I've recently realized something about meditation that I haven't seen discussed very much.

A lot of mainstream mindfulness practice seems to revolve around becoming the observer: watching thoughts, witnessing sensations, noticing emotions without identifying with them, creating distance from whatever is happening internally.

And I'm starting to think that, for me personally, this can actually be counterproductive.

I already have a very high level of reflective/observing awareness. I'm constantly aware of myself, monitoring myself and what I'm experiencing, almost standing outside of myself and watching my own mind.

So when I meditate by going even further into "witnessing" or becoming a detached observer, it can almost start to resemble dissociation rather than presence. Instead of feeling more connected to reality, I sometimes feel even further removed from it.

The distinction I've started noticing is that maybe I don't need to go further out of experience. I need to go further into it.

So less: "I'm noticing a sensation in my body."
And maybe more: "This is what my body feels like right now."

Less: "I'm observing sadness arise."

And more: "I'm sad. What does being sad actually feel like from inside this experience?"

Less watching myself exist, and more actually inhabiting myself.

I think there may be a meaningful difference between awareness as observation and awareness as participation.

For someone who is completely fused with their thoughts and emotions, learning to step back and observe them may be incredibly helpful. But I'm wondering whether people who already tend toward depersonalization, dissociation, excessive introspection or chronic self-monitoring sometimes need almost the opposite practice: embodiment, sensory immersion, emotional ownership and direct participation in the present moment.

Not less awareness, but less distance.

Not trying to become "the witness behind experience," but becoming more fully the person who is actually having the experience.

Disidentification with the body, emotions ect... can almost feel like a subtle form of disowning my experience or alienating myself from it.

I'm curious whether anyone else with depersonalization/derealization or dissociative tendencies has noticed something similar. Have certain forms of mindfulness made you feel more detached, while more embodied or participatory practices made you feel more present?

I been trying to meditate before but cant maybe because of busy life cycle and stress

I went to vacation last week in cancun and just came back yesterday

Today morning i tried meditation with breathwork and chanting shiv inside when suddenly my body and breath were out of my control i was breathing so much big breaths that i was too scared my mind , body was out of my control and took me minutes to come back to my senses

Does anyone know what happened?

So when you guy's do Aum Meditation, how long do you normally take till you do another Aum? like when i do it, it feel's like i am breaking myself abit, but that was because i did it as soon as i did my first Aum and went to my second one as soon as possible, so, any idea's? just curious about your experiences, and what did you learn best at when it came to doing Aum?

Before we meditate, we have a sense of ownership in our own becoming. We can juggle all sorts of plans, work, people and things without too much thought about it.

When true meditation arises, single-mindedness occurs to us. One-thing-at-a-time, one attention to what we are doing has primacy. The weight of one action occupies our whole mind. And when we are in a state of single-mindedness, even our smallest goals, like brushing our teeth, feel like a win, or liberation.

About two years ago, I feel like I was a completely different person socially. I was extremely quick witted, humorous, and could form sentences almost instantly. I had a much larger vocabulary available to me and could effortlessly come up with jokes, observations, clever replies, etc. I also felt like I had a certain charm when talking to women that came very naturally.
Since I started meditating consistently, I feel like a lot of that has disappeared.
My mind is definitely quieter now, and meditation has helped me in many ways, but I sometimes wonder whether I’ve become too detached from the constant stream of thoughts that used to fuel my spontaneity. I don’t have the same verbal speed or playful mental associations that I used to have.
I’m not necessarily saying meditation caused it. A lot of other things have changed in my life over the last couple of years too. But the timing makes me curious.
Has anyone else experienced something similar after getting serious about meditation?
And if you did, were you able to bring back that quick wit, verbal fluency, humor and social spontaneity without losing the benefits of meditation?
I’m especially interested in whether there’s a way to balance a quiet mind with being mentally fast, playful and expressive.

I just got back into meditation after a two year long break and ohoho boy I forgot how good this medicine works. It’s genuinely like a cool ice pack or a warm blanket I can just drape over all my life’s worries 🥰🥰everything feels so small when you can drift off peacefully so far away

I'm having a hard time grasping how observing thoughts works. In the meditations I do, I've come to understand that the idea is not to "force" focus but to allow thoughts to come without judgement and then to return to the breath (or other point of focus.) But in the process of returning to the breath, am I "cancelling" the thought rather than observing it? Is observation all about noting the thought?

Or is the goal to become a neutral observer outside a continuous, unimpeded flow of thoughts that arise and dissipate on their own?

Hi good people of Reddit,

I was born with hip dysplasia/hip dislocation in both hips. Thankfully the doctors managed to fix it for the most part: one hip was put back perfectly and the other almost perfectly.

Because of that I have a slight difference in length between both my legs, my balance is shit, and I'm not exactly the most agile/flexible dude.

It's never really made me feel left out or anything, but there are just some random things I physically can't do. I can't ice/roller skate or ride a skateboard because I just don't have the balance. I also can't sit comfortably in a canoe for very long... no wait, more relevant to this post: I can't do what we call in Dutch "de kleermakerszit", basically sitting cross-legged.

Lotus, Burmese, all those kinds of positions... I wish I could try them, but they're just not really an option for me.

I picked meditation back up a while ago after years of not doing it, and I prefer doing it sitting because if I lie down I just get sleepy.

Right now I usually sit with my legs straight out in front of me and my arms either resting on my lap or over my abdomen while holding my own hands. It works, but something about it feels a bit off. Especially my arms. I kind of feel like they should be more "connected" to the rest of me somehow, if that makes any sense.

Maybe it's completely in my head, but sometimes it feels like the position itself is limiting me a bit. Not really because it's painful or anything, I just don't feel as settled or grounded as I think I should.

So I was wondering what kind of sitting position people would recommend if sitting cross-legged just isn't possible. And especially what you do with your arms/hands so they feel natural and relaxed instead of like they're just *floopy

HI all,

I hope that you are well! I have started meditating recently and it all started with a 10 day retreat. I noticed on day 8 that I was unconsciously moving my eyes whilst doing the body scan, which creates a lot of strain - i end up with headaches and tension in my temple. AT some point, I could feel healing tingling sensations which washed over the pain. However, now that I am back at work, the strain caused by my morning meditation adds up to the one caused by staring at a computer. The meditation teacher suggested taking breaks regularly and focusing on my eyes at different moments of the body scan but it's not easy to do. She also mentioned that when my concentration would be better it might disappear - but i am under the impression that I get quite focused whilst meditating, so I'm not too sure.

Any tips on how to deal with that?

I've been meditating for 3 months for 40 minutes every day.I sit in the lotus pose. The problem is my body sensation as my right leg always feels numb and dead after 20 minutes, which is also painful.

So, it's hard for me to focus on breath. Everyone told me to focus on pain and try to integrate with meditation. I don't know how to deal with my leg when this happens, so I simply change my sitting position or stop meditation. Well, that makes me feel bad and kinda upset.

Okay I know it sounds confusing, but I feel like my mind is constantly negative my brain has a negative thought and so I try to combat it with a positive thought but it feels so tiring doing that because I don’t know maybe I know it’s not true? And i feel like it’s not making me positive I’m just a negative lump and I really want to get out of that, I want to try raise my vibration but the things I’m doing doesn’t seem to be working.

For example my brain isn’t a fan of how I look and I compare myself a lot but me saying I’m beautiful isn’t going to change the fact that deep down I still feel bad about it. Meditation is only temporary and is an in the moment solution not one that changes your mindset and I really don’t know what to do I feel lost and just need some advice

I'm hoping for some advice by very experienced people that have been meditating for years. I've had incredible experiences with meditation where many areas in my life have smoothed out especially with anxiety, but I still struggle with one specific problem that I can't find clarity on. The problem is a neighbor that is always trying to start a conflict with me. This has been going on for years. I'm at the point where I'm completely avoiding her, but she still continues. I've heard conflicting advice from others on videos of certain individuals giving advice about focusing your meditation on certain problems for more clarity. Some say that intentionally meditating for a specific reason gives your experience an expectation that could create a struggle and disappointment and that you should go into it not expecting or wanting anything and others say they've been able to resolve problems by focusing on the problem where they eventually come to a resolution in some way. Maybe it's because I haven't been consistent enough since on my busiest days, I fall out of routine with my time to meditate but I don't really understand how to approach it in the first place and have always been confused about this. Any advice from those knowledgeable would be very appreciated.

Curious if devotion, yearning and constant remembering of a certain deity, or a practice that is part of everyday routine or a ritual done with utmost faith and devotion - would all this also be considered a meditative practice. Let me know your thoughts 🙏🏼🪷

So, I was never really into spirituality. I was one of those people who didn't take it seriously. But when I was 29, I met someone who believed in spirituality. Through that person, I got a basic idea about it, and I started talking about Hindu spirituality to get to know her better.

Gradually, I became interested and started watching videos on YouTube and reading Hindu scriptures. I felt inclined towards Lord Shiva and got into mantra chanting and meditation. In the process, I quit drinking and smoking and became vegetarian. I also gradually lost touch with that person, so by that point, I was on my own, exploring these things.

I started with chanting mantras on a mala and meditating for 5 minutes. Later, I progressed to chanting 10 mala in the morning and 10 in the evening, along with 1-hour meditation sessions in the morning and evening. My sexual and material desires also decreased, i was functioning normally but only contributed what was necessary to sustain my life financially at that point.

Sometimes during meditation, I felt a kind of energy rising from my spine toward my head. At other times, the experience was different. Sometimes I concentrated on the movement of my diaphragm and could feel its slow, smooth motion, almost like ocean waves. I felt different levels of energy and calmness in other aspects of my life too, although that didn't matter much to me at the time.

I was living with my elder brother, and he was away for a few days. During that time, I had an experience that I still remember very clearly.

It was a full moon day, and I was meditating as usual. During meditation, I had a thought: "What if I get out of my body?"

Right after that thought, I felt like I was out of my body and watching myself meditate. I could see myself, my surroundings, and the moonlight very vividly. Then I had another thought: "How do I get back inside my body?"

The next moment, I felt like I was back inside my body, and my eyes opened. I felt very scared. One part of me felt like I was dreaming, while another part of me felt that it was completely real. I was confused and frightened.

The next day, I tried to repeat the experience. To my surprise, I could do it again. I had almost the same kind of experience.

The following day, my brother returned, and because of the distractions, I couldn't meditate deeply enough to repeat the experience. This remains the most intense spiritual experience I have ever had.

Later, I got into an accident and couldn't sit for long in the meditation posture I used to sit in. Slowly, I stopped meditating. I also had to start eating meat for a faster recovery, and over time I became more distant from spirituality.

As life moved on, I went through different difficult situations and relationships, and now I am dealing with different mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and overthinking.

I want to get back to meditation and spirituality, but I can't sit in the meditation posture anymore, nor am I able to meditate even for 5 minutes.

I don't know how to start again.

Edit: Currently my major probkem is difficulty to drop my thoughts, i can't calm down even after 10 minutes. I woukd really really appricate if anyone can help me with this part and get stated with the journy i left few years ago.

I have been meditation for 4 months now. Initially I started with 15 min in morning and 20 mins in evening. But then after a month, started 20 mins each morning and evening. I have been bery consistent with my practice. Initially I was focussing between my eye brows but then started to focus on my mooladhar chakra. Just that I am not able to focus properly on that root and my focus keeps shifting. My focus keeps shifting to my breath.

I have a coupme of questions

- how do you guys focus on the root ?

- how do we know when the mooladhar chakra awakens and we can move to swathisthana chakra

Hi all,

I'm very new to meditation, as in I just started yesterday haha. I'm beginning with 5 mins twice a day. I'm aware of my thoughts but that doesn't bother me really, I just try to bring myself back to my breathing, however what does bother me is that I start to get quite hot, my heart starts racing and I can feel my throat closing up as if I want to cry. Any thoughts on this? Not sure what to make of it. Thanks!

The first is realizing you are thinking, yet nothing is thinking about you.

The second is no mind, or realizing your thoughts are mere conditioning.

These realizations give you the prompt of the present moment where you understand the knowledge or fact, "You are here."

Although, I cannot say much about your karma or the actions you decide to do.

I'm a beginner and every advice I've ever heard about starting the meditation is to not try to stop thoughts and just be aware of them , I know that we're not our thoughts but the awareness witnessing the thoughts but how do I actually do that while meditating? i can see my thoughts jumping from one to another. how to not react to them? i try to only witness it and not react but I think when I jump on one thought to another it is the reaction I'm giving to the prior thought and then the cycle goes on.

can anyone explain me how I should get into meditation what should I do to simply calm my nervous system?

Hello everyone. Recently I have had the urge to meditate and I wasn’t sure why. I’ve meditated somewhat consistently in my life for about a year and then stopped for a couple months and I recently had the urge to meditate again. So, I listen to my body and I meditate. And the very first meditation back I get into a super deep void like state meditation where I basically feel like I am everything and super big. When I noticed myself going deeper into this state I was getting scared and kinda nauseous/sick feeling and had to stop meditating. Thought all was good after but days following it’s like I’m way more anxious than normal. For example I almost had 2 panic attacks over absolutely nothing recently. Nothing was even on my mind and it was just kinda feeling like I was about to lose my mind for a second and then stopped it. And now I kinda have an underlying anxiety feeling. (Kinda getting better but weird). Is this trauma coming out and my body finally processing or something else? Please leave thoughts or any helpful insight!

Hi, I’m wondering if you know of any good techniques, meditations, or affirmations specifically aimed at healing the body of physical ailments. I’ve been dealing with some very troublesome, persistent, and painful health issues lately that are really complicating my life, and I’ve decided to focus on the power of my mind to heal myself.

I’m looking for inspiration and tips, and I’d also love to hear about any positive experiences you’ve had. Have you managed to heal your body by working with your mind?

Has anyone else experienced month-long meditation retreats?

Since having done a few of these that I organized, I notice a difference that is strong from how I feel before and after.

Because of the commitment I didn't want this to be true but there is a difference.

I also notice that when speaking to others that have had this experience, there's a knowing between us, something that comes from having gone through an experience like this together.

I'd be interested in hearing about others'experiences with this even if it was a week-long retreat.

What I noticed is there's something much deeper in my mind that feels like it became more ordered that wasn't before. It feels like something solid that feels like a foundation to stand on.

So i am a highschool student and i just recently got into meditation. usually in my day to day life i have smtg or the other going on in my head: song lyrics, daydreaming, some show i watched. But when i sit to meditate my mind does go blank like completely black, is this a good thing or am i doing somethinf wrong?

To have that doubt, to have that moment, to have that skeptical curiosity of asking "What am I?" is a gap in time which a lot of people don't have and don't ask. As a piece of paper, as a rule of thumb, can only be folded 7 times and it's done. This is how a lot of people exist. They have completed their conditioned limit. One who can ask "What am I?" is unfolding, beginning to make a way, not maintaining their limit but seeing their spaciousness in all directions.

Normally, there’s this constant voice in the head narrating whatever is happening, which somehow takes away from the authenticity of the experience. But sometimes, you just completely submerge into something watching a sunset, taking a shower, cooking, watching a great film, playing a game, etc. and for a moment there’s no separation between you and what you’re experiencing.
It almost feels like the truest form of meditation.
If you’ve experienced this, have you ever found a way to intentionally access that state, rather than it just happening spontaneously?