What to do if you find yourself in an acute negative experience
Meditation can be a powerful practice, but like any powerful tool, it comes with risks. It may surface difficult emotions or experiences. While these can be deeply transformative, it's crucial to approach them with care and awareness of your own capacity.
If you find yourself feeling unsafe, distressed, or having an unwanted physiological response (e.g., increased heart rate, shallow breathing), please do the following:
- Stop meditating. Think of it like a car with an indicator light. You must stop and assess the situation before proceeding. Your body and mind have a window of tolerance, and pushing beyond it can be harmful.
- Titrate your experience. Instead of pushing through, you need to apply the "brakes" to regulate your nervous system. Engage in a non-meditation activity that makes you feel safe and grounded, like exercise, being in nature, or connecting with a friend. This process, called titration, helps you manage intense experiences in a controlled way.
- Do not force yourself to focus on the difficult sensation. While some may advise this, it can lead to re-traumatization and overwhelm your system. Instead, shift your attention to an external resource (e.g., a pleasant object or sound) and only briefly and gently check in with the difficult sensation before returning to the resource.
- Let us know right away. We’ll work with you to ensure your meditation stays within your comfort zone.
Supporting Your Journey
- We’re innovating not just to make the jhanas more accessible but to make them as safe as possible. In addition to the mental health pre-retreat questionnaire, we’ll be following along with your daily journals and touch points. (For more information, you can read about prior case studies here and our overall approach here.)
- Should issues arise, please reach out to the lead facilitator on your retreat, whose contact information will be provided by the end of opening night. You can also reach out to Stephen at +1 (812) 360-4522 or stephen@jhourney.io at any time (or any other staff member or facilitator). On retreat we’re usually pretty quick to respond, but it can help by starting the subject line with “[Urgent]”, and you may need to double-call to get someone to pick up.
- We don’t provide medical support, but we can help connect you to mental health experts. In case of a clinical emergency, please call local emergency support or use the 988 national hotline. (If you’re not in the USA, such as on an online retreat, please take a minute to identify an analogous hotline in your country.)