Hi everyone,
I just joined the forum and am happy to be here. [I am not fully familiar with the forum, so I really apologize if I am posting on the wrong place]
I started meditating around 1 year ago regularly 2 hours a day. This January, I also attended a Goenka style retreat and planning to continue my meditation on Vipassana.
I typically do 20 min Anapana followed by 40 minute Vipasana twice a day.
One of the main problems I have recently is concentration on the breath. Once I start focusing on the breath on the nose I feel a huge sensation on the fore-head.
I know that this is due to Sankaharas releasing from my head, which have been intensified after practising Vipassana, and I keep completely equanimous with these sensations.
With this equanimity, I feel the sensation as sensation without any pain. So, I have absolutely no problem with the pressure on the forehead.
But the problem is that whenever I try GENTLY to bring the focus back to the nose, I feel a huge build-up of the sensations on the head. It sounds as if (this is how I feel it) some energy is released from my nose and is accumulated on the forehead, and increases the pressure.
Although I keep the full equanimity, I am not 100% sure if this is something healty/natural and I would like to check this with you as more experienced meditators first.
My own evaluation is that, when I focus on the nose, it is as if some anicca is dissolved around my nose and the realesed energy moves up.
Overall, it is very difficult for me to keep the focus on the nose. So, during the anapanna I always struggle with bringing the focus back to the nose all the time.
Also, due to this I am not able to feel the breath sensations on the nose very clearly, and cannot go deeper.
Just as a side comment, during the retreat I had also this problem and the only advice I received from the teacher was "bring the focus down to the nose", which did not also work very well for me at the time, although I could go a little bit deeper after several sessions.
I have already checked the web: some people say, we should not focus on the nose since it is a small place and close to the forehead, some people say it is better to switch to the breath sensations on the belly, ....
but if I want to continue the Goenka style, I feel I need to solve this problem and keep the focus on the breath sensation on the nose.
The fact that nose is a very small area, should be a good reason to sense the sensations of the breath. Also, several times that I was able to keep my focus on the breath I went really deep into teh meditation and could feel the breath sensation with huge clarity, which gives me another reason why the nose area is a good location to focus.
However, as I explained the problem is that currently due to feeling the grose sensation on the forehead I cannot go deep into the breath.
I will be greatful for your help and comments, especially if you had similar experiences.
Best Wishes,
haghighat