How did you do in your first meditations? Have difficulties arisen or are you unsure whether you are on the right track?
Such sensations are perfectly normal.
In this video we show you techniques that can help you deal with or overcome the following difficulties.
Insecurity in dealing with thoughts
Dullness or drowsiness
itching
Pain
Urge to move
Dealing with thoughts first:
Do you feel like you suddenly have too many thoughts?
While meditating it can happen that you perceive your thoughts and emotions much more strongly and you feel insecure as a result.
However, suppressing thoughts and emotions does not work because every thought or emotion needs to be appreciated. A technique called labeling can be used for this.
Every thought or emotion that arises is provided with a label or label. We recommend the label (also for emotions): Aha, a thought.
So you are meditating and a thought comes. Put the label on it: Aha, one thought and let it go. The next thought comes and you label it again with the label: Aha, a thought and let it go.
If you still feel like you have too many thoughts, look down a little.
Thoughts in and of themselves are not a problem. What makes it difficult for you to focus and align your mind are so-called discursive thoughts. This means thinking about thoughts. So if you notice that stories are emerging in your head, try to interrupt this by letting go of the thoughts with the help of the label "Ah a thought".
If you find that you are not quite succeeding, you can keep turning your attention to your breath. And you can imagine that you are breathing out the thoughts.
The opposite may also happen to you and you get dull or sleepy.
When you become dull, you may feel that your mind feels like it is wrapped in cotton wool. You don't feel anything but you don't feel yourself either. In this state you appear to have a calm head, but no focused mind.
When you get sleepy, your body feels tired and you have a hard time focusing your mind.
Against dullness, as well as against drowsiness, it can help you to lift your gaze a little and look upwards. Lifting your gaze helps activate the mind, while lowering your gaze can calm the mind.
There are other physical sensations that can be a hindrance.
For example, itching
If you get itchy, take note of it, but don't try to scratch immediately. Try to let go of the itchiness. If you fail to do this and it is distracting you, do a quick scrape but stay in alignment with the mind.
An even more powerful distraction than the itching is pain
When you feel a pain, look at it; and label it (aha, a pain). If he does not go away and you have the feeling that it is due to your sitting posture, adjust this.
If the pain is not from the sitting posture and you feel confident that you can continue meditating despite the joke without tensing up, then do so.
However, if the pain is too dominant, you can interrupt and get up. However, try to maintain the mindset of meditating.
Perhaps you also feel a constant urge to move
If you feel an urge to move, try to label it (for example with aha, urge to move) to look at it, appreciate it and watch whether it disappears.
If you are unable to let go of the urge to move and the urge becomes uncomfortable, get up and take a few steps. But try to maintain the mental attitude of meditation.
If this happens over and over again, walking meditation may be something for you. See our video on this.
Meditating is not easy, but practice makes perfect. Over time, it will get easier and you will notice how you progress.