I had this problem for a while too. I remember I kept “letting go”, and “looking through” the feeling of conscious control to center on the sensation of my breath. I think I ended up using that feeling as a cue to “look through”. This relationship strengthened over time and eventually the problem went away.
Is there anyone else in this thread who does not have this problem? I don’t seem to, and I wonder if I just haven’t noticed it. With only the people who share the difficulty speaking up, I don’t have a sense of how common it is, and therefore how likely it is that I’m an exception. On the other hand, the “you are now breathing manually” meme doesn’t work on me, either, and neither does this observation of Yvain’s:
just thinking “I wonder if my face is tingling right now” causes my face to tingle quite perceptibly.
So maybe there actually is a physical difference here.
It wouldn’t surprise me if paying attention to one’s breathing causes some change, and people who notice a change get concerned that they’re doing meditation wrong, and this causes a downward spiral.
Fortunately, if there’s a change I’m not sensitive enough to notice it.
Those who’ve reported that the involuntary processes get completely overridden while they’re observing their breath seem to be up against a different problem.
It wouldn’t surprise me if paying attention to one’s breathing causes some change, and people who notice a change get concerned that they’re doing meditation wrong, and this causes a downward spiral.
This seems plausible from my personal observations.
Those who’ve reported that the involuntary processes get completely overridden while they’re observing their breath seem to be up against a different problem.
Hm. It doesn’t seem different to me. Care to elaborate on why you think it is?
In case one, the person intends to do neutral observation of their breathing, notices that their involuntary breathing has changed in some hard-to-define way as the result of observation, and, as far as I can tell, typically decides that meditation is too hard for them and gives up.
One person I’ve talked with about this also mentioned that observing her breathing also caused her to become anxious.
In the second case, observation disrupts involuntary breathing completely, and breathing has to be done voluntarily until attention drifts away to something else. People with this problem seem to stay with meditation longer, but I don’t know if the problem is ever resolved.
I don’t experience anything uncomfortable when observing my breath. Also, when I’m observing my breath and breathing at a normal rate, I have no idea if I’m consciously controlling the breath or just observing autonomous breathing. It feels like the inhalations and exhalations start by themselves, but I could be just fooling myself.
I don’t meditate regularly, but I’ve been doing the breath observation meditation thing occasionally for something like 15 years.
Yvain has (had?) the same problem.
I had this problem for a while too. I remember I kept “letting go”, and “looking through” the feeling of conscious control to center on the sensation of my breath. I think I ended up using that feeling as a cue to “look through”. This relationship strengthened over time and eventually the problem went away.
Is there anyone else in this thread who does not have this problem? I don’t seem to, and I wonder if I just haven’t noticed it. With only the people who share the difficulty speaking up, I don’t have a sense of how common it is, and therefore how likely it is that I’m an exception. On the other hand, the “you are now breathing manually” meme doesn’t work on me, either, and neither does this observation of Yvain’s:
So maybe there actually is a physical difference here.
I don’t seem to have that problem.
It wouldn’t surprise me if paying attention to one’s breathing causes some change, and people who notice a change get concerned that they’re doing meditation wrong, and this causes a downward spiral.
Fortunately, if there’s a change I’m not sensitive enough to notice it.
Those who’ve reported that the involuntary processes get completely overridden while they’re observing their breath seem to be up against a different problem.
This seems plausible from my personal observations.
Hm. It doesn’t seem different to me. Care to elaborate on why you think it is?
In case one, the person intends to do neutral observation of their breathing, notices that their involuntary breathing has changed in some hard-to-define way as the result of observation, and, as far as I can tell, typically decides that meditation is too hard for them and gives up.
One person I’ve talked with about this also mentioned that observing her breathing also caused her to become anxious.
In the second case, observation disrupts involuntary breathing completely, and breathing has to be done voluntarily until attention drifts away to something else. People with this problem seem to stay with meditation longer, but I don’t know if the problem is ever resolved.
I don’t experience anything uncomfortable when observing my breath. Also, when I’m observing my breath and breathing at a normal rate, I have no idea if I’m consciously controlling the breath or just observing autonomous breathing. It feels like the inhalations and exhalations start by themselves, but I could be just fooling myself.
I don’t meditate regularly, but I’ve been doing the breath observation meditation thing occasionally for something like 15 years.
I don’t have that problem, and it’s pretty rare for me to be able to induce physical sensation just by concentrating on it.