I find what Iluminada said very true; I have extremely poor posture and I’ve constantly been told not to do so. I blame it on minor scoliosis.
Anyway, I’ve also had that problem with meditation. I sit in full-lotus which almost automatically positions the back straight. I find that at times I can’t keep the meditating up because of the strain on my back, not my legs… I’m often limited to 15 minute sessions by this.
But I think this problem is just like any other physical strain. The first time you run a mile, you’re completely exhaused. The next time less so, and before you know it, you’re jogging to school every day! (Okay, so I exaggerated there. Nyeh.)
Last night I tried the quiet meditation tecnique, and i sat in a chair (its like a one person leather sofa) but i had my legs sticking out onto my bed on some pillow. This meditation was a great experience, and when i awoke, or whatever, i felt really good. But then i moved my neck shortly after and it felt like there was a metal rod in it, it hurt really bad. Im not sure if its because there was nothing supporting my neck(there is a back to it, but my head wasnt laid back),and it was just hanging (bad posture). But the other thing that happend was that when i got up, and went downstairs, is that i started to feel my heart beat fast, and get sharp pains in it. Im guesing that the thing with my heart is unrelated to my meditating, cause its supposed to relax, and i had been sitting down in my room for at least ten minutes before i got up and went downstairs. But the neck pains were im sure from the meditation. I guese i just wanted to know if anyone else has had these neck pains, and if there’s anything to do to help, like if I put a pillow behind my head.
Well, when you slouch you actually use more muscles than when you maintain good posture.
If I’m to understand right and you meditated while letting your head hang and then got up, there’s a big possibility that you put strain on those muscles. Because you experienced pain your heart rate increases naturally.
Try giving yourself more time to recover after a meditation period and don’t get up so quickly. Don’t hang your head either.
As far as MatrixManNe0, I believe that the correct posture and positioning, such as the lotus position, comes with time and practice.
Alot of the readings and books you come across are from people who have been practicing for quite some time. So, take that into consideration.
Work on your waking day posture and go slow on the amount of time while meditating, slowly increase it as you feel your posture improving. Most importantly, stretch before and after.
Im not quite sure why i wrote “hanging”, cause my head wasn’t hanging to my knowledege, It just had no support, cause i didnt have my head laid back.
And my head could have been leaning foward a little maybe, which could be enough do cause pain later. But i think my head was pretty much straight. So i guese i just messed up when i was typing or i was tired.
But i did get up shortly after i woke up, after i could actually move that is, and got into my bed sitting up, and just turned on the tv for 5-10 minutes till i went downstairs.
But im gonna meditate again tonight, and I’m certainly gonna stretch beforehand this time, I never would have thought of that. Thanks for the suggestions
In fact, when I started meditating, I also started to use more of a proper posture during my day. This is because I’ve noticed that when I improve my posture, my mood also goes up automatically most of the time. I’m assuming that changing my posture so drastically during the day caused some of the stress on my back, and this could have contributed to my pains. Fortunately, I haven’t experienced these pains in a while. This is why I’m so suprised to see all these post here.
