For years, we’ve all been hearing about the incredible mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical benefits of meditation.
This ancient mindfulness technique is touted to form you are feeling calmer, more present, and more balanced.
And for the foremost part, these claims are well-founded, and more and more clinical research is backing up the efficacy of the practice. Many of us reap numerous benefits from meditating. Science has found that practicing mindfulness can help us gain perspective, reduce stress, improve memory, and make us physically healthier.
However, like everything in life, there are often some downsides to meditation that you won’t remember.
Although there’s a relatively little research project on the risks of meditation, the subsequent findings come from a 2017 study published within the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One. The study was conducted by researchers from Brown University and therefore, the University of California and examined the experiences of 60 meditation practitioners.
It’s essential to stay in mind that there’s limited research on the adverse effects of meditation, which not everyone who meditates will experience any or all of the subsequent harmful effects.you also try some Mandala Tapestry from yogashq
Meditation may prompt negative thinking.
A lot of individuals address meditation to assist them in becoming more optimistic, but that may not always be the case. Nearly half the participants within the 2017 study experienced delusional, irrational, or paranormal thoughts caused by meditation, also as a change in executive function, the power to regulate yourself and obtain things done.
A study conducted at Seattle Pacific University in 2009 echoed these findings, showing that participants also felt delusional thanks to meditation.
Your sensory perception might change.
The way you see, smell, hear, and taste might be altered thanks to meditation. Consistent with the 2017 study, many participants saw visions, hallucinations, illusions, or lights that weren’t there. Some reported increased sensitivity to light and noise and distortion in time and space.
According to Psychology Today, some people enter meditation with the hope that they will experience such visions because the ones listed above, a mindset that’s unproductive and may cause frustration.
Motivation may go right out the window.
If you have already got trouble with procrastinating and getting work done, meditation might be bad news: The 2017 study revealed it could cause a significant lack of motivation.
And this potential change doesn’t only apply to obligations like work. Consistent with the 2017 study, meditation also can cause you to lose interest in activities that you previously enjoyed, like the consequences of depression.
This lack of interest could come as a result of non-attachment, a standard skill many meditators strive for, consistent with Psychology Today.
You might relive negative memories and emotions by meditation .
Meditation brings up emotions and memories you’ll have suppressed within the past, which can cause a deluge of negative feelings which will be hard to handle. Those that participated in the 2017 study reported feeling panic, anxiety, fear, paranoia, depression, and grief.
On top of that, subjects within the 2009 study reported reliving traumatic experiences within the sort of flashbacks.
You might experience some physical side effects due to meditation .
Although some view it as a mental and emotional tool, meditation has proven physical effects on the body. Subjects within the 2017 study say they felt negative changes throughout their systems, including pain, pressure, involuntary movements, headaches, fatigue, weakness, gastrointestinal problems, and dizziness.
It’d damage your sense of self.
It sounds cliche, but your most vital relationship in life is that the one you’ve got with yourself — because it affects all of your other links.
So the indisputable fact that meditation has the potential to impact your sense of self negatively may be a very troubling prospect. A 1992 study conducted by Deane H. Shapiro, Jr., professor emeritus of psychiatry and human behavior at the varsity of drugs at the University of California, Irvine, found that participants were more conscious of their negative qualities after coming back from a meditation retreat.
Participants within the 2017 study reported feeling a loss of agency, a loss of sense of essential self, and a loss of ownership. Plus, many indicated that they thought the boundaries are blurring between themselves and therefore the remainder of the planet.
You may become antisocial.
Meditation could also be about getting into touch with yourself, but it also can change the way you interact with others — and not during a great idea.
Half of the 2017 study participants say they felt social impairment or an issue generally behaving around others, thanks to meditation. Nearly half reported having trouble integrating back to society after intensive practice or a meditation retreat. Others say they felt so socially impaired that it harmed their occupations also.
