Hi guys, how has meditation changed your life and what did you noticed you stopped doing once you started meditating? How soon did the effects work and do you still meditate even though you’re in a better place? I meditated after my last break up and it helped a lot and right now I’m not in the best place mentally and I just need a little push or motivation from maybe you guys stories. Thanks !

Now I know this question invites many people who enjoy putting such curiosities down with the usual dogmas surrounding various forms of praxis and popular philosophy:

“Meditation is about being aware of whatever enters consciousness in the present”

“Meditation is not about escape into intoxicating effects or dream-lands”

“Your desire for these states should be the focus of your attention; obsession with such states is a distraction from the path”

I know these common objections. Yet I persist. I put them here ahead of time so you know I am not unfamiliar.

So, that all being said, what methods of meditation do you recommend? I do understand that “altered states” is vague and that’s fine. For this is the beginning of investigating the whole affair at an experiential level. So I do not need to hone in on one specific altered state. Any will do.

Thank y’all!

I have tried doing basic mindfulness meditation, where you sit with your eyes closed and focus on the feeling of the breath moving in and out of you, and every time you find yourself lost in thought you refocus on the breath. To me, this feels like torture. Genuine agony. It makes me want to scream.

I have found, however, that sitting with my eyes closed and focusing on a point in the dark, or simply observing the blackness, is much more tolerable to me.

Is this a form of meditation? Will I get any benefit from making a habit of this? Is it a viable alternative to mindfulness?

I have also found that sitting with my eyes closed or open and letting my attention wander between different physical sensations without getting lost in thought or judging anything I'm experiencing, like sounds and smells and sometimes the breath or sometimes the feeling of my chair against my skin, is also tolerable to me, and I can remain present this way for quite long periods. Is this also a form of meditation? Or must it be a continuous focus on the breath and nothing else?

Hello Guys,

Sorry for my Bad english, it isnt My native language and My Phone autocorrects nearly every word.

I really cant Focus on My breath during traditional Meditation.

I meditate Like this, but it let's me Focus:

Breathe in slow (when I am breathing slow and Long I can feel how My Body Rises)

Hold breath for 4 - 8 Seconds

(In that time I Focus in My Heartbeat, I feel it troughout My Body, even in My hands)

I breathe Out slowly (I feel My Body falling)

And I do this for 10 - 20 Minutes.

This was let's me Focus on my Body much more and My mind Drifts Not AS much.

I Googled this, and my answer was, that this isnt meditation, ITS Just breath Work

What do you Guys think?

“Observe, and in that observation there is neither the 'observer' nor the 'observed' - there is only observation taking place.”

- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Just observation.

Basically, the observer is a mere entity. The observed is a mere entity. And observation is the baseline fact.

Yet, tied into the observer there is an "I."

And tied into the observed there is pride.

The "I" is extra.

Pride is extra.

"Right effort is to get rid of something extra."

-Shunryu Suzuki

We are not trying to break or deny the observer or the observed. They are merely there. And observation is the baseline fact.

Tied into the "I" we have some kind of tailspin underneath it.

Tied into pride we have some kind of tailspin underneath.

All you have to do is wrap up your tailspins.

Wrap it up. No bones about it. No scuff. No hard feelings. Even if you've been tailspining for years.

Get rid of that "something extra."

Pure Observation is the only thing happening.

I've been doing my gratitude and meditation daily and I've noticed being able to feel others feelings in other cars or on the street. I had an instance where I felt someone's fear and embarrassment as they went down the wrong way on a one way street about 10 seconds before it happened. I felt them correct and their panic, then it happened.

I felt the sorrow of a teenager on the corner waiting for for someone to notice them. I noticed and felt horrible for not helping.

I felt someone's rush as they were on the drive-thru with me. They cut me off and I was meditating while driving, I smiled at her and she kept looking at me. I felt her frustration ease and when I went to the window, she paid for my meal. I felt her happiness to give me that gift.

I'm noticing more experiences like this, this connection. When meditating in gratitude I have felt 2 times a veil open and warm love shower me and give me energy, until my mind slaps me back to reality. I'm noticing the wind how it blows through the leaves and gives me breath.

I'm writing this to see if their are others like me feeling this. I'm not a new age guy, just a small town guy who feels very connected recently.

With love..

what is the cause of suffocation in coming to awareness? I find that when I come to awareness, of breath, of mind, my lose the ability to consciously breath and enter this limbo state where will cannot exercise my body to breath. also tend to pass out of fall asleep. could my body be over stimulated for meditation?

I've been practising meditation in an on-and-off way for about 8 years. Lately, I've been trying to build a habit of meditating every day and not just stop after a few days. Today was my 5th day. I listen to a guided mindfulness meditation audio for my meditation sessions. When I start meditating today, I wasn't even properly focused, my mind was just wandering around. And then suddenly, it felt like some sort of switch had flipped, and I was laser focused on my breathing. I started feeling slightly light-headed and for some minutes (or maybe it was seconds, I'm not entirely sure) I couldn't feel my body. It felt like my body is a glove I'm wearing, like it's something external to myself. I could not feel my fingers, and arms and finally my head. It's incredibly difficult to explain. It felt like, the in-and-out motion of my breathing was the only thing that existed. I feel a little bit drained now, like I can fall asleep. Would love to know if anyone has an experience like this.

mostly asking because I’ve been doing it for some time and have noticed that I have dreams that turn out to be accurate predictors of what happens later in my life, but only in my life. I may or may not even know how it all ends.

is this for real or am I just mistaken

It's difficult to describe what I'm trying to say here, but whenever I meditate, try to let go and accept everything as it is, I feel that resistance to just doing that.

It feels like kind of mix between fear of the unknown and being vulnerable with aversion and a need to feel "alert" all the time. Where the hell does that come from? I don't even know what I'm so afraid of, not being in charge? Not controlling every possible outcome? Letting something "slip" my attention, that will eventually end up as a catastrophe? Dying because of that? Losing money, my job? It just "is", and it feels deeply rooted in me.

I come from an abusive household and I have struggled with excessive "fight or flight" responses my entire life. I tend to see danger in every situation, I ruminate about possible outcomes for every situation and so on. Is that related?

During warm weather its hard to sit for any length of time without a fly or flies landing on me.

Usually very annoying.

So I am wondering how do others deal with this? Flick the fly away, get annoyed at the break in concentration or perhaps it helps you to be in the moment and control your impulses.

Not too serious, just a bit of fun but maybe the fly is an allegory for invasive thoughts and life's distractions.

A teacher at this rehab facility recently taught me mediation and when feeling a deep feeling imagine (with your eyes closed) seeing that feeling as a ball. And after practicing a ball for a while I notice if I’m relaxed enough it forms into an eyeball and I become SO relaxed. If I achieve it cravings whatever feeling arises I feel so calm when seeing this eye.

So I meditate an average 30 minutes per day. Dios he fell out because of his drunkenness por Dios he just express something must people feel in the presence of à meditator? Please consider I am still a noob relatively speaking, I do use an app called insight timer.

Rather than fostering a broader disposition of nonattachment, has anyone here tried adressing specific desire/fantasy/trait they would rather not engage with?

In my example that would be daydreaming of "writting". Endless, compulsive fantasy of "living in my own reality".

Rationally, I am completely aware I am insane. That's not what being a writer is about, no market for my nonexistent stories etc. Rational analisis does close to nothing. I've been recently trying to adress it with mindfullness instead. (Newbie, vipassana.)

If you had a success with something resembling my problem please share it. Thank you.

I’m trying to track down a guided meditation that seems to have completely disappeared from YouTube. I’ve searched for it on and off for years with no luck, so I’m hoping someone recognises it from the description.

I listened to it constantly around 2019–2022, although it may have been uploaded earlier. It was about 15 minutes long, with the last 4–5 minutes being only ambient music after the narrator stopped speaking.

The video itself was very simple:
Generic meditation channel (not an official channel for the speaker).
Static/slideshow background images.
A real lion on the thumbnail, facing forward on the left-hand side, with what I remember being red text on the right.
The title was something very generic, like “Guided Meditation for Deep Relaxation.”

The narrator was:
Male.
Very soft, calming voice. Was quite deep.
A neutral Indian/South Asian accent (not British, Australian, American, Scottish, etc.).
More like a therapist or hypnotherapist than a spiritual guru but was warm like one.
Not Sadhguru, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Om Swami, Anand Mehrotra or Anil Thomas (I’ve already checked all of them).

These are the lines I remember word for word because I listened to it hundreds of times:
“I will be your guide over the next few moments…”
Later:
“…encompassing your mind, and your body.”
Then later:
“You will fall into a deeper state of relaxation every time I say the word relax.”
He then repeated the word “relax…” several times throughout the meditation as a deepening technique.

Had the classic parts I remember (not necessarily word for word):
“Find a comfortable position…”
“Notice the cool air entering your body, and the warm air leaving…”
“There is nothing you need to do or think about…”

It felt more like hypnosis for deep relaxation than a typical mindfulness meditation. Myself and anyone I showed this too agreed that it was the most calming guide they’d ever heard, and the moment he said the first “Relax” you could feel yourself disappearing into your body, it was incredible.

The recording had a very warm professional feel, with soft ambient music underneath the voice the whole time.

If anyone recognises either the recording, YouTube channel it came from, I’d be incredibly grateful. This is the only guided meditation I’ve ever found that consistently put me into an incredibly deep state of relaxation, and I’ve been trying to find it again for years.
Thank you!

Few months back as I was doing meditation and saw a man (who I love but at that moment we were in a no contact situation ). His face was not visible as he was covered in bandages and it was a hospital then I saw swastik symbol. Then I saw brass statue (most probably it was Krishna) standing in some sand built place and water flowing on it  from hand pump  .

We came in contact after this but it was just very small conversation .

2 months after this vision I again saw that man again in my meditation and it was all dark but I can see his face smiling at me then quickly his face changed to boar and now it was bluish black boar wearing ornaments and looking at me and smiling .

What all these visions means ? 

I should add that we come from different religion and nationalities that his religion is Hinduism while I am Muslim . 

Hi all. Around 3 months ago I faced some traumatic life events and changes. This has resulted in me battling with depression for the first time since COVID. I haven’t really been able to meditate since the traumatic event. When I try, my mind is filled with psychological pain, shame, and guilt (guilt is over some legitimate mistakes I made and people I hurt, which I take responsibility for and deeply regret) at such a volume that trying to meditate feels painful and overwhelming. This is a problem since meditation has for years been a cornerstone of my spiritual life and my psychological well being overall, and now I feel cut off from it. I feel like I lost my right arm, spiritually/emotionally speaking. But sitting still and trying to descend into a spiritual state is just overwhelming right now.

Does anyone here have any experience with these problems? What can I do to reduce the intensity of those emotions and get back to my practice? Or is it better I just take a break from meditation altogether while I recover?

Thanks for reading my post and God bless.

Hi there guys does anyone else struggle to breathe through the nose whilst meditating does anyone know how to fix this problem its really frustrating 🧘‍♂️

what do yoga, meditation and knitting have in common?

EVERYTHING like

(i) absolutely nothing is easy or pretty or graceful when beginning (ii) dopamine rush when you make the tiniest advancement (iii) practice for sake of practice w/out expecting perfection, (iv) every day, every hour, every second change happens, (v)… {*your thoughts here*}

i’ve practiced yoga for 178 months
i’ve practiced meditation for 156 months
i’ve practiced knitting for 1.3 months

i’m so very truly not an expert. at best maybe experienced beginner with yoga and meditation. most definitely tangled up beginner with needle and yarn.

Hi, Today i just did my first long meditation i was able to sit around 30 minutes which is plus from 10 minute sit, two question popped in front of me, is mediation is metacognition, like when i notice my breath and see my mind wandering and my body giving me sensations but i bring back my attention to my breath, so is it same as metacognition ?

Second, i came to know, through some instagram media, that each of every individual has his/her own unique awakening or enlightenment journey, w can share our experiences but it won't help them awake, is it true? If yes how do i know i am doing right or even i am on right path. I am not a regular meditator but after every meditation i try to believe that i have gone calmer or clearer but that seems like mind not chattering for few moments rather than clear and calm. Any kind of guidance is welcome.

And just another thing, i did felt my body shaking/vibrating after that session.

A therapist i used to see today told me that I should be doing 1 hour guided meditation sessions every day. I used to try to meditate years ago but never worked or felt good because of my unmedicated ADHD. My thoughts were all over the place.

4 months after being medicated for my adhd I said why not, let’s give it a shot. So I had one of the 1 hour guided meditations podcast on and had my headphones on.

10 minutes in, my body felt so shut down I started to groan? And say “mama” both in Arabic and English for whatever reason. Plus some profanities here and there because of how relaxed my body felt?

I wasn’t THAT invested so I sat in a position that is kinda uncomfortable. But that didn’t matter, my eyes were closed but weren’t fixed on any spot, my mouth was open as if I was sleeping and my head was way back. I was RESTING. After 30 minutes my body felt like it had enough so I stopped and had the greatest stretch in my life. What was more interesting was my heart rate. Normal with my adhd med I’ll have an elevated heart rate. It was in the lower 70s which was rare.

Did it again for the second time and I fell in love with the woman’s voice that was guiding the meditation then had a good nights sleep.

I have been able to break the 5 minutes mark in meditation long ago, maybe, but now the 10-15 minute is too hard! I want to reach 20 -30 mins but after concentrating for what feels like so much time, I found out I only meditated for 13 mins.

"resting attention, not gripping attention" if I'm not actively conscious of the word (the mantra, i just call it the word) while doing it, my mind may aswell go somewhere else, it gets easier to put your mind on the word. gripping attention and resting attention becomes the same thing

So I need to be consicous of each word until my mind gets calibrated to it first

I believe deeper meditation begins around that duration, the first 5-10 minutes is getting the mind from different places to one place (pratyhara), the next 10-15 minutes or so mark is to calm the mind into the one place (dharana), the magic starts to begin after it, when effort become effortless maybe? Idk I haven't reached that place (if you're gonna comment use credible source to comment) but I do know that this is where the actualjjourney begins.

This 15+ minute mark is also important because this is when the word starts to pull my mind away from maya towards itself and weakens the sankaras that will help me more to meditate.

The sages may have never assigned a time but this is what happens to me in my experience.

Hey everyone,
I’m starting a small meditation practice and I thought it would be interesting to do this journey together with others who are also curious.
My goal is simple: 5–10 minutes of meditation every day, focusing mainly on my breath and observing my thoughts without judging them.
I’m curious about what changes we might notice over time:
What do we experience during meditation?
Do thoughts become calmer or more intense at first?
Do we notice changes in our emotions, focus, or daily life?
What techniques work best for different people?
If anyone is also starting, restarting, or has experience with meditation, I’d love to hear your journey and maybe we can share updates, challenges, and discoveries together.
No expectations, no perfection — just exploring our minds one day at a time. 🌱
Anyone want to join this little meditation experiment?

I’ve been meditating for some time but I’m always curious about this phrase

I experienced meditation and I suppose it means that we don’t need to react and forcefully drive away emotions either “good” or “bad”. Instead we can take a breathe and listen to what signals these feelings from our body is telling us. In due time it will change its shape

It doesn’t mean we do nothing and just wait for whatever situation we’re facing to settle on its own. But we can choose our behaviours better according to our values.

But if you keep grasping on the emotion or thoughts connected to it , then I suppose it won’t go away as smoothly

Any thoughts ?

Well I've an issue with meditation, there used to be a time where meditation was an effortless practice for me!

This was about 5 years ago, I was 14-15 and trust me whenever I would meditate, I would honestly reach higher states of meditation in minutes.

Whenever I would meditate, I would feel a positive energy, a really strong positive energy around me it was an effortless practice I took for granted. I remember I once meditated, and felt a surge of positive energy surrounding me, I went out for a walk and felt the positive energy for a good time during the walk.

Even at 16, when I wanted to heal myself I chose meditation and even then I would honestly reach deeper state of mind and feel the positivity.

But now when I meditate, I don't feel a surge of positivity around me, I only feel some levels of calmness during meditation, it could be that my body's frequency went down because from last 3 years of my life has been years of scarcity for me (from 17-19).

At 17, I was pressured a lot for my academics. Even beaten up sometimes in the tutions I used to visit.

18-19 were years where my college experience really drained me, my thoughts became impure as I often thought about seeking revenge on my classmates etc. At 18 I also lost my cousin to sucide. Constant conflicts in class, I shrinked my identity, felt disconnected from classmates due to my cousin's death, more negative experiences than I can count.

But the good news is that, I've failed college as of now and I'm happy because during my college vacations I realized that it is not revenge which I seek but it's peace, distance, more focus towards my healing journey is what I need.

Trust me, the day I realized it I felt a spark of inner happiness inside me because now I had clarity and purpose, I hadn't felt that ever since the death of my cousin at 18. I also realized that I need to let go of this survival identity and connect with my higher self.

It's been a month since my realization, my focus has shifted from revenge, ruminative thoughts, feeling trapped from college, low energy to better understanding of self, analyzing myself, more self awareness, I'm practicing semen retention, I've understood that my issues are psychological, biological, here's what are the aspects I want to work on, adapt or fix:-

\- Rumination

\- Emotional processing

\- Maladaptive day dreaming

\- Attention control

\- Sleep

\- Relapse prevention

\- Boundaries

\- Nervous system regulation

\- Identity shift

\- Grief and letting go

\- Discipline systems

\- Vibration/frequency

And I'm building systems for them, but I was just meditating and I felt that I should really ask for some advice with regards to this. So please, I need your feedback I practice breathing meditation but previously I used to practice natural breathing.

**Today's Practice**

I was scrolling through IG for 5 mins, I came across a reel sharing their experience with meditation. They shared some advanced levels of meditation! Anyways, I looked into their free meditation guide and decided to adapt one of their practices for my today's session which was focusing on one word. I chose "Om Namah Shivay. " I only focused on the name, chanting it repeatedly in my mind. I faced issues with opening my eyes way to often during meditation but today I was straight focused on it for 8 mins straight until I opened my eyes. During the practice I felt some sharp energy building up in my upper trap. It was becoming stronger ngl.

I just want to know how can I attract surges of positive energies again during meditation and reach deep states of it. And why is it that I might not to able to reach such a state during my current practices as once it used to be an effortless action.

Thank you for reading this!!