugged state).

And while there is certainly nothing wrong with sleeping in deep relaxation (or sleeping in front of your TV for that matter), it is not yogic relaxation or meditation.

At the end of a yoga class when you are in full relaxation, the awareness should remain high. Awareness of the body sensation, the breath, the flow of thoughts, the emotional state - all directed awareness without engagement of the analytical mind - create a yogic state of self-integration and meditation.

Do not confuse awareness with thinking. Awareness is properly speaking not even a function of the mind as understood in yoga - it is a function of your higher discerning intelligence, what the yogis call the intuitive mind as opposed to the thinking mind.

So again the question: Is relaxation meditation?

The answer depends on your level of awareness.

During relaxation, which is a lowered mental and bodily activity state just like sleep or meditation, you can gain the benefits of meditation by maintaining a level of high awareness. If you do not, you simply fall asleep (or go into that pre-sleep state where the mind winds down but does not clear out).

And most of us already know how to sleep. You do not need to come to yoga class to do this. But few of us know how to deeply relax and still maintain awareness. That is what yoga relaxation can teach you.

So learn to maintain your conscious awareness while in a state of deep relaxation. It's a wonderful way to practice yoga, to mediate, and to live your life.

Click here to read past articles from Mehtab!