Ask Krista Schilter: 5 Questions With A Meditation Teacher To Improve Your Practice
Meet Krista Schilter, a local meditation instructor that leads group meditations at the Muse HQ! She is the creator of a collection of Kundalini yoga experiences called Golden Chain: a deeply immersive kundalini yoga + meditation practice that includes dynamic movement (kriya), breath (pranayam) and mantra meditation.
Krista answered five questions our Muse team was eager to get the answers too:
- What’s the hype around meditation? Why has it become so popular?
- How did meditation improve your life?
- What should I do if my mind keeps wandering during meditation?
- Eyes open or eyes closed?
- What’s your tip to start a meditation on the right foot?
Krista: I think meditation is popular in today’s pressurized world because it makes us feel good. It also gives us the tools to handle the stressors of living in an urban environment.
Q: How did meditation improve your life?
Krista: Meditation gives me the tools to really tap into myself, underneath all the blockages, the stickiness, the things that kept me feeling small. It gives me the experience of being able to uplift and elevate myself and in turn the people around me.
Q: What should I do if my mind keeps wandering during meditation?
Krista: If you can’t stop thinking during meditation know that it’s a part of it. I found a lot of success in meditations that involve sound, mantra, mudra, and energetic seals because that gives the brain something to focus on.
If you’re finding it challenging to sit in stillness and your mind is wandering, you can also bring it back to focus with a mantra or visualization.
Q: Should we keep our eyes open or closed during meditation?
Krista: The eyes in meditation are a personal preference. I prefer meditating with the eyes closed because I find that it allows the inner landscape to get a little bit brighter, but there’s also a whole practice called Triticum or “Eye Gazing” that is meditating with your eyes open.
There are also a variety of eye focuses or Drishti, for example, focusing at the tip of your nose will start to stimulate your pituitary gland, so there are many ways to meditate with your eyes open or closed.
Q: What’s your tip to start a meditation on the right foot?
Krista: The biggest tip is to learn to connect with your breath and create a space that you’re excited about.
Take your practice one step further.
If you’d like to learn to connect with your breath through guided meditation, try listening to “Guided Breath for Focus” by Ashley Turner or “Candlelight Focus” by Joshua Dorfman in the Focus Collection on the Muse app.
Check out Krista’s Golden Chain training, workshops and offers on her website.
