Everyday Mindfulness

I am slowly and gently moving my way into a regular meditation practice. I read several books last year including the Mark Williams/Danny Penman one. Good things for a while and then fell out of practice a little.

Life has brought me back around again and for the past 3 weeks I've been bringing a mindfulness meditation practice back into my life. I'm starting to really like it. I feel a little more anchored some of the time. I've found a couple apps to support my practice.

I have found a few questions arising and came here looking for a way to get a few answers - or perhaps opinions.

First - it seems that often, when I settle down to spend my minutes, parts of my body start acting up. I get an itch, a tweak or some other foible. I've read to explore and sit with that quirk, but here's so far, I could sit damn near forever exploring the quirk and it only intensifies demanding that I scratch the itch or rearrange how I'm positioned or whatever. So far, I give in a little and they eventually fall back into the background. Thoughts?

Today and yesterday both, I found myself getting oddly light headed and less and less centered. This moved beyond mere distractedness to a physical sensation. It became quite uncomfortable and I chose to end the session. Anyone else have this experience?

Last but not least - and this really doesn't worry me, but is odd. I fell asleep this week when practicing. For some this might not be an oddity, but I never, ever fall asleep in front of the telly or anything like that. I've never fallen asleep in a movie, or school or work or anything. Sleep happens in bed at night unless I am ill. Suddenly I realized I had been asleep. I'm figuring it must mean I needed it, but it's very odd.

I appreciate having this circle of people to whom I can bring these questions. Now I'll go back to reading the posts of others and learn from that too.

I'll take your points one by one, although, please understand that I am no mindfulness expert, just someone who has been practising for three years.

1. Just be with whatever foibles that your body is throwing at you, lean into them, explore them. Whenever I pick up the thought telling me to scratch an itch, I just hold the thought there for a little while and I zoom in on the itch itself. Sometimes the itch just disappears of its own accord. Sometimes it doesn't and I scratch it. I know it's hard but ttry not to get hung up on bodily sensations. Be friendly to them and treat them with curiosity. If you have to scratch the itch or move your legs because they are going numb then do it. This is not some endurance competition.

2. I've not really heard of this myself but hopefully somebody with more experience will come on and answer you here.

3.Falling asleep while practising is very common. It's good that you were relaxed enough to fall to sleep, and your body obviously needed it. Just meditate some other time.

I've had lightheadedness and have heard others talking about it too. There are a few things I have heard it related to.

1. How deeply are you breathing? In some mindfulness practices, people are encouraged to take long, deep breaths. If the breath is very large and very quick, the brain can become too oxygenated and dizziness results.

2. Are you trying to force your practice? If you're striving to be mindful this can create an inner tension and lead to dizziness.

3. What is your posture like? Do you have a comfortable, relaxed, upright posture? I have found in the past that if I am teetering it can lead to a feeling of very slowly falling over.

4. Related to the above: do you carry much tension in your shoulders? Tension in the shoulders can restrict blood flow to the brain and cause dizziness.

5. Sometimes mindfulness can bring up stressors as your internal world begins to sort itself out. It is something of an upheaval. I have found that mindfulness can cause my heart to race and for gentle pressure sensations to run throughout my teeth and forehead. This happens even if I am feeling very relaxed. I have seen doctors/dentists to no avail, and my psychotherapist/mindfulness instructor believes that they could be physical manifestations of emotional releases. Perhaps your dizziness is akin to this?