Is this a normal experience in meditating?
So I’ve started mindfulness meditation and I’ve just been focusing on my breathing. It’s been super relaxing and enjoyable.
However, I’ve had some weird “highs” from meditation. And I’m 100% sober. So when I get about 10 minutes into meditation, I feel my body get really warm and sort of stretch. And then I feel my hands get really tiny, and then essentially I’m just watching my breathing from above. It’s a weird out of body experience. It’s actually super relaxing and enjoyable but I don’t know if it’s normal…
I remember feeling this way a couple of times when having a fever as a kid, or when I was about to fall asleep with the fever when I was a kid.
After this out of body experience with meditation, I usually get a weird headache.
Any explanations?
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6 Answers
I think it is yes. I have gotten so relaxed I just feel like I’m floating. If you are truly focused on relaxing and ignoring all the annoying thoughts, you may feel a bit weird. That’s the point of meditation. It’s supposed to “cleanse” the mind and bring you back to a strong focus point where you aren’t stressed or worried about 100 things. Meditating is very useful. Something I want to start to do.
Everyone is so used to thinking about so many things at once, and multitasking and all that, that it’s hard to sit and do one thing, and clear your mind. So when you successfully do it, you feel very calm.
Keep meditating, you’ll get used to it, the headache will go away, and you might even find it’s easier to find solutions to things after you’ve meditated.
Yes, your experience is not at all abnormal.
About the headaches, do you find yourself not fully breathing after a while? Long slow inhalations, hold breath for 3–5 seconds, long slow exhalation.
Yes. Good job! Meditation can be used to shift your attention out of your usual habits and to notice that your consciousness is something different from your habitual thoughts. This is very difficult for some people even when that’s their intention. The guru I have most recently studied with is sharing a spiritual/philosophical tradition that relates to this experience.
As for the headache, I’m not familiar with that. What’s it like and in what way is it weird?
Ok, I asked someone with more knowledge/experience, who said that headaches are pretty common when engaging in spiritual development including meditation practice especially when you are making progress, and things adjust or prepare for changes.
And upon reflection, I remembered I had a really dramatic case of that but it was the night before going off to a meditation retreat, I had a massive case of sore throat and fever suddenly keeping me from getting to sleep, but then I started to suspect it was psychosomatic resistance and was able to get it to mostly settle down quite quickly.
i.e. headaches can be a sign of progress.
Thanks for the answers everyone.
@zenvelo my breathing is pretty normal I think… I don’t control it or anything, I just let it flow.
@Zaku thanks for asking someone with experience! If it’s true about the headache then that’s totally awesome!
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