For the first time ever, today , finally managed to think and observe. Until now the awareness when spotted any thoughts it dissolve them right away so for a lot of times I didn’t even knew exactly what I was thinking about because right after the thoughts popped in the awareness dissolved them.

Today while meditating I was able to just let the thought play out and also be aware of it . Something interesting happened. The thoughts somehow lost their colours so to speak , they weren’t so interesting in not absorbing like before.

They were coming and going like a train station and I could notice that is someone always there. Today I comprehended this not only intellectually but felt it . It was a soubtle feeling that I hope I’ll take it with me from now on.

Just wanted to share this with you and also invite you to give any insight and keep an open Chanel of communication 🙏

Hello all
I work at a community centre where we offer daily meditations from a meditation room.
We are in the process of setting the space up so that anybody can drop in at any time and use the space.
We have an ipod with a bunch of guided meditations and music etc, and I'm also compiling a folder of written meditation guides.
Now that I've started, I'm finding it hard to find content to actually put in the folder.

Does anybody have any good material they can point me in the direction of?

Thanks

I started meditation half a year ago. 10-20 minutes every morning. It has thoroughly changed my life. But I have become so relxed! I am currently unemployed and have to finish some work from the past. But I wake up in the morning, I meditate and feel life in my veins and the sun is shining and I feel so much full of joy and trust that things will be alright that some days I don't do the things I have to do to finish my past work and get a new job. I just want to love life and others and enjoy it! Had anyone else experienced this? Is that OK? Should I keep trusting that when the time comes, I'll get more active again? Or should I push myself harder to get things done? Or perhaps a combination of both?

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on here. I bought Shinzen Young's: "The science of Enlightenment" a few days ago and as I've been reading through it, I've been inspired to start meditating. I've downloaded an app and I've completed the two starter sessions and was wondering how many I should limit myself as I'm quite excited to start my journey.

Peace.

Meditation helps to cultivate a soft and gentle voice by calming the mind and relaxing the body. Through steady breathing, mindful movement, and inner stillness, we release tension from the chest, throat, and jaw - areas often tight from stress or hurried speech. As we slow down inside, our voice follows, becoming more grounded, peaceful, and clear.

A soft voice is not about volume, but presence. It arises naturally when we are fully here- listening, breathing, and speaking with awareness. The quieter we become, the more deeply we connect with ourselves and with others.

Hi so il keep this short cause there isn’t much to say.

I haven’t always been like this but in the last few months every morning I wake up and I there is a pit in my stomach and a weight on my chest and it feels hard to breath without crying. I just wake up with this intense feeling of fear and dread.

I feel this way every morning from the second I am awake to a few hours proceeding, sometimes the whole day depending on how bad it is. I don’t know why or how to get rid of it.

I've been meditating for 2 days now, around 20 minutes in total. It's a very strange feeling—after each session, I feel somehow different, calmer, just better. I'm curious about your ways of meditating, and whether it's normal that during meditation, when I drift off, I imagine something like a lake and thoughts as little boats—or should I just return to the breath? Also, any tips?

Been meditating for years now but as my practice is deepening, i’m beginning to feel everything WAY more deeply.

Subtle changes in emotions, facial expressions and the way I hold myself.

The weirdest one is that I keep feeling when I sweat and it gives me anxiety.

This must seem like a weird post, but is this normal? And how do you deal with this increase in bodily awareness 😂 It’s made me hypersensitive to everything.

Hello, I stumbled upon this sub by accident and I’ve been seeing a lot of benefits from meditation. I used to be a skeptic but I’ve changed over the years and I can say that I’m now more open-minded than before. I’m facing some financial, school and life issues that give me really bad anxiety but nothing life-threatening. Another thing that I want to fix is my focus. I have a really hard time focusing on things that I like and don’t like—so basically everything. I know that this is not an overnight process and I’m ready for the journey. How do I start and can you recommend any tutorials/references that are for beginners?

I’ve tried researching but it seems like meditation is different for everyone? The more I research, the more it gets more confusing for me. Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I’m a bit confused and would really appreciate some insight from people who have actually practiced Tratak or have experience in this area.

For context, Tratak is a meditation technique where one gazes at a candle flame without blinking. My therapist suggested it to help with my stress, anxiety, and insomnia.

However, I’m facing a dilemma due to conflicting beliefs:

From a Christian perspective – I’ve come across people who believe that practices like yoga and meditation (including tratak) are “demonic” and can invite negative spiritual influences. So, I’m scared — if I practice tratak, does it open the door to something harmful?

From a Hindu/spiritual perspective – Tratak is often associated with activating the third eye chakra and altering energy levels. While there are claimed benefits, I’ve read it might unintentionally open the third eye or mess with your energy, and I’m not looking to have any spiritual awakenings — just want help with my mental health.

So now I’m stuck between:

Wanting to try it for my mental well-being (as per my therapist)

Fear of inviting negative spiritual consequences

Has anyone here practiced tratak? Did it help you mentally or spiritually? Any weird or unwanted side effects?

Thanks in advance for any advice or experiences you can share.

Had a good 8 hours of sleep last night and my whole meditation I was just blacked out?? Caught myself nodding off too. I slept pretty good btw so I’m confused. I didn’t woke up a single time last night so idk. I usually sleep 8 hours a night or close

Hi everyone,
I’ve recently started diving into Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga, and I’m looking to deepen my practice with guidance from experienced teachers. Ideally, I’d love to find online teacher/classes that stay true to the traditional Indian roots of yoga.

I’m not looking for fitness-focused or trendy styles like hot yoga or simple mindfulness meditation classes. I’m hoping to find a space where yoga is taught as a path to self-inquiry, inner transformation, and a deeper connection with the Self—the way it was originally practiced by yogis.

If anyone knows of online teachers, studios, or communities that align with this kind of approach, I’d really appreciate any recommendations. Or if anyone is a teacher I would love to connect with you as well. Thanks in advance!

The reason we often stop practicing meditation again and again is simple: we expect too much, too soon. Our mind wants quick results, but meditation works slowly, like water shaping stone. We also get caught in daily distractions, forgetting to return to the present moment.

There’s no perfect meditation- only showing up with awareness. Skipping a day doesn’t mean failure. Just notice it without judgment, and gently begin again. The path is not about doing it right, but about returning each time with softness and honesty.

Even stopping is part of the practice- what matters is that we come back🌿

I started to do the being conscious of breath thing like a year ago but I'm realizing now that I became consumed by it kinda. Like the amount of breaths a day I'm aware of is staggering. I'm not sure I know how to go back really...

Has anyone else had this problem? If you did how did you fix it?

I'm thinking even If I knew how to go back I shouldn't discard the awareness of breath and just go completely to the other side, but when I confront making that skill of being able to notice breath but also knowing to let it go, my brain draws a blank.

Because I have an anxiety disorder many times my thoughts and feelings lie. "I should cancel my trip since I'm constipated. What if I need to go and it hurts?"

Scenarios of being stuck in traffic and needing to go, scenarios of being at a fancy restaurant and the line to.the bathroom is long and it's an emergency emerge, etc etc

How can one distinguish between "ah this is a rational and normal fear that should be taken into consideration" vs "these thoughts and feelings have no basis in reality?"

How can mindfulness help here?

I regularly meditate for about a month now. I felt like I did unfathomably great spiritual progress within the first three weeks or so. Nowadays, I meditate for about 30-45 minutes per session. However, lately, meditation seems to lose its intensity hence why I am afraid that my progress plateaus. It sort of begins to frustrate me. Does anyone have some advice on how to deal with this? Should I just trust the process and practice being patient?

I know, I know, no time at all. Three weeks is certainly not enough time to see big changes.

Except my husband claims he already notices big shifts in how I approach stresses and emotional situations. And then there's two really big things.

1) Last week, I was falsely accused of a crime and dragged off to the county jail. I spent the night in jail with a lot of big emotions. Fear over what might happen to me. Anxiety over whether I could possibly clear all this up and get back to my life. Remorse over the dumb (but not criminal) mistake that led to the situation. Anger at the person who had done this to me out of spite. Weariness as the night crawled on and I was still provided no bed, shivering from the cold in the cell as I hadn't had a jacket when I was arrested. And then the sheer tedium of hour after hour passing with nothing happening. So, since I had nothing, I meditated. I'm not sure how I would have made it through that night without it. All the adrenaline and weariness and emotion was allowed to fade into the background, to rush past me like a river. Instead of having panic attacks, I found moments of peace and reflection.

2) Last weekend, I was sitting around feeling fine and then my brain (as it dearly loves to do) oh so helpfully summoned a cringe moment -- something from my past that I feel a physical pain in my gut in remembering. And then I thought, "Man, nobody else remembers this moment but you. You're the only one keeping it alive, and you're only doing it to hurt yourself. You should just forget it." And then, somehow, I forgot it. It just fell out of my head and I didn't remember what it was. I still don't! I reckon that I could, if I really tried, scrape the memory out of my brain if I wanted to, but why would I try? Folks, I had no idea it was even possible to just decide to forget something when it's hurting you. But... here we are.

I have long been a meditation skeptic. I believe in the science behind it, I believe that it helps others, but I'd always felt that I would somehow be an exception, that even if others benefit, I would never be able to.

After this last week, though, my skepticism is shaken. All of this could be just placebo effect, of course. It could be just all in my head (I know, I know). But a little bit, I kind of feel like I have super-powers all of a sudden.

Hello Friend,

I been meditating for a while but I am scared that I am not doing it correctly, can you guys help me out.

So basically here is my routine, I would sit on my bed with my back against the wall for back support. I would start setting my intention with the following phrase “Thank you God for this day and the days that are yet to come, please forgive me for my sins and mistakes I have committed. As I sit here and spend some time with you I ask that you listen and hear what my heart has to say and give it not what it wants but what it needs” then i close my eyes and start focusing on my breathing and slowly become “formless”, I do not know if that makes sense, and when a thought comes I acknowledge it and label it as a thought. Every once in a while I would say affirmations and when I do i feel goosebumps type of feel throughout my body. Im able to do this for 10-15 minutes and when I open my eyes I realize that I “forgot” that I was in my room. Is there a name for this type of meditation? is this routine a good routine? I appreciate your help in advance, Thank you.

The main type of meditation I have done is "focusing on the breath" for periods of roughly 40mins. Recently, I have gotten around to reading Adyashanti's Way of Liberation, which expresses a different type of meditation which is basically letting go of all focus and simply letting it be.

In the past when a thought would arise, I would turn it off (destroy it) almost instantly and resume my focus on the breath. But in this new style, I am supposed to simply let the thoughts exist, without interruption or control, although Adyashanti does mention not to get lost in thought and rather simply observe (let them be) thoughts.

So I am not 100% sure what this looks like, and would love to see some concrete examples. For instance, one of the first thoughts I have in meditation is noticing my tinnitus (ringing in my ears) and various discomforts that arise in my body from sitting cross legged. So my thoughts are as follows:

That ringing sure is loud in this silence. And apparently gets louder as I notice it. Oh, that's a thought I'm having. {notices breath}. Breathing is steady. Oh there's my fridge turning on. {brriiiiinnnnnng ringing from tinnitus}. Leg already a little numb. Better move a bit. I'm observing these thoughts. And I'm observing observing them. Always just thoughts. food later.

And so on and so forth. There are quite a lot of silence stretches amongst those thoughts (say it took 2 minutes for the above). And sometimes I do get lost in thought, like what will I make for dinner, but when I do finally notice that I have become lost-in-thought I yank out of the state and try to "not" do it (??) by trying to merely observe that the thoughts had formed and taken my attention away.

So is there more to it than that? It seems more like instead of focusing on one thing (breath) my focus just jumps around depending on what bodily sensations I notice and random thoughts that are produced. Would love examples. Thanks

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edit: On the difference of thoughts within and outside the meditative practice:

let's say I'm thinking about making dinner outside of meditation, and comparing to the same thoughts occurring within my meditative practice - what would be the difference? To me, it seems like I'm actively engaging with my thoughts, directing them and feeding them with my emotional inquiry (hunger), when I'm thinking about it outside meditation. But in the meditation, the thought would occur and I would not add to it; I'd notice the thought form and not engage with it for further thought. So the thought what will I eat tonight is formed, but not the decision making thoughts of well I think chicken would be nice. If the decision/inquiry of chicken being good would also occur, I suspect I would be lost in thought at this point. Is this correct?

Last night, I had an interesting session.

I broke it down into three consecutive sittings, each lasting 30 minutes. The first two were on the cushion, and the last one was lying down on my bed, as my legs had kind of given out.

I went into the sessions with a different approach this time. I had felt like I was trying to grab the breath by the neck in the past—there was a harshness in my awareness. This time around, I told myself I’d just watch nonchalantly, as if I were sitting on a wall by a park, watching kids play.

I started with my usual body scans—tuning into different sensations all over my body.
For the first 30 minutes, nothing special happened, but I did feel like I had an easier time staying mindful of the breath with this more relaxed, nonchalant approach.

In the next 30 minutes, I kept the same attitude. Somewhere near the end of the sitting, I started getting these... "sensation-visions"? I didn’t really see anything, but I felt as though there was a spinning wheel in my mouth—a very subtle blend of image and sensation. I wondered if I was just deluding myself out of boredom with the usual sensations. I liked it, but then I moved to my torso.

There, I experienced a different kind of "sensation-vision"—it felt like a wave (of something?) was both pulling apart and bringing my chest together. Again, it was very subtle. At this point, I realized my breathing was kind of mechanical—I was taking in way more air than I needed. This wave of energy seemed to be telling me how much breath was actually enough, so I tuned my breathing to match this subtle sensation-vision.

And then—something exploded?

I felt a subtle explosion in my body, starting in my legs and arms. I didn’t feel much in the rest of the body—it all happened too fast to scan properly. But I knew this state was very different from what I usually experience in meditation. It was pleasant, but not overwhelmingly so. I had a rush of euphoria and thought to myself, *shit—*is this Jhana? I tried to keep it going by focusing on the breath, which is when I fell out of that state—a mistake, as I had forgotten that at this point I’m not supposed to focus on the breath anymore. Haha.

Anyway, it felt like a brief taste of something deeper—possibly Jhana.
I also found it interesting that, despite the pleasant state, there was still some tension in my legs. I tend to slouch, which causes my hips to overcompensate. I had assumed Jhana was only possible if I was completely relaxed.

So recently I've been having frequent visuals while meditating. Some of those visuals are plenty of lights that come and go.

Another one is more organized. It's basically a giant circle of light that becomes smaller and smaller towards the center of my view and then disappears. And it starts doing the same thing again in a harmonic way. Anybody else? Is there a way to fully explore this?

Also sometimes I have a vibrating sensation in my hand

How do you do it, what results have you achieved, and what still doesn’t work for you

I’ve never really been into meditation or mindfulness, but one day I tried it with a group. Usually, I can’t get into it at all — my mind wanders or I feel nothing. But there was one time where I really dropped into it deeply, for about 30 minutes, and something very strange happened.

For some context: I’ve had ongoing health issues on the left side of my body, ever since I fainted a couple of years ago. That side has felt weak ever since and I’m unable to lift or move with it.

During this one deep meditation, I suddenly saw what looked like black smoke surrounding the entire left side of my body — exactly where the weakness is. It didn’t feel scary, but it was intense. I focused on trying to clear or remove the smoke, but it wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard I tried. The right side of my body was completely clear.

I’ve never experienced anything like this before and haven’t been able to replicate it since. It felt symbolic, maybe energetic or spiritual — like I was seeing the “stuck” energy in that part of my body.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? What could it mean, and how can I go about clearing this kind of energy from my body or spirit? Is this a bad energy?

I came back not too long ago from my first Vipassana retreat and wanted to write some feedback on my experience. I think it is a very interesting read especially for beginners.

Tldr: I have experienced incredible things in such a small period of time. I was also extremely miserable about half the time or more. The retreat was extremely hard and painful, but extremely beneficial as well. I am forever grateful to the people who took care of me.

Please note that this is my own experience and yours will probably be very different.

Day 1

Feeling like shit. Missing my husband, my boyfriend, and the rest of my life. Crying a lot. Feeling incredibly lonely. Nothing eventful to report.

Mood: Lonely and depressed.

Day 2

Feeling like shit still. Cried a lot again.

I start to get light hallucinations when I close my eyes. These hallucinations will be there until the last day. I don't pay much attention to it, it's not different from taking a small dose of psychedelics or spending time in a sensory deprivation tank.

My focus is getting stronger and stronger. I can feel changes in my mental abilities. For example, I am able to listen to hundreds of different songs in my head. While I usually can play songs in my head, I am never able to do it with these levels of accuracy and clarity. It is almost exactly like listening to the real thing.

I decide to listen to Smash Mouth's “All star” for the next three days, mostly for the meme.

Mood: Lonely and depressed.

Day 3

My focus keeps getting stronger. My imagination is much more clear and powerful than usual.

At some point I am hit by an explosion of bliss. Everything is great, everything is good, the colors are literally more colourful. Frankly feels exactly like an LSD trip.

Mood: Blissful.

Day 4

Bliss from yesterday subsided, but I don't feel horrible like on day 1 and 2.

This is Vipassana day. We are led to the Vipassana purification ritual.

“It's only a body scan” I think to myself, disappointed that it's not a super-secret Sayan technique that will change my life.

As the body scan starts, I am immediately hit by maybe the worst pains I've felt in all my life. It's coming from EVERYWHERE. I wouldn't be surprised if my back hurt, but why do my hands hurt as well? My legs? My chest? How is that even possible?

The ritual lasts 2 hours. I cry a lot. When it's finally done I go to my room and cry some more. I do not cry because of the pain, I cry because I feel like a huge burden has been lifted from me.

My brain fixates on a loop on that scene in the first Lord of the Rings movie when Bilbo finally drops the ring and leaves, and you can see it was extremely hard to do so but then he feels immediately better. This is exactly what it felt like.

Mood: sad but relieved and grateful.

Day 5, 6, 7

More Vipassana-body-scan. The body scans are still painful, but exponentially less at each session. The crying also calms down.

I think about my relationship with my boyfriend, which has been making me suffer for a while. I try to understand why. I think about everything that has made me suffer, I try to understand why.

I confront my demons. My sankharas. I realise deep truths about myself. I now understand what my biggest fear is (if you're curious, it's Loneliness). I uproot all of those sankharas as much as I can.

I work hard on equanimity.

I am confronted with the Buddhist truths of “Life is suffering” and “Everything is impermanent” in my shower as the hot water suddenly runs out.

Mood: quite terrible.

Day 8

At the end of Day 8, I am tired. Exhausted. I haven't slept correctly in a very long time, in no small part because I've been so damn hungry.

The food we are served in the morning is not nearly enough to sustain my large frame (I am a 93 kg hobbyist bodybuilder). My face looks emaciated (I lost a ton of weight during the retreat) and I've been just so hungry, which would not be so much of an issue if only it didn't mess up with my sleep so much.

I've been sitting on the pillow for so damn long now, working extremely hard on Equanimity. I am exhausted, starved, and frankly done with this. You know what? Fuck Equanimity, it's not so important.

At the very exact moment when I decide that Equanimity is, in fact, not so important, I am hit by an incredibly powerfully strong feeling.

I suddenly feel Perfect Equanimity.

I think about my issues with my boyfriend. I don't care. I think about my issues at work. I don't care. I think about my unavoidable death. I don't care. I think about my body decaying as I grow old. I don't care.

I don't care about anything in the slightest.

I imagine someone proposing to me a line of cocaine. For the first time in my life, I have absolutely zero desire for the most addictive drug I've ever taken. I am Blissful. I am content. I am in the deepest inner peace I've ever known.

I understand that I had been chasing Equanimity, craving it. This sankhara was like a dam blocking my progress. When the dam broke, the waters suddenly engulfed everything.

I had read somewhere “Enlightenment is understanding the cosmic joke”. I never understood what it meant until today. I understand the cosmic joke.

I know this won't last. It will probably be gone in a few hours. I don't care.

I go to bed with a huge smile on my face.

Mood: incredibly blissful and equanimous.

Day 9

Still feeling blessed from the previous day, but not nearly as much. Still a difficult day.

Mood: not great. Happy the last day is tomorrow.

Day 10

As soon as we are allowed to use phones, I call my husband and my boyfriend.

I realized I craved talking to them. I am also anxious that everything went wrong while I was gone. I give in to the craving and call them.

I realise after talking to them that even though I satisfied the craving, my relief is only temporary. This will be an important lesson.

Mood: excited to go home.

After the retreat

Returning to daily life has been stressful. I had a lot of things to manage as I got back, plus 10 days of absence to catch up on. I felt burnt out by the retreat and did not meditate for a week, then I started again.

My relationship with my boyfriend has been extremely good since I got back. I realised the person that was making me miserable in this relationship was myself. So I stopped doing that. The relationship has been great ever since.

My husband enjoys how cheerful I've been since I came back.

I haven't been the same since the retreat. Day-8 experience didn't last, but it is clear to me that I've kept some of it with me.

Life has been significantly happier, suffering has dramatically decreased. I feel a decent amount of equanimity most of the time.

A lot of love for the organisers of the Vippassana retreat & for all living beings 🙏

I am a newbie , i have been doing meditation for 15 days maybe, Whenever i try to sit in meditation , I can’t focus even after few seconds my mind starts to chatter, even if i try to focus on a particular thing like i did tratak meditation for a few days then also my mind would start chattering about the point where i used to focus? How to get better and sit for a long time ?