27 Unusual Sensations and Feelings You May Experience During Meditation
The experiences you feel during meditation are not always blissful and relaxing, sometimes they can totally freak you out! In this article, I’m going to give you a clear understanding of the unusual things you may encounter while you meditate.
Sensations and Feelings during meditation can be a common experience among first time and advanced meditators. These sensations can occur when your muscles begin to relax, emotions in your subconscious rise to the surface or you drop into a deeper state of meditation.
Even tho you now know your meditation may evoke some strange feelings and sensations. It’s important you fully read through and understand the list below so you don’t get knocked off center and lose the benefits of your meditation practice.
That said…..
Let’s get you clear on some of the unusual feelings and sensations you may experience.
1. Floating Feeling During Meditation
If you feel a light, floating sensation while you are meditating – it’s a positive sign! Feeling lightweight, loose and free is a sign that you have entered a deepened state of meditation and successfully slowed your brain waves. This feeling occurs when we enter a certain brain wave frequency known as theta waves. When meditating, our brainwaves slow due to our state of relaxation. They change from beta level waves (occur in an alert state) to alpha waves (occur when relaxed). Once we enter a deep state of meditation, the alpha waves slow even further to theta waves. When experiencing theta brain waves, we may experience somatic sensations like sinking, floating or losing awareness of the location of certain body parts. It is very normal to feel these sensations during meditation and is often a great indicator of successful meditation practice. Well done!
2. Feeling Energy During Meditation
Some may feel waves of energy pass through during meditation, as if something is moving, flowing or releasing. Often it comes down to the fact that when meditating, we are able to sense the most subtle of changes or movements in our body. This is due to the depended levels of awareness we experience when in a meditative state. In addition to this, during meditation we often open up which allows our energies to flow more freely. Feeling energy while meditating is a natural experience – be aware that noticing, acknowledging and feeling our energies only deepens them. Instead of becoming hyperaware of energetic sensations – treat them like thoughts, allowing them to come and go as they please. Let the natural intelligence and influence of your body and mind to do the controlling rather than you attempting to manipulate the energies. This will allow for a natural balance of energy.
3. Feeling Vibrations During Meditation
Feeling a soothing, warm vibration around you while meditating is a common and natural effect. It can feel like your entire body is more “alive” than usual with a warmth washing over you and an increased state of awareness. Vibration during meditation can often be a result of porous breathing. Porous breathing involves slow, smooth, continuous breaths been taken in attempt to raise your vibrational rate. This breathing technique allows you to open up your channels and allow for energy intake from your surroundings. During this process, you will feel the “vibrational” sensation which is caused by an increased awareness of all feeling in and around your body. Essentially, the vibrational feeling that you may be experiencing is simply the bodies way of cleansing itself and moving energy around. It is a natural sensation to feel and is indicative of deep, successful meditation practice.
4. Tingling Sensation During Meditation
Often, people experience a tingly, lightheaded sensation during their meditation practice. This is normal sensation to experience and is indicative of imbalances in your body being naturally corrected. As a result of these corrections, your body responds by allowing you to deeply feel and express your inner emotions which can lead to the tingling vibes and waves of pleasurable feelings. Sensations such as these tingly feelings during meditation are regarded by some schools as “progress feelings”. In saying this, it is important that you do not dwell too much on these feelings or try to bring them on. This misses the point of experiencing sensations during your practice and decreases the magic of the moment. Simply acknowledge the sensations and feel them as they come and go; no need to pay any special attention to them or try to recreate them in future practice.
5. Feeling Energy in Hands During Meditation
Yoga is a subjective experience which means everyone experiences it differently and it is difficult to describe specific sensations. However, one that is common is the feeling of “energy” within one’s hands during their practice. It has been said that the feeling of present energy during your meditation is one that is hard to deny once you have felt it. An easy exercise to experiment with involves holding your hands a few inches apart with your palms facing inwards. With your palms facing each other, slowly experiment by moving them closer and father away from each other. This may result in feeling energy (heat, pressure, electricity etc.) between your hands. As you gain further practice and experience, you may be able to shape and move the energy by curving your fingers and placing the palms perpendicular to each other. The feeling may be subtle to begin with but be consistent and progress will follow.
6. Feeling Heavy During Meditation
Ideally, a successful meditation should result in the meditator not feeling their body at all. However, it is quite common for meditators to feel heavy and slouchy during their practice. There are many theories as to why this heavy feeling occurs. One scientific theory explains that when our bodies relax, our muscles become less tense and tend to drop a fraction. The bodies proprioceptors (which tell the brain where we are in space) interpret this drop as heaviness. Other theories are simpler. Meditating straight after a meal may result in feelings of heaviness as well as overeating prior to meditation. If you are fatigued during your meditation, this sleepiness may result in further muscle relaxation leading to heaviness. Being physically unfit is also a major influence on this heavy sensation. By lacking in muscles around your spine and strength in your core, it requires significant effort to hold your body up during meditative practice which results in slouching.
7. Feeling Hot During Meditation
Feeling warmth through your body or exiting your meditation slightly sweaty is another common experience. When meditating, our mind, spirit and body come together to form a unified front. This leads to the feeling of Chi (a life force or universal energy) running through your body. Chi can feel like a warm aura surrounding your entire body during your practice. This feeling is completely normal – in fact, it is indicative of experiencing balance and successful meditation. Another explanation for the feeling of heat during your meditation is the fact that meditation causes the release of electrical activity via your nervous system and chakras (energy points in your body). This leads to a type of magnetic field forming around you which generates heat and causes you to feel sensations of warmth. Again, warmth and sweat are completely normal sensations to experience during meditation. Using aircon or a wet t-shirt may help combat the warmth if it is uncomfortable for you.
8. Body Shaking During Meditation
Experiencing shaking of the body during meditation is a common sensation to experience. Many yoga enthusiast post in forums, reporting symptoms of shaking during their practice. The short explanation as to why you are experiencing shaking during your practice is that the meditation has interrupted/broken up your normal thought patterns. These thought patterns are usually held at constant by muscle tension patterns via the fascia (a sheath covering muscle). Your fascia has been programmed with your personality and is controlled by muscle tension and endocrine responses to stimuli. This means that when your thoughts are disrupted, your fascia is simultaneously disrupted which results in shaking sensations. In order to calm your shaking during meditation, begin to breathe slowly, fully and deliberately – ensuring your focus and energy goes into the tight muscles. This breathing will facilitate a ‘reset’ of the muscles and ease your shaking.
9. Feeling of Expansion During Meditation
The sensation of expansion or swelling during meditation is another sensation that is natural and to be expected during meditation practice. This particular sensation appears to be quite common in the yoga community. During the deepest relaxation of our meditation, our awareness becomes far more refined and abstract. We begin to experience our body and minds in ways we have never done before. Within this abstract awareness, a lack of spatial awareness occurs, and it seems as if the spatial boundaries and general orientation of the body have the ability to be extended and distorted. This is what causes the feeling of expansion as well as other feelings such as tilting, growing, losing sensation of a certain limb etc. Often people report their own bodies feeling foreign and dense during meditation – this is completely normal. It is all a result of our mind experiencing more subtle realms of thought.
10. Feeling Cold During Meditation
Feeling cold during meditation is another normal, natural and expected side effect of deep meditation practice. As with many other sensations, it is often a result of ‘stuck’ energy in our body being released and moving around as it pleases. This movement of energy can make us feel sensations that we are not actually feeling. One method for combating feeling cold or experiencing chills during your practice is to utilize a positive affirmation. An example of an affirmation could be, “I am warm. I am safe. I am comfortable. The sun shines down and warms each cell within my healthy, happy body”. When affirming, ensure that you visualize the warmth. If you find that this method is unsuccessful, perhaps try performing your meditation in a warm, enclosed space while sitting on a soft blanket (ensure you aren’t sitting on a cool surface).
11. Feeling Dizzy During Meditation
Dizziness during meditation is a positive sign of progress. It is natural and expected within meditation. The most common explanation for light headedness during meditation is the purifying of our energy. When meditation, our energy become pure and our body is not used to the large influx of positive, purified energy which can cause us to feel dizziness. The dizziness may also be caused by your breathing – your body may not be used to such deep breaths of oxygen which may cause light headedness. Shallow breathing during the most relaxed duration of our meditation will have a similar effect. To combat this sensation, try meditating lying down or with your back supported up against a wall. Ensure your breathing is natural and maintain movement in your fingers and toes. If the feelings of dizziness persist after meditation or get progressively worse, it is a good idea to contact your doctor to discuss why it may be happening.
12. Feeling Light During Meditation
Feelings of lightness during meditation is another natural sensation. During meditation, with your Qi (a traditional Chinese cultural concept that alludes to vital energy, breath or spirit ) circulation smoothly, your body may feel airy or light. The feeling usually disappears quite quickly and can be very comfortable but don’t allow yourself to become distracted by it. This sensation arises when you are in a deep relaxed state with intentional breathing, slowed heart rate and peaceful thoughts. By allowing yourself to be distracted by the drifting, light feelings you will remove yourself from your state of relaxation and disrupt your meditation. This sensation can also be explained by the slight loss of spatial awareness that comes with meditation practice. Your body simply loses the ability to place objects in space which leads to your body feeling lighter than usual. Feeling light is natural, normal and safe and is an indicator of successful, improving meditation skills.
13. Feeling of Swaying During Meditation
Swaying during meditation is a sensation that holds spiritual significance. If you have recently felt that you are beginning to experience swaying during meditation – here is the spiritual meaning behind it. The spiritual meaning behind swaying during meditation states that you may be experiencing a kundalini awakening. Every person holds kundalini energy at the base of their spine – for most, this energy is dormant. Kundalini energy is a powerful lfieforve or creative power that is bigger than us. Due to it beginning at the base of our spine, when awakening occurs it forces us to rock back and forward, this sensation is more likely to occur if you are meditating while sitting down. When awakening this energy, you may feel a surge of energy from the base of your spine to the top of your head. It will boost all of your energy chakras on its journey – leaving you feeling grounded, awakened and present.
14. Feeling Pressure in Forehead During Meditation
Experiencing pressure or tension in your forehead during meditation may indicate excessive muscle tension in that specific area. Often people can subconsciously cause this pressure by placing tension on the eyes and eyebrows when trying to focus their attention. This point between the eyebrows is known as the spiritual eye and is often directed by yoga instructors in order to bring your awareness to an important spiritual center called the Ajna chakra. By focusing on this point, you may cause yourself forehead pressure. To assist with technique for this eye position, extend your arm outwards with your thumb upturned. Maintain eye contact with the thumb nail and slowly move your arm above the horizon line so your thumb is horizontal with your forehead. Maintain this gentle upward gaze which should not cause any tension in the forehead if done correctly. Also, ensure to maintain hydration during meditation practice.
15. Feeling Fear During Meditation
During meditation, it is normal to feel a range of emotions and experience a variety of sensations. If you are experiencing feelings of fear during your meditation practice, it is often a sign that you are overthinking the process and have set far too high of expectations for yourself. Perhaps you have seen images of spiritual symbols and extreme yoga poses or watched videos of experienced meditators nailing each of their practices. Meditation is a skill learnt with practice and is intended to be a positive experience each time. Feelings of fear can be avoided by beginning your meditation with a few affirmations such as “I am allowing myself to build my meditation skills at my own pace”, “There is no judgement towards my meditation skills” and “Everyone has a unique experience when meditating, it is a personal journey”. Meditation is a time to escape all negative emotions, allow yourself to become present and to enjoy a relaxing experience.
16. Feeling Sleepy During Meditation
Feeling sleepy or falling asleep during meditation practice is an extremely common occurrence. This is due to the difficulty for people to find the balance between a focus and relaxation – especially when first starting out. Often our body naturally responds to slowed breathing, lowered heart rate and closed eyes with the urge to sleep. Feeling sleepy during meditation could also be a signal from your body that you are not receiving enough quality sleep each night which is pushing it to actively seek out sleep. In order to avoid sleepy feelings during your practice, try to clearly separate your sleeping and awake time by avoiding meditation first thing in the morning or before you go to bed. This will help by ensuring your body is entirely awake and your body clock isn’t assuming it’s time to sleep. If meditation in the morning is best for you, try to wash your face with cool water prior to your meditation.
17. Feeling Anxiety During Meditation
Feelings of anxiety during meditation may be due to high expectations set by the meditator. If you enter meditation assuming that it should ‘feel a certain way’ you may elicit anxious emotions when the experience isn’t going as expected. Meditation is a practice aimed at reducing anxiety via relaxation and enhanced awareness of our body and surroundings. Feelings of anxiety can be lessened by starting off your meditation with some positive, soothing affirmations such as “There is no judgment towards my meditation skills” and “Everyone has a unique experience when meditating, it is a personal journey”. If these affirmations don’t work for you, try to follow a guided meditation to allow yourself to simply let go and understand that there are no expectations. By letting go of all expectations or external life stressors during your meditation, feelings of anxiety can be avoided, and the overall experience should be positive and beneficial.
18. Feeling Disconnected During Meditation
Feelings of detachment or disconnectedness during or after meditation is another normal sensation some may feel during their practice. Although this sensation may seem foreign, it is a positive sensation that indicates effective practice of meditation. By becoming far more aware of your surroundings, emotions and feelings – you may feel sensations of disconnectedness from your ‘normal’ state of mind. If these sensations bring you discomfort or leave you feeling unsettled, try to focus your meditation practices around grounding exercises such as observing your breathing intently, recognizing the earth you are seated on, listening intently to your surroundings etc. These exercises should assist in avoiding feelings of disassociation. However, it is important to remember that this sensation is normal and indicative of achieving a mental state of deeper awareness. These feelings may simply feel uncomfortable because they are not ‘normal’ – but with continuation of meditation and acceptance of these sensations, normality of these sensations will follow.
19. Feeling Electricity During Meditation
Sensations of feeling ‘electricity’ during meditation are synonymous with those who report feeling bodily vibrations during their practice. It has been said that feeling warm sensations rushing through your body, an increased state or awareness or the sensation of being extremely ‘alive’ can be a result of porous breathing. This style of breathing involves slow, smooth, continuous breaths been taken in attempt to raise your vibrational rate. It allows you to open up your channels which enhances your energy intake from your surroundings during meditation. During this process, the ‘vibrational’ sensations are caused by this increase of awareness of your inner emotions and outer surroundings. This sudden burst of enlightenment translates to a warm tingling feeling of ‘electricity’ throughout your body. Essentially, the vibrational feeling that you may be experiencing is simply the bodies way of cleansing itself and moving energy around. It is a natural sensation to feel and is indicative of deep, successful meditation practice.
20. Feeling Emotions During Meditation
Feeling emotions during meditation is a positive, expected effect. When embarking on our meditative journey of searching for deeper awareness and understanding of ourselves and everything that surrounds us, our body and mind responds emotionally. Emotions often are released from inner issues that are resolved during meditation practice. Sometimes the emotions can be so intense that you cry or report vibrational, warm feelings throughout your body. Essentially, it is a true indicator that you are successfully becoming more in touch of your inner emotions. Often, first time meditators begin their practice with pre-conceived expectations of what they should feel. Instead of waiting for these expectations to become a reality, simply allow yourself to deeply feel and experience any emotional response that arise. Meditation is a personal practice that differs from person to person and cannot be based off expectations set by other meditators experiences.
21. Feeling Like Falling During Meditation
Feeling like falling during meditation is simply your bodies response to our muscles entering a state of pure relaxation. It is very common for meditators to feel heavy or weak during their meditation. Feeling like you are falling through the ground is indicative of a deep meditative state – the goal is to not feel your body at all. One scientific theory explains these sensations as our bodies relaxing and causing our muscles to become less tense and to drop a fraction. The bodies proprioceptors (which tell the brain where we are in space) interpret this drop as heaviness. This sensation can also be related to blood pressure. When in a meditative state, it is common for a person’s blood pressure to drop which can lead to feelings of falling. If you continuously experience sensations of falling during your practice – try to make small movements with your fingers and toes and ensuring hydration to help maintain your blood pressure.
22. Feeling Love During Meditation
Love lives within all of us. No matter how little or small – we feel, give and accept love. Meditation allows for this emotion to be connected with or perhaps even rediscovered. During meditation, we aim to achieve total acceptance over ourselves, our inner emotions, our physical body and all the things that surround us. We take the time to connect with and become aware of sensations and emotions that we usually subconsciously ignore in our day to day life. Meditation allows us to connect with ourselves in ways we have never experienced before. Often people think that they know themselves inside out – but in reality, there is always something to learn and accept about yourself. We are constantly changing along with our energies within us. Feelings of love will arise in a sensation of pure bliss once we achieve complete and utter acceptance.
23. Feeling of Rising During Meditation
The feeling of rising up above yourself is another common sensation to experience during your meditation practice. That feeling of rising up during meditation is a sign that indicates that you are moving above body-consciousness. During the deepest relaxation of our meditation, our awareness becomes far more abstract than normal. Within this abstract awareness, a lack of spatial awareness occurs, and it seems as if the spatial boundaries and general orientation of the body have the ability to be extended and distorted. These distortions of physical orientation can result in this rising sensation. These feelings are what leads to strange physical feelings such as rising above yourself during meditation. Grounding exercises and affirmations during your practice can assist in combating this sensation. However, it is important to understand that it is safe and normal to experience these sensations. When our awareness changes, our body reacts in strange ways.
24. Feeling Out of Body During Meditation
Feeling outside of your own body during meditation is another sensation caused by our altered state of awareness during meditation. When we enter our deepest state of relaxation, our awareness is altered into a much more abstract version of its normal state. This abstract awareness leads to a lack of spatial awareness, loss of feeling in the body and distortion of spatial boundaries and general orientation of the body. These distortions of your location in physical space can result in the feeling that you are outside of your body. An increase in awareness of your body can also result in the feeling that you are looking down on your own body from an external view. Often people report this sensation. It is a positive indicator that you have entered a deepened state of awareness with your practice. This is quite common and is not a sensation to be concerned about.
25. Feeling Like Spinning During Meditation
The sensation of spinning during meditation can be explained as the oxygenation of the body. When focusing on our breathes and ensuring deep expansion of the diagram, our body gains more oxygen and blood flow to the brain which can result in feelings of dizziness or spinning. It is also an indication that you are letting go of negative emotions expectations or inner concerns you may have been hanging onto prior to meditation. Another explanation states that it is due to abundant cosmic energy and is a very positive sign for spiritual practitioners as the Kundalini awakens naturally in this process. In Hinduism, Kundalini is a divine feminine energy described as a sleeping, dormant potential force in the human organism. When experiencing the awakening of this energy, it has been said to feel like flowing water, fire or wind which can also be felt as a spinning sensation.
26. Feeling of Bliss During Meditation
The state of meditation that is sought after by all meditators is the level of pure, utter bliss. Some refer to this feeling as meditative ecstasy (or Jhanain Buddhist traditions of meditation). Feelings of bliss can be described as pure happiness and pleasure that can result in laughter or tears of happiness. Bliss comes from within and does not require a set of specific external circumstances in order to achieve it. The sensation of pure bliss is one that showcases how rewarding meditation is and how powerful the ability to control your mind can be. In order to achieve a state of bliss, you need to exclusive focus on the object of meditation and sustain this attention for a period of time. You then need to become aware of the joys within your life and the pleasure of meditative practice. As with all meditation – practice makes perfect.
27. Feeling Like Crying During Meditation
Often, feeling as if you need to cry during your meditation is an indicator of the manifestation of unresolved emotions that are suppressed in our subconscious. During meditation, your thoughts are silenced in order to allow emotions rise to the surface which can trigger strong emotional responses such as the urge to cry. It is important to allow yourself to deeply feel and work through these emotions during your meditation rather than suppressing them further. By suppressing your emotions, you will simply hold onto this negative energy and become unable to progress in your meditation journey. By allowing yourself to cry during your meditation, you allow your negative energy and emotions to be set free. Remember, if you constantly feel emotions of sadness during or outside of your meditation practice – it is okay to talk to someone! There is always help around the corner and you are never alone.