Spaciness in activity

Dear Jimbo,

Thanks for this great question. Usually, most questions about meditation have fallen into the categories of "good experience of transcending", "good experience of stress release", or "a little too much stress release". So most of the questions have been easy to answer.

What you have described falls into all three categories. It is good transcending, since your mind feels "light" and you feel great afterward. It is good stress release since you feel a "fantastic" pressure in your head. It is also "a little too much stress release" because you feel too spacey and mispronounce words, which show that stress release is continuing into activity in spite of resting and lying down after meditation.

You aren't doing anything wrong. In your case, the solution doesn't lie in the field of silence (that is, in your practice), but in the field of activity. You are probably resting too much for the kind of activity you do during the day.

We need a balance between deep rest and dynamic activity. When we don't get it, we develop problems that show that lack of balance. If we have too much activity (such as concentrating on the syllable, or skipping meditation), we will begin to accumulate stress every day, and our life will get worse day by day and year by year. If we have too much rest (such as lying down too much, or not engaging in sufficient activity during the day), we develop spaciness.

The solution is to balance rest and activity. Sit in silence but don't lie down after each session, and increase your daily activity (go for long walks, work out in a gym, play sports, or practice Pranayama and Hatha Yoga after one of your daily meditation sessions).

Please keep us informed of ways in which you adjust your life and practice, and of the results. I'm sure you will find it easy to eliminate these unwanted symptoms of insufficient activity.

Don't reduce your meditation time. We only recommend reducing the meditation time in certain situations--we consider doing that as a last resort when nothing else works to reduce problems related to the elimination of stress.

David Spector
NSR Meditation/USA