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Sitting comfortably during long meditation blocks is a challenge most of us face, particularly when beginning. I am not naturally a great sitter and would still need to break things to do full lotus. Fortunately, I can be stubborn and manage a so-so half-lotus. Adding the following over the course of almost two decades now made things easier.
Monks have advantages in sitting that may not be obvious without close inspection or participating. With a little creativeness, you can use these same tricks and sit more stably and comfortably.
To assuage your inner critic (and any outer ones in your circle) let me respectfully remind you that the point of sitting or meditation is to turn your own light inward, not how things appear outwardly. So here they are:
#1) Rotate Your Thighs.
It can be a little unseemly, but all is fair in sitting and I guarantee once you do it, anyone who sees you will do it too. Once you are down on your cushion, literally grab your thighs half way between your knee and hip and rotate them inwardly on the bottom (outwardly on the top). You will feel things unbind and ease up, don’t over do it, just what feels natural. Then re-settle with a little hip wriggling action and re-adjust your legs. This is the best sitting trick I ever discovered.
#2 Robes are Best
Men are late to this party, but I have not seen many women sit in skirts either. A binding of any kind of can be cumbersome and this is about pants. Even if it is only the cutting or binding of a waste band. Lay robes are fairly cheap and they are easy to learn to manage (unlike the huge flowing monk robes). Robes let everything be naturally where it needs to be. If robes are out, meditation or yoga pants that are very wide to accommodate the knee to knee span are easy to find online these days.
#3 The Hands Cheat
Once you have the full monk gear, you have this big sleeve pile in your lap which you can nest your hands or mudra into. This takes the stress and pressure of your arms off your shoulders and back. You can do the same thing in the tail of a tee-shirts. It stretches them out and you will learn to buy them long, but it is a great help if your arms don’t make it to your lap naturally.
