New and needing help

[krymsonowl]

I finally decided to see if I can find help with a major problem I have in meditating. I have tried to do this for years and I can relax myself to a point as long as I leave any of the breathing techniques out of it.

Everytime I attempt to do the breathing or focus on my breathing I go into a panic. I try and breathe my way out of it but it does not work. I have to forget about the breathing and just relax. It has gotten worse lately to the point of becoming light headed as soon as I think about it.

Any ideas? Thoughts? Solutions?

[pollyanna]

Hi there and welcome to the community

You can download Discover Meditation from the top left of the community. It's brilliant, very easy to use and you don't need to focus on breathing.

You can also download the free LifeFlow demo, sit or lie down with eyes closed, with or without headphones and simply relax. Once you have practised Discover Meditation a few times, you can then practise meditating while playing LifeFlow quietly.

Here is an extremely helpful link to the principles of meditation and entrainment:-

Principles of Meditation & Entrainment

Let us know how you get along. Look forward to hearing how you progress and wish you much peace and joy

[GilesC]

I agree with Polly,

A common problem people ahve when starting breathing meditation is that they don't just become aware of the breathing and let it happen naturally, but actually focus on the breathing which causes them to think about how they are breathing and this leads to what is called forced breathing, i.e. you're trying to control how you breath, often trying to slow it down to try and relax yourself, but this actually prevents the body from breathing naturally and causes discomfort, dizziness, or event anxiety or panic attacks.

Likewise with other meditation techniques it's about being aware of the point of meditation, not focusing on it to the point of trying to control it with thoughts about it.

Hugs

Giles