| Live in the Moment Try sahaja yoga for free at Ektaa Center in Irvine with classes every Sunday at 4 p.m. and you might just discover a better you. Call ahead to confirm day and time. 949.413.6223 :: sahajameditation.com :: ocmeditation.org |
Living in a fast-paced, tech-driven world, we often neglect our health trying to keep up. We get burnt out, our immune systems shut down and tension builds. What if there’s something out there that not only helps manage stress, but brings a deeper meaning to your life?
Sahaja yoga promises this and more… and it’s free. Developed by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi – who was born in India in 1923 – the meditation aims to help people achieve nothing short of complete self-realization.
“This type of meditation is different from others, because it’s not about knowledge, but the experience one feels,” says Preeti Singh, sahaja meditation instructor at Ektaa Center in Irvine.
Every Sunday at 4 p.m., the Ektaa Center attracts people of all backgrounds to experience this unique energy-based meditation. Anyone can learn it, because this meditation is not something to do, but a state of being.
“We spend the first 30 minutes walking people through the steps of self-realization and the rest of the time is spent in meditation,” Singh says.
Singh emphasizes that sahaja yoga classes are not structured, but yielding to the crowd that comes in. The instructor, who has been teaching these meditation classes for the past seven years, offers them for free – as Nirmala Devi did – because she wants to give everyone this opportunity to enrich their lives. The focus every week is about awakening the kundalini, a dormant primordial energy said to reside within each person, and the level of progression depends on the individual. For those who are more advanced, the focus becomes on connecting the chakras, or energy centers, with this awakened energy, to achieve one’s spiritual awakening.
Beyond this, potential health benefits include decreased stress and anxiety, improved concentration, a stronger immune system, better sleep, and essentially overall better health. Stress and health problems are often a result of continuous negative thoughts about the past or worrying too much about the future (as opposed to living in the present), according to sahaja teachings. Sahaja yoga allows a state of thoughtless awareness, a state in which a person’s mind is relaxed and gradually emptied of any distractions and stressful thoughts.
