Written by Rebecca D'Onofrio

“Mindfulness meditation practice is about paying attention to what’s happening in the present moment without judgment or bias, not forcing ourselves to achieve some idealized perfect state. The same principle applies to our physical posture — it’s not about having a perfect posture.”

During Dharma Moon’s renowned Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training, we spend a great deal of time exploring how to “take our seat” and this is all about how we hold our body during meditation practice.

There truly is no “one size fits all” approach to posture so we do not provide any hard rules — hard rules about posture can be too rigid and inflexible for the majority of people, but principles can be applied across a variety of physical circumstances and contexts and this approach makes the practice much more accessible.

It allows each person to explore and discover what a healthy supportive posture might mean for their individual body and this is absolutely necessary when it comes to creating a sustainable meditation practice.

The main principle we invite people to work with is “Not Too Tight and Not Too Loose” which basically means that we want to aim for feeling a sense of relaxation and comfort in our bodies while also feeling awake and alert. This can physically look like many different things for many different people but all still achieve the same goal (and we cover all the finer points of the posture principles in our teacher training).

But generally speaking, pain or discomfort could indicate that we might be holding our body too tightly or awkwardly and we may benefit from loosening up a bit. Sleepiness could indicate that we might be holding our body too loosely and we may benefit from applying more strength.

Mindfulness meditation practice is about paying attention to what’s happening in the present moment without judgment or bias, not forcing ourselves to achieve some idealized perfect state. The same principle applies to our physical posture — it’s not about having a perfect posture (whatever that means). It’s about finding a sustainable posture that works for your individual body. That might mean sitting in a chair for some people and sitting on a cushion on the floor for others. There is no ideal meditation posture.

The best way to tell if your posture is workable is that it allows you to support and sustain your meditation practice over time.