A variety of emotions can arise during meditation. Common feelings or states I have felt are bliss, creativity, being connected to a higher force, being small, or large, trance, time lapse, transformation, realization, discovery, expansiveness, consciousness, understanding, compassion, clarity, limitlessness, regression, awareness, concentration, fantasia, clean, pure, euphoria, translucent, open, or receptive. I believe that one should be open to emotions that arise, and recognize them. Do not pre-plan emotions, and do expect to have any emotions. Just let it happen. With all feelings during meditation, do not try to change them, let them transform naturally. Along with all these mental feelings during meditation comes a many different physical feelings.
During meditation it is common to feel like you are one with the world, and in these moments it feels as though you are a part of everything. It feels as though you are a part of your surroundings, the trees, the mountains, the entire landscape, the entire Earth. But the opposite feeling is also common, the feeling of being nothing. I don’t mean in a negative sense like feeling puny. It’s a feeling of being completely separate from the body. The only thing you exist as in this moment is consciousness. Nothing else is felt. These moments to me are feelings of pure meditative bliss.
Feeling uncomfortably taller than yourself, or uncomfortably smaller than yourself can be common during meditation. Sometimes you may feel like you are above your head, and your chest is where your head should be. And sometimes you may feel smaller than yourself. It feels as though your head is below your chest. These feelings usually happen to me if I go for 2 or more days without meditating. I suspect it is an imbalance because it no longer occurs after 2-4 meditations.
Some people speak of having a the third eye during meditation. The third eye is a feeling during meditation where both of your eyes seem to turn into one eye in the middle of the forehead. Experts have said that this activates the pituitary gland. Ancient peoples said that the third eyes was the seat of the soul. When I first discovered my third eye, it seemed as though the eye was always looking down. Years later I noticed that my third eye was looking up. I do not suggest making your third eye appear unless you have already found it in a meditative state. It is a discovery during meditation, not a form of meditation.
Sometimes a state of trance will be present when you are immersed in thoughtlessness. Many people do Transcendental Meditation, also known as TM. It is taught a form of meditation, but for met the transcendental state is a feeling during meditation, more than a way to meditate. Like the third eye, it comes a result of meditation. I’ve found that a transcendental state is present when the mind is occupied in thoughtlessness. I believe that a trance or transcendental should just be felt, and not forced. Just let it happen. As trance or transcendental states become more common, be aware of the thoughts that arise during these moments. These thoughts are sacred, and can be of importance in your life. If you let the thought flow through and continue, make sure to journal about it. The thoughtlessness during a transcendental state is pure clarity.
At times during meditation it may feel as though you are engulfed in energy. It may produce thoughts or give you hot and cold sensations. Just be in the energy, and allow it to move through you. Experience the moment without thinking about it. At times it may also seem like you are engulfed in a colored light. Experience the feeling without putting emphasis on it. By just allowing the light or energy to just be, you may experience it, and it may bring you a message, or higher feeling.
I have heard people refer to the thoughtlessness during meditation as the gap. Opening the gap slows down the mind and allows creativity to emerge. The gap is the space between thoughts. Achieving thoughtlessness is spacing out the time between thoughts. Opening the gap seems to create less stress on the mind. It doesn’t slow down the thought process, it makes thoughts more acute.
I have heard many people say that they can’t meditate because they can’t stop their thoughts from arising. It’s human nature to think! Your thinking process will never go away. Allow thoughts to arise without giving them focus. The conscious mind doesn’t stop thoughts, it thinks. Using meditation techniques or methods, it gives your mind a focus to put you in a meditative state. By staying focused on the meditation process consistently, thoughts will come up less and less.
Sometimes while meditating it may feel as though you just want to go to sleep. If you must sleep, then consciously stop the meditation, be aware, and go to sleep. Some people say during meditation that they feel as though they are dreaming awake. Tests have shown that deep meditation does reach brain levels in between sleep and awake.
When I have my first conscious thought after a deep meditation, it often feels like I have been meditating for a short time, maybe a few minutes. But then I realize that 20 minutes has passed. I can only explain it as the gap between thoughts is timeless, but my physical body is a part of time. Whatever it means, I come back more conscious and aware in the present moment.
At times I have had several wonderful meditations, and then one day comes and I have a very uncomfortable meditation. It seems I cannot meditate. I try and try, but it’s difficult to let the mind be at ease, and it is not enjoyable. I believe it to be an energetic blockage. I make sure to continue meditating daily without miss after having an experience like this. It has usually proven to me to be a sign that a self discovery is available. After 3-4 meditations the blockage goes away, and my meditations become better than ever. I feel that through the evolution of our own meditative state we go deeper and deeperbreaking through barriers in the mind.
During meditation strange things can happen that are not always easy to explain. Sometimes you may hear voices or words. Sometimes you may hear odd things like industrial noises or even a high pitched buzzing sound. Sometimes I have seen symbols like diamonds, or a triangle. Anomalies are not uncommon during meditation. It’ possible that you may not hear, see, or experience anything out of the ordinary during meditation. But the important thing I emphasize is to not plan your experience during meditation, and do not expect anything to happen. Simply let the experience unravel on its own.
