Meditation

[lostwanderer]

I have a question regarding meditation.  More recently I have been learning about trauma getting trapped in our bodies and learning to connect more to the "felt sense".  I have found some meditations on YouTube that I've been listening to at least once a day for the last few weeks now.  My question is if others have noticed when they practice meditation if they have visualizations or images pop up, kinda like watching a really strange movie.  So far, nothing has been a direct or specific memory of the past it's like seeing my heart get smashed and then later seeing light coming through the broken cracks (kinda like Kintsugi), stuff like that.  I'm not necessarily wondering if that's "normal" but just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience?

And an aside: anyone have any recommendations for good meditations for connecting to the felt sense in the body?  I'm always open to listening to new ones.  TIA

[rainydiary]

I haven't had experiences like the one you shared.  I often wonder how similar meditation experiences are across people.

I have this perception that I struggle with meditation when I think we can enter a meditative state in lots of ways.  I tend to find movement practices most meditative or being able to lay down while listening to a meditation.

The experience I have the most when I am truly present is perhaps to feel a feeling that has been stuck or to connect with how I am feeling in that moment. 

I often like apps like Calm or Headspace but I tend to get tired of apps.  I like to go outside and be in trees or near water.  I tend to like meditations that are less focused on my breathing because that just gets my brain too active.  I often like loving kindness meditations.

[lostwanderer]

Thanks for sharing rainy.

I've had a lot of perceptions about meditation prior to the last year or so (thanks, religious trauma).  It's something I have been slowly starting to build into my daily practice so I'm still getting comfortable with it.

I've noticed at times that I'll pop out of the present moment and my mind will be swirling with different thoughts but I have tried to be gentle with myself.  I find myself noticing/thinking that I drifted off but I can slowly enter back into the meditation and that's been helpful.  Most of the time when I "see" something it's very dream-like and vague but I just try to be with it and notice - it's so strange but I'm just going with it for now. 

I relate to you when you mention lying down being helpful when listening.  I know that I have a tendency to get pretty distracted even with minimal noise around so lying down and creating space with the least amount of distractions is ideal for me.  I haven't tried any movement practices unless you count yoga but for some reason I put those in different categories. 

Anyways, thanks again rainy for your thoughts and input!

[Desert Flower]

Hi there,
I've been meditating almost daily for five years now so maybe it would be helpful if I share some of my experiences. I didn't want to get too spiritual here (although I am) because I know some have painful experiences with that. And I'm really sorry if that's the case.

But anyway, meditation has brought me out of my dissociative state I think, which is a big big thing for me. I am now able to actually feel something in my body (and hear my thoughts so to speak) whereas before I couldn't at all.

Some of the meditations I like are Kristin Neff's self compassion meditations and Fleet Maull's Neuro Somatic Mindfulness, the latter really opened me up I can say. It may not be for everybody I know and that's okay too. But also simple sitting meditation and focusing on my breathing works for me.

I'm not sure I know exactly what all these feeling should mean to me, what they are the felt sense of. Sometimes, it just helps to be aware and then let the feelings go as they please. I did have a visualisation once during meditation of a very distressing thing that happened to an old friend of mine, but not any of myself. (Although I did have more specific memories of one of my own events coming up during EMDR, that I had not remembered consciously.)

And also, I wanted to say that I learned that being distracted is very very normal when you meditate, especially when you start meditating. It's actually a big step forward to being aware of being distracted. And like you say, no judgement necessary, just thank yourself for noticing and bring yourself back to your meditation very gently and kindly.

When I'm very agitated, it also helps me to lie down and have some very soothing music on and do box breathing.

I hope this helps, take care.