Everyday Mindfulness

Hey everyone,

So this is kind of an odd question. I realize that posture is very important in meditation but I want to get some opinion on an issue that I run into. I start out my practice sitting upright perfectly fine and then maybe 10 minutes into meditating my neck will slowly start rotate to the left.....So by the end of my meditation my head will sort of be looking to the left. It's like that is how my neck wants to naturally move. It's not uncomfortable or anything but I know I read a lot about having the proper posture so I'm just curious as to what you guys would do.

Would you just go with it and let the head rotate.....or try to focus on keeping the head in proper alignment?

Thanks

Interesting question!
Hmmm. What do you use to meditate? Cushion? Bench? Chair?All good things,
Jon

I have a bench and a cushion. Lately I have been using the cushion and sitting in the seiza position. And this does happen using every different sitting arrangement I have tried.....although some approaches it is not as severe as others.

It really seems unnatural to fight it and try to keep my posture good. I end up spending a lot of focus when I try to do that so thus far I've just let it happen

My gut feeling is to say: notice non-judgementally when your head has turned to the left and gently return it to an upright, dignified position - straight but soft, not stiff. In other words, respond in a similar way to noticing that your body has slumped during meditation.
Cheers,
Jon

Thanks Jon, I will give it a shot. I am sort of thinking the entire meditation might just become me constantly recorrecting my position over and over though. And so that actually might end up becoming sort of the focus of my meditation. Anyway, I will give it a shot and see how it works out.

That would be my worry. That you spend the entire meditation fixated on the position of your head.

Hi Scooter,

I would argue that posture isn't as important as it's sometimes made out to be.
In any case, it's not unusual for the body to spontaneously move / lean / spasm / twitch / stretch and so on during meditation. I'd just go with it. Sometimes it's as if the body knows what kind of posture it "needs".

As Jon suggested, if it gets physically uncomfortable, just gently return to an upright position. You'll probably find that this happens quite naturally after a while anyway.

Hi Scooter
I remember reading what to do if you got an itch during meditation. It suggested acknowledging the itch. Sometimes that's enough for it to stop bothering you but if not you make a conscious choice whether to scratch the itch or not. Neither is right or wrong the important point is not to mindlessly scratch it
I get quite uncomfortable if I sit during meditation and certainly at the start was worried that if I didn't adopt the lotus position (impossible) or similar that I was somehow doing it wrong. What a relief to accept the idea that it was more important to be comfortable enough to engage with the practice than worry about my position.
Which is a long winded way of saying make the choice to move your head or not and then let the thought to