Is My Meditation Normal?

During meditation, a person can have an innumerable amount of experiences -- from falling asleep to incessant thoughts.

Many people who are just starting to meditate question if they are doing it right, and sometimes quit out of frustration. The truth is every meditation is different, whether you are a pro or a novice at the practice.

Elevated Existence Magazine asked meditation expert and teacher Lorin Roche, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society and the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, Calif., to explain what some of these experiences mean, why they occur and if they are normal.

ELEVATED EXISTENCE (EE): When I sit to meditate, there are times I check my watch every five minutes because it seems time is moving so slowly, and then on another day, 30 minutes will go by, and it feels like only three.

ROCHE: This happens to me too. Accept both these extremes, and everywhere in between.

EE: I have had experiences during meditation where my mind is completely blank, and I feel like I have stopped breathing.

ROCHE: Accept this as a gift, and don’t expect it to happen for more than a second or two. If it lasts longer, fine. But even a little flash of this is refreshing.

EE: There are days when I sit to meditate and it seems 50,000 thoughts continue to flow through my mind, and I have to keep concentrating on going back to my mantra.

ROCHE: On those days, do not force yourself to go back to the mantra. It is enough to just sit there and tolerate the sensations that go with your to-do list. The basic thing the body/mind system wants to do is convert anxiety and pressure into excitement. Take the attitude of supporting this process. Welcome the process of the brain sorting through its lists, reviewing the actions to be taken and choreographing the day.

EE: One time during a meditation, I realized I could no longer feel my body at all, and I felt like I was not part of it anymore. I felt like I was floating above and looking down on myself mediating.

ROCHE: This is what extreme relaxation feels like to many people. If you can, arrange in advance to not be interrupted when you are meditating.

EE: On some days I feel like I could meditate for hours. On others, five minutes feels like too long, and I can’t sit for a full 20 minutes.

ROCHE: Do what works for you. I recommend having a schedule and more or less sticking to it. Set aside 20 minutes or half an hour for your meditation time, and if you are too restless, then have your journal and just sit there and write about what is agitating you. Or get up and dance if you do not want to sit still.

EE: Although I know I should make time to mediate, some days I am just operating on too high a gear to sit and relax.

ROCHE: Then don’t think of meditation as relaxing or slowing down. Think of it as lubricating your gears, or tuning your engine. Even race-car drivers pull over, make a pit-stop, have their windshield cleaned, the tank refilled and the tires changed.

EE: I have had days where I sit and meditate during a preplanned time, but sometimes I will meditate while I am on the go, such as during my train commute or even in the dentist chair to calm myself.

ROCHE: It is the same for me, even after 40 years of meditation. I’ve gone for months when I just meditated at odd moments, catch-as-catch-can. And other times, I have meditated consistently. When I look back, I got more done and made fewer mistakes when I was meditating consistently. I am amazed at how meditation always pays back the time I put into it and gives me much more than I put into it.
EE: When I am meditating, there are moments where I feel like I might have fallen asleep and my body jerks on its own and brings me back. I’m not sure if I fell asleep or entered what is known as “the gap between my thoughts.”

ROCHE: It is probably both. We all fall asleep in meditation for a few seconds here and there, and sometimes minutes. And on the way into sleep and out of it, we pass through these gaps.