Spaciousness while meditating

[tsuki]

So, there's been this feeling of spaciousness behind my eyes, 'inside', while I meditate.
At first, it was difficult to attain and after some practice, it came easily. Now it manifests itself on its own.
At first, I was describing it as 'pressure', or 'tension', but I really like to call it spaciousness.
It's a feeling that bears similarity to inhaling deeply. With 'lungs'/'chest' however it has limited capacity and there is a point after no more 'air' comes in.
Spaciousness in forehead during meditation is more like constant, never-ending inhalation/expansion.

There are actually two 'places' in which it manifests - both inside of my head, 'behind' my eyes.
It first appeared somewhere directly over my eyes, centered. Now it 'sits' on top of my head, or on the back of my head.
There was a point when I could move it from one place to the other and it felt as if it was going through a small pipe, or a straw.
It is not focused, like touch for example, but more blurred. Radiating over the whole inside of my head. Like spaciousness of breath is blurred over lungs.
As I'm writing this post I came to realization that I can extend the area over which I can feel it, but to some degree. I was wondering if it's possible to extend it over the whole 'inside' of my body and I was able to do it to some degree, but felt resistance.

I know that all of this sounds weird, but do you had any experience with this kind of phenomenon?
Does this description fit into any framework of growth that you know and I can work with?

 

[PsiloPutty]

I dunno, but it sure doesn't sound bad, so keep exploring it! So, this isn't something that only occurs when you meditate? I ask because you said you realized something about it as you were writing your post.

Hey, I've wondered: what is your avatar? 

[Dogsbestfriend]

Hmm this is how it started for me. It has grown more intense over time... at first I thought it was a neurological problem.. could be something to do with chakras and energies? It feels amazing sometimes, blissful - calm.. the reason I lean towards chakras as it often focuses on my 'third eye' and quite pinpoint intensely. And, it intensifies with meditation. Had an MRI just in case... with nothing showing. Being the super skeptic I am, I will be doing some other tests eventually as sometimes it's so intense, it can bother me or keep me from sleeping. Sometimes it feels like something crawling, lightly tingly over my brain... and I say my brain but sometimes I wonder if this is just how I associate an external sensation as well as we are all one.. if that makes any sense. So since my mind resides where I feel it I wonder if it's my brain at all where the feelings come from or could possibly be external? 

Sorry if this is vague but without knowing exactly what's going on myself I'm only left with guessing. So far it hasn't shown to be useful exactly in any way, though it makes mediation more interesting.. it's fun when I'm bored - but distracting when I'm working sometimes, though I can easily multitask when it's going on. It will actually stop sometimes or change when I touch my forehead.. which means I have no idea. Would love to know if anyone else has any insights. I think I would miss it if it went away.. other times I get fairly annoyed by it.

[Nahm]

@tsuki yep. Relating. Anything is possible. 

[Ether]

@Nahm Checkout my song, i think u gon like it

[Nahm]

@Ether I love it.

[Ether]

@Nahm Give me advice in my thread 

.

Nahm why are you hijacking this one? 

[Nahm]

In terms of my advice, your work is cut out for you for a year already.

[Ether]

4 minutes ago, Nahm said:

In terms of my advice, your work is cut out for you for a year already.

Ah ok, thanks anyways. Do you have anything favorite about the track? I love my flow in the second verse.

[tsuki]

3 hours ago, PsiloPutty said:

I dunno, but it sure doesn't sound bad, so keep exploring it! So, this isn't something that only occurs when you meditate? I ask because you said you realized something about it as you were writing your post.

First time I noticed it was when I started to meditate. I had always used (?) this spaciousness as I was trying to go to sleep and it was strange that it manifested itself during meditation. I thought that I was sleepy hahaha. It was only the above the eyes sensation, though. Never the top of the head.
After some observation, it started to manifest in the waking hours, spontaneously. It became intertwined with meditation somehow and this is how I began to meditate effortlessly.

It's 'on' all the time these days. I don't pay too much attention to it anymore. Just curious.
I thought that I was squint my eyes during sleeping, hahaha. So funny.

3 hours ago, PsiloPutty said:

Hey, I've wondered: what is your avatar? 

It's an eclipse in inverse colors to match the forum layout.
A beautiful, natural manifestation of nonduality. An added bonus is that tsuki is moon in Japanese.

Edited June 25, 2018 by tsuki

[tsuki]

5 hours ago, Dogsbestfriend said:

could be something to do with chakras and energies?

That's what I'm suspecting. I can move and 'split' this spaciousness over the top of my head to the third eye and down to throat.
I sometimes were able to go down past the throat, but it's difficult. It's like there is so much of it at the top, that it would take me ages.

5 hours ago, Dogsbestfriend said:

So far it hasn't shown to be useful exactly in any way, though it makes mediation more interesting..

I see it now as a means to connect the mental and the bodily domain into one dimension. The bodymind.
Let's see where it'll take me.

[who chit]

27 minutes ago, tsuki said:

That's what I'm suspecting. I can move and 'split' this spaciousness over the top of my head to the third eye and down to throat.
I sometimes were able to go down past the throat, but it's difficult. It's like there is so much of it at the top, that it would take me ages.

Sounds like you're gathering a lot of energy at the crown. Have you tried moving it back and down through the spine?  A few minutes of spinal breathing before meditation would help balance the energy. 

Edited June 25, 2018 by who chit

[Dogsbestfriend]

@tsuki Yea I've found the easiest place to channel it to is my hands. Heart is possible but it has to be a gentles guidance there as opposed to forceful, and when you arrive just focus on your hearbeat and a warm feeling will gather there - sometimes this automatically seems to coincide with certain feelings... anyways keep in mind this is my experience don't know what/if it will work for you. More force is not always more effective, like if you try to go too fast it's like a slippery rope you can't hold onto. On the good days, when things go just right - everything goes silent, and just this light awareness is there floating - almost like a presence. It's eerie but not scary. This is me reaching, I will grant anyone that, but the presence feels like the unified fabric of consciousness. That or I have really pleasant feeling random head sensations

 

[PsiloPutty]

I think it sounds like one of the things that ALL meditators wish would happen to them!     Especially interesting is that it doesn't go away when you aren't meditating. And it's above the eyes? Kind of like where your 3rd eye is?  Prepare for full enlightenment, Tsuki Moon!   *gasp!*

[Guest Quanty]

You are starting to feel the Third Ventricle of the Amen space in the center of the brain. 

One can feel this space in the brain to the same extent one can feel the lung and is in touch with it. 

Edited June 25, 2018 by Quanty

[tsuki]

9 hours ago, who chit said:

Sounds like you're gathering a lot of energy at the crown. Have you tried moving it back and down through the spine?  A few minutes of spinal breathing before meditation would help balance the energy. 

What are the effects of imbalance?
What is the importance of being able to move the energy through the spine?

[tsuki]

9 hours ago, Dogsbestfriend said:

@tsuki Yea I've found the easiest place to channel it to is my hands. Heart is possible but it has to be a gentles guidance there as opposed to forceful, and when you arrive just focus on your hearbeat and a warm feeling will gather there - sometimes this automatically seems to coincide with certain feelings... anyways keep in mind this is my experience don't know what/if it will work for you. More force is not always more effective, like if you try to go too fast it's like a slippery rope you can't hold onto. On the good days, when things go just right - everything goes silent, and just this light awareness is there floating - almost like a presence. It's eerie but not scary. This is me reaching, I will grant anyone that, but the presence feels like the unified fabric of consciousness. That or I have really pleasant feeling random head sensations

@Dogsbestfriend I can definitely relate to what you are saying. I always used to notice it at the third eye just before going to sleep and have vivid, sometimes even lucid dreams. Ever since it sits on the crown, I practically have no dreams - or at least not the imaginative ones. It sometimes feels like I've been thinking the whole night in an alert state, but I still 'wake up' well-rested. 

Today I linked the lower points with emotions. Physical fear focuses somewhere below lungs for me. I'll have to notice where is anger located the next time I get the chance. Ever since the spaciousness rests at the crown, I rarely get angry.

Ever since I was a child, I could focus something at my hands. I used to play that it is some kind of superpower, but I never found any use for it. I can still do it and there is some quality similar to the spaciousness to it. When I focus on it, it feels somewhat colder than the crown, but the coldness is irrespective of the temperature that I touch. Very strange. How do you let the energy out of the crown with your hands?

Edited June 26, 2018 by tsuki

[tsuki]

9 hours ago, PsiloPutty said:

I think it sounds like one of the things that ALL meditators wish would happen to them!     Especially interesting is that it doesn't go away when you aren't meditating. And it's above the eyes? Kind of like where your 3rd eye is?  Prepare for full enlightenment, Tsuki Moon!   *gasp!*

I don't think that it is caused by meditation per se. I just started to notice it and made connection with various other phenomena.
Meditation simply opened space for me to explore it and notice new things. It is a temporary silence in which you can notice things.

Chakras are a model between domains. It is a bridge between the body and the mind, so that you can build an image of bodymind.
It is not that chakras cause thinking, or thinking causes chakras. They coexist at the same time.

Think of it as this: language is thinking from the point of mind. Chakra is thinking from the point of view body.
Model is a pointer so that you can link and correlate the two. They are the same thing described from two perspectives.

It is like saying that a person is a set of cells. That is a point of view of biology.
From the point of view of sociology, a person is a cell that builds society.
Knowing both perspectives lets you influence both levels, but it is not that one level is in control of the other.
Society is made of people, and people are made by society (culture).

Edited June 26, 2018 by tsuki

[who chit]

Usual symptoms are excessive heat,slight to moderate headaches,feeling of pressure in the head,mood problems,nervousness,irritability,hot pinpricks. If there's no negative symptoms,no worries. Since it's happening on it's own without you forcing it,then it's a natural,normal thing to happen. All spiritual practices activate this energy sooner or later,whether directly worked on or not.
 

Moving the energy down the spine to the root,and back up, usually to third eye, keeps it from stagnating and building up excessively in a single area,which can cause the negative symptoms. It also helps in removing blockages in the nervous system,to allow a smoother movement in the body.

[Dogsbestfriend]

@tsuki Hmm I still rarely get a buildup at the crown... other than a somewhat traumatic experience where it felt like the top of my head blew off...

but yea when I have a buildup and I can't redirect it simply through willing it (guiding it downwards through simple intent), what gives me almost instant comfort/some release is placing my left hand with palm facing on my forehead.. no idea why that works. Something I tried intuitively one day.

Don't know I still shake my head at all of it.