The term meditation includes a variety of different practices designed to achieve different goals. However, a common theme is that of letting go of ‘what is’ so we can experience our SELF as part of something bigger.
In this respect, meditation is about releasing our old mental, emotional, and physical patterns that keep us experiencing life in similar ways, day after day.
Letting go is a necessary process because it’s not until the old patterns/habits are released that new growth can occur within us…..
…. and a common effect of the process of reorganizing our energies (upgrading our vibration) is that we may experience sensations in our bodies that we have not felt before.
Why Do I Feel Tingling And Other Sensations During Meditation?
As your mind becomes more relaxed during meditation, your body will also settle down and naturally take the opportunity to begin to ‘repair’ itself. Therefore, you may experience a variety of unfamiliar sensations as old patterns of stress, tension, and trauma begin being released. This is a natural process and happens on an ongoing basis. When stress is imprinted deeply in your body, you will feel stronger sensations as it is being released.
Tingling Is Only One Of Many Sensations That Is Experienced During Meditation
The severity of the sensations we experience depends on our ‘readiness’ to manifest change within our lives. The bigger the gap between where we currently are energetically, and what we are ready for will determine the amount that our energy can shift.
Our intelligent cells, in essence, are nothing but energy, and they intuitively know what to do to help us heal and move forward in life. And therefore, we should do our best to allow any sensations to proceed at their own pace without our conscious interference.
Tingling sensations are only one way we experience the shifting of energy within our bodies during meditation. And tinging can occur in our hands, feet, top of the head, face, up and down our spine….basically any part of our bodies at different times, or several parts at once.
Some other sensations people experience include:
– Ticklish sensations,
– Twitching of the skin or muscles,
– Joint and muscular pain,
– Brain or third eye tingles,
– Feelings of expansion and contraction,
– Sensations of heat or coolness,
– Floating sensation or heaviness in the body, or feeling ‘out-of-body,’
– Body shaking, spinning, swaying, feeling pressure, sleepy, yawning, dizzy, and a sensation of falling,
– And of course, the release of emotions including love, crying, bliss, anxiety, fear, joy, peace, etc…
Whenever any of these things are experienced, there is an energetic shift taking place in your body, and it’s always positive!
The energy that is moving is referred to by different names. Some people call it Prana, life force, chi, the etheric body, or a kundalini awakening. However, it’s all the same energy and it is your body’s nervous system (which is sparked by energy) reorganizing itself, releasing the unwanted, and re-tuning you for a ‘larger life experience.’
Are Unusual Body Sensations During Meditation Anything To Be Concerned About?
Most experienced meditators and teachers recognize that at some time or another, and often many, many, times throughout your meditation journey, everyone is going to experience ‘unusual’ bodily sensations.
I say unusual, with the understanding that they are only unusual for those who are inexperienced with the process of meditating. For anyone with experience will likely have an immediate understanding and appreciation of what is happening.
Appreciating the process of letting go, (regeneration, renewal, transformation…) within our bodies does not mean we should in any way become attached to it….. Just like anything else that occurs during our practice, the best response is to notice what is happening, with detachment, and then move on.
This is easy when we realize that there is absolutely nothing to be concerned about when we experience these ‘extraordinary’ sensations. The practice of meditation does not harm us in any way whatsoever…. Meditation is a restorative/healing process that gives us the experiences we are ready for at any particular moment.
Once we finish our session, the sensations will subside at the appropriate rate so that we can continue with our lives as we normally would.
Occasionally, if a deep-seated stress pattern is being released, it may take several days or even weeks for the healing to be completed. And during this time you may feel discomfort in your body as your physical energy is being transformed.
If you are worried about these sensations in any way whatsoever, you can do something outside of your normal meditations to help facilitate the healing process. Yoga, Thai Chi, breathing exercises, swimming, hiking, or other forms of physical movement that involve breathing more deeply than normal will help to balance out your energies more quickly.
Some Of The Unusual Sensations I Have Experienced During My 25+ Years of Meditating Include:
1) When I first began meditating, I had just broken up from a 10-year relationship so was not in a great place. I would come home, tired after working hard all day, have a shower, and lay on my bed to mentally, emotionally, and physically just ‘let go.’
It wasn’t many days into this practice that I began to experience myself expanding and then contracting. The sensations followed each other and maybe lasted a few minutes each time. After days, the expansion phase kept getting bigger and the contractions became smaller and smaller.
Eventually, my awareness became so big or small that I would experience ‘nothing’…. it was a void where time and space didn’t exist…. I wasn’t even aware of myself…..
The only time I realized what had happened was when I felt myself once again in my body and became aware of my surroundings. Invariably, about 20 minutes passed on each occasion.
I still experience this void sometimes even now and am always blown away by the profoundness of the peace and deep, deep, relaxation I feel when I realize I am back in my body.
I have no idea what is happening while I’m ‘gone’ or if I even go anywhere…. But I do believe that my body, mind, and soul are receiving some sort of deep healing during these episodes… my belief is based solely on the fantastic way I feel after these meditations.
2) My most profound experience happened many years ago.
One day during meditation, I experienced a shaft of light entering my heart region. It was so strong that I felt I was pinned to the floor and couldn’t move…. I wasn’t afraid as I knew the process was ultimately for my benefit…. however, it was painful….
Every time I sneezed, coughed, or took a deep breath during the next two to three weeks was agony… it felt like my ribs had been broken. My normal life was obviously disrupted, but still, I intuitively knew there was nothing to worry about. Instead, it was a blessing that I was able to release so much built-up ‘resistance’ so quickly from such an important energy center….. it was all for my benefit!
3) You can read about My Experience With Mental And Physical Pain when I sat through intense pain to have it spontaneously dissolve away. It was an incredible feeling of such deep relief as well as an awakening to what our relationship to pain is. I wrote about it in this post: How Can I Meditate For A Longer Period Of Time?
4) Apart from the sensations mentioned above, in every meditative session I do experience some tingling, twitching, lightness, energy movements, vibrations, and pressure in various areas of my body.
I think that by meditating for so many years, we do become more tuned into the more subtle ‘movements’ of the energies that make up our bodies and connects us to the universe… so these things I just accept and allow to happen as my body desires.
Main Points:
Tingling and other sensations are common during meditation.
They occur as your intuitive body is releasing built-up stress and are nothing to worry about.
You can help speed the process up, if it is frequent and prolonged, by engaging in exercises, preferably in nature, that more fully activate deep breathing. Watching a great movie or laughing with friends is also very beneficial as they facilitate more movement in the heart area.
The important thing is to realize the process is for your benefit and you should do your best not to interfere with it…. just return your attention to your practice without becoming attached to the sensations in any way whatsoever.
Feeling uncommon sensations does not mean you are meditating incorrectly. Instead, you are doing a great job! Your body is realizing that you are relaxed enough and ready for change and so it naturally takes the opportunity while you are meditating to clear away stored stress and trauma from your past.
Once the old unwanted energy has been released, the sensations will stop on their own…. You don’t need to do anything. And if desire these sensations and try to ‘seek them out,’ you are missing the point of meditation…. it’s about allowing the energy of life to flow naturally, without resistance or expectation.
More than likely, with more meditation, you will again experience different sensations in different parts of your body…. this is just the journey of life…. we live, stress out, store it in our bodies, and then release it…. it’s an ongoing process and necessary process, just like breathing and eating are…
…. nothing to worry about…. Just learn to enjoy the journey, and you will be fine ♥
