I tried to post this in the meditation channel but it got auto-deleted. Figured I'd share here instead! Just wanted to share my experience.

I work remotely at a Q4 company, and these last few weeks have been crazy. Like CRAZY. A lot of new stuff coming our way and never enough hands to actually gather it all. Our bosses have scheduled out weekly meditation sessions with a local host, and we're invited to join if we want, so I thought I'd give one a shot, just to give myself a liiiiiitle break. I wanted to report my experience here in case anyone is ever considering doing one of these!

First: I kept my camera on. The rest of my team had their cameras off, so I thought the host might like it more if she could see someone at least. I will admit that when we did a few of the moves (there was some incorporated yoga-type moves, I don't know if that's completely normal for meditation, but it makes sense). Some of the moves I couldn't do, so I just kind of... chose one that felt similar without pulling my back out. The moves were made specifically for desk chairs so that was cool (like cross one leg over the other, bend this way and that, stretch arms up), but it was still a little awkward to see her doing one thing and see myself in another box clearly doing it differently. Takes some getting used to, I think.

Second: I was surprised by how meditative it actually was. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't expect it to work. I think if my camera was off I'd have been more focused on the meditative component from the jump, because at some point we had our eyes closed, and I couldn't help thinking 'what are people seeing right now when they look at me'. I know for sure everyone didn't have their eyes closed! LOL. I opened my eyes a few times, too, and the instructor still had her eyes closed, then I felt kind of awkward because I was like, 'what if my coworkers saw me open my eyes, then they know I'm not relaxed and meditative'. I was just overthinking when we first got into it.

The sounds came through clearly, so the little bell/gong thing that they used to start the session sounded better than I thought it would on a computer, and they did have light background music going. By the end, I was getting into it! It was a quick startup, and the session only went about 30-45 minutes, but I think around the half an hour mark my brain actually decided to hone in on what was being said.

My recommendation: TURN OFF YOUR WORK NOTIFICATIONS IF YOU DO THIS. Everything on my computer kept pinging: slack, gmail, then my phone notifications. It's not like when you go to a studio and you are actively putting everything away. If you're virtual, you have to make sure you're somewhere that doing meditation makes sense, and you have to make adjustments. Because I was listening, I couldn't just mute my computer, which meant exiting out of all screens (and if you WFH you know that reopening those is a disaster), then on top of that there are other things around you that'll make noise. Construction, neighbors, your phone, etc.

Overall, I'd give it an 8/10! I have only ever done in-person meditation as a part of a Yoga class, so I don't know if this is par for the course for many meditation classes, but I can say that I was surprised by how well a virtual mediation worked. I expected to be totally disconnected, and while actually forcing myself to focus was a bit harder because I hadn't prepared properly for it, I think with regular opportunities, I'd get more used to it as time went on and I would be better prepared so that I could actually meditate. I might try with my camera off next time to see if not feeling 'watched' makes things better! But overall, I thought it was pretty cool. Has anyone else taken one of these? Did you have a similar/different experience?

A good friend introduced me to meditation several years ago. I find it healing, but I tend to only do it during times of high stress, anxiety & bouts of restless sleep. It is especially helpful in getting restful sleep. I'm just wondering if there are people who do it daily or very frequently and what benefits have you experienced with making it more of proactive practice rather than a go-to when you feel you are struggling.

So I've had muscle twitches for 3+ years now. I've seen a neurologist and psychiatrist for it. Both feel it is a voluntary action and not involuntary like one that might be caused by a tumor or something else. They've recommended cognitive behavioral therapy. While I wait for an appointment on that, I want to see how I can use meditation to help with this? Plus the twitches (often happen on my face and neck) are so frequent and bothersome, I don't think I can focus on my breath or anything else for longer than a few seconds.

Honestly, I'm tired of these and I can't figure out how to make it stop. It has become uncomfortable in social settings and at times even painful cos I twitch the eyes or other facial muscles too hard. Most of the times I know I'm going to get a twitch but I just can't stop it.

I have ADHD (diagnosed and medicated) and OCD(self diagnosed) in case that matters. But I'm sure both of them will make it worse for me to embark on a meditation journey.

How and where do I begin?

Is it recommended to plunge into it by visiting a meditation retreat/school?

I'm thinking about spending a weekend at Bhavana society or the Zen Mountain Monastery. Do you recommend that?

Hello, all. Hope you're doing well.

I have a question about a feeling it just got while meditating.

First, as a little background, I have been consuming marijuana and alcohol for about the past 15 years of my life, but I've recently stopped (on a whim) and have been completely sober, even have cut out a lot of caffeine, for the past month. And I am going to continue doing so indefinitely.

So, every so often, and almost 100% of the time when I would be going to sleep, I'd get this feeling of growing extremely small. Like, I could see my body getting tiny and the world around me growing much, much bigger. It's honestly uncomfortable, I'm sure you can imagine.

Recently, like within the past week, I've been practicing meditation and visualization. I'm honestly surprised, but I seem to be really good at visualization, as in, I can completely immerse myself in a waking dream while doing so.

Today, while meditating/visualizing, everything was going great. I was picturing myself bathed in a divine light l, while simultaneously seeing myself happy, with my future family running around me in my yard withal a creek running near us, healthy and fit. And was doing so for around 10 minutes. I also saw my friends and foes from past lives around me, all realizing that we are One. It was nice.

Then, out if nowhere, I couldn't help it, but the bad/anxious feeling came back. I literally saw myself cross-legged, getting smaller and smaller, and a dark, yet kaleidoscope like void grew immensely around me. I couldn't see the divine light or my other worldly friends. And I had to stop the meditation because it was unbearable.

Any thoughts on this? Should I be using this feeling to my advantage? Has anyone experienced this?

Edit: I did drink half of a Celsius (caffeine drink) in preparation for a test at university, about 20 minutes before this. Could that have something to do with it?

Hi guys so i have a extremely important exam coming up n I'm not able to focus. My mind is never silent. I have tried to meditate but failed as i started to think about something, sometimes i feel like i intentionally let my mind to overtake me. Rn i was trying to imagine something like cleaning my mind n then a song started to play n one more song. I don't have much knowledge about meditation n i don't know what to think during meditation.

Any tip would be helpful, thanks

Hello. I am very new to meditation, so I don’t really know where to begin. My goal is to lower my anxiety and stress levels, which are really bad. And also work on self love/confidence because that also takes a big toll on my mental health.

What should I be doing or not doing as a beginner? Should I just do breathing exercises? Guided meditations? For how long….? I’m just so lost

Hey Reddit, I’m looking for some advice! During the New Year, which is the main time for family celebrations (like Christmas in Europe), I want to take a trip and spend some quality time reflecting and relaxing. I originally thought of Thailand, but it’s a bit out of my budget.

Now, I’m considering staying in Europe and exploring affordable meditation centers or serene destinations. Any recommendations for peaceful retreats or budget-friendly places in Europe to welcome the New Year with a calm and mindful experience? Thanks in advance!”

Hi, I’m going through a full-on period in life at the moment, it seems. Work, family, everything is happening at once.

I know I’ll be a lot better off if I can reestablish a regular meditation practice.

So I wanted to see what time of day has worked for others, in terms of building a habit that alleviates your worries and helps you navigate difficult times? Any other thoughts or suggestions are welcome!

Hi guys I have done a 16 day retreat that was amazing but that was 2 years ago I completely lost track I live in germany, speak english, german and portuguese I am looking for a course or something like that that will keep me on pace I wanted something based on evidence or following buddhism Any tips?

I left meditation 2 years ago because I got scared. So what happened was i started doing meditation 2 years ago I was 16 at that time I did mediation for half an hour for a week and suddenly after that one day my eyes started rolling back hard and my eyes started blinking rapidly and my head started to fall back slowly but I was still balanced.it happened for two days I got scared and left mediation from then but now I want to start meditation again is it safe? Is this a health Hazzard. What was happening back then can someone explain?? Sorry for bad English it's not my first language.

I've started practicing Vipassana meditation during drives into town (15-20 mins) or on longer ones like when I visit my family (1.5+ hours). Does anyone else do this?

I'm about a year into my meditation practice, which I got into through my interest in Buddhism and bettering my mental health. I have found it very applicable in regulating my thoughts and helping me see things more clearly- but I still have a long way to go. I try to fit in at least one session daily, and I count my drive sessions as one if I do it. I'm on the road often so there are plenty of opportunities to do this. Does anyone else have any experiences or thoughts about practicing any kind of meditation while on a drive?

I read The Power of Now a while ago and in the book it mentions that being in your body is the key to being present. I’ve been meditating on that as of recent and have noticed that it makes me feel a bit nauseous. The book also mentions someone trying this and feeling the same way. When I meditate on focusing on my breath, I can still feel my body sensations but feel slightly more detached from my body and I don’t feel the sensation of my stomach dropping. I’m curious to know if any of you have experienced this and if it’s normal. Should I continue trying to cultivate body presence regardless of the undesirable sensations?

Hi everyone, this is a first for me! I suddenly started seeing an eye, a bird that turned into a fish, and a candle (black and white) while meditating today. It was fascinating. Has this happened to anyone? Mean anything? TIA!

I’m not really sure how to go about incorporating meditation in my daily life. I’ve not been a long term practitioner. In the past (2018 to 2022), out of curiosity, I have explored different techniques like Vipassana, Sudarshan Kriya and Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya, but my lifestyle was not good quality (junk food, poor sleep cycles, lack of physical activity) and I failed to incorporate any of these as a habit, even though I did experience some amount of mental clarity for whatever small periods I’ve done the practice.

I did try vipassana again by myself but failed. I just wasn’t able to maintain my focus even for short duration and gave up too quickly (I know it takes practice but I just couldn’t sit through it).

At this point, I would just like to try and make practicing meditation into a habit. Any suggestions are welcome, I want to proceed in a way that it’s sustainable. TIA.

I detach under pressure. I've blacked out during trauma. I just leave my mind. It used to be a stort of maladaptive daydreaming. I'm on medicine so it's more focused and productive now. My mind always rances. Until it shits down.

For minor stuff I breath and see try to see all sides. For overwhelming things, I detach. The opposite of meditating.

I try mindfulness but I can't feel it sometimes. I can't feel the connection to the world.

I guess I'm looking for anyone else with this experience.

Thank you.

I just moved from downtown Chicago to rural Ireland for a new college and to finally live with my long distance life partner. I've always struggled with feeling aware of my surroundings and feeling present overall, I have a lot of issues with dissociation and disreality that I want to improve on now that I'm here. I'm in a small village with a lot of big mountains around it, which I really love but it's been hard to wrap my head around the concept of them since I'm not used to seeing nature like this.

I've been trying to meditate by mentally focusing as hard as I can on the mountains and making myself understand where I am in the world. I try to imagine a satellite view of the area and reassuring myself that I'm not in the chaotic city I was in before and that I'm safe here in the peaceful solitude. I plan on actually going out up the hiking trail and spending time on the mountain itself, but I want to try setting up a ritual to do each night before bed.

Does anyone do anything similar to this or possibly have any advice for me? I really want to get better at grounding myself and feeling protected/comforted in my new living situation.

Hello, wondering if anyone has suggestions about good locations within a suburb community for starting a local meditation group. I've previously started groups at my university and also at a hospital. I'm looking to start one in my community, so far, I haven't had luck with finding anything.

Looking to host something once a week, nothing too complicated, just meeting up, meditating for 45 min or so.

I've reached out to the local library, rec center, and another park district facility, they've all declined. One place agreed but they would charge $70/hr for a room. I've thought about starting to reach out to churches. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Every time I try to meditate, I encounter feelings that I can call aggression. I can't control them. I don’t know what to do because I tried everything…

so i realised that when i meditate i sway & depending on the mudras i am ysing, i sway more or sometimes less. does anyone know what this means?

I try to focus on breathing and focus my attention on my breath, but I always hear to not put “judgment” on your thoughts, what does “judgment” sound like?

Is there a type of meditation where you breathe in as long as possible, experience a gap after the breath, then breathe out as long as possible, again with a gap before inhaling again? If so, what is the name of this meditation?

You don't get live verbal instructions from the trainer. If you click connect, instructions pop up and tell you to remove all distractions. Then to know and focus on the divine light within your heart. And finally to be open to "transmission". After a short wait, you'll connect and a timer will pop up. The name of your trainer will appear, and a robot will say "please start meditating". Then you start meditating, for about 35ish minutes before its all done.

I've used this app very inconsistently for a few years. I found it in a spirituality discord group back in 2021. Recently, I've been trying to have consistent meditation practice, so I re-downloaded the app . The app has a schedule, it tracks your time meditated, has a heartfullness technique masterclass, other things I haven't check out yet (on top of the trainer thing), all seemingly completely for free. I personally love it, it adds a ton of value to my life.

When I practice heartfullness mediation, I've gotten to the point where I can feel this very radiant, soothing feeling of light in my heart. It feels quite profound, but I've never been able to hold that feeling for more than a couple of minutes or so. I think more consistent practice will definitely help me explore that feeling. That brings me to my main question:

I haven't noticed much of a difference when connecting with a trainer vs just meditating on my heart alone. I don't really know if I believe truly that a kind of "transmission" is possible, but i am also very open to that idea. Reality most likely is much stranger than it appears. I am also pretty receptive to placebo.

So does anyone know more about this "heartfullness transmission"? Does it make sense in the context of any meditative school or teaching? What do you think about the concept?

For fear of breaking any sub rules, I won't post the app. It's on android at least, just search Hearfullness Institute if you wanna check it out.

Hey all,

I'm a 28 year old male in a PhD program in cognitive science. During my undergrad, I first discovered meditation and began to practice it for a period of time in a semi-consistent fashion. After undergraduate, I experienced a massive life-defining trauma where I and a close family member were nearly killed. Afterwards, I was diagnosed with PTSD, and I could no longer continue to meditate without psychologically breaking down and becoming non-functional very quickly.

Fast forward five years (during which time period I received an ADHD diagnosis- I've been on an off stimulants, would like to get off them permanently eventually), and I've done a TON of trauma therapy and most of my worst PTSD symptoms are manageable. In the last five years, I've tried to pick up meditating three separate times, and I could not continue each time. Each time, I would start small (5-10 min a day) to ease my way back in. I always did Vipassana, using my breath or bodily sensations as my anchor for attention. Occasionally, I would do loving kindness meditation. But I also found that difficult as well.

Here's what would happen: I would become aware of bodily tension, but I would be unable to release it. I would then observe it nonjudgmentally, but the tension would increase, sometimes to the point that it was unbearable and I had to cease. But other times, I would be able to finish my practice. However, after practice, I couldn't stop noticing the tension. It stayed with me all day and all night. The longer I continued my practice, the more the tension increased to the point that I could no longer sleep at night because I was so tense. Each time, it got so bad that I had a psychotic episode (from the sleep deprivation) after 5-10 days of almost zero sleep and had to be cared for by others. The insomnia and tension typically subsided within several days after stopping meditation practice.

Now that my PTSD symptoms are better, I want to try meditating again, and I've started to pick it up, but I'm finding it similarly stress inducing. My therapist and psychiatrist are both against it given my history.

It's like when I turn mindfulness on, I am unable to turn it off, and then I end up in a cycle of extremely intense tension that impairs my ability to function. Each time I tried to push through it, I caused myself a major mental health crisis.

I don't want to repeat one of these episodes again, but I also want to be persistent/resilient because I know it can take a long time to see benefits from meditation, especially if you have a lot of deep pain. This makes me think I'm doing something wrong in my practice somehow. Does anyone have any guidance, feedback, or tips on how to meditate given this situation? Or at least to understand what is going wrong or what is happening in this situation? Grounding exercises haven't helped at all, they just make me more tense.

The only thing I've noticed that ever relaxes me is getting outside of my internal sensations. As soon as I direct attention to my internal sensations, I rapidly deteriorate. For example, when I take slow deep breaths while monitoring my heart rate, my heart rate goes up and my feeling of tension increases. When I wear the heart rate monitor and talk to a friend/loved one, the heart rate goes down a LOT.

Hopefully this is helpful. I'm really worried I may never be able to have a functional meditation practice.

I’ve been meditating on and off for a few years. Recently, I came back to it and every time since, I’ve felt a lightness take over and a gentle and very slow straightening of my body and a lifting of my face. I’m pretty sure I’m not doing this of my own accord (it feels out of my control if that makes sense) - shortly after, tears stream down my face. It’s all quite beautiful but also a bit confusing - any idea what’s going on? Has anybody else experienced something similar?

Bear with me, I am very new to meditation so am not really sure how to word this. I have only done a couple of longer sessions (30-90 minutes) but both times in those longer sessions I noticed - I’m not really sure how to describe it, but everything near my lower stomach feels super tense energetically when I’m breathing properly. Every other part of my body generally feels great and lively while I meditate except there, it just feels really tense and blocked. Both times I surprised myself by crying unexpectedly. I guess what I’m asking is if other people have experienced something similar or have made sense of how meditation affects you physically. TIA for any insight!

Finding a mindfulness buddy

I am looking for someone intrested in being my mindfulness buddy. We can motivate and support each other to slowly become more mindful about every activity we do in the day. Any timezone is fine. We can connect and share what we did mindfully today. Or we can adapt the process over time as per your suggestions and as per the need.

I have really wanted to get into meditation. I gave it realistically probably 5/6 solid tries. It seems like everytime I do it I fall asleep. I’m the type of person who can fall asleep any place or anytime(I don’t have that condition I am exaggerating I apologize if I offend anyone) and so i have done it at night, done it morning or mid day all with the same result. I have tried guided meditation and just rawdogging it myself. How can you combat the sleepiness with the stillness? When I go in I try to clear my mind and once my mind is clear and I focus on breathing, the z monster shows up and I try and fight it off but then I remember I am now focusing on something else rather than clearing my head. Any help would be appreciated!!!