The meditative trance is a wonderful experience. It should be part of your daily routine, if it isn’t already. It opens yourself to new parts of your mind. Your thoughts and your body align and come under your conscious control. You cannot meditate too much.
Except… well…
Sometimes you can go deeper than you’re ready. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course. If you’re one of those people who worry about being stuck in trance, you can relax. Anything that happens, you can reverse. In fact, often the trick is in keeping the changes.
But deep meditation can feel disorientating. It’s a strange experience that might by physical. In this case, it’s usually a form of dizziness.
It can also be mental. When this happens, you might not know where your mind is blank or not. That’s shocking the first time it happens.
As I say, these experiences are fine. There’s no danger beyond some mild disorientation. Honestly, a good movie should carry a similar warning.
Still, you might not want this. You might be the sort of person who enjoys having stable consciousness at all times. You’ll learn to let go of that but, for now, what can you do to prevent losing yourself in trance?
There’s a great meditation technique called the body scan. Everyone should learn it. Whenever you’re feeling too caught in abstract nonsense and want to get real again, this is perfect. And you’ll uncover more uses as you get better at it.
To conduct a body scan, place your attention at your head and move it down through your body. When you reach your feet, move your attention up through your body to your head.
It sounds simple but there’s a lot to it.
If you’re new to meditation, this is a great way to occupy your mind without thinking. Your body teems with sensory information that you mostly ignore. If you didn’t, it would overwhelm you. Still, it’s not healthy to ignore what your body is saying for too long. You might be surprised as you reacquaint yourself with yourself.
As your skills develop, it’s a great way to tune your focus. You can place your attention on smaller areas. You might experiment with the depth and intensity of your focus. Maybe you’ll see how slow you can move your awareness while still keeping your attention stable.
No matter what your skill level, the body scan is a great way to anchor your attention in reality. Your thoughts can seduce you but your body is real. Listen to it and you’ll never lose yourself again.
