Ive been meditating on and off for the past the past year or so. I recently got back into it and was doing meditation for around 20 minutes every day. I normally do mindful meditation. The past week i was focusing on my root charka whilst i meditated. Within three days of meditating i was overcome with feelings of depression. I continued to meditate but i was beginning to feel so depressed that i stopped. Its been about a week since i last meditated and i feel back to normal. Im wondering if the depression im feeling could be blocked emotions that are arising from the meditation or maybe mindful meditation isnt for me? I really enjoy meditation and how relaxed and calm i feel afterwards but im now worried about the depression arising again.
Any tips on what i could do or any other sort of meditation that i could try as i dont want to give up meditation completely.
Hi, Teya, thank you for writing with this important question. Contemplative practice is just one of many factors that may lead to different kinds of feelings arising, or being noticed for the first time. What you’re experiencing may not be the result of meditation, but other things going on in the very complex lives we lead in contemporary society. Meditation may be opening your awareness to something that is already present, or perhaps is something new, rather than being the cause of the distress.
Whatever the conditions, it’s important to notice what’s happening and sometimes take action – from a mindful shift in position as a strong physical ache comes up, to seeking help if new or surprising emotions feel overwhelming and moving attention to the breath or other sensory input is not helping to ground you. Are you able to meet this feeling and not deepen it or feel overwhelmed? Is it telling you something about the conditions in your life? And how might you meet it in a way that supports your well being, emotional safety, and growing?
Hi Teya
in the spirit of acceptance, curiosity, and openness, I would continue to explore those feelings but also, most importantly, I would seek the guidance of an experienced teacher or even consider exploring these feelings with a therapist. It is a great gift of practice to bring to our awareness feelings and emotions that need to be attended to.
Take care.
In mindfulness,
Elena
Hi Teya: to deal with a depressed mood, what I have found to be most helpful is to see that what we label as “depression” is actually constantly changing moment by moment. As long as one is not fighting to get rid of the mood (i.e., getting annoyed about the mood, getting ‘depressed about being depressed,’ etc.), but is simply noticing the mood here and now, it gradually passes, and would also be less powerful the next time it comes up. Additionally, practising and cultivating loving-kindness meditation (directed towards all living beings) can be quite useful to address depression – this meditation can be incorporated right after you finish your daily meditation practice.
Hope this will be helpful to you.
I have experienced similar frustrations with mediation. On one hand it helps me get more in touch with the realities that I avoid unknowingly. On the other, this has been mildly traumatising, even causing feelings of dissociation at times.
I’ve asked about this in another post in this community: https://community.cfmhome.org/t/dark-side-of-mindfulness-article/897
Here are 2 articles that explain it better (kindly sent to me from another member in the post above).
Hi Rick - I checked out your links. Regarding the last link, I read in an academic article that negative effects are very rare for mindfulness meditation (although they are exaggerated in media articles), and also that the negative effects of mindfulness meditation appear to happen due to a poor understanding of what exactly constitutes mindfulness practice. (By the way, your first link does not work. I plan to read the second link carefully sometime.)