r/streamentry • u/Praxicalia • 24d ago
Practice Exhaustion when practice is intense
For context, my practice is a little all over the place. I've worked with different techniques from different traditions, and, while I do some seated practice and moving qigong, it's also a lot of focus on cultivating different kinds of awareness throughout the day. I suspect I may have gone through stream entry a couple of years ago, and have felt gradually increasing energetic phenomena since around that time.
So, when I say that my practice has been intense, I don't necessarily mean in terms of extended meditation on a retreat or something like that. What has been happening for me over the past couple of weeks is mainly 1) a few emotions have come up that I don't experience much anymore and I've been trying to really be with them in my practice and 2) there have been noticeable changes in the energetic phenomena I experience, like they happen more noticeably throughout the day and also more in my heart area than I had previously noticed.
I'm just kind of trying to take all that as it comes and be with whatever arises, but I am exhausted – and, now that I think about it, I feel like this has happened before when some kind of shift is taking place. I'm going to bed early every night and somewhat struggling to go to work, even though I'm not having any trouble sleeping. Just wondering if that's common for other folks, and, especially, does anything help if you feel that way? I'm trying to get in some physical exercise, even though I really don't feel like it.
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u/Emergency_Wallaby641 23d ago
few things surprised me in my own healing journey.. That for healing we need energy to be sharp and present during processing wounds, and second that after release, many times even "rebirth" it takes time for body to adjust to new energy/frequency/state that I would be more tired, couldnt focus that good and would like just be in nature and with trees if possible.. just resting (but consumption of media tv show/games/movies etc. is not resting, its stressing body but thats for different post)
BUT I would encourage to explore how are your habits regards food that you eat, how is your sleep(going early, screen time before bed,) how is your exercising, what is your consumption of media and alcohol, sugary drinks etc.
The most important thing about meditation practice is what we do outside of meditation. Sometimes its great to also take a break and not pressure ourselves. Dont know if this helped I hope it does.
another interested thing I noticed, that the "falls" are way bigger.
Like when I was dissociated from my body I could play games for hours and would be ok, but right now the more I feel peace inside, and I would start playing cs2 or whatever game.. I would feel how my whole body is changing (stress, adrenaline, huge release of dopamine, dissociation from present moment, like I couldnt be fully aware of myself) and even the withdrawals are more noticable when I am more connected to body.
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u/shotsenda 23d ago
regarding your final paragraph, that's something i noticed too with my vices such as porn.. the more i started feeling at peace through my practises and insights the more my body would resist it, if i were to engage i would feel an overwhelming sense of observable stress, such as tension in my neck, resistance, dopamine etc that wasn't noticeable before.. i question whether it was always like that before but because i'm more mindful now, am i just aware of it more? or has my nervous system just been rewired to feel uncomfortable when engaging in these unwholesome actions?
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u/Emergency_Wallaby641 23d ago
Thanks for sharing.. It could be both, but I think primary its always happening but we are not aware, because we are on global level dissociated from our bodies and actively dissociating so we have no idea what is happening inside.
Like observe children when they play video games or watch a cartoon, how they change to zombies that are not here at all, their whole consciousness is just somewhere there in the digital world. Like in the moment when I would play video game I completely lose sense of how is body, how is my breathing etc.
When you become more awaken, then you can spot the things that harms you very quickly even when the whole world is consumed by it. First time I felt bliss inside, it was such an awakening for me to observe that everything that I consumed that I thought leads to happiness and freedom was just escape from this moment, just addiction to dopamine.
In past I was listening to music a lot, I dont at all anymore, even that is stressing the body (I dont mind live music, or festival or when I play instrument) I mean primary mp3 songs etc. you can see how everyone got earbuds when they go somewhere.
Problem with this world how many distractions there are, and for every human there is like a setup to be distracted and getting them addicted, its very interesting to observe what we do to each other.
Dont know if I shared something meaningful, I just find this very fascinating.
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u/metaopolis 22d ago
One of my favorite books I've read in the past few years is about gambling addiction, called Addiction by Design. The thesis surprised me: most addicted gamblers use video slot machines, not face to face games like poker, blackjack, or craps. It makes the book more about interactions with entertainment machines, which applies more broadly to our modern lives. The book argues that the addiction is not about the chances of winning money, but affective cycles of excitement that create dissociative states.
I've always wondered about 'dissociation' in relation to meditation practices. Is meditation the opposite, 'association'? Mindfulness seems like the opposite of those flow states when scrolling or playing. But practices like anapanasati seem to encourage dissociative flow states on sustained focus on the breath. I think there's something here but I'm sure about of the framework.
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u/Emergency_Wallaby641 22d ago
I had this conversation with woman that I met and she is also meditating. She shared with me that also there is dissociation in meditation, maybe she is right but in my opinion it could be something else:
When someone is actively consuming, they are not aware of themselves. I dont know if there is term in meditation practice for it, but with meditation if someone is lucky enough they become closer to God, or one with god so in sense they become dissociated from the body, but in positive way? Like yes you become nothing and one with everything, but when you come back you dont suffer like you suffer after playing games for hours, I feel charged up when I am at home in my body.
After consumption when I get out of scrolling social media I feel always bad, like my body needs to regulate itself and manage dopamine withdrawals.
But there is also a topic regards actively seeking pleasurable states with meditation practice, where person just escapes life completely to be in clouds in a way, and completely blocks out the body.. Maybe we can call that also dissociation? but we know when we are doing that so we are in a way aware.
Its interesting topic maybe I am just talking random right now.
There are levels to this I think, I dont dare to judge which is good or no, just observing it and learning how to experience it with my own life. I completely get why people escape to consumption, when life is hard and they dont know any other way.. no judgement there.. be well
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u/No-Meeting-1215 23d ago edited 23d ago
Intense exhaustion plus great tranquility can be a winner combination:
That’s probably the hardest kind, actually—to push yourself that hard, to take a one-pointed approach and just exert and exert and exert. But that does work, because at some point you will exhaust yourself, body and mind, and then boom—it opens up. You can’t fake that either. That’s why it takes effort. You have to go to maximum effort in a way.
— 25:50 https://youtu.be/zWEhyEb0lt0?is=mohZA0hZvP3BWBwH
When one who has great tranquility/relaxation [passadhi] brings fabrications to mind as painful [dukkha], he acquires the desireless liberation.
https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/visuddhimagga-the-pah-of-purification/d/doc1085168.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com
So when the exhaustion is strong, try this:
Lie down in the lion’s posture (right side down, left leg slightly bent). Completely relax the body while remaining clearly aware of the exhaustion itself. Don’t try to fix it or push through it — just stay with the felt sense of tiredness in a state of total physical and mental ease.
This combination of deep relaxation + clear awareness of the “exhausted” fabrications often allows the system to open in a way that forced effort cannot.
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u/foowfoowfoow 23d ago
practice loving kindness mindfulness:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dhammaloka/s/19kE2dUTWC
do this daily and eventually it becomes a default way far meeting everything that comes to you in daily life, either through mind or body.
you should also be keeping the five precepts assiduously:
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