In that order! Gravity and Meditation.

What am I talking about? I'm sure you'd like to know. There is nothing mysterious about it, it's just an order of play. 

My meditation practice, when I'm alone, consists of two sitting sessions a day. One when I get up and one just before I go to bed.

My evening meditations are generally deeper and for me in many ways a fuller experience. I started to ask myself what was different in the evenings, apart from it being dark, that might contribute to that.

Then recently, I made the strikingly obvious connection, that in the evenings I use my Gravity Life Cradle before I meditate!

If you haven't seen one of the Gravity Cradles before, they are an amazing UK invention, you might have even seen them on Dragon's Den, but they are also the only endorsed product to help your posture supported by the College of Bowen Studies, amongst many other significant sponsors and awards. They consist of two parts, a keystone, which is a small triangle with the special bobbles on it to help hold and stretch the fascia, and the cradle which holds the neck and base of the head in a particular way. Then you lie with a little support under your knees on these two parts and just relax for upto 20 mins a day. This has a profound effect on the spine, neck and hips, reducing a lot of pain and inflammation as well as releasing a lot of spinal compression. It really helps to maximise the benefits between spinal adjustments, soft tissue manipulation or fascia release work, whether those are via Bowen Technique, Chiropractic, Osteopathic, Cranial Sacral or any other method of myofascial release.

The devices are becoming a very popular way of helping to manage back problems and give people quite a significant release from tension and compression.

We started selling these from Centre for Integral Health last year and they have been a very popular product. You can find them at a discounted price direct from our webshop https://integralhealthshrewsbury.com/shop/posture-support-products/

So why am I talking to you about this? Well what I have noticed is that if I use my Gravity Cradle for 20 mins before my evening meditation, it is much easier and more comfortable to sit for it. And I think there are a few reasons for this.

Firstly, I have already spent 20 mins just allowing my self to relax, which if you have read my earlier blog As I Surrender to Sitting, you'll know that for me, the giving up, giving in and allowing that moment was a big breakthrough for me. So the 20 mins in the Gravity before the meditation really helps to initiate the parasympathetic state that helps my body not only rest and repair itself, but allow my mind to start to shift between the gross physical state I'm in and move towards the Subtle and Causal states that are the desired states of my meditation.

Secondly, because the Gravity is aiding the alignment of my spine, helping my vertebrae to be in best position (which is part of why it helps to reduce pain and inflammation), it makes it much easier and more comfortable to sit without discomfort. Which again makes it easier to allow my mind to shift state and the meditation to be deeper with less effort and less time. While at the same time increasing the amount of time I can sit as I am more comfortable.

Both of these have been combining to deepen and enrich my evening meditations and consequently to sleep better as well on the nights where I do this combination.

Will it work for you too? I don't know, I'm just sharing an insight for you to consider, perhaps it will contribute to you beautifully, on more levels than I have described here.

But if you want to find out more about Gravity and how you could benefit, you could just jump straight in and buy one at the introductory rate, which is £30 of the RRP from the Centre Shop, or you can go direct to Gravity's website, where you can use the code Integral to get yourself a £30 discount and lots of free information straight from the producers.

However you do it, I wish your spine to be free and healthy and your meditation to be deep and enriching.