Imagine this: You sit down tomeditate.
At first, all is peaceful and quiet as you feel your breath moving slowly in and out.
This isnotat all what you expected to happen during meditation.
Teerasak Ainkeaw / EyeEm / Getty Images
You’re left wondering if this is normalor if something could be wrong with you.
After all, isn’t meditation supposed to make you feel better, not worse, right?
It turns out that crying during meditation is quite common.
This isn’t always a bad thing, though.
“Letting it all out” can ultimately be therapeutic.
Lets explore what to know about crying during meditation, why it happens, and how to cope.
Why Am I Crying During Meditation?
Many of us associate mediation with a time of calma chance to find emotional balance.
Research has found that adopting a meditation practice can reduce stress and anxiety.
Either way, meditation is when thesedifficult emotionsmight show up,sometimes without you even realizing it.
This is why you might find yourself crying during meditation.
Whatever crying during medication looks like for you, you should know that you aren’t alone.
It might just be your brain doing a little emotional housekeeping.
But if you find yourself crying out of nowhere mid-meditation, it can seem a little…unsettling.
So, what should you do with all those emotions?
And how do you actually cope?
Here are some tips that might help.
The truth is, though, that crying is not a sign of weakness at all.
Reframingyour crying as a positive thing can help you get through the moment.
For example you might change how you think so that you focus more on the benefits of crying.
That way, you’ve got the option to feel good about releasing as many tears as needed.
But thats not really how it works.
Eventually, the goal is to learn to let them go.
After a big cry, many people end up feeling exhausted, depleted, and vulnerable.
You might alsoconsider doing some journalingto help process the experience.
Get a notebook, set a timer for 10 minutes, and just write whatever comes into your mind.
You don’t need to show this to anyone.
But sometimes more difficult emotions come out while meditating.
For example, one study examined the effects of meditation experienced by participants in an 8-week meditation program.
Of those, 58% reported short-term adverse effects from meditation.
These includedtraumatic re-experiencing, hypersensitivity, and nightmares.
Another 6-14% reported adverse effects lasting longer than one month, includinghyperarousalanddissociation.
Takeaways
You might be taken aback if you end up crying during mediation.
After all, this was not what you signed up for!
Crying during meditation may feel inconvenient, and the crying itself might upset you more.
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