SENSATIONS DURING MEDITATION

Deepak explains the different thoughts and sensations that happen during meditation

Is It Natural to Experience Sensations During Meditation?

We, as humans, are thinking, feeling beings. Feeling sensations and having
thoughts during meditation is perfectly natural and to be expected. Through
the stillness of meditation, we begin to witness how we are responding to life
with our thoughts and feeling responses. As me meditate, with the mere
action of spending time in quiet, we begin to access our natural state of
peace and joyful wellbeing. This access comes by witnessing what is as we
begin to cultivate our natural potential. If we fight the sensations, we are
doing, when in fact our real work during meditation is to just be with
our experience, which may include everything from tingling feelings in the
body, sleepiness, physical aches, thoughts, and even tears.
Each moment in meditation is always healing. Your body, mind, and spirit
take exactly what it needs from your practice. When you notice that your
attention has drifted from your mantra to a thought in your mind or to a
sensation in your body, gently return your attention to the repetition of the
daily mantra. If you fall asleep, its because you are tired and need to rest. If
it happens a lot, youre probably overtired and need to get more sleep at
night. Your experience during meditation is perfect; there is no right way or
destination. As you spend time in the stillness each day, your life will begin
to change in beautiful healing ways.

What Happens While We Meditate

Although there are a variety of sensations that you can experience during
meditation, in reality, only four things can happen during meditation:

You have awareness of your mantra or the focus of your meditation

You experience thoughts or sensations

You fall asleep

You enter the stillness between thoughts, commonly referred to as the

gap.

When you enter into the silence between thoughts, you wont actually realize
it until after you have drifted back out of the gap. There are no thoughts in
the gap just pure consciousness or restful awareness. This gentle drifting
between thought and silence is a natural part of the meditation process. We
dont try to get rid of thoughts or do anything with them, for that only
creates more mental turbulence. Instead, just keep returning your attention
to the mantra. As you meditate on a regular basis, cultivating inner quiet, the
time you spend in the gap during meditation will increase.

Tears and Crying During Meditation

Crying during meditation indicates that within your body, mind, or spirit lives
unresolved sadness and loss waiting for an opportunity to be released.
Meditation may provide the space and opportunity for that release.
The first thing to realize is that this is old stuff and it just needs a way out.
You dont have to spend a single moment trying to figure out what is causing
this or what connection it has with your present life, because most likely it
has no connection whatsoever. This means that you can, in a certain sense,
let the crying come and go and then get back to your life, the way a
coughing spell comes and goes when you are getting over a chest cold. Once
you know that the crying is not anything you need to worry about, you can
accommodate it and then let it go.
You may find that as you travel through your day you may continue to have
emotions and sometimes even tears once the release has been initiated. This
is very healing for your physical body, mind and spirit. Be very gentle with
yourself and know that you are actually detoxifying through this process.

Difficulty Staying Awake

Go ahead and let yourself sleep if you feel a strong urge to nod off during
meditation. Its not a good idea for force yourself to stay alert. Even if you
dont have a sleep deficit from the night, sometimes you can go through a

period of meditation where your body requires an experience of sleep in

order to release a particular quality of conditioning. Dont worry about it; just
let the body shift into the state it needs, and when that conditioning or stress
has been cleared, then your meditations will resume their usual character.

Spontaneous Movement or Twitching

As the mind settles down in meditation, the body follows it in terms of
getting deeper rest, softer breathing, and lower metabolic rate. And
whenever the body gets an opportunity for profound rest, it takes that
opportunity to clear away whatever old tensions and traumas there may be
stored away from the past. Typically these stresses are physically released
during meditation with little perceptible movement, but sometimes, when
the conditioning or stress is imprinted more deeply, then you may
experience periods of more pronounced or exaggerated physical movement
in meditation while the body is being healed.
Twitching or other physical movements during meditation are commonplace
and nothing to worry about. The important thing is to just be with the
process. It is better that you are clearing the accumulated stress, and not
storing it. Regardless of the source of the twitching during meditation,
whatever you can do to relax will facilitate the release process. Long walks,
deep breathing, talking with friends, yoga, watching funny movies, and warm
baths are just a few of the practices that people have found to be helpful. Do
the things that help you unwind and relax, and that will smooth out your
meditation.

Ticklish Sensations
One can have almost any type of physical sensation during meditation in any
area of the body. Because the mind and body are so closely connected, when
the mind experiences more expansion in meditation, the body gains a deep
enough state of rest to normalize any imbalances that may be stored in the
body. Experiencing a ticklish sensation in your heart just means that some
normalization is occurring there, allowing for a more full expression of your
emotions. The sense of anxiety or fear is a by-product of that clearing
process. Dont give these sensations and feelings too much importance. It is

a valuable process, but dont focus on it; simply return to the meditation
process.

Waves of Energy, Pain, and Headaches

Some may feel waves of energy pass through during meditation, as if
something is moving and releasing. This movement may be the start of a
letting-go process. Spending time in the stillness of meditation is a tool to
move back to our natural state of peace, joy, and wellbeing which can
mean letting go of thoughts, beliefs, or ways of being that have kept us from
that state. These moments when our spirits let go of deep-seated stress or
conditioning may start during meditation. Sometimes it can take a few days
or even a couple of weeks for some deeply etched patterns to fully heal, and
during that time its possible for there to be some discomfort in the body as
the physical structure lets go of it. During this time, get extra sleep at night,
drink extra water, and do those things that bring you peace, such as gentle
walks, yoga, watching the sunset. As your body relaxes into its natural state,
the headaches and pain will begin to dissipate. If you feel what you are
experiencing is a medical condition, do not hesitate to visit a medical
professional for support. Taking care of you is the most important step
toward living in peace and wellbeing.

Dizziness and Disorientation

Its always a good idea to get a thorough physical exam if you continue to
experience a whirling or dizzy sensation while sitting. Once you have ruled
out any organic physical problem, then know that such temporary feelings of
displacement or disorientation are not uncommon as the body heals various
traumas in the senses. Usually it doesnt last for more than a moment or so.
If it persists and is uncomfortable, then stop repeating your mantra and open
your eyes. After you have regained equilibrium, you can restart the mantra.
Once the underlying stress has been released, your normal sense of balance
and ease will return.

Feelings of Nausea and Heat

When a sensation is so strong that it becomes difficult to continue meditating

easily, then coming out to attend to the sensation until it subsides is
appropriate. When the feelings are not so strong, then you can treat them
like any other thought that comes up in meditation and easily go back to the
mantra. Gently observe your experience; do not try to force your mind to go
back to the mantra when it is so completely caught up in that physical
release process. If this is your experience, take a moment to stop repeating
the mantra, breath all the way into the sensation, and just be with it until it
passes.

Joint and Muscular Pain

During meditation position yourself in ways that meet the needs of your
unique body. If you have an injury or condition, modify your body position
during meditation to accommodate your body. If you are sitting in an
appropriate and comfortable position and you still feel pain, it is not
uncommon for some to experience joint and muscular pain in meditation as
past trauma stored within is being released. This does not mean you are
meditating incorrectly. On the contrary, it means that your practice is
effective and correct because you are healing the old conditioning very
quickly.
Just continue meditating effortlessly, not minding the physical release
process too much. It will end when the stored stresses have been cleared
away. Gentle movement, such as walking and yoga, before and after
meditation will assist the body as it lets go of the old pain. Additionally,
massage, soaking in a bath with Epsom salts, and other nourishing activities
will support your body until the discomfort diminishes significantly. If the pain
persists, visit your medical practitioner to determine if the physical pain is
organic and requires medical attention.

Feelings of Expansion
These feelings of expansion are quite common in meditators. As awareness
becomes more refined and abstract, it is as if the spatial boundaries and
orientation of the body can feel distended or distorted. So we might feel very
tall or massive or tilted or turned. Sometimes people report that their body
feels incredibly dense and foreign to them. These are all normal meditation

sensations as a consequence of the mind experiencing more subtle realms of

thought.