How to Light a Meditation or Yoga Space: Warm, Low and Calm

Warm and soft. A warm colour (amber rather than blue-white) and low brightness signal rest rather than work. Indirect light, bouncing off a wall or glowing through a shade or wooden panel, avoids glare when your eyes are half-closed.

Many meditation traditions use a point of focus: a candle flame, an image, a spot on the floor. A glowing lamp works the same way. It gives the eyes somewhere calm to settle in open-eye practice, and it marks the space as somewhere you go to slow down.

A lantern with a meaningful image, like the Buddha Tree of Life lantern or the Lord Ganesha lantern, can do both jobs at once.

Candles are traditional and lovely, but they need watching, they smoke and they are not ideal in small rooms or around pets. An LED lantern gives a similar warm glow with no flame, so you can close your eyes, lie in savasana or drift off without thinking about it. If you love a real flame, our Ganesha tea light holder is designed for one. We weigh the two up in LED lantern vs candle.

You do not need a whole room. A corner works if it is used only for this:

• A cushion or mat facing a wall or window
• A low table or shelf at about eye level when seated
• One warm lamp as the focal point; switch the overhead light off
• A plant, a stone or an object that matters to you
• Nothing that reminds you of work: no laptop, no to-do list

Images of the Buddha, Ganesha, Shiva or Hanuman are sacred to many people. A few widely observed courtesies: keep them off the floor, at or above eye level; keep the space clean; and avoid bathrooms or placing them where feet point at them. Ganesha is traditionally associated with new beginnings and removing obstacles, which is why many people place him near an entrance.

Our guide to spiritual lamps and their meanings goes through each design, and what the tree of life means covers the most universal symbol in the collection.