Has anyone else experienced this?
I was having intense anxiety (normally would grab hold of me for weeks) but I meditated a lot more than usual and the anxiety passed. But now sadness has been bubbling up from inside me. A lot of sadness. I cry a lot. Even when not meditating.
Has anyone else had this experience?
I know that thoughts are just thoughts and that they come and go, passing in and out of our consciousness randomly throughout the day. And ultimately, thoughts have no real meaning or value (although we can label them and give credence or value to certain thoughts and, in many cases, identify with them). But ultimately they are meaningless.
But what about in those instances when we actively engage our thinking mechanism, that is, when we volitionally choose to think and formulate words and sentences based on our thinking — when we engage with another person, for example, or when we simply talk to ourselves or mumble under our breath the contents of our volitional thinking? Is this type of thought or thinking as unimportant and ultimately meaningless as our random, impulsive thoughts that appear seemingly out of nowhere?
We are told not to identify with or attach to thought, but does that include the process and result of intentional thinking? I mean, for practical purposes, we have to give value to certain things that we think (at least in terms of deciding what is useful or viable to vocalize and what is not); human interaction and indeed daily life revolves around us communicating with one another using spoken words that are first generated in our minds.
A new teacher at my studio stepped on my pinky finger and stood there for several minutes during meditation. I was not asleep, however, I have asthma and he may have thought I was asleep (the studio window was partly open and the air quality was poor that day so my breathing was not ideal). I did not know what to do and immediately moved my hand under my body after he left. He was a sub again a couple weeks later and stepped on me again. He stood on multiple fingers for much longer, and stayed there after I winced in pain and tried to move my hand. He also kept touching my hair and face with an instrument, and then touched my hair and face after the instrument became stuck in my hair.
Is he just a creep or is this common now? I live in a smaller city with a smaller community and he just moved from a much larger city that is known to adopt and originate trends quickly.
I cannot attend his class again as I am afraid of being injured (I perform neurosurgery and the anxiety of a potential injury outweighed the benefit of his class) and am considering allowing my pass to expire rather than return to the same studio, which I have been with for a couple years. However, I don't want to change studios only to find everyone is doing this now.
I start meditating and I experience sleep paralysis.
I don't know why, but I can feel things pulsing rapidly, but then I start to feel the paralysis.
I don't see anything bad, just the landscape in front of me (I don't know if I open my eyes during meditation or if the image is vivid in my mind)... How do I stop this?
I try to put my mind away from a narrow focus on thoughts to a broader awareness but at times, it's really hard. The pull is so strong, as if my soul is asking for some processing, some clarity, some plan. But I've made a plan, and journaled a bit a few days ago. But still? How, in these moments of very busy mind, do I not let the thoughts dominante?
What do you guys do is such situations?
The first solution obviously should be to think things through formally and properly, but even after that, the race doesn't end. And I can't have dinner without having conversations with myself and being so lost that the world becomes low definition.
Meditation meaning:
Complete attention toward thought is meditation,
when fact is seen as it is , thought starts decreasing,hence space is created,that lead to clarity and peace
eg i want get peace ,but my mind chattering ,is a kind of duality, so here fact is mind get chattering, so be with it ,see whatever comes thoughts body tension,sadness be with it that will lead clarity.
one more thing is the idea that this will give me clarity is another part of moment of thought so use it but don't make it mantra(formula) ,see this also as it .
when there is duality, be with fact that is meditation
So I tend to overthink things a lot during the day and I’m usually aware of it but I can’t help but think it might be important. People say think of thoughts as clouds in the sky but what if that cloud has something valuable in it? It’s not like all of my overthinking lead to nothing. I’ve learnt valuable lessons from them but there was a bit of a difference to the two. When it usually leads to me figuring something out it’s usually just me questioning some stuff without any emotions involved.
My partner has been loving meditating but has some back pain so hasn’t been doing it as often as he’d like to. His birthday’s coming up & I originally was going to get him a zafu & zabuton set to possibly help him but he just found out he likes meditating by sitting on our bed with his back against the wall & that helps ease his pain during his practice. Is it still a good idea to go with that set as a gift, or is there another setup I could possibly get him to help with his posture for his back pain? I personally am new to meditating and am not familiar with what’s available, so any help would be super appreciated!!!
How can I reduce it ?
I’m new to meditation as in 2-3 yrs. I do breathe meditation and body - main source is thich naht Han videos on YT.
I’ve been able to do 25-30 mins sitting meditation a year ago, it’s gone down to 15mins now.
So I’ve been doing lot of lying down for mediation. But once in a while I get this constant replay or dialogue on my brain and it’s hard to quiet it. I can’t read can follow any guided meditation nor can I sleep.
Usually it’s about a person or why they did to me so I’ll be debating if I should cont to be friends or how to respond or how to navigate this relationship (which is very stressful) this is an old friend but gets very jealous of me and my work ( is what I think)
I’ve been practicing living kindness, and ya I wish all well. But how do I switch off? Please help advice and any links to learn will be great. 🙏
Have a blessed day everyone.
I'm no expert ,just been into meditation for about 4-5 months. My method is 60 minutes daily that I must do before the day ends. I usually space them in chunks of 10 or 30 mins , if time's not enough I do some while doing other stuff (just breath control and awareness ) . Anyway here's my top 3 "styles":
1]Fight or flight breathing "programming": Similar to box breathing but more "technical". INHALE: Like your body is a balloon filling till it can't take more (try to use the Diaphragm) --> KEEP : As if you had just run a sprint and want to "feel the oxygen" .---> EXHALE : Now your body's a balloon getting all of its the air out, here you literally try to get out all of the oxygen in you, stop once you feel you have nothing else to exhale(even pressing the abs) ---> 👑"VOID": Here's the most important part. You must delay the urge to breath as much as you can BUT it has to be done "quiet" as if you were dreaming or the need to breath wasn't't there. Personally I like to imagine the body impulses to get oxygen as if it were tickles. ---> REPEAT🔁
2]-Memory-recall: You put the timer and try to remember everything that you did during the day (this one's good to wind down before bed) . You can do it freely tho , putting more time and going further in time.
3]-Trascendental meditation: I'm not so experienced at this one but you basically repeat a word/phrase/mantra or sound in your mind . You keep doing and doing never stoping repeating the main "mantra" and you mind starts giving you inputs around that. Personally I recommend this one in the afternoons or evening it helps to stay on track and avoid procrastination or autopilot .
What are the types/styles of meditation you enjoy the most?
I'm low key addicted to the first one, that "VOID tech" is just dopamine once you hit the 35-40seconds mark
So, I've (23yo) come across yoga nidra, i'm reading a book abt it and following youtube tutorials, I tried it and found it very helpful, but before starting to do it regularly i want an advice, my family has a history of psychosis and stuff, so can i continue doing it with cautions or is it best to completely avoid it?
During a meditation, I visualized myself in a place I long to visit in another country. I think the meditation was so deep that at one point I saw myself sitting at a table there (restaurant) Everything felt real, everything was clear, REAL. I could hear the music, everything! I feel like for a few seconds I was actually there. Then I remember staring in amazement at the texture of the jacket I was wearing, and that brought me back to reality. When I came to (I was meditating in my bed), I felt something pull my body to one side. Obviously, it was just a sensation since there was no one with me. I really didn't know you could see yourself and truly feel like you're in another part of the world with meditation and visualization. Or do you think it might have been something else?
Meditating in the mornings is easy. My mind is normally calm and it is easy to meditate for 30-40 minutes after waking up.
But once the day starts, my mind comes with all sorts of excuses to not meditate again!
The good news is that I have recently gotten myself to sit regularly throughout the day. My hack has been using an interval timer and setting it at 5 minutes with a gong sound that goes off every 5 minutes..
5 minutes is easy for me to commit to so now I find myself sitting more frequently.
But I am also sitting longer as well. After the first 5 minutes I usually want to put in another 5. And then another 5!
Also getting interesting feedback: I am noticing distinct shifts after 5 , 10, 15 , etc minutes. The hardest 5 minutes to get through is the first 5 minutes.
The gong is also a reminder to return to mindfulness if I slipped into the thought stream etc.
The lower commitment threshold has been sooooo helpful.
So if you are on the outside looking in, keep it small to start and yet open ended.
Gotta say that I have been enjoying a grounded, residual, heightened awareness throughout the day.
OK, going to go sit for a bit!
I have been meditating for a while now(10 years) on and off. There was a time when I made a great progress and could sit for more than 30 min to more than an hour in a go which would make me feel so refreshed later.
But over the time, I started getting this uncomfortable feeling after I am starting to focus better. I would gradually hallucinate about some sharp objects on my skin trying to make a cut and my mind would feel pain. This feeling is mostly unlocked after I have calmed my racing mind and spent some time in feeling this calmness. Usually it would start slow and once it starts it becomes impossible to control and it always become too uncomfortable for me to continue.
My meditation duration reduced significantly over time. Now I just meditate quick and short before this feeling strikes and abort if I ever experience this.
Has anyone ever faced something like this? Any tips around?
Good evening. I'm looking for recommendations on meditations that are effective for having intense and vivid visualizations. I'd also like to know if there are any types of meditation that help to have more frequent vivid dreams.
Thank you!
I’m trying to build a consistent habit but my schedule isn’t very stable.
Some days I do it in the morning, other days late at night, sometimes I skip.
For those who stuck with it long term - did having a fixed time make a big difference?
Or is consistency more about just doing it at all?
Today my goal was communication with my higher self. I had cleared my mind. my body was no longer feeling sensations around me. Somewhere in the struggle of not losing consciousness, but staying relaxed my head started singing. “Love Me” by JMSM. Not in my voice but sounded like I was listening to the song which is kinda normal when I imagine a song but it felt louder, as if I turned the volume up (maybe because I had cleared all thoughts and it came in from no where). Thing is, like some I have a lot self hate.
Not toward my higher self, but me now. Me in the physical world. It’s been a work in progress but it makes me wonder if it’s just a song that popped in my head or was put there with intention
I was introduced to meditation as a teen, when I went through a productivity phase. Just starting university, was going through some stuff, and I wanted to find a "better" version of myself, whatever that means. Anyway, long story short, I got the capitalist, consumer oriented version of meditation, except I was the product here, since on itself meditation is not very marketable. I was being sold this idea, that if I took step xyz I would be happy and successful and whatever.
In this pursuit of an unattainable, superficial and hollow self, I found myself unable to keep up with it. And in indsight, obviously I did. Practice was not cause of joy, but an excuse to find things wrong with me. Meditation was like this medicine that I needed to take for x time to be better, except x time was undefined, and of course what it meant for me to be "better" was being someone else entirely, someone I was told I should be.
I ditched it, and unrelatedly went to therapy, where I got reintroduced to "proper" meditation through body scan and guided breath sessions. It helped me on building some awareness, but it felt like something I was trying out, not something that belonged to me. I carried the practice on my own for a while, and found some benefits. Still, since it didn't feel like it came from me at the time, I did not stick with it.
Fast forward at the beginning of this year, where I stumbled on some youtube talks on Buddhism, and some stuff really resonated with me. I am not very spiritual, but I got a new, interesting perspective on the practice.
Navigating this sub I found this book recommended, the Mind Illuminated, and read up to the first stage. It was really nice to find how practice oriented it was, and it made me feel like there was something I could do right now, to connect with myself and feel overall, like I had more control over my life and choices.
I am still on that same stage, through ups and downs: this first stage is both easy and hard. What is easy, in a way, is the practice itself. Once my mind is set, and I have found that goal, and make the promise to myself that I will try my best to stay with my breath for a little while, I actually enjoy the practice. I think a great part of that is that I am never harsh with myself. I taught middle schoolers for a bit, and talking to myself as I did the kids helped me immensely in exercising patience and kindness. It was nice both to give and to receive that kindness, and helped greatly with not getting discouraged. During the practice I feel these moments of profound gratefulness and pride for myself, for showing up, for keeping it up.
Now the hard: I still live a cluttered life, and my mind clutters just as easy. Digging deeper, sometimes all I want to do is escape my life through distractions and cheap satisfactions (unskilled is maybe the word?), and once I go through that rabbit hole it's easy to forget what it all is for. Why it's important to stay in the moment in the first place. At those times, I still remember what my goal is. Except there is now a disconnect between the reality of my life and that escapist fantasy I have been hiding in. The hard part is to get out of those fantasies, those distractions, those delusions.
This is where I am at. With this wordy post I wanted to share my journey until now, and the trajectory it has taken. Most of all, I wanted to participate in the community a bit, to feel part of it, rather than simply observe, to motivate myself to stay in the practice now that I feel like I can get out of this phase of disconnect I have been going though. On this topic, it would make me real happy if people would engage with me on this, with tips, resources, insights and whatever, though of course the nature of the internet makes it so that sometimes you just scream into the endless void and that's it. That's fine! Though if this post finds someone alive, please scream back
Hey everyone,
I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress lately and noticed it shows up physically (especially neck and shoulders).
I started doing very short exercises during the day (breathing + light stretches), and it actually helped more than I expected.
Now I’m curious: What’s the simplest thing that helps you relax quickly?
Would love to try new things.
I'm planning on taking the IMS unification of mind retreat in July (So 3 months to prepare, basically from 0).
I'm curious how it's different from the usual insight meditation retreat and how best to prepare for it. I've never developed deep concentration, definitely never Jhana.
Background: I've done about a dozen insight/Vipassana weeklongs and one 6 week retreat, but most of that was prior to trauma healing and gender transition, so there was a lot of dissociation & spiritual bypass.
My practice used to be about 30 mins daily for over a year (some skips but not a lot) till last October, and then I fell off completely. I'm trying to reboot now up to 20 3-5x per week. I'm not there yet.
I'd like to be up to at least 30mins daily prior to retreat.
That's the background. I'm curious what the concentration retreat is like for those who have done it (or the Spirit Rock one, which should be very similar).
I'm also not sure if I should focus on loving kindness or Anapana or both in the next few months. Guided or silent? How long should my longest (weekend) sits be? (2 hrs would be about the longest I've done when I had a very steady practice -- that's probably unreasonable for me in the next couple of months).
There are several centers near me including a Goenka center that has daylongs every weekend. I'm guessing I should prioritize attending daylongs when possible?
IDK, I guess I want to take this seriously, and not waste the opportunity. I have trouble taking things as seriously as they merit.