I am not new to the practice of meditation. Lately, there is something strange happening to me while meditating. Need your opinion and tips. While meditating or being mindful - I feel sensations in my brain. Strong sensations, something between pain and tingling. But the most obvious one is the movement of my neck in left direction. I constantly feel the move my neck - something like jerks. Involuntary and reflexive muscle movement. Is it normal? Should I be concerned. Plz guide me in more details. Expert opinion is appreciated.

What are the differences between different types of meditation? By different types I mean different points of focus such as focusing on your sight, your hearing, your body, your breath. When I focus on sight I notice that It has more of a centering effect on my mind but when I close my eyes and focus on my body as a whole I notice more prefrontal brain activity. It almost seems more beneficial to do exteroception meditations prior to interception? What are your thoughts?

Have been stalled for a while with meditation. Have a book I bought years ago, Wisdom Wide and Deep by Shaila Catherine. Am planning to sit more regularly and for longer, as I'm able, to work through the exercises in the book as well as I can, without rushing or feeling crazed to attain this or that.

I plan to keep working on my concentration practice, hoping to stabilize first jhana, and meanwhile, to read through the rest of the book and do what I can there with the insight practices and so on with the concentration I have.

Does this sound reasonable?

I follow a woman on TikTok who is an ex-Mormon and has done some amazing work around maintaining spirituality outside of religion. One of her main tenents is that because of the patriarchal underpinings of our society, being a mother as a spiritual practice has been discounted as legitimate. And on the otherhand, intensive meditation practice, and other solitatry spiritual pursuits, have been held up as a superior spiritual path. (In one of her videos she juxtaposes an image of a man in sitting meditation vs a mother throwing a birthday party for her young daughter).

As a women who is not a mother, and not in any formal caretaking role, but has done a dozen or so intensive meditation retreats lasting 10-40 days and practicing meditation in various forms throughout my life, I'm very curious about this claim. I've had a lot of life changing openings through my meditation practice and I'm wondering if any mothers who meditate (specifically done longer intensive retreats), also have had spiritual insights or enlightenment experiences through motherhood?

Have you guys ever experienced it where your meditating and then all of a sudden your being pulled into an acutely aware state? I want to let this unfold into a deeper level but my subconscious reacts to it every time it happens and kicks me out. How do you prepare yourself to go to a deeper level?

I believe that self-awareness and self-discovery are fostered by meditation. We learn more about our inner selves, our desires, anxieties, strengths, and shortcomings as a result of connecting with our deepest selves throughout these sessions. With this increased self-awareness, we are able to make deliberate decisions that are true to who we really are. Personal development and transformation are made possible through meditation. We can access an endless supply of knowledge and direction that is inside of us when we routinely establish spiritual connections. We are able to overcome obstacles in life with clarity and purpose thanks to this guidance

Hi,

I want to be part of some daily mediation group, who connects online for 10-20 mins daily. This way I want to build it as daily habit. I am from Mumbai, India hence would prefer IST or nearby time zones.

So this just happened to me I'm meditating here at work and I was listening to a guided meditation on meditating on your spirit guides and what I noticed was I felt my body like leaning forward a couple of times and it was just a quick 10 minute meditation. Is there any reason or meaning for my body to move like that??.. could be from being tired idk just curious and thought I throw it out there.

I have started meditating early in the morning and then writing down my thoughts as a daily journal immediately after that.

Is it a good way?

Hello everyone. I am new to meditation. Any advice for me?

Hello! Would like to ask for other ideas here. Right now my time and attention span can only hold 5-10minutes of meditations. Anyone else doing the same.? I use apps like insight timer for guided meditations and sometimes just the simple timer on my phone, while sitting in the lactation area of our office , or in a corner of our house. Looking forward to hear how you do this and what are good ways to be present right away. I admit that sometimes even in the 5-10minutes i could still get distracted. Thanks

Hello I'm struggling with starting meditation. How to you guys do it. Any exercises that you'd recommend for someone who knows jackshit.

When I try to mediate on something positive - especially for my health- I see a hospital when I close my eyes. I don't want to manifest that or mediate on it. Any advice or tips that you can suggest?

Regardless of the meditation practice you do, it comes down to these 3 things: concentration, clarity and equanimity.

Concentration - staying focus or concentrated on whatever it is during the practice (breath, candle, mantra, etc)

Clarity - whenever the mind inevitably gets distracted, come back to what you were concentrating on.

Equanimity - let it be on that you got distracted in the first place! Also, accept everything in the present moment as it is.. since it already happens to be.

I have been meditating on and off for a year. I don't do anything other than paying attention to my breath. I don't use any guided meditation and I have experienced few benefits.

Is there anything that you did that drastically changed your experience or benefits?

Hey! What would you say is your hardest challenge when it comes to meditation and also your greatest reward? What gets you to get back to it?

For me it has been to create space for long sessions on the long run now I have a kiddo. I had to switch to short mindful moment through the day and I miss the challenge of long sessions.

Thank in advance for sharing your experience. Looking forward to reading them!

1.closed

2.focused on empty space 1/2 between you and what’s in front of you.

3.1/2 open

4.fixed on a beautiful site

5.other

Curious on how everyone likes to meditate! There are many different kinds of practices, so I figured I would ask, what is your go to?

I'll start, my favorite meditation is simply sitting inside stillness, becoming aware of my own awareness while simultaneously feeling into the inner body.

Ok, you go!

I have just started trying to meditate with crystals I'm using amethyst to hold and red jasper on the floor for grounding and I know not to expect anything going into meditation but how do I know it's effects are working?

I have a couple of meditation apps I enjoy and one of them (Balance) has a really nice guided meditation to do with your partner. I love it but I haven’t really been able to find others that are similar. Does anyone have any guided meditations for partners in relationships that they enjoy and recommend to stay connected?

I have Balance, Calm, Spotify, Youtube etc at my disposal. What’s out there?

I have been meditating every morning with music because it usually helps me concentrate much easier, because I am still a beginner.

There comes a point in my meditation where I feel envolved by the music and it feels like a trance where I am in the world of sounds, but when I want to dive deeper into this “trance” my eyelids start to involuntarily blink really fast and it is almost like my body claims me back.

Has this ever happened to anyone? What can this mean? And how can I surrender into the depths of my meditation releasing my physical body boundaries?

I have regular meditation practice which just perform.

I need advice on two things regarding that: 1). I usually perform the practice between 10-12Pm for 1 hour only. I cant wake up early due to some mental and physical issues which induce more sleep to me. Q: Should I force myself to do it during early morning hours?

2). I perform Bhramari Pranayam during the practice and for past 3 days, i have been oscillating back and forth during that particular practice. It feels relaxing to me. But also creates a doubt. Should i be worried? Is it possible that my body is releasing stress as the oscillatory response??

Thank you. I would really appreciate the responses.

I’ve been reading and meditating now for a year but in my home where I work and meditate my husband and 2 adult children also live here and I am having a problem.

My husband and son don’t speak to each other at all. Things are up and down with the other one. My husband monitors how often they shower. Eg my daughter didn’t shower for 2.5 days so he ignored her for 5 or 6 days.

I find the atmosphere toxic and it’s hard to ignore. I’ve tried mediating and pleading for change to no avail.

Is it possible to progress with my meditation and personal development in these circumstances? In confused as to what the right thing to do is

In the past months I started to have pain in my left hip. It is there after doing my morning walk, but also when I sit cross-legged and/or doing half-lotos sitting.

When I start my meditation practice, it is okay, but some minutes into it feels like there is a huge pressure and if the hip bursts. And then it starts to hurt. I cannot dive into my meditation anymore, the focus always goes to the hip and the pain. After about 10 minutes I break up. When I stand up, or better said, I try to stand up, I hardly can rise up. Okay, I am getting older. But I am doing a lot of sports. I have no problems with my knees, nor the back. It seems to be a juncture of a hip bone.

Do you do some stretching or other exercises before you meditate? Any advice, or webpages, videos I can get some ideas for doing some "warming up"? It annoys me that I cannot meditate deeply anymore. I used to do full-lotos, but now I don't wanna try that. I still need my legs for walking, haha.

This is my first post here in this group. I hope you welcome me. Many thanks for your replies and with metta!

Hi follow seeker of peace and harmony.

This is a short testimony of how Practicing and studying Dhamma continuously after a 10 day course has drastically changed my life.

I’ve always struggled with intense ADHD (attention disorder), and other personality disorder, depressive periods, manic periods and many more things I don’t care to elaborate on.

Since I finished the course I took GoenkaJi’s recommendation of continuing practice seriously, and so I’ve done my best to effort to practice 2 hours a day, while also in my free time studying the history of Dhamma and how it got to the present day from the time of Buddha Goutamat’s, the enlightened one’s awakening 2600 years ago.

Remembering 2 things made the continuing of practice more easy: wisdom of Anicca(impermanence) and practice remaining with equanimity in every situation.

I have not once in my life before the 10 day course been able to work a full day 8-9 hours, max 2-3 hours focus on good days in the past. And I used to sleep 9-11 hours every night to be able to stay awake for the whole day.

I’m now working 10 hours with out loosing concentration even for one moment, further more I’m only sleeping 4,5 hours now, waking up every night around 04 to meditate for one hour, then run/gym, study Dhamma, and then go to work.

I no longer have mood changes that affect me in any noticeable way, as I used to have every single day, instead I spend my energy to share with others and lift everyone else out of their missery best I can, by not being affected by negative thoughts, energies and situations.

A big game changer for me to keep the practice going was the study of Dhamma history, and the fixing of my technique. Instead of practicing vipassana 2 hours per day as recommended, I practice Anapana most of the time (focus), as I’ve studied Dhamma I have found out that the original realization was just the awareness of breath, and vipassana was more practiced by developed munks and more serious seekers of liberation. So I recommend practicing more Anapana than Vipassana. Vipassana should come naturally, and when it does there will be no forcing to feel the sensations, it should just flow.

So I do recommend, Anapana, Vipassana and Dhamma to anyone who take themselves seriously , are honest and sincere. But I truly don’t think there is much benefit if one just take the 10 day course, and then go back to how they where living, it might even be a waste of spot who could have been for someone more honest and diligent.

Good journey to liberation to you! Best wishes , may all beings be happy, be peaceful, be liberated !

It's been about half an year when I have religiously started meditating everyday..

The Weird and uncanny incidences that happened within few weeks are:

1. I was randomly thinking about a friend and get her message a few hours later that she's in the city.. especially since a few days back.. had forgotten that I was also.. we end up meeting..

(I was also feeling super down, a similar horrible situation I had faced few years back and she would voluntarily come half an hour early just to sit beside me.. I never asked, but she did and it meant a lot to me... and I was thinking along the lines or, 'it's the same situation now, as back then.. and this time, I'm all alone'.

2. The next day (after meeting the previously mentioned friend), I was randomly looking at Google map, at the saved location of a place in a small town (Let's call it M), where I lived at when quite young.. (Also lost my elder brother there..)

And then at a nearby metro station.. haven't really thought much of it before.. but that day I payed a little extra focus..

Gets a text from a college friend (who's from the same small town, M, it was really an uncanny coincidence to meet her at that college since it's quite far and really competitive to get in, I didn't even have a single person from my humongous school from the nearby state's capital... I had no connection left from people of that place (M), have never met her personlly in M, she knew my friends and helped me find them..)

Turns out she's in the city as well, for internship and the nearest metro station to her is the one that out of a blue piqued my attention a few hours earlier...

3. Couldn't go to a certain wedding (my mom and sister went).. and then the thought of certain person's words keep popping into my mind, "If you ever visit this place(M), you must stay at my place!" (this third friend had contacted my sister and through her got my number.. well, as a horrible person that I am.. I thought she's a different friend with the same name... couldn't really recall her from childhood, but we do talk now and I really like her)

I have really wanted visit M again ever since we left it 15 years back, but it's a small town, I'm unemployed and don't really have a solid reason to go there...

So, today in the morning, I was thinking of that same small town, that girl and then thought, "if I'm ever gonna visit that place, probably would be for her wedding".

A few hours later, gets text from her, I tell her that I was actually thinking of her but didn't really know what to say.. she tells me she's about to get married...

All these 3 are a bit uncanny and too alike.. especially to happen right after few hours of thinking anything related to the connection between me and my friend...

Also, would like to add.. I haven't talked with any of the 3 in around few months... (especially a whole conversation... with one I might have shared a 1 or 2 interesting links within a month maybe..)

I haven't met any friends over here for about 2 years now...

And when I was feeling low, suddenly 2 popped up in the same city!

And I thought one or another thing related to them just a few hours earlier... I don't really have too many friends and had 0 reasons to predict them to be here out of a blue! And thinking of marriage of one and getting to know such news just few hours later... it's really blowing my mind apart!

When I was kinda small (say, in town P. I went from town M -> P -> D), I had started regularly worshipping before going to school.. and I came across similar situations... (not this uncanny though)...

I don't really know where and who to talk to.. so.. just posted here..

I might be over thinking, but they seemed a bit too uncanny and similar to be happening back to back within few weeks..

(Well, I'm an agnostic tbh... the thought of a higher consciousness does sound good.. but even while meditating I kinda go with, "since it's good for mind.." and if a higher consciousness exists, I may get a chance to experience... it's a win win!)

Ah! The reason of posting here, please help me make sense of all this absurdity!

Do you think for example it is possible to change from being a naturally very anxious person to a very calm chilled out person?

In what major ways has meditation changed you?

Hello i'm seeking some guidance,

When I try meditation (mainly sitting still, upright, breathing slowly with closed eyes) I sooner or later fall asleep. I can't seem to meditate properly I always end up drifting into nothingness and fall asleep sooner or later.
What am I doing wrong

thanks in advance!

(edit: fixed a mistake)

I am looking for some advice. I started meditating as I was having panic attacks, anxiety and anger. I’ve been caring for my mother for 20 years and she’s nasty and nothing is ever good enough.

been at my wits end for a year. I can get really super calm when meditating and the panic attacks stopped but when triggered, my anxiety and frustration goes crazy and it takes a couple of days and a headache to clear it.

Why am I not able to cope better after a year of meditation. I do about 1 hour each morning.

Many thanks - I’m really in need of advice.

Rachael

hello, has anyone gone through such an experience in the practice of meditation, I use different ones, in deep unity on the border with real being, I see various mandalas, sometimes kaleidoscopic, sometimes in the form of a tunnel.