Meditation is a very useful technique if applied correctly and in the right measure, but this is not the case.
Many people feel that meditation has saved their lives. And it makes sense: the modern world bombards them with permanent stimuli that cause both brutal stress and a loss of connection to their own emotions. In this sense, meditation is a bridge to oneself. Towards harmony and stillness from the to see things in a healthier way. Infected by these people, quite a few others are embracing meditation as well. But we are crashing into a reality that was never unimaginable: meditation can also make your life worse.
Well I cling to thinking that meditation solved all my problems, I said 😂
– pera (@elisa_pera) February 11, 2021
And no, these are not a few isolated cases. According to a 2019 investigation, which is echoed by the BBC a this post, “25% of regular meditators have experienced adverse events“In the sessions and after the sessions. Among them are panic attacks and depression, as well as a disturbing feeling of dissociation. The reason is that the same mechanisms that provide benefits to the brain represent a double-edged sword when they are activated very frequently or with great intensity. It all depends more on the nature of each person. There are no universal recipes.
One of these mechanisms is emotional regulation. As they claim from the BBC, strategies for mindfulness like conscious breathing or body scanning have effects to “the crust of the insula, a region that is involved in bodily perception and emotion.” This enhances our ability to connect with our emotions, but overweighting the optimal point of connection can lead us to become overly conscious. In the words of Willoughby Britton, a teaching psychiatrist at Brown University, “it’s like someone turned up the volume and the intensity of all emotions was stronger“.
How is it possible that # attention -something seemingly so beneficial to so many people- does it have such disturbing effects for some? https://t.co/UlujGUKHk6
– BBC News World (@bbcmundo) February 9, 2021
This explains why approximately 14% of people who meditate regularly suffer from panic attacks. We are much more sensitive. But as negative is this enormous emotional susceptibility to our lives as the complete emotional apathy that can be caused by another of the magical mechanisms of meditation: the activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. “In the right amount it can result in better focus and less emotional reactivity, but when taken beyond the optimal levels it can mitigate all emotions, both negative and positive“They say from the BBC.
In fact, up to 8% of the participants in the aforementioned research claimed to have experienced some sort of dissociation. Again in Britton’s words, ‘we’ve had an overwhelming number of people who communicated with the lab and said,‘I can’t feel anything, I don’t feel any love for my family“Finally, and beyond emotional regulation, meditation can also help in empowering attention. However,” when practiced too much it can cause anxiety, panic, and insomnia. “It’s not about ruling out, it’s about assess what amounts do us good.Like everything in this life, excess or bad practice end up doing anything harmful.