To professional meditators: too much positive energy during meditation

[Kuhnada29]

how do you deal with this? Once you've found the meditation style that fits you ( for me it's focusing on my breath in a quiet place ), how do you not get so excited that you have to take a break for example, your doing your meditation and suddenly this positive energy creeps up on you..it's so alien...and it feels so good, that you can't maintain it. anyone know what i'm talking about? that inner peace, that optimism, that spiritual energy, it starts to become so empowering you can't sit still and enjoy it fully during meditation.

[StonedApe]

I know what your talking about but I never have that from meditation. I used to get that feeling when I would do breath of fire laying down for 45 minutes to an hour. I don't really think this is the same as meditation, but we probably just have different approaches. My approach is to build focus and awareness rather than just good feelings, just let feelings be, they will pass. But when your feeling down or in emotional charged getting to that point where you feel a kind of high can sort of reset the system in a very healthy way.

[Kuhnada29]

breath of fire is good. i like doing the one minute breathe ( though hard ), when you inhale through stomach and chest for 20 seconds, hold breath for 20 seconds, and exhale for 20 seconds, all for breathing one complete breath in a minute...very hard..so i start off doing only 10 seconds, and will work my way up to 20.

[StonedApe]

my exhales are almost always shorter than my inhales, that does sound quite difficult.

[juroara]

Breath of Fire for 45 minutes? Thats insane! But then again I can't even jog round the block without losing my breath And Majestic, this is a good thing! You don't have to stay seated. Remember that the whole point of being still and quiet in meditation is to connect to your true self. The point of meditation isn't necessarily to well....stay still. When you do connect with yourself, there isn't any wrong or right way to act, except for what's right for the moment. Submit to that feeling, follow through with whatever activity comes next. Just like when we submit to good music, we dance.

[StonedApe]

You do the quick breath for 20 breaths than take 20 deep breaths. It makes you feel high, kind of disoriented and it feels like your body is vibrating. Much more intense than weed, but completely different from psychedelics. It is also almost purely a body feeling, no mental sluggishness, the disorientation is from the intensity. I can't really bring myself to do it. It feels too good, so much pleasure you can't take it sort of thing and you have to stop at some point.

[Xaqaria]

React in a similar way to crossing the threshold into a WILD if you have ever done that, and by that I mean do not react; remain detached. Let the feeling wash over you and through you without associating with it. Just let it be there and stand apart to observe. my exhales are almost always shorter than my inhales, that does sound quite difficult. It should be the opposite; inhaling should be a reaction to running out of breath and done relatively quickly. Focus more on controlling the exhale and let the inhale come naturally.

[StonedApe]

That makes a lot of sense, I usually focus more on the inhale, breathing as deeply as I can.

[Drokens]

You do the quick breath for 20 breaths than take 20 deep breaths. It makes you feel high, kind of disoriented and it feels like your body is vibrating. Much more intense than weed, but completely different from psychedelics. It is also almost purely a body feeling, no mental sluggishness, the disorientation is from the intensity. I can't really bring myself to do it. It feels too good, so much pleasure you can't take it sort of thing and you have to stop at some point. I want to try this. What exactly are quick breaths? And do you repeat this cycle over and over or just do it once?

[StonedApe]

Most people just do it once, but I was doing it over and over again for about 45 minutes. I was reading about Aleister Crowley and some of his disciples. They practiced pranayama breathing for an hour a day to achieve some kind of ego death, or some kind of freedom from emotional baggage. The author said that the only way to learn pranayama breathing properly was from a teacher, I had no teacher at the time(was living on an island) so I did breath of fire instead. I don't know that I got the same results, but the results were interesting and I felt great for a few hours afterwords. Prometheus Rising, by Robert Anton Wilson. This should be a link to the book I was reading, it mentions breath of fire and is a damn good book Breath in and out rapidly. You take a small breath in and breath it out right away, don't hold it in at all. It's almost like panting. your stomach should be moving in and out with each breath. You could youtube it, but some people do it differently for different effects I think, cleaning out the nasal passage was one.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

I wish I was a professional meditator! I wish I could be paid to meditate. But there are many things you can do. You can move around, do some yoga, move the energy. Or you can not react like Xaq said and let it build up to burst the envelope. Or you can share it with others, love others, give it to others... Or you can stop meditating and start drinking alcohol and smoking. You can take thorazine. Etc...

[Kuhnada29]

what does drinking have to do with meditating..they are totally unrelated, just because you drink occasionally doesn't mean you can't stay in the present moment. Don't you drink Kava Kava. You actually think your better because you meditate and live a certain way....there is no better, or less.

[Singularity125]

Hm, that's not what I got out of Dannon's post, Majestic. I figured he was just rattling off examples of what to do to get rid of extra positive energy. I think it makes sense too, that for many people drinking and smoking would distract them from it, if nothing else. He never really endorsed for or against it, just listed a bunch of examples. Also, I've never gotten the vibe that he thinks he's better than everyone else... But, I don't want to start an argument over it. There really are a bunch of paths to self-improvement and soul searching, so I'll leave it at that.

[ClouD]

How to deal with too much positive energy? Subjective meditation and subsequent goals are too ambiguous to give you an answer. What do you want from what you're doing?

[Kuhnada29]

I misunderstood then...apologies.

[Xaqaria]

what does drinking have to do with meditating..they are totally unrelated, just because you drink occasionally doesn't mean you can't stay in the present moment. Don't you drink Kava Kava. You actually think your better because you meditate and live a certain way....there is no better, or less. If you can find a way to be successful meditating but also regularly drink or smoke or take in any chemical that isn't necessary then it is fine and good. It is easier to meditate without doing those things. All chemicals, even food, causes your metabolism to fluctuate in an uncontrolled (by your psyche) way which is like an untuned static laid over your awareness. The more chemicals you can remove from your system, the finer tuned your awareness will be and the easier it will be to achieve deeper states of meditation. In a thread asking for advice, don't first assume that people answering the thread are trying to appear "high and mighty"; they are merely responding to your request with information that they have. I personally still drink alcohol from time to time, and I'm quitting smoking but I still do that on occasion as well. I also just realized that what I said here has nothing to do with what Dannon posted.

[stormcrow]

I meditate everyday. I seldomly drink or smoke and when I do I don't meditate. Also I have no clue what too much positive energy even means.

[Tsukiomi]

hmm. Can there be too much "postive energy" truly you can feel so good/happy from meditation that it distracts you and might take you out of it. I think if that happens then you should try to calm down by concentrating on your breathing or change your focus onto something else. Is there such things as a professional meditatior? Tibetan monks maybe -Evan