Integrated Amrita Meditation Technique ®
Most of us know the feeling of being pulled several ways at once — the body tired, the mind elsewhere, the heart unsettled. Amma’s answer is not to add another demand to the day, but to give it a still point: a few minutes in which body, breath and attention come back together.
That is what the Integrated Amrita Meditation (IAM®) technique is for. It brings together gentle yoga stretches and seated meditation, working with movement, breath, sound and visualization, so that body, mind, intellect and heart settle together rather than separately.
Research on regular meditation points to less stress and frustration, steadier energy and focus, and gains in learning and wellbeing. But the reason most people keep practicing is simpler than that: it makes the day easier to meet. IAM is short enough to keep up, and it is always taught free of charge by trained volunteers — during Amma’s tours, at her ashram in Amritapuri, at centers through the year, and online.
IAM-35
The full practice, about 35 minutes a day. It carries Amma’s teachings alongside the technique itself, and suits those who want meditation to be a settled part of their spiritual life.
IAM-20
A secular twenty-minute version, free of religious symbolism, combining gentle yoga with a simple and effective sitting meditation. It asks nothing of your beliefs and fits inside an ordinary morning.
Youth IAM
Shaped for young people, helping them find calm, hold their focus and recover from setbacks. Taught in two groups, ages 10 to 14 and 15 to 18, and parents and children are welcome to practice together.
Courses, refreshers and guided sessions
You learn the technique in a course taught by a trained instructor. IAM-20 takes two to three hours, IAM-35 about eight hours, and Youth IAM one to two hours.
A refresher is for anyone who has taken a course before and wants to sharpen the technique, or simply begin again after a gap. It reviews the practice and includes a guided meditation.
A guided session is for course graduates: the technique talked through aloud, followed by a longer stretch of silence. Sitting in a group makes it easier to keep going.
Organizations including the Indian Army, Whole Foods, Genentech and the State University of New York have sponsored instruction for the people who work with them.
IAM is one of several ways to sit quietly at an Amma center. For the White Flower meditation for world peace and more on meditation generally, see Meditation.
