Hello people.

I have recently noticed how my concentration practice have fucked me up. Not because of some grandiose results, rather the opposite. I Didn't practice the rigt way.
I believe it started after I attained the first jhana, I attained it then stopped meditate for a while before pursuing it again.

I started to get obssesed by it and started to concentrate to hard/wrong way, which ended up in that I selldom even got into the prejhana phase. I have been there for atleast 1 and a half year, resulting with lots of headache and physical symptoms which havent been fun and consequently made my future narrowed.

I started to notice it for real when I read daniels topic in his book about a friend who done the same way, or atleast what I got out from reading it.

Why did I type this? mostly for some tips and if there is anything to do to pleasent my experiences, plus if someone else been through it.
I've been meditating in the common way, just focusing on the breath, and I started to notice that It was the consequence when I started to get into more of mindfulness training.


cheers

The headaches have been familiar to me too. Migh have something to do with the energy in the body "getting stuck" but might also be just a simple thing such as subconscious tension in the neck muscles. I went to the doctor due to stomach problems some time ago and they checked the neck too. And the doctor noted how tense it was. And at that time I did have occasional headaches which were quite painful at times.

Maybe part of the sense of self had been in the neck and shoulders. Yoga might help as well with becoming familiar with the body and the tensions in it. I've never done it except mentally so I don't really know about it. But I've heard some other people mention it.

Yeah, the stomach problem is one thing that have happened to me aswell, developed IBS from it. Dosen't have to be because of meditation but MOST likely. Fun thing how our intenstines and brain are highly interwened. 
I have been thinking of doing yoga aswell for that purpose, are you thinking of any good one?

Have done some grounding recently which have helped out allot!

I honestly don't know anything about physical yoga. I personally don't have any interest in it. That was just something that came to mind for some reason.

IBS is usually diet driven.  Most people now eat mostly food that was recently invented and full of chemicals and supremely lacking in nutrition. As we age, the body has more and more trouble processing high levels of chemicals and sugar.  Add in lack of exercise and excessive sitting, unusual amounts of stress and lack of sunlight and relaxation time, is it any surprise that the body starts to falter?  Yeah, I used to have acid reflux, stomach pain, etc, I fixed it by eliminating various foods until I figured out which ones were making me sick.  For me it was wheat and dairy that were killing me.  I only eat those now on rare occasions and my stomach probs are gone. I also got rid of my asthma and it's hard for me to explain how wonderful it feels to breath easily after a lifetime of asthma. 

IMO, you should look toward the more obvious sources before blaming health problems on meditation.  I do think meditation strains the body but I also think a healthy body will be WAY more able to take that strain.  I also personally do not think 'meditating wrong' will make you sick. I do think that the path asks you to give up old habits and if there is a huge fight letting go of old habits and ways of thinking, then THAT can give you a lot of physical symptoms.  But I don't know of any 'right' way on the path that never has physical symptoms for anyone.  For some it's a fight and the more you figh yourselft, the worse you feel.  But nobody had a magic way of doing it that is always symptom free.  However, there are hundreds of teachers who will claim such for their various methods exclusively and try to scare you into believing it for advertising purposes.       

Hi Stefan,

I managed to get 1st, probably 2nd Jhana after about 10 months of starting practising, just after a weekend retreat. The experience was of bliss, rapture and the feeling that I could meditate forever. Not long after I stopped meditating consistently for a couple of months. Still not quite sure why given how positive the experience was. Perhaps the shock that the Jhanas are real, and quite a bit stronger than I would have guessed. Perhaps I was scared it would get too intense?

I have since built my meditation back up and am starting to get Access Concentration again, but I was stuck for some time due to the fear followed by grasping for Jhana, which in my experience makes it impossible. Eventually I went back to just meditating without expectation and I am now back on track. The mind is a funny old place.

I recently read a book which described balancing the amount of effort for concentration practise. It was compared to picking up a full or empty cup, you need to guage each time how much effort is required. I quite liked this analogy as it seems to apply to my practise.

I hope this is helpful, good luck.

Gary.

re: stefan(3/12/16 1:54 AM as a reply to Robert)

"Fun thing how our intenstines and brain are highly interwened."
Actually, current medical thought considers that the gut has a brain of its own, so to speak. Thirty years ago, when I studied anatomy, one learned about the Central Nervous System (CNS), the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS). In recent decades, there's now also the Enteric Nervous System (ENS) – a semi-autonomous system in the whole central GI tract. It's said, for instance, that there are more neuro-transmitters deployed across the gut than in the brain itself.

Also, re: IBS (Eva Nie (3/12/16 9:46 AM as a reply to stefan))

Not fun, IBS and related conditions. Taking off from comments by Eva Nie, it may be possible to explore "mindfulness", more finely tuned "insight" at the bodily level to help in areas like elimination diets or other diet modifications – observing and evaluating more closely the effects that different foods have, both physically and mentally. 

Maybe related to that dictum in some Thai Forest/Wilderness Buddhist traditions (as brought out by Thanissaro Bhukkhu from his teachers) – that the "number 1" in the long list of numbered lists (3 characteristics, 4 noble truths, 5 khandhas, 6 senses, etc.) is that "All Beings Feed." Investigating "what you feed on" – bodily, verbally, emotionally, mentally, etc. – can be part of the Path.

Hey

Thanks for all the information will definitley look it up

Have changed to vegan and low fodmap which have helped out allot.

I did a ton better ditching dairy and wheat.  Those 2 were big.  Other than that, generally avoiding much processed food helps a lot.  Our bodies are not adapted to many current foods that were just invented in the last decade.  Meat has never caused a prob for me healthwise though but I have lost a lot of my taste for beef in recent years too. If you are going diehard vegan, better do your research on nutrition, there are some nutrients that are hard to get if you don't eat any meat at all and vitamin pills don't process equally with natural sources for many people.  If still doing eggs and fish, then it's not such a biggie though.  Some do really well on no meat and some do really well for some months and then feel like crap when their bodies become depleted of the nutrients the meat was providing (if they have not adequately compensated with other aspects of diet).  IMO, always a good idea to consume nutrient dense natural foods and a lot of stuff currently in the market is calorie rich but nutrient poor like pasta, rice, snacks, and most processed food.  Hence we can get fat on calories but still be nutritionally deprived.  Then add in all the new chemicals that our bodies are ingesting, it's actually kind of amazing that we are mostly able to still function considering all that abuse.   
-Eva