To make winter a more enjoyable time of year, you ought to consider adopting certain practices you only do during this season — rituals that help to create a kind of liturgy for life.
One of those practices could be fire meditation.
Fire holds an instinctive attraction. People have always wanted to sit by it and tell stories around it. And they’ve always wanted to simply look at it.
Fire meditation — the simple act of gazing at a flame in stillness and silence — takes that natural pull and makes it a little more deliberate, deepening its mind-calming and spirit-settling effects.
Fire meditation is something you can plan to do at home or simply decide to do in the moment while sitting in a church service.
Here’s how.
Why Do a Fire Meditation?
Everyone has heard that meditation is good for you. But it’s a challenging practice to get into. It’s hard to simply sit there, concentrating on your breath. Your thoughts wander, and your monkey mind gets loud.
Fire meditation — also known as trataka in yogic traditions — gives you something on which to fix your attention and anchor your awareness. Fire gives the mind something to do.
Flame makes for an ideal focal point for a couple of reasons.
First, it’s constant but dynamic. It dances. It changes. It commands a kind of primal fascination without much effort. It holds your attention, but it doesn’t interrupt it.
Second, fire is imbued with elemental and spiritual meaning. It resonates with something ancient within. It’s associated with purification, divine presence, and spirit.
Put these two things together, and you’ve got a meditation practice that is both accessible and evocative — especially in winter, when anything involving fire just feels particularly satisfying.
How to Practice Fire Meditation
These guidelines will walk you through doing a fire meditation with a candle at home. But you can perform this ritual anywhere and with anything with a flame — kneeling by the votive candles in the back of a church, staring at the candles at the altar at the front, sitting by a campfire, or reclining by the fireplace.
1. Set the Scene
- Enter a quiet room in your house and close the door. Eliminate distractions and turn your phone off.
- Light a small taper or pillar candle.
- Turn off the overhead lights. You don’t want the room to be pitch black, but dim enough to let the flame draw your attention.
- Sit in a chair or on the floor about 2–3 feet from the flame. Sit comfortably: upright, alert, but relaxed.
2. Segue Into the Meditation
To shift into the mindset of meditation, you can do one of a couple of things:
- Read a short poem or scripture passage.
- Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths — slowly in through the nose, slowly out through the mouth. Let your breath settle into a natural rhythm.
3. Gaze at the Flame
- Fix your gaze on the tip of the flame.
- Soften your focus. You’re not staring — you’re gazing. Your eyes shouldn’t ache or water; keep your vision relaxed.
- Breathe normally.
Let the fire occupy your attention.
You’ll notice the flame sways. Flickers. Changes color. Produces shadows. It’s alive. Let it draw you in.
Thoughts will arise. That’s fine. Don’t chase them. Just continually return your attention to the flame. Don’t judge the breaks in your focus — returning to the flame is the practice.
If you’re new to fire meditation, start with gazing at the flame for 5 minutes. Increase the time as you desire and feel more comfortable.
4. Close the Practice
- Bring your attention back to your breath.
- Consider pausing for a moment of gratitude.
- Blow out the candle or snuff it out with a candle snuffer (more satisfying!). Watch the smoke drift up. Arise feeling a greater sense of stillness.
Fire meditation can be done independently, but it’s also a fantastic primer before prayer, journaling, or sleep.
That’s it. Fire meditation is very simple, so take this article less as a how-to than a reminder that this is a practice that can be done, and can have some real benefits: a calmer mind, a more settled nervous system, sharpened attention, and perhaps a greater overall feeling of reverence. Done regularly, it’s a ritual that can add a little glow and texture to the winter season.
