Can't feel

[mindtooloud]

I can't feel any emotions, not sad, not happy, not angry, not scared, nothing.

Occasionally I would feel a dreadful panick that I would ignore until it would go away, and I would return to feeling nothing. Does anyone know what is causing this or how to fix it.

I honestly don't mind it because i don't deal with any emotions but i suspect it is hindering with my meditation and stopping me from feeling any energy and not allowing me to meditate.

[Marblehead]

Yes, that would be troublesome.

 

I suppose I should ask:  Are you sure you can't feel emotions or are you just ignoring them?

 

If it is true that you can't feel them I would suggest that there is something in your past that caused you to shut them down.

 

I don't want to get personal so that's all the further I will go.

[mindtooloud]

Yes, that would be troublesome.

 

I suppose I should ask: Are you sure you can't feel emotions or are you just ignoring them?

 

If it is true that you can't feel them I would suggest that there is something in your past that caused you to shut them down.

 

I don't want to get personal so that's all the further I will go.

I don't know if i'm ignoring them but if I am ignoring them i'm not doing it consciously. I try feeling but it's like theres just nothing to feel.

I try to meditate and when i can't feel anything i just give up and stip trying.

[Kar3n]

I don't know if i'm ignoring them but if I am ignoring them i'm not doing it consciously. I try feeling but it's like theres just nothing to feel.

I try to meditate and when i can't feel anything i just give up and stip trying.

 

Stop grasping at trying to feel, that is probably your biggest hindrance in experiencing anything while meditating.

It might take a little bit, but once you drop the expectations of 'feeling' energy or anything else, it will happen spontaneously.

[mindtooloud]

Stop grasping at trying to feel, that is probably your biggest hindrance in experiencing anything while meditating.

It might take a little bit, but once you drop the expectations of 'feeling' energy or anything else, it will happen spontaneously.

I somehow can't stop trying, but i will try harder to stop trying (i suspect this also is something i shouldn't do) i just don't know how to let go, and if i do i think i fall asleep

[Kar3n]

I somehow can't stop trying, but i will try harder to stop trying (i suspect this also is something i shouldn't do) i just don't know how to let go, and if i do i think i fall asleep

 

Just start with a about 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes before bed; focus on your breath. If your mind wanders off, come back to the breath. You will eventually get the hang of it. As time goes on, you will be able to go for longer periods of time with out thinking or trying.

 

If you fall asleep, that's ok too. You can always meditate when you wake up

Edited June 25, 2016 by Kar3n

[CelibacySeeker]

I can't feel any emotions, not sad, not happy, not angry, not scared, nothing.

Occasionally I would feel a dreadful panick that I would ignore until it would go away, and I would return to feeling nothing. Does anyone know what is causing this or how to fix it.

I honestly don't mind it because i don't deal with any emotions but i suspect it is hindering with my meditation and stopping me from feeling any energy and not allowing me to meditate.

 

Just note it

[Michael Sternbach]

It's quite possible that you are blocking certain emotions. The occassional panick attacks might be an indication of sudden release. What is the panic about? Is it specific to certain issues or without any obvious subject?

 

Anyways, I agree with others that you should not try to force yourself to feel something. Try to relax in your state. There are many kinds of meditation; for some, i.e. Zen, it would actually be desirable not to feel anything.

 

This is not to say that suppressing emotions is a good thing, but do go easy on yourself. You are going through a certain stage. Give yourself attention and patience you need - I'm pretty sure your emotions will return when you are ready to deal with them.

[C T]

Sometimes we dont need to know the cause(s) in order to begin rectifying certain unsatisfactory life conditions. For example, if you get shot in the leg by a poisonous arrow, there is the immediate call to remove it without having to first undertake some analysis as to why you were shot and who shot you. 

 

In my experience, one of the most effective antidote you can apply to address this seeming lack of emotions is to remove the focus on yourself and redirect it towards doing something good and altruistic for others, no matter how insignificant it may be at the beginning. You can begin by generating one simple intention each day that you want to help another being (any sentient being, not just humans) - just to do a little something to bring a tiny bit of comfort and happiness to them - to make a difference - it could be something as simple as intentionally helping your neighbour to walk the dog, assisting a retiree at the supermarket to carry shopping bags, with a smile of course, pick up an earthworm thats struggling on the tarmac to get back on the grass, volunteer at some charitable organisation or animal shelter, offer to clean someone's backyard, the list is endless. Start small, but do at least one good thing a day, and complete the action with as much mindful awareness and good intention as possible, with the aim of noticing how your actions actually bring some relief to others, just as you want relief for yourself. 

 

Dont accept nor expect any compensation, and if someone were to ask you why you are doing it, you can be honest with the answer - tell them you are trying to generate more energy, empathy, and compassion in yourself in order to stabilise your meditation practice. By doing this, you are basically taking the necessary steps to rebalance and to address this contractive state you find yourself in now. The problem wont address itself, and probably will become more acute unless you first begin to give something out before you get to gain something back. Thinking and analysis is not giving something. If anything, it will only mire you in more helplessness. 

 

My tuppence 

Edited June 26, 2016 by C T

[Papayapple]

Beautiful advice C T! Yes I noticed that this definitely helps. Recommended to anyone haha.

[Jim D.]

It is impossible to be altruistic when you are hurting. Try this experiment. Take a hammer and hit your thumb with it. Now try to be empathic with someone.

 

In my professional opinion, there seems to be trauma in your life that has not been dealt with. It is true that Panic symptoms are your consciousness recognizing this, and it scares you, even for a moment. Then this stored memory is defended again by the walls of defenses that had to be placed there in order for you to deal with it. Historically, you have had this for a while. And there has been some other negative experiences experienced on top of the trauma. Kinda like levels of experiences going all the way back to your childhood...some good, some bad. Well, it takes a lot of psychic energy to hold all that down out of your awareness. But as we age, our ability to hold down stored negativity/trauma becomes compromised by life stressors. It is too much to deal with. Take out a piece of paper and draw many lines starting from the top down. The top is your awareness line. The bottom line is when you were born. Look at it as a time line from birth to now. At each line write down the negative experiences you have had. The lines are the defenses a person has to use, walls to keep the those umpleasant experiences from reaching our awareness. But sometimes there is a crack in the wall, and the trauma and negativity combine and shoot up to our awareness causing a Panick Attack. After defending ourselves all our lives we just become numb to it all which equals no feeling. Depression is a bed fellow along with Anxiety as well.

[C T]

It is impossible to be altruistic when you are hurting. Try this experiment. Take a hammer and hit your thumb with it. Now try to be empathic with someone.

 

It may be more challenging but certainly not impossible. If its impossible no one would practice altruism because almost everyone hurts, have hurt and will hurt, on some level & at some point. Imagine this scenario: if at the moment your thumb gets hit by a hammer and you get a phone call seconds after saying one of your siblings just met with a serious accident and is on the way to hospital, are you going to continue nursing your sore thumb? This is of course an extreme example, but one that challenges your insistence on the impossibility of altruism under a cloud of hurt. 

 

Some terminally ill parents, especially those with younger children, have been known to experience an increase in their love and devotion for the kids after finding out about their illness. While they may at the same time experience a decrease in their physical health, the illness actually promote a stronger bond within the family.

 

Altruism works on the heart level - its power to heal is born from shifting focus on one's troubles by enlarging one's understanding that if we desire healing, or seek transformation of hurtful emotions, we have to first be willing to set up the conditions where such a transformation can occur in a healthy way. And there is no more effective way to initiate this transformation than to openly regard that we are not victims despite our setback, that we are still able to help others and alleviate the discomfort of fellow beings - this rebuilds esteem, is extremely empowering, and works from the core of being to bring about positive changes. 

 

Anyway the OP did not state that he or she is hurting emotionally, only that he or she is experiencing difficulty in understanding why presently there is this empty feeling inside. 

[Jim D.]

CT, take a closer look at my model regarding psychic pain. Do you submit to me that over time there is a deadening of emotions from the layer of defenses. The gentlemen from Arabia did say that he was concerned that he could not feel. He is reaching out for answers. My impression is that he is scared that he cannot feel. Therefore my help.

 

Regarding the cancer patient example. Cancer can be painfull but it is treatable with pain killers which deadens the sense of pain therefore the aware of the body's state of affairs.

 

Look at the thumb/hammer example again and ask yourself this question, I am going to answer the phone and become instantly empathic to the caller who has just told you that their wife/husband is divorcing them? Yes, after the pain subsides over a few minutes and the person has enough personal growth to relate to their friends pain. I would say that altruism is possible, but not probable. But let me say this, true altruism does not exist because in your heart of hearts, you don't do anything without a payoff. If you say you do, then your denying that your are selfish which is not realistic. To be self-less is impossible. Unless you're Jesus up there on the Cross telling His Father "Forgive them for they know not what they do!"

 

Even Victor Frankel, a concentration camp victim was being selfish when he went around trying to comfort other prisoners. As he did this he remembered  the why of their existence and remarked in his book that it was the ones that practiced the how of their existence that lived longer, or survived. Victor made some money off their suffering by writing a book about it. It might have been closer to altruism if he did not write the book and just let it be.

 

Have you ever heard the saying "you can't keep what you don't give away?"  This is how it is that I offer my help.

[C T]

CT, take a closer look at my model regarding psychic pain. Do you submit to me that over time there is a deadening of emotions from the layer of defenses. The gentlemen from Arabia did say that he was concerned that he could not feel. He is reaching out for answers. My impression is that he is scared that he cannot feel. Therefore my help.

 

Regarding the cancer patient example. Cancer can be painfull but it is treatable with pain killers which deadens the sense of pain therefore the aware of the body's state of affairs.

 

Look at the thumb/hammer example again and ask yourself this question, I am going to answer the phone and become instantly empathic to the caller who has just told you that their wife/husband is divorcing them? Yes, after the pain subsides over a few minutes and the person has enough personal growth to relate to their friends pain. I would say that altruism is possible, but not probable. But let me say this, true altruism does not exist because in your heart of hearts, you don't do anything without a payoff. If you say you do, then your denying that your are selfish which is not realistic. To be self-less is impossible. Unless you're Jesus up there on the Cross telling His Father "Forgive them for they know not what they do!"

 

Even Victor Frankel, a concentration camp victim was being selfish when he went around trying to comfort other prisoners. As he did this he remembered  the why of their existence and remarked in his book that it was the ones that practiced the how of their existence that lived longer, or survived. Victor made some money off their suffering by writing a book about it. It might have been closer to altruism if he did not write the book and just let it be.

 

Have you ever heard the saying "you can't keep what you don't give away?"  This is how it is that I offer my help.

Guess we will just have to agree to disagree. 

[mindtooloud]

It's quite possible that you are blocking certain emotions. The occassional panick attacks might be an indication of sudden release. What is the panic about? Is it specific to certain issues or without any obvious subject?

 

 

Its mostly a general panic, but i think the topic is "what am i doing with my life?" "Am i doing something thats gonna mess up my future?"

But then i tell my self theres nothing wrong with doing nothing(devoting my life to meditation) and ignore the feeling.

[mindtooloud]

pick up an earthworm thats struggling on the tarmac to get back on the grass,

 

Funnily enough i came accross an earth worm struggling on hard surface struggling to get back to on the grass.

Thanks for the advice

[mindtooloud]

It is impossible to be altruistic when you are hurting. Try this experiment. Take a hammer and hit your thumb with it. Now try to be empathic with someone.

 

In my professional opinion, there seems to be trauma in your life that has not been dealt with. It is true that Panic symptoms are your consciousness recognizing this, and it scares you, even for a moment. Then this stored memory is defended again by the walls of defenses that had to be placed there in order for you to deal with it. Historically, you have had this for a while. And there has been some other negative experiences experienced on top of the trauma. Kinda like levels of experiences going all the way back to your childhood...some good, some bad. Well, it takes a lot of psychic energy to hold all that down out of your awareness. But as we age, our ability to hold down stored negativity/trauma becomes compromised by life stressors. It is too much to deal with. Take out a piece of paper and draw many lines starting from the top down. The top is your awareness line. The bottom line is when you were born. Look at it as a time line from birth to now. At each line write down the negative experiences you have had. The lines are the defenses a person has to use, walls to keep the those umpleasant experiences from reaching our awareness. But sometimes there is a crack in the wall, and the trauma and negativity combine and shoot up to our awareness causing a Panick Attack. After defending ourselves all our lives we just become numb to it all which equals no feeling. Depression is a bed fellow along with Anxiety as well.

Interesting perspective,