I started meditation around 50 days back. I meditate 2 times for approximately 40-45 minutes in morning and night (before sleeping). I sit straight and focus on my third eye. I start my session by praying for my dear ones and strangers. For the last 2 weeks, I am feeling dis-comfortable and unable to meditate. I am feeling sensation on my throat region. It seems some worms are lingering, or someone is slitting my throat or there is some chokiness inside the throat. What to do?
—SHARMISTHA , India
First I want to say that you have done the right thing in starting your meditation practice by diving into it with such energy and commitment. This is definitely the way to get a practice started! But, as with anything new that we take up, after the startup comes the time of continuing to refine and to deepen our understanding of how to do the practice.
For meditation, the kind of discomfort you are experiencing is normal and, although distracting, nothing to be concerned about. One of the most important things to emphasize in beginning a meditation practice is relaxation – first physical relaxation, and then also mental relaxation. Emphasizing this from the beginning, will most certainly help to deepen your practice to the point where physical distractions are greatly diminished and will even go away completely.
I would suggest that for a while you focus the beginning part of your meditation on relaxation. It might be helpful to even lie down on the floor in Savasana, the Corpse Pose (on your back) to do this. In this position (or sitting upright in a chair if lying down is not convenient) tense and relax each area of your body starting with the feet and moving up gradually to the top of the head. As you tense and relax each area feel that you are letting go of all tension there. Lying on the back also helps the relaxation process because in this position you are breathing from the diaphragm. Diaphragmatic breathing (whether it is done lying down or in a seated position) greatly enhances the relaxation of the body.
It will also be important to receive meditation instruction in person at some point. For this I would recommend that you contact and visit one of Ananda Sangha’s meditation centers. In India we are located in the NCR in Gurgaon, Delhi, and Noida. We also have centers in Pune and Bangalore. You can find out more about Ananda Sangha in India at our website Ananda India.
Good luck with your continuing meditation practice. You have established a great beginning!
