Problem with accumulated Sankharas in body

[haghighat]

Hi All,

I am new to Vipassana and basically just started practicing after attending a retreat in Goenka style meditation this January. However, I have been meditating for around one year and half now.


The problem I have currently is that I feel release of a lot Sankharas in my body especially in the Solar Plexis area. The pattern is as follows: I feel that some Sankhara is released in the chest area and for around 5 to 6 days I feel a huge preasure on Solar Plexis until it dissolves. Then, a new round starts.

I am quite equanimous with the sensations but the problem is that the pressure is typically so high that my breathing is so uncomfortable and I can take only very short breaths.
Sometimes eating the food is becoming difficult for me due to this pressure on the stomach.
Also, whenever I take some time to be silent and enjoy its peace, the first thing I feel is the pressure on my body and it makes it difficult to be quite calm.


I would like to know if the other people have also similar experiences? Also, how long this process is going to last or is it going to be easier later on?

What is special about this area and why all the released sankharas are accumulated in this area?

Sometimes it sounds as if something is accumulated there and cannot move upward or downward until suddenly it dissolves.


Thanks a lot for your helpful comments.

Haghighat

[stillpointdancer]

That's a word which can mean any number of things, but I guess from your post that it's a Goenka definition you are referring to. Lots of things happen when you meditate, or at least there are lots of things always happening, but when you meditate you become more aware of them. For me it sounds like the release of tension as you relax, or the experience of tension if you can't. Is it something like that?

[haghighat]

Hi stillpointdancer,

thanks for the reply.

Yes, it is Goenka definition.

I am not sure if it is tension in that sense. In fact, as I explained, I clearly feel release of some thing (of course this part is visualization of what I sense in my body), and then for the rest of week I feel huge pressure on my solar plexis until it dissolves and I feel quite relaxed again. Then the next round follows ...

Also, these sensations continue all the day even when I am not meditating.

That's a word which can mean any number of things, but I guess from your post that it's a Goenka definition you are referring to. Lots of things happen when you meditate, or at least there are lots of things always happening, but when you meditate you become more aware of them. For me it sounds like the release of tension as you relax, or the experience of tension if you can't. Is it something like that?

[stillpointdancer]

I've read similar from people doing Goenka. My take is that there is no relaxation technique practiced before body awareness meditation, although I could be wrong. I was always taught to bring relaxation to every part of the body starting with the toes and ending at the top of the head at the start of every meditation. Tension is always there somewhere as the physical manifestation of stress which often appears during such meditation simply because you are allowing yourself to become aware of what is happening to it. It doesn't have to mean that you are suffering from stress as a medical condition, it's just what happens to the body as we go about our everyday lives.

Breathing is another case in point. We rarely pay attention to our breathing, which is why many meditation techniques concentrate on it. Conscious breathing of this kind for short periods can have positive effects . There is no end to things that happen when we meditate because meditation increases awareness of what is happening to the body at any given time, and the body is a living organism which continually changes. Unless there is a medical condition you need to be aware of, my advice would be to at least try out some relaxation techniques.

[Goofaholix]

In this practice it's best to move away from conceptual explanations about what is happening, whether these are sankharas or not these may or may not be accurate but the conceptual explantions do divert attention away from the direct experience.

Just be aware of the experience of sensation in that area, also notice every time it comes, or goes, or changes.  Notice any reactivity to the experience, is the reactivity creating more tension.  If you can observe without reactivity these things work themselves out over time, if you react the negative aspects of the experience compounds over time.

Needless to say if it comes to the point where you believe something is wrong physically see your doctor.