strong emotions and meditation

[wenwu]

has any one had the experience of heightened awareness/intensity of emotions through their practices?

 

i have been practicing standing for about 4 years now and for the last few years i have been noticing from time to time really strong emotions, often it is anger i am afraid. this is a little strange as i am a fairly calm person by nature i don't have a bad temper have a lot of patient

 

at the moment it is not a big problem, i can sit back a watch the feels rise in me and then fade away, I have outlets for any anger i may feels. but it is just interesting to me

 

has anyone else experienced this?

[Gerard]

That is all the garbage placed by "society" in the lesser spirits that rule your organs.

 

Keep going, the process is going to take you sometime.Years maybe depending on how much poison is in there.

 

Do you practice Chi Kung, walking meditation, IMA? They will speed up the cleaning process.

 

Good luck!!!

[Eric23]

Yoga asanas that work on the hips quite often stir up emotions. Take note of what you've been processing and let it go. Like you, sometimes it seems I've been storing up some anger and the asana brings it to the surface. Much better to bring it up and out rather than keep it in.

[freeform]

often it is anger i am afraid. this is a little strange as i am a fairly calm person by nature i don't have a bad temper have a lot of patient

 

Yes!

 

We tend to have natural emotion suppressing qualities. Sadness and anger are the most prevalent...

 

It's especially because you're calm and patient that the anger comes up (I'm the same as you) - if you really pay attention throughout your day you'll notice how easily anger is triggered in you and how quickly you manage to suppress it.

 

You might also start to notice (as I did) how many choices in life you made mostly to keep you from feeling anger... (you probably started qi gong to get away from anger!!)

 

For me this revelation was an immense shock! (It made me very angry !!) It turned out that all my 'spiritual work' wasn't bringing more anger up, it was just making me very aware of how much anger I really feel - almost all the time, but manage to conceal in incredibly elaborate ways.

 

This is hard to swallow - so I don't expect you to right now.

 

Just become more aware of anger in general - stay in it, don't let it fade. You might discover a different side to anger (which is kind of like 'motivation') - but you really need to let anger completely envelop you, and then just sit with it. don't attempt to get rid of it...

 

By the way - this means you're on the right track - and doing great... (from my experience)

[Spiritual_Aspirant]

Perhaps your practice is loosening up your emotional blockages. Meditations like Microcosmic orbit, Meditation on Twin hearts, or any practice that circulates energy tends to do this.

[Bruce]

Meditation certainly can dredge up feelings, and this one seems to be quite common. You can take the positive view and look upon this as progress. It sounds to me like you are handling it well, as you say you can watch it rise and fall. That's great! Just sit with that, or stand with that in your case. Eventually, you may drill back to a root cause, or not. I think the key is to watch the emotion impassionately. It rises and falls, like you said, just like any other thought. When you can see that the anger really has no substance, then you can begin to understand it.

 

Cheers,

Bruce

[wenwu]

thanks for your replies everyone it is good to know that i am not alone/crazy/regressing

 

to answer some questions

 

I study bagua, i tend to do more of the stand meditation than the walking because of space, but i intend to find a way around this

 

Free form

 

yeah i hear you, we are all told not to get angry and that can make it easier to suppress the feelings

 

Bruce

 

it is good to now this is a sign of progress, i was really beginning to fret that i was regressing

[doc benway]

I've been and continue to go through similar feelings. As your meditation improves, your thoughts quiet and you will become much more aware of deeper feelings that have been repressed, ignored, dormant, and so forth. This is a normal process and ultimately very healthy. Unfortunately, it can lead to extreme stress, fear, anxiety, and,rarely, an exacerbation of mental illness in susceptible people. This is one of the reasons it is valuable to study meditation with a teacher. As long as you are able to simply be with those feelings, whatever they are like, without too much stress, just watch and learn. Meditation is getting to know yourself at a very deep level. If the stress, fear, or anxiety get overwhelming, get some guidance from someone with experience in meditation or someone with an interest in meditaiton and psychology.

Good luck in your training.

PS It's even more intense when practicing sitting....

[CarsonZi]

Namaste wenwu....

 

What you are experiencing is in my experience quite common....Letting the emotions pass while in meditation is a good approach.....If the emotions persist outside of meditation I would suggest that you make sure you take sufficient time to rest after your practices. And participate in some grounding activities like walking, washing dishes, scrubbing your toilet etc. IMO these emotional "releases" are a natural part of the "housecleaning" cause by the practice of meditation. Hope this helps a little.

 

Love,

Carson

[fizix]

Energy and emotions work together; the more energy you buildup, the more potential emotional 'energy' you can feel. This can be both good and bad. One one side of the sword, you have the divine power of the emotion of love, which can overcome anything. On the other side, if you have a significant amount of energy cultivated from your practice, you may experience extreme levels of anger fueled by your energy, which can lead to some unwanted outcomes if you have not cultivated the willpower/discipline as well to control your emotions. That is why it is important in energy practice to cultivate aspects of the Tao instead of solely focusing on chi/energy work.