Lie on your back (supine position) i.e. facing upward. Fold your legs by bringing your feet close to your thighs. Keep your hands away from your trunk maintaining a distance of about 2’ with palms open. Now turn your folded legs to your left without moving your trunk and of course making the trunk flexible to move along with the folded legs. When you turn towards your left, your right folded leg will be over the left folded leg. Do not move your hands. Now, turn your head in the opposite direction to the movement of your legs. In this case, turn the head towards your right. Come back to the original position and then stretch your legs. Then do the same exercise in the opposite direction. Lie on your abdomen (prone position) i.e. facing the ground. Keep your toes folded keeping them in firm contact with the ground. Keep your opened palms facing the ground 1’ away from your shoulders.

Now raise your head and trunk, till both your arms straight position. Your lower abdomen should be in touch with the ground and should not be raised. Bend your head backwards, when you are totally in the raised position. Inhale when you start rising. Come back to normal position by exhaling. Do all these exercise, a few times in the beginning. You can gradually increase over a period of time to the maximum of 10. Once you are done with all the exercise, lie down flat facing upward (supine position). Preferably use a yoga mat. Keep 2’ distance between your feet. Keep your hands straight on the ground, palms open making them face upwards and keeping a distance of at least 1’ between your palms and trunk. Breathe slowly and regularly. Keep your mind free of thoughts. Relax in this position as long you as like. Then turn to your left, sit straight and get up. Once you get up, possibly you may feel some giddiness, which will go off in a few seconds. Do not drink water immediately.

Now it is time for you to freshen up and sit for a good meditation. In the stage of meditation, you should be totally thoughtless. You cannot become thoughtless in the beginning. But practice will certainly help. A few deep breaths before the start are good. Make your seat comfortable. Avoid soft surface like foam or cotton cushions as your seat. The surface should give a flat and uniform seating. An ideal thing to use is a soft towel. It is always better to face the western direction when you meditate. But whatever the direction and the place you choose for meditation, the same should be used whenever you meditate. In the next few postings, we will discuss about concentration. A complete control over your thoughts is the basic requirement for a good meditation. This is called the thoughtless state or initial stage of Samadhi. When you have to concentrate, there should be an object on which you can concentrate. When there is an object, there will be thoughts. We will look for clarifications in the next postings.