It’s a hectic morning. Client work multiplies exponentially as I rush to complete daily tasks and hit deadlines.
By mid-afternoon, stressed and overwhelmed, I retreat to a dark room to in search of mindful respite.
Part of this daily-ish routine involves utilising an effective technique for a psychological and spiritual recharge.
Let’s take a look.
Physical sensations
Feeling energy during meditation is a powerful sensation, at least in my experience.
For me, the phenomenon most commonly arises when performing a body scan meditation, although I also use it during open monitoring sessions.
Rather than something I’m seeking to cultivate, this energy is already present and as soon as we stop chasing our thoughts, we become aware enough to notice it.
Using this energy in my meditative practice has been beneficial for a few reasons:
- Awareness of the energy can get us out of our heads and into our bodies, providing a useful counterpoint to the excessive cognitive load of overthinking
- It helps us recognise that energy, like the breath, can be a useful object of meditation
- We can begin to understand that all objects of meditation, energy included, are just different aspects of consciousness. The only differences are the classifications we assign in our ego-driven mind
- Using energy is a contemplative practice which is both pleasant and restorative
The timeline to experience these benefits is uncertain, but incorporating it into your meditative routine is certainly recommended.
Feeling energy during meditation
Okay, let’s look at the nuts and bolts.
For afternoon meditation sessions, after a busy morning, I often choose a supine position.
Lying on my back, I place my awareness on my breath for 10-20 seconds, before moving my attention into my body.
I start at my feet, where the sensation of feedback is usually pronounced.
After dialing in my awareness, it’s common to experience energy as a whole body vibration, like a background hum or static.
You might also experience nerve-like tingling.
Even the contact of your body against the floor or bed has an observable aura.
These sensations are frequently pleasant, a kind of aliveness of being.
The feeling, with focus, can become relatively strong, often making me marvel at the bodily processes occurring automatically just under the surface of attention.
In addition to pleasant feedback, we might also experience pain, which can be edifying if investigated with patience and curiosity.
Like any other form of energy, pain can be reduced to its constituent sensations with practice.
As an example, I often experience discomfort from a chronic running injury and narrow my locus of attention on this point, without labelling the sensation.
I find this a useful exercise in escaping the tendency to categorise certain sensations as good and others as bad, a habit we frequently extend to external situations and subsequently our thoughts.
By meditating on the equality of every sensation, painful or otherwise, a useful lesson emerges in accepting whatever comes to pass, devoid of judgement.
After spending a few minutes on my feet, I move into different areas of my body to experience their corresponding energy fields.
During these transitions, it’s possible to note subtle differences in the energy signatures.
While some areas might feel more alive, others may produce a neurogenic feeling or even transmit a sensation of muscular tension.
When feeling energy during meditation, instead of moving towards it in my mind, and consciously geo-referencing it in a specific body part (like my foot),
I’ll let my attention fall back, experiencing the sensation in the open space of consciousness.
This helps break the illusion of ‘me’ controlling things in my head, and sensations being located elsewhere in my body.
In reality, everything, from thought to sound and even the energy you feel during this meditation is a construct of consciousness, a mind-made phenomenon.
Using the body scan meditation, you can investigate each sensation throughout your body, even into your head.
I find this particularly beneficial, as to me, my ego-driven mind almost feels like a ball of energy, like a contracted muscle in my mind.
By turning my attention on this sensation, it spontaneously relaxes and subsequently, there seems to be a gateway to a more spacious field of consciousness.
Intermittently, when performing this type of meditation, I experience a supercharged pulsating sensation, which feels like a deep seated waves of intensity, almost like I’m feeling the energy up close and in slow motion.
When sitting, it’s often accompanied by the feeling that my hands and feet are so heavy that they’re pinned to my lap and floor respectively.
Although this isn’t a feeling I attempt to court, it’s an enjoyable experience, often leaving me feeling extremely relaxed.
Floating in the energy field
There are many different ways of feeling energy during meditation, depending on where you’re focusing.
I feel it’s a beneficial component of any holistic meditation practice, and like other objects of attention, can be wonderfully instructive.
Most of the time, we’re trapped in our heads, so intermittently it’s nice to restore the mind-body connection, reminding ourselves of the aliveness that’s available in every moment.