Is 30 Minutes Of Yoga Better Than 30 Minutes Of Meditation?

[Evilwave Heddy]

I've been doing yoga for 30 minutes every morning for the past 30 days and can honestly say that it hasn't really done much for me.  After that I'd do 15 minutes of meditation.  None of the positions the instructor does are difficult to do (although they do look difficult) and when I hear other peoples feedback I get comments like "That was tough, I could feel the buuuurnnn" or "I couldn't move this morning after yesterdays yoga session" and I'm just left like...erm...I don't know if walking for an hour every morning and evening has made me more flexible and immune to the "buuuurn".

I understand that it's more to do with getting in touch with your body and stuff, but I feel that putting that time into meditation would be way more beneficial.  What are your thoughts on Yoga?  Do you find it hard?  Refreshing?  Enjoyable?  Or another question to you people is do you do both? Yoga and Meditation?

I can't make anything of it.

[the dream]

Yoga is amazing. 1 hour yoga and then 1 hour meditation. You could try different styles of yoga. I've been doing power/ashtanga based yoga for a workout, and something like yin yoga for meditation. In the beginning yoga isn't particularly enjoyable always, but it multiplies a lot with training. When you know the flows well enough that you can do them without "thinking about the next pose" it becomes moving meditation.

[Awomanaware]

@Evilwave Heddy  If you want your yoga practice to be more intense on physical and mental level, maybe you can try some different types of yoga, or switching your yoga teacher. Let's take ashtanga yoga for example. The asanas are mostly always the same, but the intensity of the class depends of the teacher's style. Also, in ashtanga, every asana has various versions, for example, if one version is too easy for you, you can always deepen your posture and go a little beyond your body limits by controling your breath.

Meditating after a good yoga class - the moment when you feel in every part of your body that you've gone beyond your limits, is so amazing to me, because that's the moment you realize what are you capable of doing to yourself with your own breath. You can control your body and your mind. That's why in every ashtanga practice, the most important part is the breath. You are paying attention to the breath all of the time which itself has some meditative properties, but the moment you end your practice and you let go of the control of the breath  while getting ready for meditation, you feel like your whole body is defragmenting (and you thoughts also) and it feels so liberating... That's my experience

[Principium Nexus]

You probably doing it already but try to make every move and pose completely concious. Feel your muscles stretch from your head till your toes. Feel your center of mass moving around your body like a form of energy that gets balanced. When you do this you automatically make it a meditative yoga session, you might try kundalini yoga.

Yoga makes the awareness of your body grow and meditation focuses on the mind, they go hand in hand.

[Evilwave Heddy]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  I'm gonna get back to it asap and try change it up.

[pluto]

The word "better" does not exist. 

Edited January 27, 2017 by pluto

[LifeLine]

@pluto I like that 

[Hsinav]

i found yoga and meditation very linked, i use the practise of yoga to get in to the meditative state.