Weird jaw tension/cramping during meditation

[Federico del pueblo]

When I enter a meditative state some muscle tension starts to build in my jaw, upper neck and to an extent the back of my head (where the neck meets the back of the head).

The deeper the meditative state becomes, the stronger this tension becomes. It's almost like this muscle tension is an indicator of the depth of my meditative state (though I have other indicators of course).

I have no idea why I'm experiencing this, it is completely involuntary and I can only keep consciously relaxing these muscles again and again. 

If I intentionally focus on these muscles - as in temporarily making them my meditation object - the tension just becomes even stronger, to the point where it becomes unbearable cramping, which is painful.

It's a bit irritating and I feel like it keeps me from going into an even deeper state because it's kind of distracting.

Has anyone here experienced something like this?

Do you think I'll just have to live with it or can this be overcome?

Greetings. 

 

[LastThursday]

Yes definitely, in my left hand, right shoulder and right thigh.  But there's hope.  I used to have a lot more tensions throughout my body (mostly neck and jaw areas) when meditating, and with concerted effort and focus over time they have gone.  It's taken me about a year to remove most of the tensions. I think it's a case of re-programming the body with constant repetition, and it can take a long time. I'd like to know if there's a quicker way.

 

[Rafael Thundercat]

I imagine how hard should  be in the old day for yogis and zen masters to be able to do their practices and not having a forum to give them hints about every detail of their meditation.

Relax you jaw. You can cosnciously do it. Dont wait for when you are in deep meditation. Do it everyday. Catch youself in tesion everyday. 

Sometimes I feel pain in the arms or neck due to the pressure in the buttocks. I think leo have a video on his blog about finding a good sposture to meditation. For me is a constant work of ajustament. Good musculature, yoga practice, detoxing the lympatic system is good too. But overall only you can discover the causes since nobody here can listen to your body better than yourself.

[Federico del pueblo]

13 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

with concerted effort and focus over time they have gone.  It's taken me about a year to remove most of the tensions. I think it's a case of re-programming the body with constant repetition, and it can take a long time.

So you mean you repeated the loosening of the tension over and over again and then it got less?

 

11 minutes ago, Rafael Thundercat said:

I imagine how hard should  be in the old day for yogis and zen masters to be able to do their practices and not having a forum to give them hints about every detail of their meditation.

What a privilege it is to have the forum, isn't it? ?

12 minutes ago, Rafael Thundercat said:

Relax you jaw. You can cosnciously do it. Dont wait for when you are in deep meditation. Do it everyday. Catch youself in tesion everyday. 

True! I just noticed a bit of tension in the jaw even now while I'm not meditating. I'm wondering if it might be some mechanism of the body to reduce stress...

[Cathal]

Ello there. It's something i've talked to a few teachers about, they all said the exact same thing to me. I began noticing tensions when I began meditation, particularly when I went into a 10 day silent retreat was when I was like what the fuck is this, but it's not an uncommon thing, if you have a strong habit of tensing or repressing things then here's partly the karma of it.

I really have no opinion nor view on it to share with you because I don't really understand it, but i'll tell you what is very important is you have to do is come back and relax it over and over and over and over, do not force anything and let it play out the way it does. I

[Federico del pueblo]

@Cathal  Interesting! 

I'm actually trying to make all of my emotional baggage as conscious as possible and work through all of it. Though I could still see how it might be some mechanism of the body to reduce or cope with stress or maybe trauma that hasn't been processed yet.

I could be completely wrong about that too, maybe it's just some random behaviour the nervous system has learnt and made into a habit. I can only say that I'm not "doing" this (kind of like I'm not doing my heartbeat) but still can repeatedly undo it when the muscles created the tension again.

We'll see...

[flowboy]

@Federico del pueblo  Well if you're interested in the topic of trauma, I'm reading Imprints by Arthur Janov at the moment, and he describes many cases where people have unexplainable tensions in their head, neck, shoulders, and it turned out that that's where they got hurt during the process of being born. This can be consciously remembered after clearing out the trauma from later life stages.

Not that that gives you a practical solution though. Undoing birth trauma is a long process.

But if your intuition says that that might be it, you could ask your mother about it, and you might have an explanation that interests or satisfies to some extent.

[Federico del pueblo]

@flowboy

3 minutes ago, flowboy said:

I'm reading Imprints by Arthur Janov at the moment, and he describes many cases where people have unexplainable tensions in their head, neck, shoulders, and it turned out that that's where they got hurt during the process of being born. This can be consciously remembered after clearing out the trauma from later life stages.

That's damn interesting. I'll definitely put the book on my "interesting books list" ?

So we overcome our trauma backwards, starting from latest and going to earliest?

I mean, I'm already working on overcoming emotions of traumatic genesis anyway and I'm making good progress, it still takes quite some time though. These traumas are things I can still remember very well though, from teenage years to adult age.

Aren't these very early traumas also supposed to be revealed when you do hypnotherapy? I've had many hypnotherapy sessions, but never anything traumatic from early childhood came up, in fact, not even anything I didn't know already.

[LastThursday]

31 minutes ago, Federico del pueblo said:

51 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

with concerted effort and focus over time they have gone.  It's taken me about a year to remove most of the tensions. I think it's a case of re-programming the body with constant repetition, and it can take a long time.

So you mean you repeated the loosening of the tension over and over again and then it got less?

Exactly. Over and over and over again. Eventually the body gets the message and learns how to relax all by itself. 

I'm with @flowboy and @Cathal in saying that tension is related with past trauma and stresses. These are often held in the body. The fight or flight response requires your body to be in tension and prepared. If you were or are always in stress, then the body learns and permanently encodes this as tensions. 

I would go so far as to say that reprogramming the body not to be tense, is one way to re-contextualise past traumas. It's a two-way process tension<-->trauma. Solving one helps the other. But I'm no expert in this.

It's instructive that I fractured my left arm when I was young, and that is exactly were I find the tension.

Edited January 18, 2023 by LastThursday

[Cathal]

@Federico del pueblo  you can introspect and understand it to a degree and endlessly mentally proliferate what the sensation is and why it occurs but actually just letting go of all of this proliferation and experiencing it as it is and letting go of reacting to it as something personal is what is important for you.

if you can relax it, do that, a million times, not expecting any kind of result. this is important you really reflect on that, not doing anything for any result in particular. just accept it will unfold as it will unfold, trusting relaxation will take care of it. it always does

[flowboy]

Just now, Federico del pueblo said:

That's damn interesting. I'll definitely put the book on my "interesting books list" ?

Janov's books will blow you away.

1 minute ago, Federico del pueblo said:

So we overcome our trauma backwards, starting from latest and going to earliest?

Roughly.

As you're probably aware, your subconscious intelligently decides which pains you're ready to integrate at which time.

It will start feeding you bits and pieces in an order that you can handle.

It tends to go in the order of: later childhood stuff, early childhood stuff, birth.

But not always.

I personally know people whose birth trauma was so intense, that they started having reliving experiences right at the beginning.

Complete with their body reproducing the fluids in their nose that they were choking on, and the intense heart rate and body temperature.

It's a physiological memory.

Here's a video of someone having such an experience, under guidance of her husband:

3 minutes ago, Federico del pueblo said:

I mean, I'm already working on overcoming emotions of traumatic genesis anyway and I'm making good progress, it still takes quite some time though. These traumas are things I can still remember very well though, from teenage years to adult age.

That's awesome, what techniques are you using?

4 minutes ago, Federico del pueblo said:

Aren't these very early traumas also supposed to be revealed when you do hypnotherapy? I've had many hypnotherapy sessions, but never anything traumatic from early childhood came up, in fact, not even anything I didn't know already.

I'm currently reading an account of hypnotherapy being used in combination with trauma work. This particular case was in 1851, where over a period of 11 months someone was cured of their psychosis.

What they did was bring her under hypnosis, question her about the memories that still bothered her, and she'd be able to talk about them.

Then she would need to go out of hypnosis in order to relive them. (because under hypnosis, conscious integration can't happen)

I don't know too much about hypnosis, it seems there are many levels of it, and there's a particular level where some sort of intelligent self-diagnostic consciousness is activated and can be talked to, which knows exactly which steps need to be taken in order to heal.

[Federico del pueblo]

3 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

I'm with @flowboy and @Cathal in saying that tension is related with past trauma and stresses. These are often held in the body.

Yeah, that's what I assumed too.

Also, I even have a health condition with the underlying main dysfunction called "maladaptive stress response". That's when a state of stress has become the new default, which is the result of many years of chronic stress and trauma.

Interestingly, when I recently had a psychedelic experience I meditated in the beginning and was still aware of that same jaw tension.

Some time later, when the trip had gotten considerably deeper, I was sitting in some chair and then entered into the most relaxed state of all times.

Even though my sitting position was kind of awkward (unideal posture) there was absolutely no tension left anywhere in my body, the jaw was as loose as a chewing gum, the tongue just resting on the bottom of the mouth. 

I didn't even know it was possible to be so relaxed.

[tuku747]

1 hour ago, Federico del pueblo said:

The deeper the meditative state becomes, the stronger this tension becomes.

Let go of this belief / thought in meditation as the belief is what's creating this phenomenon 

[LastThursday]

10 minutes ago, Federico del pueblo said:

I didn't even know it was possible to be so relaxed.

It's a sheer joy when this is achieved.

I have practised with self-hypnosis (guided by voice recordings) for about 18 months, and at first I could not completely relax, I would notice my tensions would creep back unconsciously during the sessions. But lately, there are times when I am completely relaxed with no tension whatsoever and can maintain that for longish periods (during hypnosis). 

Of course, you need some tensions even to hold yourself upright and move. But if you pay attention, things like moving your eyes or breathing can trigger tensions. Like moving your eyes can trigger tension in your jaw or neck or face. So work also needs to be done there, to sever that connection. Moving your eyes for example should be completely effortless and relaxed, and so should breathing.

I would also advocate doing some light stretching exercise (I do some Tai Chi) before meditating. This helps with lessening tension.

Edited January 18, 2023 by LastThursday

[Federico del pueblo]

@flowboy somehow my post got screwed up, so I hope you can still work with how it looks like now ?

 

18 minutes ago, flowboy said:

As you're probably aware, your subconscious intelligently decides which pains you're ready to integrate at which time.

It will start feeding you bits and pieces in an order that you can handle.

Yep. That's why I'm always like "gooosh,  I thought this was it and now there's more again ?"

 

5 minutes ago, flowboy said:

 

It tends to go in the order of: later childhood stuff, early childhood stuff, birth.

 

But not always.

 

I personally know people whose birth trauma was so intense, that they started having reliving experiences right at the beginning.

 

Complete with their body reproducing the fluids in their nose that they were choking on, and the intense heart rate and body temperature.

 

It's a physiological memory.

 

Here's a video of someone having such an experience, under guidance of her husband:

 

Me:

Mind-blowing stuff. Our psyche and body are a mysterious miracle...

 

 

7 minutes ago, flowboy said:

That's awesome, what techniques are you using?

 

Me:

I use emotional freedom techniques (tapping), which is what works best for me from the things I've tried.

I also tried things like, well hypnotherapy, self-hypnosis and meditation in which you aim to reprogram the subconscious mind.

These approaches in which you try to put something positive in your subconscious mind are fun and also beneficial for overall mood and stress levels,  though they often didn't remove the traumatic things, it's more like you put something positive in your mind that kind of competes with the negative stuff.  But EFT has shown to be much more effective for "deleting" things if you will.

 

13 minutes ago, flowboy said:

I'm currently reading an account of hypnotherapy being used in combination with trauma work. This particular case was in 1851, where over a period of 11 months someone was cured of their psychosis.

What they did was bring her under hypnosis, question her about the memories that still bothered her, and she'd be able to talk about them.

Then she would need to go out of hypnosis in order to relive them. (because under hypnosis, conscious integration can't happen)

I don't know too much about hypnosis, it seems there are many levels of it, and there's a particular level where some sort of intelligent self-diagnostic consciousness is activated and can be talked to, which knows exactly which steps need to be taken in order to heal.

 

Me:

That's all such fascinating stuff.

And yes, it seems incredibly complex. Like its own world to get lost in.

 

 

[Federico del pueblo]

22 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

I have practised with self-hypnosis (guided by voice recordings) for about 18 months,

Interesting. So you made your own recordings with your voice or you found some super specific professional recordings? 

 

23 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

and at first I could not completely relax, I would notice my tensions would creep back unconsciously during the sessions. But lately, there are times when I am completely relaxed with no tension whatsoever and can maintain that for longish periods (during hypnosis). 

Of course, you need some tensions even to hold yourself upright and move. But if you pay attention, things like moving your eyes or breathing can trigger tensions. Like moving your eyes can trigger tension in your jaw or neck or face. So work also needs to be done there, to sever that connection. Moving your eyes for example should be completely effortless and relaxed, and so should breathing.

Yeah, I'm noticing that moving my eyes also creates a little bit of tension. Even thinking my thoughts with my inner voice does that. 

[LastThursday]

1 minute ago, Federico del pueblo said:

So you made your own recordings with your voice or you found some super specific professional recordings? 

No I found various sources on the internet. My ideal would be to create my own scripts and then have perhaps have an AI voice read them to me. 

3 minutes ago, Federico del pueblo said:

Yeah, I'm noticing that moving my eyes also creates a little bit of tension. Even thinking my thoughts with my inner voice does that.

It's just like being a marionette, where moving one part affects tension in another part. For example, talking can make the arms and hands tense, moving the hands can move your tongue, and so on. But for ultimate flow and relaxation in your body one thing shouldn't be affecting the other, except where it's natural to do so. The different parts of the body need to work in conjunction, but they also should be able to act independently.

[flowboy]

4 hours ago, Federico del pueblo said:

I use emotional freedom techniques (tapping), which is what works best for me from the things I've tried.

I'm not very familiar with the tapping. Does it make you cry a lot?

[WelcometoReality]

12 hours ago, Federico del pueblo said:

Has anyone here experienced something like this?

Do you think I'll just have to live with it or can this be overcome?

Yeah I have.

It can be overcome by stretching the neck and back daily.

From my experience these tensions is built up during normal day to day life. Meditation simply makes you conscious of them.

Just out of curiosity, since we are talking about areas around the throat chakra, how are you when you're in conversations with others? Do you feel relaxed and there's a natural flow of conversation or are you feeling like you need to force yourself in any way?

[WelcometoReality]

13 hours ago, LastThursday said:

Yes definitely, in my left hand, right shoulder and right thigh.  But there's hope.  I used to have a lot more tensions throughout my body (mostly neck and jaw areas) when meditating, and with concerted effort and focus over time they have gone.  It's taken me about a year to remove most of the tensions. I think it's a case of re-programming the body with constant repetition, and it can take a long time. I'd like to know if there's a quicker way.

Interesting, I've also had trouble with my left side. Thigh, shoulder, neck and feet. Have you tried stretching? 

These tensions seem to build up during daily life for me. How about you?