Does Meditation Work For Everyone?

[SaynotoKlaus]

 I am meditating since a year or so. In the beginning i had some pretty good meditation sessions , in which i experienced amazing sensations , that made me very relaxed and with a clear mind after i was done for the entire day , even more.

But the more time and effort i dedicated to mindfulness work , the worse results i got. Lately i'm meditating multiple times a day ,and i'm also trying to be aware as much as possible through the day , and the results i'm getting are fucking awful. The days when i used to have relaxing meditation sessions that made my mind sharp are long gone. All i get now are strong migraines all the time and frustrating experiences. I also don't enjoy anything anymore.

Whatever technique i try ( I do Leo's , from the "Power of Now" , "The Miracle of Mindfulness", and a couple that i discovered myself that used to work really well)  they all go the same. They are relaxing in the beginning , and after a few minutes the more i do them the more frustrating and painful it gets. I have a pretty good idea of how life works. The more you practice something , and the more effort you put into the practice itself the better results you get , not the opposite. At this point i tortured myself enough that i don't even want to do any mindfulness work ever again. Just the thought of quitting brings me peace of mind.

I'm starting to think that this doesn't work for everyone in reality. It's just that the zen experts make this information available and claim that everyone should practice it , but secretly know that most will just do what i did , and only a few will be able to make it work. 

 Since when do you meditate? What was your experience so far? Do you feel like it's making your life better , or is it just a frustrating process?

 

[Donald]

Hey , 

Your expectations of meditation are : 

I'm gonna feel happy 

Every day is gonna get better

I will have immediate results and so on .

Now 1 year is a really long time to suck and yes you will get frustrated, you will get backpain, you will have "bad" days . It will come a time that you would like to quit ...but don't. 

As Leo said : " Your worst days are your best days " and I've been there 

Good luck 

 

[SaynotoKlaus]

@Donald So meditation is more for the sake of discipline and mindfulness , and not to make you happy?

I thought that meditation is supposed to be the source of the highest amount of happiness.

 

Edited June 21, 2016 by SaynotoKlaus

[Donald]

I recommend you to try the" do nothing " . Just sit there and don't judge your session , just accept it as it is.  

[jes]

I quit meditation in past because of that reason , that time no one told me what mediation can do for you in long run , I wished I never quit, Leo video's helped me changed my mind that it is life time process, the journey is not easy at all 

These days I am getting opposite results too , I would say ,why to give up now when reached too far already , stop expecting from meditation ,Just do it  

[Mal]

1 hour ago, SaynotoKlaus said:nald

I thought that meditation is supposed to be the source of the highest amount of happiness.

No...  Enlightenment is the source of the highest amount of happiness  Not meditation itself

[Nathalie]

@SaynotoKlaus the most difficult by meditation is to not expect anything.. Paradoxically it's exactly than that you get the best insides.. Sometimes they also are so low you can easily miss them.. and you have no chance if you're waiting for more.

Maybe there's a special dynamic there too, like in other situations: if you don't appreciate little things, always waiting for the big to happen, you'll finally waste your life..

Personally, I normally start my meditations with no intention but just taking this time for me, like doing sports, eating fresh food or taking a daily shower..

It's just a part of a healthy life and sometimes it brings so much more..

[Azrael]

On 21.6.2016 at 1:10 PM, SaynotoKlaus said:

I'm starting to think that this doesn't work for everyone in reality.

It does work for everyone, it works for you as well you just can't see it right now. I experience very similar symptoms as you describe. I meditate for over a year now and I have phases which are the total horrors. Way more worse than you describe here. As I go on with my meditation practice these horrors also increase in their horror. It's nuts sometime.

The thing is this. In the beginning you were kind of calm in your illusion of having a separate self, you still existentially thought that is the way it works. When you started meditating it brought even more comfort, flow and passion into that and so it created an even better situation.

Over the weeks and months it however brought you to a new stage in which it starts to break your illusion of self. This is starting with you, I'd suggest. At least it was the same exact way with me. When this started I had and still have very intensive cycles of having the complete horrors and others feeling completely enlightened and one.

I'm now at a stage at which I have seen for myself experientially that my sense of self is an illusion - however I still automatically rest in that - I'm not on the other side yet. Through that my ego is in such an confused state at times and my meditation brings up more and more shit that just fucks the whole situation up deeper.

If you really wanna get far with your development, relax and take it. Will it be hard, yes harder then you think. Will it be worth it? I wouldn't write this if it wouldn't. So cheer up!

[SaynotoKlaus]

 After i posted this i took break a day , then i started meditating again. Today the head pain got so strong that i started having suicidal thoughts. The pain is unbearable , i'm really scared that i'm going to lose my mind in a minute.

I have no idea what's wrong , i'm following the meditation instructions. 

In the past i almost had a mental breakdown once , and another time i got hit in the head really hard , i was unconscious for a while and got hospitalized. Maybe my brain is damaged somehow and i don't know it. Or maybe this damaged it , lol.

Edited June 26, 2016 by SaynotoKlaus

[QandC]

Watch Leo's latest video about patience

[charlie2dogs]

On 6/21/2016 at 7:10 AM, SaynotoKlaus said:

 I am meditating since a year or so. In the beginning i had some pretty good meditation sessions , in which i experienced amazing sensations , that made me very relaxed and with a clear mind after i was done for the entire day , even more.

But the more time and effort i dedicated to mindfulness work , the worse results i got. Lately i'm meditating multiple times a day ,and i'm also trying to be aware as much as possible through the day , and the results i'm getting are fucking awful. The days when i used to have relaxing meditation sessions that made my mind sharp are long gone. All i get now are strong migraines all the time and frustrating experiences. I also don't enjoy anything anymore.

Whatever technique i try ( I do Leo's , from the "Power of Now" , "The Miracle of Mindfulness", and a couple that i discovered myself that used to work really well)  they all go the same. They are relaxing in the beginning , and after a few minutes the more i do them the more frustrating and painful it gets. I have a pretty good idea of how life works. The more you practice something , and the more effort you put into the practice itself the better results you get , not the opposite. At this point i tortured myself enough that i don't even want to do any mindfulness work ever again. Just the thought of quitting brings me peace of mind.

I'm starting to think that this doesn't work for everyone in reality. It's just that the zen experts make this information available and claim that everyone should practice it , but secretly know that most will just do what i did , and only a few will be able to make it work. 

 Since when do you meditate? What was your experience so far? Do you feel like it's making your life better , or is it just a frustrating process?

 

first and foremost most, including you have no clue what meditation is for,  second its just a practice, third, it rarely brings anything but relaxation to most.  what ever you are doing, it is doing you no good.  myself i have never meditated, and never will, i developed my own method of becoming aware and self realized, it worked for me,  when you get tired of running around in circles and doing what every newager, and every wannabe guru on the net says, you will figure out that you need to do something else.  and the sad part most are programed with a belief system that is self defeating,  you can hand them the key to all knowledge, all power, and they cant do the work because of their own false belief system.  start by dropping your belief system, look at your programing and see how much you have been programed to fail.  how great is your desire for liberation,  what does liberation mean to you, liberation from what to what?

[Falk]

@SaynotoKlaus How is the rest of your life going? Relationship, work, health etc...   

A mental breakdown? Have you consulted a doctor with the whole "getting unconscious while meditating" thing? 

From what you describe there seems to be a serious problem somewhere, is there anything you didn´t tell here?

[SaynotoKlaus]

@Falk I went unconscious once in the past when i got hit in the head , it does't happen when i meditate. I was dizzy for a while after that , so maybe there's brain trauma , despite of what the doctors said. 

My health is good , the rest not really.

The pain i feel during and after the meditation is physical , not emotional. My brains stings like hell. I also tend to get very angry fast when this happens , and can't control my rage.

I noticed that i think a lot of this mindfulness stuff by default, basically all the time , and i often wake up in the middle of the night and start to think while i'm semi-conscious at enlightment topics and sometimes i even meditate in bed. When i fully wake up i barely remember what i was thinking of.

 

 

Edited June 26, 2016 by SaynotoKlaus

[Time Traveler]

IMO this could be very intense purification.

Here is short description of what it is:

 

[charlie2dogs]

58 minutes ago, Time Traveler said:

IMO this could be very intense purification.

Here is short description of what it is:

 

good points, coming from experience

[Toby]

Maybe you just tap into certain layers of trauma. With accidents there can be a trauma afterwards: one layer is the "fight or flight" response which can show up as panic,  restlessness or disoriented running around (flight) or intense aggression and hostility towards outside or oneself (fight). If the body mind has not the resources to deal  with it it goes to to a layer of freeze,  immobility, depression or collapse. And back and forth between the  two layers. I'm not saying this is the case with you but it is not uncommon that people have reactions like  that. A book which describes this and solutions is: https://www.amazon.com/Unspoken-Voice-Releases-Restores-Goodness/dp/1556439431/.

[Andre]

@SaynotoKlaus I have meditated some time and have dropped into tremendous depression levels because of it, but the thing is that it happens and my theory is that your body getting rid of the BS, I didnt stop meditating and eventually got over the bad moods , It was not easy but im glad I didnt stop

 

[99th_monkey]

try contemplating,  instead of meditating. its all practice and all spins you in loops but try a different loop.   also, i would drop all your expectations ans accept whatever comes as how you feel in that moment and get in touch with it rather then wishing it was something else. give it a hug 

[SaynotoKlaus]

 I thought i should make an update on this thread , since i solved my problem.

I did some googling and most people on forums who seemed to be experienced claimed that meditation shouldn't be painful. I reviewed the steps Leo taught in the do nothing technique , and i noticed i skipped one. At some point he says that he tells himself he will do nothing , but he said it in such a way that it seemed an optional step to me. It turned out that this is actually the key to this technique.

If i tell myself that i will do nothing (until the alarm goes off) , then when my mind becomes too agitated i automatically become aware of this and detach myself from the noise.  When this happens i instantly feel a bit more focused and calm.

If anyone reading this is suffering from intense head aches when meditating , know that you are doing it wrong and you should review the technique. An emotionally hard meditation session shouldn't be painful , it should rather make you feel so restless that you can barely sit down or even make you quit , but there's no strong head aches involved. That's just you torturing yourself.

[Vlad Ropotica]

@SaynotoKlaus In my opinion you have very strong emotions,and by emotions i do not mean just anger ,fear ,sadness etc. .Think about it,most of my emotions per day are coming in my head zone(and it is painful but when i am councious of them (exploring them,paying attention to them)the pain dissapears and the only thing that remains is just a body sensation) combine a strong determination sit with a meditation that pays attention to whats happening in your body ,if it feels wierd,feel the wierd;if it feels that it doesn't work,feel that frustration;if it feels that pain you are talking about,feel that pain;and if it feels that you are fainting,feel that faint :))( i did that once)

I am that guy who yesterday screamed of anger because he waisted 5 hours of the day with a wrong meditation. This process also needs strategy,i just sat and do the do nothing technique in the place where i anger the most.Make a strategy about your meditation,if it doesn't work and goes into worse,dont just stay there and expect that the same procedure will work