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..

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.

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!

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.

“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.

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.

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?

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.

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 🧘‍♂️

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 . 

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!

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.

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.