Overthinking in meditation?

Mindfulness Meditation
#1

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone has reached jhana yet. If you have, do you suggest letting go of everything, keeping it simple, and not having the idea of jhana as a goal, or did you force yourself to keep a firm grip on your breathing (object of meditation) and keep jhana as a goal? Right now I’m going through kind of a rough stage in life and I feel like that is affecting my meditation, and was wondering if I’m doing meditation wrong (I go with the second technique and started getting headaches and anxiety). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

  • yogasutra
#2

jhana

I hope you mean jnana here and not jhana.

was wondering if I’m doing meditation wrong

yes it is wrong , indeed it will land nowhere.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated

Please stop expecting anything with practice. Just do it because you love to do it. For example: When you watch a beautiful sunset , you just go with the flow of joy of watching it. You don’t expect any change to happen in that sunset. Don’t keep any goal at all else you will keep expecting daily instead of doing practice.

Meditation is deeper layer of yoga and it is one of the three parts of antarang yoga (Dharana , Dhyana and Samadhi). When you become hopeless, a new type of experience takes birth. Please spend few years in yoga practice and you will understand what I am referring to.

1 Like
#3

agree with the previous answer. there is no final goal, you wont get to the some “magical point” … and please do not grip to your breathig:) befriend your breathing and the mediation will flow. just watch and observe… thats it.

#4

Getting comfortable with the moment , that is your goal. Getting comfortable with your discomfort , getting comfortable with your anxiety , with anything that comes up in the present moment. Try to loosen up , and if you are very tensed , no big deal , feel tensed for some time , how does it actualy feel , where can you feel it . Let it happen and get comfortable with that. We always feel we have to change something about the moment , ourselves , others . … but for a moment just watch it .
More and more you get to know yourself you can start smiling at all these sensations , emotions and thoughts instead of reacting it should be observing , in a kind and loving way , as if you say to yourself when a negative emotion, thought or whatever comes up : " ahaa there is that thought again that comes up always , haha , and that emotion, yeah I know that one , oooh and look whos here , that little pain I had for so long , and that raging mind of mine , yeah yeah … I know you , it’s oke , just play… :wink: "
Give it some space …
Take it light and try to enjoy the adventure :wink:
PEace and good feelings.

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1 Like
#5

Very well said pureflow!:smiley:

[QUOTE=pureflow;86548]Getting comfortable with the moment , that is your goal. Getting comfortable with your discomfort , getting comfortable with your anxiety , with anything that comes up in the present moment. Try to loosen up , and if you are very tensed , no big deal , feel tensed for some time , how does it actualy feel , where can you feel it . Let it happen and get comfortable with that. We always feel we have to change something about the moment , ourselves , others . … but for a moment just watch it .
More and more you get to know yourself you can start smiling at all these sensations , emotions and thoughts instead of reacting it should be observing , in a kind and loving way , as if you say to yourself when a negative emotion, thought or whatever comes up : " ahaa there is that thought again that comes up always , haha , and that emotion, yeah I know that one , oooh and look whos here , that little pain I had for so long , and that raging mind of mine , yeah yeah … I know you , it’s oke , just play… :wink: "
Give it some space …
Take it light and try to enjoy the adventure :wink:
PEace and good feelings.

#6

What Troubles do you Feel like you are having though with Meditation? For everyone what they feel/get out of it is different. Is you are having trouble clearing your mind, then i would try looking into the laws of attraction. Search on Youtube for the video called the Secret. I Feel you might get more out of it if you are struggle if you watch this. Such a great video, has done amazing things for me.

#7

pureflow said it very well.
If life is troubling you, you might find yourself thinking that you don’t love to meditate, that it has become a chore. That’s when you need to stick with it. Like brushing your teeth, you just do it. Eventually you will love to meditate again.

#8

agreed, it took me awhile to be able to just sit down and do it. But once it becomes more enjoyable when you figure out how you like to do it. Then its way easier.