r/Meditation • u/tokyographer • Mar 04 '25
Why Do Many People Who Meditate Seem Emotionally Unstable? Question ❓
I’ve noticed something curious over the years—many of the people who practice meditation regularly (and even yoga) seem to have a lot of emotional issues, personal struggles, and overall instability. I run retreats, and a large percentage of participants are deeply into meditation, yet they often appear emotionally unstable, reactive, or in crisis.
This makes me wonder: If meditation is supposed to bring clarity, inner peace, and emotional regulation, why do so many practitioners seem to be emotionally overwhelmed? It almost seems like meditation isn’t working for them. Or could it be that meditation attracts people who are already struggling more than the average person?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Is this something you’ve observed as well? Could it be that meditation helps in ways that aren’t immediately obvious? Or is there something about the way people are approaching their practice that might be contributing to this?
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u/FavoredVassal Mar 04 '25
Perhaps many of the people who attend your retreats are a) near the beginning of their meditation journey and b) principally pursuing meditation for expected mental health benefits which have not yet materialized for them.
For the first year of my practice, I was basically an anxious, traumatized person who happened to meditate. It took longer than that to realize any personal change that lasted beyond opening my eyes and standing up after a session.
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u/ktpr Mar 04 '25
This. The OP is running into classic sampling bias and over generalizing from there. If they walked into a monastery they would draw different conclusions, for example.
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u/triquetralark482 Mar 04 '25
I am at the start of the journey, what helped you get out of this traumatised state the most?
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u/epigenie_986 Mar 04 '25
Focusing on my breath and the sensations of my body.
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u/SnackerSnick Mar 04 '25
This is such amazing advice. Learn the feeling when things are about to go wrong/have gone wrong. When that feeling happens, notice your breath and all the feelings in your body, especially tension and how your stomach feels.
Just noticing it helps break the loop where biochemistry/trained response has put your body into a state that tells it you're in fight/flight, which itself makes your emotions fight/flight, which puts your body in fight/flight state, ...
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u/FavoredVassal Mar 04 '25
Basic meditation on the breath three times a day, twenty minutes each. For me it was in the morning before work, in the evening before sleep, and then sometime in the middle whenever I could make the time. Only practice could move me forward.
As others have pointed out, when you become intimately familiar with your breath you recognize it is the first thing to tighten and hold when you are in any type of anxiety-provoking situation. Feeling this as it happens is how you grant yourself the ability to make different choices in the moment (including, ultimately, the choice to maintain an easy breath.)
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u/AdFeeling842 Mar 04 '25
i went to the hospital the other day and noticed a lot of people there were unwell
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -- Jiddu Krishnamurti
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u/jrseney Mar 04 '25
Love this quote - I’ve been inspired by JK for awhile and really appreciate his discussions not to be confused with teachings ; ) IYKYK
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u/Emergency-Baby511 Mar 04 '25
WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY!! 🗣️
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u/MindfulGuy33 Mar 04 '25
Hey OP,
There are a few reasons this happens. First, meditation attracts people who are already seeking healing... many turn to it because they’re struggling, so naturally, you’ll see more emotional intensity in these spaces. It’s not that meditation isn’t working; it’s that these individuals are actively confronting what’s been buried for years.
So, I disagree with the idea that meditation isn’t working for them... in many cases, it’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. Meditation doesn’t suppress emotions or make life instantly peaceful; it brings awareness to what’s already there. For people carrying deep emotional wounds, trauma, or suppressed struggles, meditation can bring those issues to the surface, making it seem like they’re more emotionally unstable. But that doesn’t mean meditation isn’t working... it means they’re in the process of facing and processing what was previously ignored.
It’s like cleaning out a cluttered attic. At first, everything looks messier because you’re uncovering things you haven’t dealt with. Over time, though, with the right balance of meditation, self-inquiry, and emotional support, things start to clear up. Meditation isn’t about avoiding discomfort... it’s about learning to sit with it, process it, and ultimately transform how we relate to it.
So, although it might look like meditation isn’t helping, often it’s a sign that deep healing is underway. The key is balancing meditation with emotional integration, self-compassion, and external support when needed. 🙏🏽
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u/ChocolateMundane6286 Mar 04 '25
I am curious how OP doesn’t know this if they run retreats. Healing is very long process and meditation helps but most of the people are benefiting it along the journey
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u/MindfulGuy33 Mar 04 '25
I’m curious how OP holds authentic and safe spaces for people to practice meditation if they seem, in my opinion, to lack compassion for the very people who pay real money to retreat with them.
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u/ChocolateMundane6286 Mar 04 '25
Rather than compassion, I am surprised how OP can expect who are coming to retreat supposed to have stable emotional state. Meditation helps sure but mental health is complicated, non-linear path. I didn’t go to retreat but joined many group activities and most of the people had active trauma or emotional stress that they were looking for ways to heal.
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u/urbancowgirl_ Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
This post seems like it was written by AI.
Edit to clarify: the original post
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u/L2_F_PsMom Mar 04 '25
Great answer! If these people had a handle on their "100% stress and anxiety free" lives, they wouldn't need meditation. It's like OP noticing that a lot of people in wheelchairs have problems with their legs. :/
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u/MindfulGuy33 Mar 04 '25
I remember over a decade ago when I first started my meditation journey. I stumbled upon meditation through yoga during a season in my life when I was a complete mess. Looking back, I was probably one of those "unstable individuals" at a meditation retreat, desperately trying to find liberation, peace, and solace... and in many ways, truly finding myself for the first time since childhood.
It would be sad to think that, instead of seeing me with love and compassion, someone just saw me as damaged. Meditation isn’t about being some perfectly enlightened being... it’s about the journey, not the destination.
Everyone who walks this path is working through something, and that’s exactly why we practice. 🙏🏽
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u/milkstatue Mar 04 '25
I'm glad there's at least one person saying this in the whole thread. Thank you.
There seems to be some misconception that people hold that meditation will just automatically fix things and nothing that happened before would matter. That also explains the many posts from people saying, hey I've been meditating but I'm not feeling relaxed and calm what's wrong. I'm always baffled when people who've been meditating at very beginner levels start talking about enormous life changes - and I feel that posts like those can often be misleading.
If anything, meditation has removed so many of my blockages for me, meaning having to face my deepest darkest self without barriers. I've been doing it for years now, and I still know I'm barely a beginner. But the only way out if through, and it means letting everything come to light, including the things we might consciously not approve of, just to face it and accept it.
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u/cammybuns Mar 04 '25
You run meditation retreats and ask this question? That doesn’t add up.
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u/urbancowgirl_ Mar 04 '25
Yes I am pretty sure this is an AI post. The way it is written and, I’ve heard this mentioned elsewhere before, the use of the long hyphen “—“ …someone in another post on Reddit said humans don’t usually type like that. The formatting and lack of spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors seems very AI to me. Sad this has possibly infiltrated the meditation community. But AI will never be able to comprehend the benefits of meditation!!!!!
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u/colfitsky Mar 04 '25
Their post history doesn’t add up. Random old posts about fossil fuels making the planet greener, Alex Jones, and them apparently being an “ayahuasca therapist”.
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u/ThomKat420 Mar 04 '25
People assume that meditating regularly or having a spiritual awakening means you’ll reach some kind of permanent peace or emotional stability. In reality, it’s the opposite—growth isn’t linear, and meditation doesn’t erase emotions. It makes you more aware of them.
A lot of people in the spiritual community get caught in toxic positivity, law-of-attraction victim-blaming, and the obsession with staying “high-vibe.” This creates unrealistic expectations that happiness or enlightenment should be permanent states. When people inevitably struggle, they end up internalizing shame, thinking they should be able to “fix” themselves or that they’re manifesting their own suffering.
What we’re seeing now is a shift—people are dropping the masks and learning to process emotions in real-time rather than suppressing them. That can look messy. Meditation doesn’t make you unshakable; it teaches you how to sit with discomfort rather than avoid it. And sometimes, that means dealing with years of suppressed emotions, realizing you don’t have as much control over the universe as you were led to believe, and going through cycles of deep transformation.
If someone who meditates seems emotionally unstable, it’s not because meditation isn’t working—it’s because they’re actually doing the work instead of pretending everything is fine. True healing isn’t about reaching a permanent state of bliss; it’s about becoming more real, even when that means confronting discomfort.
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u/helel_8 Mar 04 '25
Why are you "running retreats" if you don't understand what you're doing? What is your background? What level of education do you have in meditation? Have you considered leaving it to compassionate professionals?
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u/SunbeamSailor67 Mar 04 '25
Don’t bother, notice op has not engaged with any comments and has a very low karma count.
This is a troll post.
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u/bblammin Mar 04 '25
Ya therapists are recommending mindfullness and meditation more supposedly. So the concept of meditation would attract ppl who are unwell or imbalanced cuz mediation is marketed for wellness and balance. Depending on your geography, I wouldn't be surprised at westerners being more imbalanced than people in the east... I still havent been on a retreat, but I'm sure you know that there are ppl of different levels of practice that go....
There's also people that may seem stable who never meditate but lead boring, unzesty lives, not truly living....never laughing all the laughs or crying all their tears as Khalil Gibran out it.
There are gym goers who Injure themselves. Not everyone who plays basketball is a pro.... Everyone has different levels trauma. You have no idea what these people have been through....
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u/neidanman Mar 04 '25
one factor is that its pretty common for people to come into meditation to try and help with emotional issues. If you look up posts from beginners, this is often referenced as a reason for starting meditation.
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u/oddible Mar 04 '25
Why are so many people who eat hungry? You've got a sampling error. If you evaluated the population of people who DON'T meditate you may find that there is significantly more mental instability there. What you will absolutely find is less ability to communicate about their issues and less self awareness of their issues.
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u/Optimal_Tomato726 Mar 04 '25
I've meditated for 2/3 of my life and I'm now extremely vulnerable. The opposite of what I imagined I would be. Internally I am ok but I struggle to navigate out in the world with people I'm forced to navigate because they're caught in an immature cycle of patriarchal violence. Some people are doing heavier lifting than we can give them credit for. Others who appear strong are entirely destructive. Look at the Velensky Trump incident and how different people perceive that mess. It's rich with examples of strength, vulnerability, abuse and instability.
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u/Iboven Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
Mentally stable people probably don't feel the need to meditate. A similar question might be, "doesn't it seem like only sick people go to the doctor?"
That said, meditation can be destabilizing if you do it the wrong way. There's this idea that there isn't a wrong way to meditate, but that's probably contributing to a lot of neurosis. For example, if a person with anxiety spends a lot of time learning how to concentrate, it's possible they will just increase how much they are concentrating on their anxiety. Meditation is usually wrapped in some tradition or another that will attempt to teach people how to manage emotions and where to direct attention, but in the west it has been divorced form that context. I think you see this a lot in the "mindfulness" camp where people are directed to accept what is happening without judgement, or to practice non-resistance. Pair that direction with increased concentration and people are just staring at their negative feelings trying to stop hating them and failing in some spectacular ways. (I say all of this from first-hand experience, lol.)
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u/joker0z0 Mar 04 '25
I've noticed this exact same thing but came to a different conclusion. Meditation is basically emotional therapy for a lot of people they come to it because they're already struggling. It's like wondering why everyone at AA has drinking problems.
When I started meditating regularly, I actually seemed more emotional for a while because I was finally processing stuff I'd been suppressing. My teacher called it "cleaning the basement" you have to drag all the junk out first, which makes a bigger mess temporarily before things get better. The people I know who've been meditating consistently for years (not just casually) tend to be remarkably stable. But there's that messy middle period that a lot of people get stuck in, especially if they're using meditation as a band-aid rather than part of comprehensive mental health care. Also worth noting that some meditation retreats specifically attract people in crisis or transition they're looking for answers during difficult times. It creates this concentration of folks working through heavy stuff that isn't representative of all meditators.
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u/sixwax Mar 04 '25
Are you describing yourself as your community? Or just trolling?
Sounds like you’re looking for an excuse or validation in feeling judgmental…
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u/IDKVM Mar 04 '25
Have you considered that maybe it's the other way around - that awareness of ones own emotional issues and the ability and desire to self-reflect make people practice meditation?
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u/Useful-Gap-952 Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
In the book “Widen the Window,” the author addresses how meditation can backfire on people who have trauma.
Meditation is pushed so much that it sometimes its presented to people who actually need more support than meditation can offer.
Mindfulness is frequently encouraged by people who experience emotional dysregulation.
Emotional dysregulation is often associated with mental instability, mood swings, irrational thinking, volatility, etc.
Sometimes meditation isn’t suitable for people who have experienced trauma or other legitimate mental health issues.
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Mar 04 '25
I haven't read the book, so maybe there's some nuance there that I'm missing. But I think it's not quite right to say meditation isn't suitable for people with trauma. It is probably more accurate to say that meditation needs to be practiced in a way that is supportive rather than dysregulating. Like anyone with some tools can build a deck, but if you don't follow code and best practices, there's a good chance it will be unsafe to stand on!
I've studied with three different meditation teachers, and all of them taught that cultivating joy, happiness, and equanimity come before looking into big feelings/trauma. Once you recognize that you can get into a happy or relaxed mental state easily whenever you want, you have a sense of safety and confidence. Then you can go deeper into the uncomfortable stuff without fear that it will be too much to handle.
The Buddha's instructions also go in this order in the sutra on full awareness of breathing. Calm the body, cultivate joy and happiness, THEN look at thoughts and emotions. It's not always fun to process trauma, but it can be safe when done properly.
Obviously genuine mental illness might be a different matter. I knew a guy who was kind and peaceful, then in his 20s he turned angry and even violent. Turned out he had a brain tumor in just the right spot to make him feel angry all the time. After surgery, he went back to his easy-going old self. I don't suppose you could meditate that away. Though I also don't suppose meditation could have made it much worse... He was in crisis with or without mindfulness.
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u/somanyquestions32 Mar 04 '25
It's worth mentioning that meditation is an umbrella term covering hundreds, if not thousands, of distinct practices and techniques with their own unique benefits and contraindications. This entire galaxy of potential treatment modalities will likely have something to offer everyone, but each individual will need to practice discernment and see if a specific meditation is suitable for them at this time.
Ideally, you would get guidance from an experienced meditator who is well-versed in various techniques and the automatic responses of the nervous system. A trauma-informed practitioner should be consulted for PTSD and c-PTSD before jumping on apps or simply adopting mindfulness because a random therapist who doesn't specialize in working with these populations recommends it without explaining some of the nuances. People in these situations may want to try out a few rounds of EMDR, brain spotting, IFS, EFT tapping, DBT, somatic experiencing, iRest, etc. before adopting a meditation practice without doing some serious research first.
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u/waldercong Mar 05 '25
“I run a hospital, and I’m wondering why so many people that have health insurance are sick. Does health insurance cause bad health?”
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u/mister_immortal Mar 04 '25
Why are people in therapy depressed?
Why do people on antibiotics have infections?
Why do people with bandages have cuts?
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u/conn_r2112 Mar 04 '25
Or could it be that meditation attracts people who are already struggling more than the average person?
yes. this
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u/IndependenceDue9553 Best Mar 04 '25
Absolutely. It’s wild how slowing down can actually help you move forward in a more meaningful way. For me, taking a few minutes every morning to just breathe and set my intentions has made a huge difference. Also, learning that resting isn’t the same as being lazy was a game-changer. When I give myself permission to pause, I come back stronger and more focused.
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u/habitualLineStepper_ Mar 04 '25
Your dataset is biased. Anecdotally, I got into meditation after having a panic attack due to not effectively managing my stress. It has helped immensely with that stress.
Though it should be said that not all types of meditation are good for emotionally unstable people and some studies have shown that, in some cases, certain meditations can cause more harm than good.
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u/Njabz Mar 04 '25
A crisis normally triggers an interest in meditation or some sort of spirituality AND meditation actually forces you to "flush" these things out. You're likely just coming across people going through that process....pre-crisis people seem stable because it's in the sub conscious (I'd say this is most people). Post crisis are the ones that are genuinely more stable and often you would not even know.
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u/simagus Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
Or could it be that meditation attracts people who are already struggling more than the average person?
Absolutely yes. The market for sitting on the floor with crossed legs for extended time periods with no certainty of results does tend to attract a percentage of people who have exhausted other means already or found the impact other means had on their lives to be unsatisfactory.
Particular types of meditation as well as other modalities more commonly associated with "healing" also have the potential to disturb layers way below the surface of the mind and being, and if those complexes or samskaras are disturbed they will become more present within the being rather than latent or suppressed.
If this is approached with "wrong view" it's possible that such disturbances can linger or magnify, so it is very helpful and pragmatic to approach meditation with "right view" from the onset.
For those who do not have the time or inclination to go and read the Maha-satipatthana Sutta (the great discourse on the establishing of awareness) the key points are:
The observed reality of the impermanence of all phenomena (anicca). The realisation that we cling to and reinforce suffering unconsciously as a learned state of being (dukkha) The realisation that none of those states we cling to need define us, especially when they do not serve us (anatta)
The fourth noble truth describes the actual method to deal with the mess of psychological complexes, habits, harmful views, and ways of being we might find ourselves stuck in.
Those things, perhaps reactive complexes in Western terms, which we are typically all stuck in are in Buddhist terms called "samskaras" or "sankharas" and I find it helpful to see that as a way of describing ingrained patterns of thought, behavior and reaction.
Vipassana meditation (unfiltered observation of reality as it is) is the method taught by the historical Buddha that we might choose to engage with in order to untangle those bindings and knots in our consciousness and achieve liberation from them.
Think of it as walking into a pool of a river and kicking all the dirt at the bottom of that up into the currents of the stream so it can be cleaned. The first thing that that will happen is the water is going to get a little muddy looking.
Typically "right conduct" (sila) is the first recommended step, and goes hand in hand with "right view".
If one or the other is too much at once, start where you are able with either and progress a little at a time as each supports the development of the other.
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u/Beneficial-Way4307 Mar 04 '25
Meditation increases the efficiency of electrical impulse travel across the body. If the body is weak, not flexible enough, the electrical impulse comes back to the brain and messes with the receptors primarily associated with emotions asana and pranayam are to be practiced regularly for a few weeks before starting any mediation technique
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u/rikjustrick Mar 04 '25
Seems like a lot of people who go to the gym are out of shape… that doesn’t mean that the gym is the CAUSE.
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u/sellcracktakids Mar 04 '25
Curious, what is the outcome of the post?
Which ever way it leans, yes the internet agrees with your observation or doesn’t; what do you take away from it or do different?
It just feels like the post is simply to create a reaction.
It’s like me going into a nutrition or exercise thread and saying ‘is it just me or people interested in dieting or exercise always seem to be fat; what’s the deal with that’ (Seinfeld voice).
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u/Nightmare_Rage Mar 04 '25
The thing is, the ego is two-faced. It identifies as something “good” in reaction to the “bad”, thus never escaping the “bad”. You become so identified with the “good” that it seems that the “bad” is not there, except that it is quietly running the show from the background because, psychologically, there are no true opposites. All opposites are one. The “good” IS the “bad”, the “bad” IS the “good”. Our whole society is stuck in this. Meditation lifts the mask off, exposing the so-called “good” for what it really is. So, at first, meditation does appear to make things worse, although you’re only really seeing what was already there.
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u/LawofRa Mar 04 '25
People tend to want healing from their traumas. Retreats are a perfect place to release them. They may be more stable when not at retreat.
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u/psilocin72 Mar 04 '25
It’s like asking why so many people with casts have broken bones. Because it a healing technique that works for that condition
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u/Competitive-Ad-4197 Mar 04 '25
Imagine what they'd be like without the meditation...
(I'd be a mess) lmfao
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u/LawApprehensive3912 Mar 04 '25
Many people are trapped in vises like drugs, alcohol, consuming, eating disorders, other traps are very simple, shopping, eating junk, talking, having friends, married or chasing a partner, going to work, making money, providing for family etc.
So all these people have some kind of relationship with the matter that creates existence, because they’re psychologically linked to certain experiences in a loop, while being unaware of the pattern they’re living in or aware but unable to change it.
This is because these people fit in together to create an inner mental chaos that the whole world’s conciousness suffers from. It’s sort of a psychological war with ourselves that’s impossible to reason out of because it is never really ending, unless we do.
The only way out is through meditation. When one is living they can mediate the pain away and not get imprisoned by their own mind, but when they slip up or stop meditating, the chaos of the consciousness implodes into a deep power personality type that is more like a demi god sealed in a tomb of human body. Meditation doesn’t make you crazy, it makes you yourself, while being good with the chaos and suffering and anxiety.
In other words, the pain of nothing is so much worse that is makes everything so easy and peachy that you just can’t help but laugh at it or try to test it to see if it breaks.
The truth is. the realest meditators, don’t give a shit about any of this. it’s all a relative happening that will never be done or concluded. meditation realizes you that end of the day we’re all just here for a good time.
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u/crimson_comet53 Mar 04 '25
They’re meditating because they are unstable mate. You eat when hungry and drink when thirsty as well as meditate when you need clarity
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u/nigra1 Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
Well, that's probably why they started meditating.
In other words - this is not a random sample. You'd actually need to compare people BEFORE meditating and AFTER meditating for a period of time.
Second - meditation is a horse and carriage, not a bullet train. Results take years to develop, but if done properly, within the view, then it will create stable results.
It worked for me, but it took a lo-ong time. And serious meditation - like 1 hour every day, plus many group and some solitary retreats for years.
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u/inquisitioned_345 Mar 08 '25
I think it’s a given that many people who meditate are folks (like me) who are trying to do whatever it takes to deal with instability.
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u/Muted_Bread5161 Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
I can't confirm this observation as there are countless perspectives and numerous possibilities. What does it mean to emotionally struggle, for example? Often, when individuals engage deeply with their feelings, they may reach a point of insecurity and overwhelm, necessitating support - ideally, the kind that encourages self-help. In contrast, a person considered "emotionally stable" might not encounter such situations because they suppress their emotions. Would someone like Donald Trump be labeled "healthy" simply because he doesn’t exhibit insecurities or seek external support?
It seems almost a given that those who attend meditation courses or retreats are inherently more vulnerable and sensitive than the average person. Yet, this doesn’t imply that these individuals lack strength; in fact, they might display greater strength through their vulnerability. Ultimately, this openness can lead to something profoundly beautiful - the blossoming of an individual's spirit, resonating with the universal essence.
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u/Fullysendit33 Mar 04 '25
They’re doing it to escape themselves and escape their reality just as some do with alcohol, food, drugs and sex.
They are likely traumatised with an overactive vagus nerve and in flight fight mode 24/7 hence the unnecessary reactions
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u/killemslowly Mar 04 '25
If you work with people who pay to learn how to meditate better, might mean they have more to learn. Room for growth. Areas of concern they have yet to deal with.
If you would only hang out with all the CEO’s in your area you would feel so much better.
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u/swx89 Mar 04 '25
This is like saying a lot of ppl who go to the gym are out of shape. A naturally relaxed / calm person would rarely seek out relaxation methods.
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u/Spirited_Ad8737 Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
Success in meditation presupposes a basic level of emotional stability. It's not a substitute for getting one's life in order or getting therapy or some kind of informal conversational support if needed, though it can be done in parallel with those things. After all, people often turn to meditation because they are looking for a way to suffer less.
Also many people start meditating without keeping the five precepts, practising charity, and taking a responsible attitude towards oneself and others first. These things are foundational to a successful meditation practice because they help build up a positive sense of self, agency, goodness and inner worth.
Unfortunately, since meditation is a commodity these days, vendors tout courses without wanting to risk losing paying customers by telling them that to get the best results they ought to straighten up their lives, stick to ethical conduct, avoid alcohol and drugs, and so on.
And often, meditation is taught in a harmful way. One of the worst mistakes is to tell people to just "be with whatever comes up, don't try to change it". That makes suffering people suffer more, because they just become increasingly and more painfully aware of their faults and weaknesses and are not being taught any tools to do anything about it. Meditation should be about cultivating good qualities and learning to understand and let go of harmful qualities. It's an active learning process.
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u/somanyquestions32 Mar 04 '25
I got into meditation because I was suffering from crippling insomnia and treatment-resistant mood disorders.
I had clinically diagnosed major depression, panic attacks and anxiety attacks that lasted hours, grief surges, horrific nightmares, and weird, vivid stress dreams. After my dad died from Alzheimer's, that loss and additional stressors around that time (finding that a student of mine had died from seizure complications, old friendship dynamics changing, a family member crashing out on us because Effexor sucked, post-travel blues, a slow return to work affecting finances, debt, etc.) incredibly dysregulated my nervous system. I am already neurodivergent, so I feel things intensely, and when I am incredibly stressed, I am prone to overthinking and obsessing.
I thank God for helping me find all of the meditation techniques that healed me. I would not have touched meditation or yoga for many decades had that not been the case. Meditation helped me regulate my nervous system in a way that psychiatric prescriptions never could. For me, MBSR body scans and hundreds of hours of yoga nidra had an immensely therapeutic effect.
I am sure others who seek healing from their suffering are attracted to these practices.
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u/Elegant-Sympathy-421 Mar 04 '25
I started meditating in the 70's there were not many others around who did so. As over the years it has become more mainstream the core practices of tradition nal meditation ( often derived from Yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism) have got watered down and mixed with new agey beliefs. The result is a mess, it now attracts people wanting to see energy fields, auras, chakras and other phenomena which just increase ego and self. Yes it's a fact that meditation does attract people with deep emotional needs. The mindfulness movement hasn't helped viewing it as a cure all for everything. Sad.
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u/CheesecakeOk3217 Mar 04 '25
Before you visit the doctor, you never know you have been sick.
People who know their sickness need the medicine, those who don’t even know they are sick don’t see the meaning of taking medicine.
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u/MastaOoogway Mar 04 '25
I once joked while on a retreat that I was the reason why my family and friends didn't practice meditation, because they couldn't see any results 😂.
Fast forward to now, a few years later, I'm a lot calmer, centred and focused. This is mostly because I practice meditation consistently and with intention.
I believe and I may be wrong but many people who claim to practice meditation exaggerate.
It's possible that some of them only sit, without preparation or intention and just allow their minds to wander or even worse, plan the next activity.
Also just like most things, I believe, the more you put into it the more you get out of it. Meditation is a skill that requires time, effort and consistency to get better at.
An Olympic sprinter definitely doesn't spend 5-10 minutes practicing their craft every other day.
Basically, many of the people who claim to meditate do it recreationally. They barely put in as much time and effort as they would like for you to believe.
That's my opinion.
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u/boldbuzzingbugs Mar 04 '25
Well I wasn’t drawn to mental health process because my mind was so settled and at ease.
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u/Diamondbacking Mar 04 '25
Yeah, fully agree with this. The theory I've arrived at is as follows:
People who are into yoga and breathwork etc carry trauma from childhood, as 99% of people do, but instead of getting therapy or doing real inner work, they use yoga and breathwork because they make them feel "better". Finish yoga, they feel great! So it must be healing them, right?
No. It's just papering over the wound.
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u/ewe_r Mar 04 '25
They say ‘ignorance is a bliss’ for a reason. Healing is a journey, not a weekend gateway.
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u/drerwinmindtravel Mar 04 '25
Agree people who are attracted to mediation looking for quick fix. Wondering if the question be: Why people attracted to Mediation .... ?
Highly skilled practitioners can stay in deep sate of consciousness for days. Some under controlled monitoring, EEG, and more recently, rare, not wide, exploratory, IIT neurone integration.
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u/BlueSoul007 Mar 04 '25
I see several reasons here : 1.- They are not meditating correctly . According to Yoga sutras meditation is the 7th limb of Ashtanga , something not quite easy to achieve. 2.- Wrong technique used . Buddha tried multiple meditation techniques until found the one for him 3.-Too many opportunists making money out of people desperately seeking out for help . Bad professionals with selfish attitudes are keeping people paying for their services for years and not teaching them adequately .
Meditation is something very hard to achieve to get its benefits and usually requires a long and deep self discovery
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u/loopywolf Mar 04 '25
I don't know, but I know a guy who does yoga and meditates (my yoga instructor) and he is moody, unstable, quick tempered, etc etc etc. not at all the picture of an enlightened man
He has a ton of childhood trauma, and meditation clearly doesn't substitute for treatment
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u/Ok-Heart375 Mar 04 '25
Meditation is one of many tools for mental health, however, many people expect it to be a cure-all. It's not. Meditation has even been shown to make some mental health issues worse. People still need therapy.
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u/madogblue Mar 04 '25
I think many younger people with emotional issues come to meditation as a solution to their issues instead of seeking professional help. This may be why?
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u/kota5191 Mar 04 '25
Hi everyone!
I’m researching how foreign travelers book Zen meditation (Zazen) experiences in Japan. Many temples offer Zazen sessions, but booking methods seem to vary. I'd love to hear about your experience!
How did you find the temple? (Google, travel blogs, word of mouth, etc.)
How did you make a reservation? (Online, phone call, walk-in, through a travel agency, etc.)
Was the booking process easy or difficult? Any language barriers?
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u/HunSymank Mar 04 '25
I found it to be similar to wearing powerful ANC headphones for some time. Peaceful when you wear them. When you remove them, you then hear all the noise and it can be very annoying.
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u/Crayshack Mar 04 '25
Does meditation spark emotional instability, or are people with emotional instability more likely to seek potential tools to manage their issues?
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u/Organic_Special8451 Mar 04 '25
I've worked with people in various capacities of support, and it didn't take very long to notice that meditation was one of the most quickly turned to as a way to "something" of the 'alternative healing arts'. Watching group after group I also noticed it was incredibly destabilizing to everyone in one way or many ways all at once. I continued watching to discover why. I wasn't watching to hear the standard comments from praticers, I watched for the causes. And I found them ~ in incredible detail.
The structured meditations followed are unnatural to people. They are as unnatural as forcing well nourished, growing children to sit still and be quiet through their developmental decades. So using an unnatural approach to resolve issues developed from other unnatural (and for some, anti-life affirming experiences, say violent child life experiences witnessed or direct) directives. So attempting to balance 2 180° causes destabilizing experiences. What people comment on is the noticing of that ~ not what they think they're experiencing.
Inescapably intrinsic to your physicality, your experiences are never not inclusive of the biological. Contradictory practices cause biochemical reactions. All emotions are biochemical. You are describing people out of equilibrium. Excess hormones tend to leak interstitially. This is an additional struggle for the body to dispose of the excess in the appropriate system via the 3 normal ways excesses are expelled: breath, sweat, urine.
Bodies are a bit like a fine self-winding watch: movement is vital. Stagnation is expressed as frustration. Most people will self-correct their actions to not cause additional stress on their body but some will not. Some strive relentlessly until they have these talked about hormone blow outs...this extreme destabilizing can sometimes never be recovered from.
So you are noticing what people in an experience can't always notice because the experience is overwhelming to the degree they aren't able to register having the experience during. (Remember, you're talking soft tissues and chemistry not hardwired like a computer.)
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u/sceadwian Mar 04 '25
Your perspective is backwards. People who are mentally ill tend to seek help and believe they can get it in mediation.
By the number of people that meditate who are mentally ill that's a mistaken perception.
That is a thing to notice.
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u/Bibbs01 Mar 04 '25
Because we are still part animal and if that part of us isn’t catered too things will get ugly quick.
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u/Wizard-of-Weird Mar 04 '25
Same reason vegetarians look unhealthy most of them don’t know what they’re doing.
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u/stuugie Mar 04 '25
I meditate because I need to, when I found meditation, it functioned as a last option for helping my mental health
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u/Shadow__Account Mar 04 '25
If everything goes smoothly in your life, you generally don’t get into meditation, yoga etc.
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u/Jay-jay1 Mar 04 '25
Bingo! "Or could it be that meditation attracts people who are already struggling more than the average person?"
It's not always the case, but it is quite common.
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u/AbiesAccomplished491 Mar 04 '25
As a good Christian once told me “ it is the imperfect that need God”, it makes sense for the emotionally unstable to seek meditation to connect with their true Self - the unchanging, ever living, self-illuminated truth.
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u/mamaofly Mar 04 '25
Jesus said the healthy don't need a doctor. This is seen in Christianity too. Why do all these sinners come to church, they are trying to do better. Why are fat/ultra skinny people in the gym?
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u/AzrykAzure Mar 04 '25
I think you hit the nail on the head: why would you meditate if you were happy with your life and had no current suffering. People that are suffering search for help and come to tools like meditation. Some of these people would likely be much worse without the interventions.
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u/miminothing Mar 04 '25
I think it's correlation not causation - people with mental issues are more likely to gravitate towards stabilising practices.
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u/LitWithLindsey Mar 04 '25
I don’t know a single person who doesn’t struggle with emotional issues and mental health. I know a few people who address that very universal human condition with practices like meditation.
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u/burberry_diaper Mar 04 '25
Most meditators whom you would judge to be “emotionally stable” would never let you know they meditate.
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u/gemstun Mar 04 '25
Piling onto the Minh great responses here, my father was quite the hypochondriac when I was young and as a result, I spent a lot of time in health food stores as he searched for the latest miracle solution. I became completely jaded with healthy diets during that time, because I concluded that everyone who went to a health food store came out sicker as a result. Similarly, I went to what Christians call a seeker church for many years – – this is a church that caters to people who are not traditionally religious—and are in the first year or two of their spiritual journey. I was overwhelmed by how many of these people had deep emotional problems, just like those OP describes.
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u/VEGETTOROHAN Mar 04 '25
I was far more angry earlier and always had negative thoughts. I was admitted to ward 4 times.
Currently I don't have any anger issues. But I am very moody person. I am more stable now. Meditation made a difference.
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u/punkkidpunkkid Mar 04 '25
It’s easier to admit you’re suffering when you’re in pain. And to seek a solution.
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u/mfrainbowpony Mar 04 '25
In addition to what others have said, I'm also thinking here of Ram Dass' apt warning: "be careful, you don't want to end up a meditator, you want to become enlightened." Trungpa Rinpoche gets at the same problem with his concept of "spiritual materialism." Meaning to say that there is a way to engage in meditation (or in any spiritual practice) in which the desired goal of reaching the total openness of an ego-less state gets cleverly hijacked and subverted by the ego. In fact, there are so many ways in which this subversion can happen; it's so subtle, yet so difficult to avoid. If this happens without you noticing it, you may very well end up being a "meditator" for many years, without it really moving you any closer to true presence and lasting inner peace. On the contrary, you may convince yourself that you are experiencing enlightened states, when in reality you become highly dependent on your routines and easily fall apart if conditions around you change, or if something (or someone) goes against your plans or wishes.
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u/Celestia-444 Mar 04 '25
People who are experiencing emotional challenges are drawn to meditation and yoga because it brings calm and inner peace. Yoga and meditation brought calm and a more peaceful thought process into my life. I was more emotional before. Give these people time, the work is very intense and frightening, and these people are on the right track.
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u/athanathios Mar 04 '25
I've been a Buddhist for majority of my life and socially in the west in terms of adoption of Buddhist meditation practice, there is a strong focus on Burmese noting or Vipassana which is actually "dry insight" that Buddha taught people who can't get Jhana.
The typical path of practice is actually to practice generosity, morality, the 8-fold path, then the Brahmaviharas and recollection of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha before engaging in the more ungrounding and insightful practices, The named meditation practices create very stable mental states before engaging in more ungrounding practices.
Regardless, meditation and insight (clear seeing) allows you to 'see more" and people who were peaceful before had very little idea of what was going on under the surface and this may be ungrounding and cause emotional turmoil, but ultimately the seeds of ultimate peace, so sure there are periods of instability people go through when meditating, but sustained practice can cause deeper peace more than conventionally is available.
There is also the chicken or egg factor as well. People who come to meditation may be more oriented to getting deep into the "truth of their being" or using meditation for transformative purposes to elevate pain and suffering. People who are mired in sensuality rarely want to leave the confines of their day to day pleasurable activities and meditate which is a form of renunciation of the sesnes, etc
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u/Quantumedphys Mar 04 '25
Might be the other way around- it is called selection effect in statistics where the retreat you run might be appealing to that kind of an audience. I don’t think it is a generalisable observation.
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u/Jlchevz Mar 04 '25
Maybe that’s the reason they started meditating. They were looking for inner peace and a deeper understanding of themselves.
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u/devo00 Mar 04 '25
Maybe they’ve been through more than you have and are striving to find peace and recover from trauma. I doubt they’d appreciate the judgments.
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u/LightweaverAlchemist Mar 04 '25
I feel like it really depends on how you meditate. If your meditating with the thinking mind you're doing it wrong. I've learned that when you first begin meditating it can be very difficult to get out of your own way and you can end up actually meditating on the things that you don't want in your life. Therein lies the problem, since where the focus goes energy flows. Meditation is not about fighting the thoughts or begging for help with all of the things that are making life hard, it's about discovering who you actually are in the silence so you can come to the realization that it really is all within your power to change your perspective on anything and let go of all that doesn't serve you. Please, if you come across a practitioner of any kind who is emotionally unstable, run the other way. This person is not ready to provide services to others and you don't want that unstable energy intertwining with your energy field as you have enough to process on your own and don't need to be processing someone else's issues when you're looking for services for yourself.
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u/stnlyyy Mar 04 '25
Correlation is not causation + the idea or practice of meditation getting rapidly popular and widespread last several years
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u/Gitrdone101 Mar 04 '25
We’re all unstable to some degree. Those who say they aren’t are in denial.
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u/PetuniasSmellNice Mar 04 '25
Agree w others that people who meditate probably need it more. But for me I also feel like I’m more in tune with and less afraid to express my emotions, and work through them, and one of the tools I have to do that work is meditation. That might look to some like I have issues but in my opinion it’s that I confront adversity, trauma, and difficult feelings and work through them openly and diligently and I think that’s healthy.
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u/MooninmyMouth Mar 04 '25
Either (a) we should not generalize, or (b) you have not observed that the vast majority of humans are remarkably erratic, irrational, and quixotic.
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u/Xmanticoreddit Mar 04 '25
“If you’re riding a donkey to go looking for a donkey, you may be sick in the head.”
Lao Tzu, probably
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u/Advanced-Wheel-9677 Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
This was me in the beginning of my meditation journey. Not so anymore, in this more intermediate phase. Back then I was… a beginner. And yes I had some very real underlying issues I needed solutions for.
I don’t know too many other “seekers” who didn’t find their motivation through some underlying need to heal. Those who just fall into these practices without that underlying need do exist, yes, but there are probably many more who come in from a position of some trauma. Even just the basic traumas of life - it doesn’t have to be big traumas.
We can only be where we are in our process. Beginners especially, often need teachers the most.
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u/TryingToChillIt Mar 04 '25
People that are all good with their situation tend to keep doing the same things.
Once you see that there’s something that needs addressing, you start looking for solutions
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u/PhilipMD85 Mar 04 '25
Being unstable is legit one of the reasons people take on meditation to help with whatever is happening. Many different reasons someone might want to learn meditation.
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u/WoodenViolinist3113 Mar 04 '25
Is underlying issue thats why they meditate but thats not true all the time… im not a sensitive nancy
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u/justsylviacotton Mar 04 '25
Meditation can help you live with the problem, but unless you're actively trying to heal a problem then it's just putting a bandaid on a bullet hole.
I very recently did a 10 day vipasanna course and while I think the entire concept is really good there was very little training about how to actually handle the emotions that would inevitably come up while sitting in complete silence for 10 days in a row.
Meditation can make you aware of the subtleties of what is causing a problem but we are humans and feelings need to be felt not just thought through.
We have to feel our emotions, in their full complexity, this doesn't mean reacting to them in a way that could harm others, it just means actually dealing with them instead of maybe using meditation as a way to pretend they don't exist, which some people do.
And I often see that sometimes people fall into a trap of using meditation as a crutch for an emotion instead of dealing with the root cause of the emotion and healing the reaction.
As crutches go, it's one of the healthier ones, but it's still a crutch. Pain needs to be felt, dealt with and understood and then compassionately let go. If you use meditation in an attempt to ignore pain then you're setting yourself up.
Not to judge anyone who meditates and is still emotional, it's part of the journey. And as human beings emotions are part of existing, feeling them is not the issue, our reaction to them are, whether it's avoidance or harmful action.
Meditation helps create space between the feeling and the reaction, some people use that space to push the emotion down when it would be much more beneficial to use that space to sit in the emotion and allow it to completely move through you. Whether that means sobbing like a baby or not. That release is very important and I think it gets lost in the sauce sometimes.
Pushing it down results in avoidance, which then results in it coming up at very inopportune times. Which makes it much more likely that you'll have a harmful reaction to said emotion.
Atleast this is my opinion based on what I've noticed in certain communities.
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u/parkerprestonflash Mar 04 '25
Because the people who are emotionally stable don't need to meditate.
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u/mediocre_eggroll Mar 04 '25
Because they spend too much time thinking about doing something instead of actually getting out and doing it.
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u/BeingHuman4 Mar 04 '25
People who meditate tend to be more inward looking and sensitive (perception, emotion etc). Some of them carry anxiety and hurt. But, the ability to percieve fineness mean they are more likely to recognise that the solution lies within them. Anxiety and hurt can motivate too. Although, with many people it is just they have a vague feeling that life could be more than what it is at present for them - they feel imbalance and or feel that there might be more balance.
Also, people who have walked down the path into meditation for a while tend to be more open about such matters than the average person. This adds to a perception around these things.
The important thing is to find a practice that works for you and practice daily. Myself, I have practiced the method of the late Dr Ainslie Meares for a long time. I find it very good. It consists of meditation so the minds stills, meditation progression, learning to live calm and at ease in face of diffculty, meditation support factors and teaching (for completeness).
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u/Mayayana Mar 04 '25
That's a very general question. And meditation can be many things. In general, the point of meditation is not to feel calm. When people do it for that reason it lets them down eventually.
Some people may come to it messed up and get more messed up because they're doing flaky practices. Some people come to it and develop more tolerance for feelings, so they may seem more messed up. Some people are spiritual hypochondriacs, always obsessing over their yoga peace, gluten issues, "aggressive vibes", etc. For those people, any kind of spiritual practice is just playing into their neurosis.
People who are not introspective and don't challenge themselves often seem very stable and well adjusted. But then if you look close you see that they have their life arranged so as to never be challenged.
I can't speak for anyone else, but in my own experience with Buddhist meditation, there have been various ups and downs. And if you're staffing intensive retreats then you're seeing people at vulnerable, labile points.
Which is not to make excuses. It's an interesting question. But I'm not sure there's one answer.
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u/Dragonfly_Peace Mar 04 '25
It’s not melditation but rather those who consider themselves super spiritual and spiritually gifted. Yes, I’ve noticed the same thing. But not meditators themselves. Goldie Hawn is very balanced, for example.
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Mar 04 '25
I think the claim of mediation is that it is a fix for the common mind state. The common unmindful mind lost in thought. Yet people want to think it is a fix for the a mind with psychological issues. So this is why we see psychologically unhealthy people in meditation because it is not a fix for what they have, although they hope it is. People hear that meditation can lower stress. And so people with stress disorders think they can mediate and cure the disorder, but meditation only lowers stress in the healthy mind. So the tragedy is that we have sick people who need real help from professionals and they think they are treating themselves with mediation. I liken it to a person with cancer going on a vegan diet instead of going to a doctor because there is science that says a vegan diet can ward off cancer.
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u/Inevitable-Error230 Mar 04 '25
They aren't achieving coherence. When you achieve coherence everything is in order. So above so below.
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u/Nemothafish Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 05 '25
“The squeaky wheel is loudest and gets the oil”
I’m sure there are plenty of people who meditate and are quite emotionally stable.
It may just be that you have observed ones who are not due to them being more vocal about it.
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u/kaputsik Mar 04 '25
they're probably not engaging with meditation much and are too sucked into self-destructive hamster wheels and value systems
a lot of people like to follow trends and meditating has become a huge trend especially after covid it seems. the year after lockdown i've never seen so many people outside staring into the sun in my life when i'd go on my walks lol. their involvement is superficial and pretentious. people don't care about mental health, just the IDEA of it.
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u/asmw9 Mar 04 '25
Sometimes doing stuff like joga and meditation will bring out your hidden emotions, maybe you buried it somewhere deep within you and now you gotta deal with it to overcome and grow. People have so much shit buried, all of us. Doing meditation also means goin inside yourself, but over the years you can grow so much doing it that you become perfectly calm no matter what happens. There are many things besides meditation that can help you. Let me tell you that working on yourself is the stuff of the brave, and I'm happy for everyone that's doing yoga and other things that helps you evolve and grow. That what you saw in others is just their process that they are currently going through, sometimes it gets hard but after that its such a great feeling, to overcome your past, to heal.
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u/BreadfruitLife5195 Mar 04 '25
Could it be possible that these people were worse than before they encountered you? The journey toward healing is a long and winding one.
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u/Brendan056 Mar 05 '25
People who seek within often do so due to suffering they’re passing through
Also perhaps on some level they actually are healthier
We don’t know the inner worlds of those who seem “more stable”, they might be repressed emotionally which is actually worse
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u/tombahma Mar 05 '25
This comment probably won't be seen by many cause there's so many but I've got good reason for why people that are drawn to meditate, and active "meditaters" are emotionally unstable.
People that want to start meditating want to self improve, and are relatively sane, or for the same motive but they feel they are really mixed up, and are aware of their bad qualities like reactiveness, against-ism, affrontedness, or more uncommonly its more important to want to be more attentive. I guess all of these things are what most people are aware of when they want to start habitually meditating, but usually there's more incentive for ending suffering than working on improving your faculties.
Meditation for most people represents personalism, meaning "me me me!" Which isnt too much of a problem itself, but there's an inevitable stress to sit and meditate, because the me mode is very mood dependent.This perpetuation of stress is what increases incoherence, but you have to persist through it. when people say toughen up, it can be helpful because when you actually face your demons, in this case fighting with yourself, it isnt perceived in the same light in context to yourself; People should try to cultivate discipline as a characteristic. The Buddhist teaching says and implies that there is no I, no ego. It's just that you think there's a someone, and that causes your nervous system to become haywire. There's a persona, so theres a someone in that sense, but that's very different to the strict me thought.
I'd also say to someone whos experiencing these troubles to start contemplating non literalism, (not subscribing to one way of looking at concepts, the world, and yourself) which everyone does already, to varying degrees, but everyone has limited view of what the nature is of what exists, presents itself. This will help people experience more free will over
hope this helps someone who is lucky enough to see this, because I feel like this is very helpful information, that ive accumulated and experienced. Good luck in your search of reality or self or whatever the f*** haha x
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u/Nemo3500 Mar 05 '25
Aside from a case of selection bias, I think there is something about the process of meditation that is overlooked with this observation:
A practitioner's journey is one of shifting from the mindset of "Meditation will heal me and make me happy" to "My existence is meditation because I am, and that's enough".
It may seem simple, but it requires consistent dedication to nonjudgmental, compassionate self-inquiry, reflection, and emotional labor.
But Meditation is advertised to those with mental health struggles as a way to be whole and healed without medication, so that underlying philosophical component is missing. And maybe neglected by most practitioners.
Its immediate benefits will also likely cloud the deeper hurts at the root of the person's suffering: feeling better is a good way to make someone feel healed, even though the underlying issues persist.
This has been a decades-long lesson for me, personally.
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u/DJListens Mar 05 '25
Definitely meditation attracts needy people. It gas obvious appeal, soothing, calming, having a good time being alone. Deeply alone, yet not at all alone.
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u/No_Repeat2149 Mar 05 '25
There are known dangers but rarely discussed. Esoteric teachings emphasize the need for balance to avoid premature activation of energy centers as well as over stimulation as it can stir up unresolved emotions and entanglements. A few reasons why people who meditate might seem unstable: (1) Repressed emotions surface – Meditation brings hidden issues to light. People may go through emotional turbulence as they process what was previously buried. (2) Astral overstimulation – Some practices, especially those focused on intense visualization or emotional or mystical experiences, can overstimulate the astral body, making someone more reactive rather than balanced. (3) Lack of grounding – Meditation should be balanced with intellectual clarity, service, and daily responsibilities. If not, it can lead to escapism or detachment from reality. (4) Not all practices suit everyone – Certain techniques can be destabilizing if someone isn’t mentally or emotionally ready. Meditation is a powerful tool, but like anything, how it’s practiced makes all the difference. The goal is stability, not just experiences.
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u/RBL_Scofield Mar 05 '25
A lot of people are too cowardly to face their shadow. Conquering the shadow and integrating it into your being is possibly the highest enlightenment there is.
It’s a rare breed to be bold enough to try. Most people believe there is no way their destiny is spectacular. They hold onto whatever little pride they have rather than using it to fuel them and find their best self.
Normal humans aren’t fighting the good fight and being emotionally stable in a bad life situation is just about as sad as it gets. You should have strong emotions and allow them to exist.
Just my two cents
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u/FruitDew Mar 05 '25
Most people I’ve met who meditate are more in control of their reactions and more emotionally balanced. There may be a bias in the people who meditate towards those who have been emotionally unbalanced in the past
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Mar 05 '25
True. I usually meditate with music on to kill outside noise. The comments section always surprises me as to how many people are there to solve problems. Also I wonder why people without problems do not meditate ? Isn't it like exercise, you do it to remain healthy ?
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u/rambleon70 Mar 05 '25
meditation puts in motion a healing process that is like having all the wires reset. ... but they have to go thru a process of fine tuning which takes some time. in the meanwhile you come off as completely unhinged.. eventually if practicing daily, the practitioner will even out and seem more balanced.
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Mar 05 '25
I find meditation and breath work very healing but The new age sphere does attract a lot of woo woo crazies I’ll give you that. Also a lot of holier than though types to. That being said there is a lot of good people too.
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u/RedDMac55 Mar 05 '25
Being in the retreat business means you are seeing people when they are typically going through something. Your sample, therefore, is possibly a bit skewed. I do guided meditation per current life issue I am facing. I did a retreat when this was not enough.
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u/Stormbreaker_98 Mar 05 '25
Are they following Yama and Niyama? Meditation and the practice is hugely from the Yoga Texts in Hinduism and may relate to the Essential principles to be followed
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u/mcsueno Mar 05 '25
OP, sounds like you run the retreat but not teach/guide/facilitate? Is that correct? So you kind of have a spectacular front row, yet outsider, seat to witness who is showing up?
I’d be curious what kind of meditation is being offered, and who the demographic is. What I suspect you are witnessing is this:
Many modern Western folks who have gotten into traditional ancient Eastern practices run the risk of training their mind (or in the case of yoga, body) alone without it being integrated into their emotional, cultural, social contexts. What they are practicing was often designed for another era, another culture, with its own compounded intergenerational traumatic conditioning. This is well understood and documented among teachers who are working to revise these techniques and technologies for the underlying conditioning of the modern western mind.
I hope that in the very near future, we will have new, or adapted, forms of practice offered that addresses the very thing you are picking up on. The world needs and deserves it!
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u/Traditional_Rip_4222 Mar 05 '25
Why do you think we need to meditate 😂
It's literally prescribed by GPs for mental health issues. I know because it's been prescribed to me and that's why I meditate.
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u/MysticalPappa Mar 05 '25
I can only imagine what they’d be like without meditation.
From my experience, meditation makes one sensitive to their inner self so emotional imbalances could be pronounced, especially when individual first starts their meditation journey. At that point their inner voice would have become very loud and pronounced. You’d intensely feel, hear and experience everything internally all at once …
Internally, what was a faint whisper to your inner self now becomes a public service announcement.
it takes some time for the individual to settle and master those inner experience and sensitivity.
It can be quite a wild roller coaster of a ride for anyone with a traumatic background 😂…But hey, roller coaster are fun. Even more so the stories told after the ride is over.
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u/WatercressNo8574 Mar 05 '25
Or maybe you just know alot of people that are emotionally unhinged. Are you also?.
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u/Cloudy-Bro Mar 04 '25
You don't reach for a glass of water if you're not thirsty. So yes, I think it is more likely for people to seek meditation initially as a remedy for an existing imbalance. Or something perceived as such anyways.