The following are techniques of Kriya Yoga to help you on your path to Santosha :)
Using the Om Shanti mantra is one of the most popular techniques used in SR.
Om
Shanti
Shanti
Shantih
Meet Ganesha!
Ganesh is the remover of Obstacles. And the path Clearer. We can call upon Ganesha to help remove the obstacles and to clear our path to living a more happy and joyful life. We all need help from time to time. Invoke the energy of Ganesha into your daily life by chanting the Ganapataye Mantra or by starting your day with a prayer to invoke Ganesha such as "Namaste Ganesha, please sweep clear my path that I may find more joy and contentment in my life." Or "Ganesha, please clear the way so that I might find time in my day to meditate."
Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha
Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha
Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha
Loving Awareness Practice
Being comfortable in our own skin is so important on the path to recovery. Loving Awareness Practice teaches us to be in full presence of ourselves without judgement but instead acceptance and compassion. And in the process, we are able to learn so much about ourselves. Old stories keep us stuck in those stories. Full presence self-awareness allows us to bring knowledge to ourselves in a compassionate way.
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Ujjayi Breathing:
Sit in a relaxed position feeling your feet on the floor and your shoulders relaxed away from the ears. Try to relax the eyebrows, the lower jaw and the skin of the face. Bring your awareness to the breathing moving through you. Have appreciation of the breath. Notice the root of your tongue. Let it soften downward away from the roof of your mouth. The breath may seem like it is moving through the back of the throat. And you may feel that sensation of breath moving through the back of the throat. This practice also changes the sound of your body breathing. Let this sound calm your visceral body and your nervous system. Om Tat Sat Om :)
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6:3:6 Breathing; deep breathing practice that brings Prana into the body.
Sit in a comfortable seated or laying position with your spine long and your chakras aligned and open. This means to not have the body slumped or head hanging down towards your chest. You can begin ujjayi breathing if you wish. Envision your chakras in a line from the tailbone to the crown center. Then bring your awareness to your breathing. When you are ready to begin the practice, let your breath in be to a count of 6, then pause the breath after you inhale for 3 counts, then breath out for 6 counts. Without pausing after the exhalation, inhale again for 6 counts, pause for 3 counts and then exhale for 6 counts. The count can be where ever your count is at but be consistent. This practice could also be called 4:2:4 or 2:1:2. It is just saying that the inhalation and exhalation are the same length and the pause after the inhalation is half that long. But for the deep breathing practice it is best to try to extend the in and out breathes a bit. Of course never to the extreme that you would grasp or find difficulty doing the practice. You can do as many of these as you like or have time for. It also works well with Nadi Shodana and the Kriya rotation.
Nadi Shodana: Alternating Nostril Breathing
At any given moment one nostril is more dominant than the other which means that either the right brain or the left brain is more dominant, or either the lunar side or the solar side of the nadis or energy pathways is more dominant. There are times when we may one side more dominant. But to reach optimum pranic body health and balance, we want the life force balanced with both the lunar and solar sides equalized. This awakens kundalini energy and allows prana to enter the central channel or the sushumna nadi. It is here that we can move to higher states of consciousness and perception. Swami Kriyananda states that Alternating Nostril Breathing is the surest way to samadhi. Although not the fastest.
Kriya Rotation
The Bhagavad Gita as translated by Goswami Kriyananda sates in chapter 4 sloka 29:
Offering the upward and downward breaths
As Vishnu's esoteric stance,
The yogi obtains the holy trance,
Attaining Samadhi, finding swift advance.
Hong Sau Kriya
Goswami Kriyanada in his book The Spiritual Science of Kriya Yoga says 'It makes no difference whether you practice the hong-sau technique in the morning afternoon, or evening...just practice it.' Yogananda mentions in his teachings that you can practice it while waiting in line at the store or anytime you have a few free minutes. Through the practice of Hong-Sau the adept can learn to calm the mind and develops concentration.
The Forgiveness Ritual
We all hold on to hurt, some more than others. When we hold onto hurt (from others or even the times we have hurt others) we act from this hurt without even knowing it. This forgiveness ritual allows for past hurts to come up in a meditative way to help us heal and forgive past hurts so that we can walk through life with more volitionally or more free will. The ritual is in PDF format so you can print it out.
