Practice Causes too much Pain to Continue

[TroubleHampster]

Hey everybody. I recently purchased Jon Kabat-Zinn' s book 'Full Catastrophe Living' and the accompanying CDs, and I've been making time every night to practice the body scan meditation. I'm having a big problem though. Whenever I do the practice, I find that my body and mind become 'tighter' in response to it, and I end up becoming mentally and emotionally stopped up to the point that I'm too physically and mentally uncomfortable to continue. My body starts twitching involuntarily during this, my chest starts hurting, and I'm usually so full of rage and pain after barely 5 minutes that I can barely think, much less continue my attempt at following the instructions.

I'm a beginner, and I have no idea how to handle this. I can't really see how I can practice if practice is doing this to me. The book seems to say that I should just acknowledge and accept these feelings and continue, which I attempt to do, but it only ever gets worse. Has anyone had similar experiences? What would you do in this case? Should I stop, as I've been doing? I just don't know.

[JonW]

Hi TroubleHampster.
Sorry to hear that things have been tough for you.
Given that the body scan is causing you discomfort, it might be an idea to cease that meditation for the time being. Maybe limit yourself to the three-minute breathing space and see how you get on with that. In the meantime, I can't see that it would be harmful for you to continue reading the book. Then maybe begin the course again when you feel more up to it.
A free breathing space guided meditation is available via the following link:
http://franticworld.com/the-three-minut ... -download/
Do let us know you get along.
All best,
Jon, Hove

[Grandmasterp]

+1
Stop doing it.
3-minute breathing space is enough to be going on with if that isn't causing you any problems.
If it does then stop that too.
I've never come across anyone having problems like yours but there are some people it doesn't suit because there's a mention of that in the 'disclaimer' at the beginning of the book.
Maybe talking to a MBCT coach might help.
All best wishes to you for every success in finding something that works for you.

[Gareth]

+2
If you can, go and find yourself a good teacher.

[TroubleHampster]

Thanks a lot guys, it helps having your perspective. Perhaps I'll try shorter sessions and build up. Come to think of it it usually starts out well, the pain only comes on like 8-ish minutes in. Thanks!

Oh, also, do you know of any MSBR-specific message boards around? Or recommendations for a teacher around Phoenix?

[francogrex]

Mindfulness can be done in many forms. If the body scan is disturbing you then stop it for now and try something else. A very simple practice and quite efficient as well is my suggestion of "mindfulness without meditation". Please refer to my post about that in this forum. Regards.

[rara]

Hey everybody. I recently purchased Jon Kabat-Zinn' s book 'Full Catastrophe Living' and the accompanying CDs, and I've been making time every night to practice the body scan meditation. I'm having a big problem though. Whenever I do the practice, I find that my body and mind become 'tighter' in response to it, and I end up becoming mentally and emotionally stopped up to the point that I'm too physically and mentally uncomfortable to continue. My body starts twitching involuntarily during this, my chest starts hurting, and I'm usually so full of rage and pain after barely 5 minutes that I can barely think, much less continue my attempt at following the instructions.

I'm a beginner, and I have no idea how to handle this. I can't really see how I can practice if practice is doing this to me. The book seems to say that I should just acknowledge and accept these feelings and continue, which I attempt to do, but it only ever gets worse. Has anyone had similar experiences? What would you do in this case? Should I stop, as I've been doing? I just don't know.

Yeah slow down dude...

I used to suffer from extreme "Hulk" moments...

A glimpse of these tensions rising and being mindful of that is excellent. Take a break and return when ready.

Small progress is still progress. Be happy with that

[TroubleHampster]

To everyone who's replied, thank you! A quick update- I do think the problem was I was being to perfectionistic about it. For all I'd read about trying not to judge myself and just accepting what came, I got frustrated whenever I had bad emotions, and was still trying to 'get past' them instead of acknowledging them. I appreciate all the people telling me to take it slower, doing it that way allowed me a little space to think about my experience before going back in.

So the problem has gotten better! I've also, as suggested earlier, found an 8-week mindfulness program, and I'm actually going to my first meeting in a few hours. Thanks again everyone!

Ah, another thing I forgot to mention. The meditation class I'm going to now has its own guided body scan CD, which I find much more useful than Kabat-Zinn's, personally. Instead of spending only a few breaths on minute parts of the body, this one has you simply be aware of general areas like the feet, the lower legs, etc. This means less jumping around and more time sitting in awareness, which 'confuses' my mind much less and makes mindfulness come easier.