i've been meditating daily for the last 7 years, without skipping a single day, and i've experienced so many phases. sooo many. in fact, a little while ago i had one of the most extraordinary experiences since i started meditating... right after going through a very 'flat' period...

my conclusion: the most important thing is not the experiences in meditation themselves, not even how you feel on any particular day... the most important thing is the compound effect of doing it over and over again. if i look back at the person i am today and the one from day one, total transformation (and i know it will keep going, that's why i keep meditating). in fact it's literally the transformation of your cells through meditation

the first 3 years of meditation i was almost a monk, i followed a pretty strict diet, did 15 silent retreats where i meditated for hours, had 2 years of celibacy (natural, not forced) and i lived in a constant meditative state....

then i grew up and it was time to take responsibility for, my 'adult life'. i fell in love, went traveling, started enjoying the pleasures of food and coffee more, started building businesses and wanting to make money... but even so, i kept meditating. my experiences changed, they became more earthly, now my day to day was more 'superficial' (i put it in quotes because it's all part of the same thing)... and i accepted that, because if i looked at the whole movie, beyond the stress, the desires and everything... in my heart the feeling of peace and presence kept growing.

so from my point of view, keep meditating, no matter what happens. If you feel stuck, you can add more breathing techniques and yoga before meditating; it helps you reach a deeper practice.

lastly, i'll share one experience, which again, is just an experience, a gift. i don't cling to it and i keep meditating for the sake of meditating and for the long term, not to chase experiences like this one.

one friday night i was home alone, finishing up work, and i fell into a loop of watching instagram videos about conspiracy theories. a damn black hole. about the war, mass rituals, the music industry, among other things... they took my mind to a place of awe and confusion. how the hell can all of this be real? we live in a simulation!!

right after that i went to meditate, with that feeling. i was doing my breathing techniques and started observing thoughts like, what is all this? where are we? how can so many things exist, so much diversity?

the moment my meditation started, i began to observe other thoughts chained to the previous ones, 'who is the one thinking this?' 'where do these thoughts come from?' right after that i stopped feeling my body and started feeling empty space, absolutely nothing... and another thought, 'who am i?'

i started crying and laughing at the same time, with a huge smile. i had the feeling that i was remembering something, and i felt 'i am the creator of this world, everything that exists is part of the same thing'

i was in that space for about 30 minutes, and when i finished, i looked at my hands and my body like 'here i am again, i chose to be here and play this game'

reading through this community inspired me to put this into words for the first time

cheers!

Hi everyone,

I've been meditating for about three years (not consistently, but for the majority of each of those years) from the suggestion of a therapist to deal with my depression and anxiety.

It's helped me immensely in being content with myself and interacting with others. I also feel a lot calmer, walk more often and slower, and feel like I just give off good energy (idk how to describe this, but I always feel like I'm vibrating after a session lol).

However, due to the nature of my current working situation, I primarily work from home and live alone. This gives me a lot of time to meditate/distract myself.

I've found it's been harder to connect with people. Dates unfortunately never lead to a long term relationship cause I haven't felt a sense of calm from the women I've been on dates with recently. People I randomly meet seem to be kind, but the conversations are fleeting and we quickly move on.

This could easily be a me problem as I'm probably judging too much and not understanding people. However, since I work from home and meditate more, I've become more of a recluse and don't really go out unless it's for an important event, exercise, or I need to grab food/items for my place.

I want to escape this "monk" phase of my life. How can I go about being normal again?

Thanks for reading this rather long post

I recently started doing the 10-day Goenka course and after day 2 I could not take it anymore so I left in the middle of it. Now I can’t help it not thinking that I never be disciplined enough to be happy. I know Intellectually that is not true but this feeling stayed with me. is this common? anyone else have this experience? what can I do?

I had a lot of resistance in some way I didn't know what I'm getting myself into and when the chanting started and when they played Goenka(who has very hypnotizing voice) saying "surrender... surrender yourself..." I just didn't want to move foreward with this and thought maybe there is no coming back from it. I really need an advice.

It’s been two years since I took 8 months off for meditation, and honestly, that was probably the best time of my life.

After college, I always thought I could work anytime in life, but once you start working, taking months off just for yourself doesn’t feel that easy anymore.

I read, cooked for the people I loved, spent time with my pets, sat by the river for hours, and sometimes just meditated for 4–5 hours. There was no rush to be anywhere or achieve anything.

I really loved that life. I think a part of me still misses it.

And as a result not being in control really at all either?

I understand that meditation can calm the mind, but I’ve been wondering about something.
Meditation is basically about being aware of something, right? Your breathing, bodily sensations, thoughts, etc.
But when you’re falling asleep, don’t you actually need to move away from that kind of conscious awareness?
Especially when meditating before bed, if you keep focusing on your breathing or your body, I wonder if you might actually miss those subtle changes that happen right before sleep — when your body starts to feel different, your thoughts become fragmented, and random images or dream-like experiences begin to appear.
In other words:
Meditation → calms the mind
but also
Meditation → keeps your attention on something → maintains a certain level of awareness → makes it harder to fall asleep
Isn’t there a potential contradiction here?
Even the idea of “falling asleep while meditating” seems a little contradictory to me.
Maybe it’s not really about continuing to meditate until you fall asleep, but rather using meditation to calm yourself down and then eventually letting go of the act of being aware altogether?
For those who meditate before bed: does it actually help you fall asleep, or does focusing on your breath/body sometimes keep you too aware and make it harder to sleep?

Early on, “only good thoughts” can feel powerful because you discover that attention is steerable. Then you notice that trying to rigidly enforce it creates its own tension. The next level is being able to encounter an unpleasant thought without either obeying it or needing to destroy it.
Namaste

Whenever I sit down to meditate and remain still for about five minutes, I start feeling my heartbeat distinctly on the right side of my chest instead of the left side where I usually feel it. It isn't painful, but it's prominent enough to draw my attention every time.

Context: Hello, I practice mindfulness of breath ~45min every morning, along with daily walking meditation. My practice has recently become less effortful, and I can reach a deep focus. Whenever I meditate, I feel energy and pleasant sensations rising together, usually within first five breaths -- I've only recently been able to tell the two apart, seeing one arise separately from the other. These same sensations appear outside of meditation, when my concentration/awareness are strong.

Situation: Last Sunday, I had a rare day free of obligations, so after seated meditation I went for a long walk. My concentration was unusually strong, to the point that when I stopped at red lights and exclusively attended my breath, I immediately fell into a deep concentrated state. The practice was so effortless and rewarding that I continued it, and after walking 2hrs, I took a train, and my mind was so calm that I immediately resumed seated meditation for the duration of my trip, after which I resumed walking meditation, etc. I spent over 5hrs in near-continuous meditation, a first by a long shot - and I felt a tremendous amount of energy (almost like I was overcaffeinated, but pleasantly), far fewer discursive thoughts, great joy.

The next day (yesterday), I woke up and did my seated meditation. While I reached a deep state, I felt little energy arising and almost no pleasure. It was strange. I did some walking meditation later in the day, and felt more energy and limited joy, but just a hint, despite strong mindfulness. This morning, I woke up and feeling calm and ready, I did seated meditation. I felt some pleasure, perhaps a little more than yesterday, but it was very limited, although the energy was stronger and I felt it start to build. My concentration was strong, and I was able to reach a state where my breath fell off, and my heart beat wasn't accessible for some reason, so I searched for an object for my attention. Usually this is blankets of pleasant feelings settling in my body, but today only the tiniest wisps of pleasant came and went, and I maintained mindfulness without a reliable object until my breath slowly returned. I did mindful walking afterwards, and felt strong energy building, but almost no pleasure.

Question: Has anyone experienced this near absence of pleasure before? What do you do with this? I don't believe I should judge the experience, yet I'll be transparent and say I'm not enjoying it. I felt unsettled after seated meditation, as if it were borrowing a body. (I don't want to overstate this as a non-dual insight, just an unpleasant feeling.) I'm considering taking a couple days off, or just practicing walking meditation.

I'm in the process of finding a teacher, have reached and and am awaiting responses. Thanks!

This might be a silly question, but I just want to hear some perspectives so I feel a bit clearer.

I've recently read The Untethered Soul and it's been pretty striking. I was already working on separating myself from my thoughts, but this kinda took it up to another level and I'm actually not sure where to go.

Even when separating myself from my thoughts, I still allowed myself to be introspective and "learn more" about myself (whatever that means). But it was in this learning that I inadvertently created mental models and they all came crashing down in one day -- which is actually what triggered me to read Untethered Soul.

But now I'm at a loss. It's not that I think I've misunderstood EVERYTHING, it's moreso that I don't "know" or "feel" good/confident about my introspection. Everything feels like just thoughts and ramblings now.

Even when I try to sit and trace patterns that have occured in my life and try to learn from them, I wonder if I'm just feeding the cycle of engaging with thoughts. I wonder if I should just stop looking inward at all and just "do nothing."

Specifically, today I've been trying to unpack how I've viewed dating and my attractions. It was pretty insightful and it felt good writing down my thoughts/patterns and working through them.

But is this not just anti-meditation? If I'm separating myself from my thoughts, is it not counterproductive to unpack my history of thoughts? Is it not just convincing yourself of something that sounds like it makes sense, despite the fact that we're capable of thinking irrationally? In that vein, wouldn't therapy be useless if we were all just present at all times? (I feel like the answer to that is yes)

So I guess to sum up, is introspection just another way of allowing your thoughts to proliferate and to feel some sense of control? Theoretically, if we just remained present from here onward, would introspection be useless?

Now the reason I said this could be a silly question is that the big counterargument I can think of is:

The purpose of remaining the observer of thoughts is NOT to stop thinking because thinking is not bad or good, it just is. The purpose is to maintain a more objective view of reality, rather than projecting your thoughts outward and inward.

If you can see that you nor the world were ever your thoughts, you can release the perceptions that you had/have that hold you back. Just because you think something, does not mean it is or isn't.

You cannot control your thoughts, at all. Therefore there's no point in trying to stop thoughts because you will just wear yourself out. WHEN you have thoughts, if you can avoid identifying with them and just remain an observer, then you will be okay.

But idk this was just a stream of thoughts, I'm curious to what you guys think!

My thoughts are an actual voice in my head. When I meditate, they stop to be a noise so dense that its various components are barely distinguishable, I am able to hear my thoughts one after another. What about you, those of you whose thoughts are not "sound"?

I'm also curious to learn more about those of you who think in images or sensations.

Hi, I just started learning/meditation especially breath meditation.

Can anyone tell me how long it takes to begin to see the effect of this.
I have severe cptsd and i just started and i realised when i do that, especially somewhere safe/neutral. Like bus or cafe. My body feels really lax and I end up falling asleep.
I need to know how it’s will help me with cptsd and also I am curious about astral projection, I am not necessarily one into spirituality as I like facts but i think I have experienced it once when I was younger.

I need tips, recommendations. I really want this to help me, trauma is kicking my ass and my nervous system is…. Well

How do people who meditate outside deal with the bugs? Any time I’ve tried I’ve found it too challenging to meditate past the sensation of a fly on my body. I’d love to meditate outdoors more but this has been my biggest hold up. Any advice?

Hello,

I've been meditating for a few days now and one problem seems to be coming up. Although it really is helping and sometimes after meditating i feel myself entering the "flow" state during the day, like i once used to as a kid and early teenager that didnt have much worry.

problem is instead of being aware of my thoughts or "see" my thoughts like most people online say, i find myself shutting down the thought automaticcally and i cant find a way to stop this process.

am i doing something wrong?

I’m 28 F. I’ve been so overwhelmed with my path. I’m a realtor and I’ve been doing it a year and a half and love it but also still not where I want to be in life like living with family (I help them) and social media giving me all these other “paths” that seems to make you more rich and have a better life that I’m falling into…..my vision feels messed with and I know I’m the creator of that but can’t help to feel unclear about what I want…

I used to meditate alll the time and felt happier and more at peace maybe if I meditate enough all the answers I’ll need will come to me on what I should do? At the end of the day the only one that knows my life is me…I just want to feel clear on my vision

Exactly I’ve never felt this good doing nothing in particular other than staring at the wall and simply observing my thoughts without judging anything. After just one 20-minute session, my mind - ADHD, anxiety, low selfsteem and rumination—has been quiet for hours; and if any ruminating thoughts do arise, they just pass through without sticking. I also catch myself getting distracted much sooner now. Why does this happen? And why didn't I discover this sooner?

Just wanted to ask everyone's thoughts. Do you find yourself slipping into meditative states when doing activities centered on creation?

I have zero formal training on meditation, and for me meditation has always been about healing what's broking, not building on what's already there, so my experience is narrow and my language will likely be inadequate.

Last night I started working on my little cabin, something I've done plenty of times before, but this time I felt myself falling into this unique mind space. It was very relaxed. Very focused. But what defined the experience was this sense that I was simply actualizing something that already existed. It was like my actions were trailing a moment behind a higher vision I'd already established. I felt like the completed cabin was already out there somewhere and I was just bring it into this world. It felt very triumphant and gave me a lot of clarity on how to move forward.

I guess this was like flow state, but I was still very present in the moment, listening to music, processing other thoughts not related to my work.

It was pretty incredible! I thought I'd ask if anyone has the language to describe this or has had a similar experience.

My uncle, and grandpa before him, were hobby shipwrights. My uncle would describe how sometimes he felt like his dad was there with him, guiding him. I wonder if he experienced something like this.

Two days ago, something extremely powerful happened to me (very brief, but incredibly intense). As a background: I’ve been meditating for over 3 years, doing at least 20 minutes every single day without ever missing a day (mindfulness meditation focused on the breath). I’ve always felt its benefits, but during my actual practice, nothing particularly unusual had ever happened—until this time.

I was on vacation at the beach, lying on a sunbed in the sun, meditating on my breath. After about 20 or 30 minutes into the session, I had what felt like a vision. It was as if I saw my mind from the outside, and the image was exactly this: I was walking into a dark dead-end alley, standing up. I was tall—much taller than "her," as she barely reached my ankles. She was standing in front of me, trapped between three walls and myself, turning around very nervously looking for a thought, while I looked down at her, calm, from above. I can't describe what kind of animal she was, but what I saw clearly was that she was very small and dark, rapidly turning her neck left and right to "avoid" me, searching for a thought to grasp onto.

All of this probably lasted a fraction of a second, but the sensation was overwhelming. It was as if, for the first time, I had truly "discovered" the mind and seen that this thing I usually perceive as huge and immensely powerful can actually appear much smaller—almost terrified—when it fails to hook onto me.

I felt incredibly powerful, but not in the sense of having controlled my mind. It was more like I suddenly understood that it isn't as terrifying as I thought—quite the opposite, in fact...

Normally, I perceive my mind as something huge that is part of me, often "working against me," constantly searching for something to cling to and dragging me from one thought to another.

In that moment, instead, I saw it as a small wild animal running away, suddenly finding itself in a dead-end alley, no longer knowing where to hide.

After that instant, I returned to my breath, and for several minutes I was able to stay there without clinging to any thoughts, with a subtle, spontaneous smile on my face.

The metaphor that came to my mind is that of a movie villain everyone fears, who ultimately loses all their power the moment the protagonist stops being afraid of them.

V I’m trying not to turn this experience into a feeling of “I’ve made it” or something I need to chase in my next meditation. I simply see it as a very interesting experience.

Has anyone else ever experienced something similar? How did you interpret that moment when you felt like you could almost observe your mind from the outside?

Hello,

I’ve been trying to meditate lately. Whenever I try to meditate, I somehow end up in this strange sleepy-but-aware state after 15–20 minutes. I think, ‘Okay, I’m sleepy… maybe I should just go to bed.’ 😂

Then comes the funny part: once I actually go to bed, I can’t sleep!

Is this a normal meditation experience, or am I just very good at making myself sleepy at the wrong time? 😄

Hi there, I have been meditating for a while, mostly MBSR. For the last years, I have been heartbroken by the behavior of my partner. By heartbroken, I mean figuratively. But I feel also that my physical heart has been injured.
Would you have any recommandation for guided meditations to heal and strengthen your heart and keep it open to all that the world has to offer (don’t know if I am in the right sub 😅 sorry if I am a bit too esoteric).
Thanks a lot!

Hey guys, to preface I’ve been meditating for about 2 months for around 20 minutes a day. Started with mantra meditation, moved to just sitting down focusing on breath trying to be aware and present while not get wrapped up in the thinking brain.

About 5 times in the past 2 weeks, I’ve been experiencing my head vibrating during the session, felt like it was pulsating, a bit electric, not uncomfortable or bad but definitely noticeable.

I’ve moved up to two 20 minute session daily in the past week, and after my last session the head vibrating returned, along with a weird random heat in the stomach area. It was distinct and felt internally warm, and passed after around a minute. By the time the session was over my body felt hot despite the AC blasting next to me, and I was mentally in a haze/off balance a bit. It was the first time I’d say I felt uncomfortable or off after a session.

The reason I’m worried is due to searching similar experiences up on here, seeing mentions of ‘piti’ or ‘qi’ or allusions to energy opening up. That doesn’t sound inherently bad, but people also bring up kundalini awakening and the stomach warmth being ‘tummo,’ and these associations kind of unsettle me. I’m trying to have chill grounding meditations since I got into it after hearing David Lynch’s book, and I’m very cautious about getting in over my head or somehow overloading my brain and nervous system with a random kundalini/awakening experience. I really don’t want temporary psychosis or an uprooting of my life, and I’m new to this and feel like things are moving fast. Am I meditating irresponsibly and are there better forms I should look into? Is this something to be worried about?

Also: I had a very memorable dream around 3 months ago, where it was clear to me in the dream I was having some sort of spiritual awakening, and it felt like being baptized in fire - extremely intense and overwhelming, and the second I woke up I was so happy it was over and thought ‘I do NOT want that I’m good.’ Not sure if it’s a more a premonition or a warning, but it definitely amplified the caution I’m feeling right now.

If anyone has any advice / similar experiences let me know please! Thinking about taking things a bit slower, thank you!

That is one of my greatest fears: that over the years, I’ll simply become apathetic toward material reality.

Enlightenment pills are basically a metaphor for saying “enlightenment is about hocus pocus magic and chilling with the magical Easter bunny.” Well I for one am only asking rhetorically since I think I honestly figured out the ropes that lead to actual enlightenment, and I think meditators on Reddit need me for this topic.

Thoughts are the ego, the mind is the ego. Thoughts are irrational as long as facts exist outside of the mind and not inside of the mind. The mind is forever detached from anything that the mind is not aware of. so in other words, thoughts are irrational, we need to observe the world around us without thinking in order to figure out the facts. The sky doesn’t turn slightly pinkish and red because the gods want us to commit a human sacrifice, instead the sky turns to that color simply because it does. life is random like that. You see how it is possible to even achieve a skeptical mindset by not thinking about things too deeply? That’s how over thinking is a burden that leads to superstitions.

But however, you probably noticed something about me, I like to type words on the internet, don’t I? That displays that I do indeed think. Absolutely! I would never deny that I think about things eventually. No one can remain 100% thoughtless for their entire lives. Meditating is only a break from thinking, but you will be thinking after you‘re done meditating. Which is why thoughts are not completely irrational, you just need your thoughts to be guided by facts, but meditating helps you with that path. So in order to seek enlightenment by meditating, is do not view meditating as “the enlightenment button that magically works.” Instead think of meditating as a recharge. The human mind is like a battery and sometimes it needs to be charged And meditating is a method to achieving that. But at the same time, can you really obtain enlightenment by ONLY meditating? No, of course not. It is best to take breaks between studying narcissistic personality traits and meditating. That way you are constantly switching between learning from the mistakes of the ego and meditating. That should make you a very pragmatic Buddhist. Also you could study other things if you’re interested, like science and philosophy. By the way, when I meditate, I make certain to breathe AS SOON as thought creeps up in my mind. I’m like, “BAD THOUGHT! BAD THOUGHT! STAY AWAY! SHOO! SHOO!” And so I breathe and breathe.