Part Four of a 4-part series on developing mindfulness and awareness through the practice of meditation. Start from Part One.
In the tradition of meditation, there are long lists of obstacles and their antidotes. Fully discussing obstacles and antidotes is beyond the scope of this post, so here I just want to highlight the biggest pitfalls. The contraindications, as it were, for meditation.
But it feels so good!
When people first start meditation they often feel a rush of excitement, a ‘high’. I can’t tell you the number of times over the years I lived and worked at retreat centers that someone went off medications during this initial ‘high’, only to crash weeks later. Meditation is not a substitute for medications, especially if you’ve been taking them for years. Long-term, meditation might help with conditions you take medications for, but you must wean yourself off those medications carefully under the supervision of your doctor.
The meditation ‘high’ can also lead to making drastic decisions, like ending or starting a relationship, moving to a new city, or quitting a job. Perhaps the decision was a long time coming but there’s also the possibility of mistaking the initial meditation high with true insight and making a decision you may later regret.
Just stick with the basics. When you meditate, don’t exceed your time limit. A lot of people meditate more when it feels good and less when it feels bad. Developing equanimity and a ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude towards whether the meditation is good or bad is a sign you are sinking deeper into the practice, and also protecting yourself from making drastic decisions after a few good sessions.
But it feels so bad!
Another common pitfall is focusing too intently on mental, emotional, or psychological pain. This is how meditation can deepen depression, increase anxiety, or exacerbate the effects of trauma. Instead of maintaining good boundaries - an internal ‘posture’, if you will - meditation becomes kind of an inward collapse. We can dwell on or ruminate over our troubles and just make things worse.
Instead, practice distinguishing between thinking about and being with. Speaking from personal experience, what turbocharges depression are the storylines that come with thinking about it too much. I can go endlessly through familiar circles, feeling worse and worse. In mindfulness, being with my breath and physical experiences doesn’t make the obsessive thinking go away, but I stop feeding into it and the storylines start to lose control.
As with when meditation feels great, sticking to the basics and relying on the simplicity of the practice is also a good approach to take during a difficult session.
If you are really prone to struggling with depression or anxiety, having people in your life to talk to are essential. If you’ve experienced trauma in your life, it might be best to begin a meditation practice within the context of an existing therapeutic relationship and to be very deliberate about how far you push yourself.
Resources to go further
If you are new to meditation and would like to try, or if you’ve tried before and want to re-engage, here is a simple mindfulness meditation practice that you are free to download. I also periodically offer online guided meditation. Please visit the mindfulness resources page for the most up-to-date information.
Finally, complementing regular bodywork with regular meditation is a great idea! If you are a massage client (or would like to be) please let me know if you would like to incorporate mindful elements into our next session.