Originally I thought that by meditating I could quiet my mind enough to be able to stay in a yoga pose for a longer period without out all the fidgeting and restlessness. However, I recently read the exact opposite and it made me think... Do you start your yoga practice and practice the breathing and the pose itself and that helps you over time to quiet the mind in preparation for meditation? Or do you start with the meditation and, once you have the quietness mastered, then you practice your yoga? Or do you do them simultaneously?
First I thought that I would do both simultaneously ~ and maybe I can ~ but the more I think about it ...what makes most sense to me is to practice the yoga first and then move onto the meditation. Baby steps...
Why, you ask? It make sense to me because the mind is so busy all the time and it's hard to quiet (at least for me it is) so if you start with the yoga ~ just 1 pose ~ then you get in the pose, concentrate on breathing, evaluate your body making slight shifts until it feels right, try to take in all that you're feeling and how the pose feels and how your body feels in the pose. That's a lot to keep you occupied. Then slowly, you know how to get the position just right, for you, and so you concentrate on the breath a little more. After a while, you know how the pose is going to make you feel so you concentrate on the breath even more. Before you know it, you know how to quiet your mind and just take it all in. The meditation kind of just happens. When you know how to do it, then you can do it independent of the yoga or with the yoga.
That's why I think the yoga comes first.
Namaste
