Body movements during meditation

[Peter Zemskov]

Almost a year now I'm having weird body movements during meditation that sometimes make it very hard for me to concentrate. First I thought that its just my bad posture but then I understood that it's something else. In one session I had my body leaning towards one side and then revearsing and leaning to the opposite side. That can't happen because of bad posture or muscle relaxation. What happens is that my body and my head start to lean or twist towards one side and this causes a lot of discomfort and sometimes even strong muscle pain. Sometimes I literally had my head twisting backwards and had to stop meditating because I felt as though my neck was going to break if it twisted further back. Usually its not that bad but still it makes meditation feel like torture. For example today my body was leaning to the left pretty badly and the only thing that I could think of was when is the session going to end. I couldn't meditate properly because of that.  Does any of you have anything similar? What is it and what do you think is the best way for me to deal with it?

[Charlotte]

I've had/have similar. I usually have these bodily movements during a deep meditation. One time I was swaying back and forth with pace. I had tingling and burning sensations up my arms and neck I then lent far back and then flung forward, then came a huge realease of emotion, literally just cried for an hour straight. I've never been the same since.

[Cocolove]

@Peter Zemskov Try stretching before meditating? I have a lot of involuntary spasms and leaning while meditating. @Charlotte that's wild 

 

[Erlend K]

What sort of meditation are you doing?

Samatha: Every time your focus shifts towards the physical sensation note "sensation", and move your focus back to the breath. Be mentally prepared for any negative thoughts or feelings associated with the sensations, and set the intention to notice these asap, so that you can note "thought"/"feeling" and move your focus back to the breath.

Vipassana: You may use these sensations as an object of meditation. Observe the sensations with as much equanimity as you are capable of, observe your mind's resistance to the sensations and longing for them to pass, notice how neither the sensation, the thoughts/feelings associated with them, the resistance and the longing for escape are "you" but just ever-fluctuating streams of information passing through awareness.

If the sensations are too strong for these techniques, you might want to temporarily switch to walking meditation, or meditating lying down.

[Peter Zemskov]

15 hours ago, Erlend K said:

What sort of meditation are you doing?

Samatha: Every time your focus shifts towards the physical sensation note "sensation", and move your focus back to the breath. Be mentally prepared for any negative thoughts or feelings associated with the sensations, and set the intention to notice these asap, so that you can note "thought"/"feeling" and move your focus back to the breath.

Vipassana: You may use these sensations as an object of meditation. Observe the sensations with as much equanimity as you are capable of, observe your mind's resistance to the sensations and longing for them to pass, notice how neither the sensation, the thoughts/feelings associated with them, the resistance and the longing for escape are "you" but just ever-fluctuating streams of information passing through awareness.

If the sensations are too strong for these techniques, you might want to temporarily switch to walking meditation, or meditating lying down.

I use the do nothing technique 

[Peter Zemskov]

18 hours ago, Charlotte said:

I've had/have similar. I usually have these bodily movements during a deep meditation. One time I was swaying back and forth with pace. I had tingling and burning sensations up my arms and neck I then lent far back and then flung forward, then came a huge realease of emotion, literally just cried for an hour straight. I've never been the same since.

I also have tickling sensations in my shoulders sometimes. But I never had any emotional breakthroughs after mediation. Well I had it once after the first deep meditation but since then (2 years have past) I never had any.

[Space]

@Peter Zemskov It's quite common. A lot of people report similar experiences. Generally the movements are a good sign and should be allowed and accepted as best you can. Obviously if it becomes dangerous you probably want to stop or atleast be cautious. I don't know exactly what causes the movements, but I assume it's kundalini or some type of energy flowing through the body which can then manifest as physical movements or as emotional purges (emotion = energy in motion). There is a huge amount of information about this type of thing online already. Go research!

[Hellspeed]

Uncontrolled Kundalini reactions. Go with them, let the Dragon take control. 

[Erlend K]

On 13.10.2018 at 4:14 PM, Peter Zemskov said:

I use the do nothing technique 

What does that mean? You just sit and zone out for 45 min? what do you feel like you are gaining from this activity?

[Peter Zemskov]

Well kinda yeah. But I meditate usually about 20 min. I could've meditated for an hour easily if it wasn't for those sensations. Now about the technique.  I think I gain a lot from this do nothing meditation because out of many techniques that I tried it works the best for me. 

[Peter Zemskov]

Easy to say but its extremely hard to meditate when you're twisted in souch a way that your back hurts as though somebody stabbed you in the muscle. I literally have back pain for 15 minutes after a meditation session. But what is positive is that my willpower has grown enormously because of those sensations. I feel that i'm a lot more resistant to suffering than before. Also it sort of deapend my meditation. In those rare days when I have less movement than normal i'm meditating a lot deeper than I did before because now i'm acostumed to meditate in "hard" conditions

[Sahil Pandit]

@Peter Zemskov Sounds like your Kundalini energy is starting to wake up.

Do you keep your body limber? Also, your spine health.. how is it? 

[Peter Zemskov]

12 hours ago, Sahil Pandit said:

@Peter Zemskov Sounds like your Kundalini energy is starting to wake up.

Do you keep your body limber? Also, your spine health.. how is it? 

I'm not very flexible but don't have any flexibility problems either. And I don't have any spine problems.

If it's kundalini than how much more time will it last and what is going to happen when it fully awakens?