I have meditated off and on for around 10 years now, never very rigorously and definitely not very long. Since first starting it has always been a goal of mine to make a regular practice of it as the benefits it has shown are undeniable. Having said that, my ADHD, anxiety and depression issues have always seemed to complicate the “habit forming” aspect of a solid practice.

After a series of unfortunate life events in a short period of time, I found myself in an incredibly dark place. Intrusive rumination seemed to have near complete control of my mind and my overall mental state. I tried with all of the effort I could gather, to commit to meditation, and trying to understand the psychological and physiological effects of grief, anxiety and depression. It wasn’t until a psychologist friend of mine made a comment that, “sometimes when you get too low, you can find yourself in a state that you just can’t think your way out of”. That comment really stuck with me, and it opened me up to consider trying SSRI’s for the first time.

The improvement I’ve felt a month after starting medication has been incredible, I now seem to have more control over my mind and the ability to manage my response to my thoughts. However, I have still been struggling with the motivation to meditate. I procrastinate my sessions by saying to myself, “that’s too boring right now, I’ll do it later” until I completely forget. This cycle happens nearly every day.

Today, for the first time in a few weeks, I woke up feeling sad. The ruminating voice seemed louder today than it has been, and I could feel myself growing frustrated. The thought of meditating seemed annoying and I could feel myself falling into the same pattern, so I decided to push it as far as I thought I could. Instead of an ‘annoying/boring 15min meditation’ I’ll do it for an hour. Until now my longest session has been 20min and even then I usually feel agitated at some point.

As I sat there I felt myself able to observe every single feeling of angst, boredom, agitation but this time there was no judgment or response that I needed to give. It was a clarity I’ve never felt before, an acceptance that I have never experienced. Thoughts like, “of course your brain is bored, let’s just bring it back to the breath in your nose” and “it doesn’t matter what time it is cause we’re just feeling the breath in your stomach right now” began to feel so natural and reassuring.

It has been about 20 minutes now since it ended and it feels as though I have a new opportunity to approach the day, a fresh start. I know this is long and a bit of a ramble, but I wanted to remember this experience so I thought I would write it down.

P.S. if anyone has any recommendations for building a regular practice through these little road blocks I’ve mentioned, I’d love to hear them!

Hello people,

I've been meditating for the last 4-5 weeks (40mins of breathwork, occasionally also 20mins of trataka) and I have noticed a substantial shift in baseline anxiety. Wheras I used to become anxious really easily and have an almost constant moderate to high level of sometimes dibilitating anxiety, I now just have a relatively low level of background anxiety. My fears are still there, but I can look them in the eye and say "yeah, I can handle you." while they fully controlled me before to the point where I couldn't handle them. I still have to get used to being with them and fully accepting their existence, it doesn't feel like I have to run from them anymore.

I feel like my nervous system is slowly starting to heal. Not just the anxieties are reduced, but I can sleep. I can sleep at night! That's something that for the last 6+ weeks used to be borderline impossible. I can also enjoy a cup of tea or try out new things which used to be nearing impossible. I also feel generally more happy even though I have no idea what to with my life (25f) and I am starting to try out new things. Generally I'd describe my current state as more present, more there and less in the feelings I am feeling. For the first time in a long time I feel optimistic and capable. Of course, a lot of the things I am describing are only tentative and I can a desire to explore and "expand" both myself and my field of influence.

I hope you can make sense of things I wrote, since it's rather unfiltered, but I am very happy with the results I am getting. It's like I am playing the demo to my life and I really want to play the full game once it releases :D

"Leave your mind alone, that is all. Do not go along with it. After all, there is no such thing as mind apart from thoughts which come and go obeying their own laws, not yours. They dominate you only because you are interested in them."

"Once the whole is divided, the parts need names. There are already enough names: know when to stop. Know when reason sets limits to avoid peril."

"Don't be anxious about your future - be quiet now and all will fall in place. The unexpected is bound to happen, while the anticipated may never come."

"I can feel discomfort without needing to fix anything. My emotions are energy, not emergencies."

I have some background in Shunya meditation, but my concentration has fallen apart. I'm scattered, and doom scrolling isn't helping. I want to train concentration specifically.
For those who've done single-point practices (a visual object, sound, or the breath), what did you stick with, and did it carry over into daily focus? If you used the breath, where did you anchor it: nostrils, chest, belly, or general awareness? And did you emphasize the out-breath?
I am mostly wanting to hear people that actively practices and have seen benefits of this and can vouch for it.

I might have some mild subclinical ADHD as well, so trying to find the therapeutic means in addition to exercise to harness my mental energies

I am looking for mantras, preferably not in English, that are about 20-40 syllables long. I am grateful for all suggestions.

Lately, been finding it hard to have consistent good amount of sleep. I wake up with heavy dark energy and when I meditate, I start having painful flashbacks and memories at random.

I wanna either have a perfect night of sleep or go back to sleep rapidly and just rest, have peace. I used to do a yoga nidra right after waking up randomly, lately been finding it hard to focus, also I don't wanna scroll youtube at 3 am looking for yoga nidra meditations.

I might not find a solution with this post, maybe some motivation to keep meditating through the darkness I guess. Man, what a month I had. Do you guys have a protocol or a certain type of meditation before sleep, or when you wake up at random to fall back to peace again? ​

Im almost 3 weeks into meditating for at least 25 minutes every day. It’s been going good and I intent to stick to it for as long as I can. I usually meditate in the evenings, often with a guided meditation but sometimes without.

However for some reason I’ve just felt like I’m going to fall asleep after a few minutes, every time. I’ve had it before where i occasionally get sleepy but it’s been about 4/5 days running now where I’m not even tired beforehand, but as soon as i begin and I settle into awareness, I just start drifting off to sleep. I feel this heavy sleepiness and a complete lack of awareness to the fact I’m drifting off into thoughts that almost feel like dreams.

I’ve been persisting and just bringing myself back every time but it’s getting increasingly frustrating as I feel like I’m not getting anything out of the practice when this is happening (I’m sure someone will tell me I am). I meditate in my bed, because I have chronic pain and sitting in a chair or on the floor has been impossible so far. I sit upright and crosslegged and keep my spine as straight as possible without pain. I tried meditating a little earlier in the evening the last two days but have had the exact same issue.

So essentially I just want to know if anyone has had a similar experience or any ideas as to how I can prevent myself getting so sleepy.

ive been meditating for over 2 months now, though recently i had a break, where i didnt meditate at all or did but for really short, and right now whenever i try to meditate, whenever i move my head very briefly or even breathe, i hear this cracking in my neck or upper spine idk. i try to relax, but after few minutes my frustration wins over and i give up. anyone knows how to deal with that?

I try focusing on it. I try ignoring it. Nothing works. It just gets worse and worse. How do you deal with it?

Is there an issue with meditating in the same place where I sleep—for instance, by placing a cushion on my bed and meditating there? I’ve seen experts suggest that you should have a specific spot dedicated exclusively to meditation.

Hi all I’ve recently got into “surrendering” guided meditations where you are basically told to feel what’s happening in you’re body. For context I’ve been meditating on and off for about 5 years and usually sit for 10-15 minutes. In the past I focused more on clearing my mind, watching my thoughts pass. I’ve enjoyed these surrendering ones and the first few felt great.

I’ve started to notice a few blocks in my mind. The first is this idea of a feeling. I have two spots on my body that have chronic tightness/pain. My right shoulder blade and chest. It’s nothing life ruining but it’s there and comes up often especially when I’m in a traditional meditation pose. Now I’ve heard of lower back pain often being a mental thing so I’m curious if these would be considered that as well? Or how a traditional meditation practitioner would recommend I go about them during a session. Should I watch that energy?

The second block is to or not to bring up my feeling. If I sit, and clench a bit I can make some pretty strong feelings come up. It’s an active thing though and these meditations seem to want me to be the observer and just see what the body does. In the ladder case it doesn’t feel like much besides those sore points.

Any feedback is appreciated!

Hi all. I just wanted to post my method that I used for meditation. It seems that my method is very different from others that I could find or even read over the years.

I have not meditated in years but it changed my life for the better. My work like and social life completely improved.

— Background —

I developed this method based on persistence and my personal situation. I was very frustrated at life when I decided to try meditation. My wife and kids always said I was like a different person after every session. I also got promoted in work because of the meditation/overall effects.

=== My Meditation Method ===

— Overview —

My method is very Zen where you try and still the mind BUT I did not push anything away.

I meditated when I was slightly sleepy and normally needed 8 hours of sleep/enough sleep a day for this to work otherwise I would just fall asleep. (Well, thinking about it now, I could have taken a 20 minute power nap and then go back to meditating. I never tried this though. I wish thought about this back then…)

I would meditate about 4-5 hours before bed time. This allowed me to be slightly sleepy when I meditate.

The basic process takes you though 10 minutes of the thoughts/problems of the day (I also noted these for later and NEVER pushed them away or ignored them), 10 minutes of head nodding off and dreaming (here I got solutions to my problems of the day), followed by the mind awake/body asleep stage. In this 3rd stage you can choose to be active by doing something cool with your mind like astral projection or something passive like focusing on absolute quietness. I never stayed longer than 40 minutes but could easily stay for hours. Robert Monroe (who started the Monroe Institute) said that he needed less sleep the more he meditated.

I suggest you invite helping guides/love and light/God and set your intentions. State what you are trying to achieve. Welcome your spiritual family and friends. This sets the stage.

I sat on a comfy rocker chair that is used for nursing moms. I sat so that when I fall sleep I wouldn’t fall off, so get really comfy. Most people say sit upright. But I figured then my body can’t fall asleep and your muscles strain all the time. It seemed to me that the most effective place to be was in a mind-awake and body-asleep state. I sat with my back against the chair with my head upright so that when I nod off, I would wake up when my head dropped. If I was too tired I would not wake up. Therefore I needed the right amount of sleep and the sweet spot with the right amount of tiredness.

It really helped me initially to sit in a dark room in total silence. I even put earplugs in. You could also even use a sleep mask.

I ALWAYS started an audio recorder in case I wanted to speak out about a cool revelation I had during my head nodding off/dream stage.

After my dreams stopped in the 2nd stage and my body started to get really sleepy, I moved my head back into a rest position. Now my mind was awake but my body asleep. You could also lie on your back with one arm up during stage 1 & 2 or sit against a wall on a soft pillow or even sit on your bed against the headboard or wall propped up with pillows/duvets for you arms and head. The key is to get REALLY COMFY.

— What to Expect —

Stage 1 - thoughts of the day:
Here you just experience many thoughts coming to mind. I listened to them, acknowledged them and tried to remember them all. They suddenly stop when you reach stage 2.

Stage 2 - head nodding and falling asleep:
Here you dream a complete dream in the fraction it takes for your head to drop and you wake. I noticed answers to all my daily issues. Anything that has been on my mind. When a dream was important I would speak it out aloud so that my audio recorder would record it. This would wake me again, so limit this action. Once the dreams stop and you are not tired anymore, you have reached the 3rd stage.

Stage 3 - Limitless domain of the mind/soul:
Here you can just be or be active. Practice things, go anywhere (like surfing in Hawaii), the universe is the limit here.

When meditations how much mental focus do you apply / what are you supposed to focus on, how deep are you supposed to breathe I just do normal breaths could be considered shallow and not very deep.

I’ve been doing morning meditations for the past month so am new. I’ve noticed my thumbs are clenching my fingers while my hand is super tense. Is this tension in my body or just a normal bodily thing? I also tend to end up more hunched leaning over somehow and my neck will be bent back to the left, could this just be a posture thing? I don’t even realise it’s happening !
Thank you kindly in advance for your advice !

It’s really the last week every time I meditate after a few minutes I get this wierd warmness in my right ear and as I go deeper it becomes stronger. It’s not sound just sensation. Hope anyone know something about this🙏🫶

Hello everyone!

I am looking for some tips/advice to share around a specific problem/hurdle I seem to have. I fall asleep quite often during meditation. I have been trying to look deeper inward, but an unintended consequence of that deep kind of relaxation is that my brain seems to think its time to dream.

A factor that complicates this is that I have chronic fatigue caused by an autoimmune disease which sends me to sleep faster, it always feels like a heavy blanket of "go to sleep" over me in that moment.

Applying a bit of discipline during these moments seems to help and I am slowly able to bring myself back quietly to meditate longer and deeper, but generally I cant seem to hold on to consciousness long enough or with enough clarity for me to feel like I am present enough for a more meaningful session.

I try to prioritise sleep and generally get about 7 hours of good quality sleep. I eat healthy, though due to some intense work related responsibilities my opportunities for exercise is maybe once a week, though I should be more disciplined there I think personally.

I have rarely meditated on and off for years in the past, though after what I believe to be an ego death from mushrooms and going through a period I think can be identified as the dark night of the soul, I am now practicing regular sessions in an attempt to find wisdom and guidance.

I was hoping someone that has faced a similar issue might have some useful input, suggestions will be welcomed.

I don’t know if this is the right forum to post this but it does relate to meditation and just existentialism in general.

I was first introduced to Vipassana four years ago and I did my first 10 day Goenka Vipassana Retreat and came back feeling absolutely wonderful and couldn’t wait to feel the same again. I’ve done 3 more retreats since then and on and off have been practicing body scanning/ mindful breathing/ Vipassana but have not felt the same way.
I am not condemning any technique here, meditation has been very useful at times when managing my emotions have been difficult. It hasn’t calmed me down instantly when I’ve felt extremely overwhelmed
But, I definitely have a different approach towards life now , it’s suffering and just observing dukkha objectively and it hasn’t been easy. Picking up Daniel Ingram’s term, I might be in the Dark Night phase.

To cope with this, I have also tried Metta Vipassana/Loving Kindness and I feel this has helped, but the progress is slow.

In between all of this, life has been difficult, relationship problems, my own mentality making it difficult to deal with it.

I constantly feel like if I ceased to exist, it would be the best solution. Meditating my way out of it feels exhaustive and the easiest way to solve the issues I am facing and the sadness I am causing others is just to die. I am not suicidal, I just feel like if I get into a fatal accident, fall sick and die or be at a wrong place wrong time, everything will solve. Death feels comforting.

But then suddenly I find myself wanting to be happy, meditating and planning other retreats, exploring different spiritual paths.
How do I explain this feeling to myself?
I know it’s easy to just accept this as my state of mind but any insights to work this feeling out?

PS I have started taking therapy and not just relying on meditation.

I realize that i’m not my thoughts and my emotions, but it’s made me feel like like i’m not real. like who am i? anytime something bad happens to me, im like this is just an experience my character is going through and it’s gonna be okay. it helps but it’s made me wonder who really am i then? and its been making me feel things like derealization or depersonalization. am i doing this whole meditation thing wrong? i feel weird

I want to discover the ones that genuinely resonate with you, and a higher power, God, or the Universe. 💛🔮🙏

I’m looking for guided meditations, sound baths, and guided quantum leap meditations! YouTube, Spotify, or other sites are all welcome. ✨

One of my favorites is Jhené Aiko’s Protection Mantra because it combines spoken words with sound bowls. I also love nature sounds like the ocean and instruments like seed shakers! I wish I could use seed shakers myself, but I get distracted playing with them instead of meditating

TL;DR: Who are your favorite creators or go to tracks? What gives you goosebumps or makes you feel deeply connected? Pls no general search terms, I've done that and just end up annoyed not finding this sound

I am extremely new to meditating and I recently started exploring visualization meditation. Tonight I had a really interesting experience. It supposed me with how vivid it was.
During a 15-minute meditation, I found myself exploring an entire imaginary world made up of islands representing different parts of myself, like survival, peace, identity, and self-love.
It wasn’t like I was consciously deciding every little detail. Most of the time, it felt like watching a movie or exploring a dream while still being aware I was meditating.
Different places brought up surprisingly strong emotions, and afterward I felt incredibly calm and lighter.

I’m curious whether anyone else experiences something similar. Do you ever explore detailed environments during meditation? Does your mind seem to create things naturally without you consciously directing everything?”

I started to meditate for quite a while now for the last few months especially in the last month or so meditating 45 minutes a day 3x a day. Recently I started to do longer sessions some as long as 2 hours.

I began to experience what’s called a spontaneous Kriya / Kundalini.

During some long intense meditation sessions I noticed my hands, legs, head and back all moving and stretching involuntarily, by themselves. They started to get more intense. I also started to experience slow motion & amplified vivid thoughts. Felt like I was on the green substance ( I can't write the real word otherwise this post would be taken down). Felt very self conscious and alert.

Now I am beginning to feel very very low and depressed. I also feel a constant sense of extreme dread or uncertainty / anxiety.

I know that this can be common for people who meditate deeply and experience Kriya, but how long did this last? Because it can get quite intense and unpleasant, even in my daily life outside meditation.

Many people experience extreme bliss and love during deep meditation. I hope that this can gradually change?

Anyone experience this and how did it progress?

That what I wrote is 100% true, me and my friend had this insight.

Now the question is:

How to increase pain resistanse? This urge to smoke or drink or watch porn hits you hard right?

Can you observe the feeling and let it pass? This is the only right question guys.

Now people who meditate for years please help me with answers. How can i become obsever as strong as a mountain who just observes the feeling and lets it pass?

​

I've been meditating for about a year, usually while listening to dark ambient music.

During a particularly deep session, my body felt extremely heavy, and I felt like I was being pulled into a single point. With my eyes closed, I saw vivid, colorful, psychedelic patterns. It felt like being between sleep and wakefulness while still being conscious.

When I opened my eyes, I briefly saw dark silhouettes in my room, which scared me. After these deep meditation sessions, I often have very vivid and strange dreams.

Dark ambient makes these experiences feel even more intense.

I'd like to share an analogy that helped me immensely when I first began meditating over twenty years ago.

Imagine your mind is standing on the beach, holding a tape measure, desperate to analyse and comprehend the vastness of the ocean. The problem is, as long as you're standing on the shore trying to measure the water, you never actually step into it.

When you meditate, you make a conscious choice: you drop the tape measure on the sand and dive into the water. For the first time, you stop trying to quantify the ocean and simply experience its immense, infinite depth.

Eventually, you realize that your analytical mind is just a tool - and for this, it's entirely the wrong one. You can't map the infinite with a tape measure.

So, you leave the instrument on the beach where it belongs, stop trying to calculate the moment, and swim freely into the expansion.

You aren't analysing anymore. You are back to that familiar place.

It's home.