Pain in meditation.

I practice meditation since I saw required within my Jedi studies. Got all that seemed necessary to practice. When I started I tried all positions cross-legged in meditation (half lotus, Burmese and the position called "easy" that is how children learn to cross your legs to sit in school). The problem I face is that over time my meditation I feel a lot of pain just left knee. Read in several places that is normal in the beginning and that tends to go, but did not pass. Now adopted the Seiza position is very comfortable for me. Normally I do not feel pain in any joint in any exercise, only in meditation. The last time I went to the orthopedist he said it was all right.

Was wondering if anyone knows any explanation for this, or if there is another sitting position I do not know, or even something that you can take this rigidity of my knee.

I have the same problem as you, I injured my knee a while back and sitting cross legged for some time hurts.

I meditate in my yoga room so I do it either laying on my back, or sitting on the floor with my back against the sofa and my legs out straight in front of me.

All of my joints, from my hips and on down have had injuries so sitting in one position for a period of time becomes painful for me. I usually meditate in the shower it's warm and I like water.

It could be your left knee just isn't use to being in that kind of position for long periods of time. Joints need to be trained to get use to things too If that posture works for you then great! If not, don't fret about trying unconventional things too

For me it's my back that hurts while seated in that cross legged position for too long. I've taken to doing my longer meditations in more comfortable positions like laying down or seated on my couch and doing shorter ones in the cross legged position to see if I can get used to it.

I can't meditate in a formal way due to my own injuries. I usually sit in my lazy boy so I'm supported or my computer chair that also supports my back. Find a comfortable spot. You cannot focus if you are in pain. Once you find that comfortable spot you are good to go.

I concluded it the best position to meditate it is the best position for me.
So I should create a way to meditate.
You have been very useful. Thank you.
Please continue. Does anyone have another way to meditate?

I have poor circulation so I don't do any special poses when I meditate, I just sit in my chair or on the couch in an upright position. As Alan Watts states, you can sit in whatever position you'd like as long as you're not at risk for falling asleep.

As an aside, meditation is not required, but it is strongly encouraged. The meditation lessons from Alan Watts are meant to be a guide post and an introduction to meditation for people who have never tried meditation before (like me when I first came here). If you meditate simply because you feel you have to in order to be a good Jedi, you'll kind of be defeating the purpose and benefit of meditation.

When i teach mindfulness exercises to my clients, I stress the Goldilocks principle. You must find a position that is comfortable enough to maintain at length, but not so comfortable that you doze off. Sometimes you might doze off anyway, but you do what you can to avoid it. As I tell my guys, "Sleep is beautiful but it isn't practice."

When I began my formal training, my teacher suggested a half lotus position. It took a while for the sleepy legs, complete with pins and needles, to go away. My understanding was that it had to do with tightness in the hips getting in the way. At any rate, it soon passed where i could sit in comfort and walk right after with no issue. Your results may vary.

It depends what your trying to do with the meditation, otherwise position did not matter for me generally - I most often did it laying down on my back!!!

Now I try to focus more on the spine as a trunk of a tree so I tend to try and have that vertical which works if I don't want to fall asleep as my head nodding over would wake me up.... otherwise if falling asleep is ok the tree trunk might be slightly reclined in a comfortable position with no pain whatsoever

I'd avoid causing 'injury' to yourself but sometimes a small bit of pain is just part of changing out of old habits BUT I've found no benefit in using the cross legged positions over other positions!! More broadly the yoga asana's are interesting ways to manifest energetic transformation if you get into unlocking energy from the spine like kundalini etc.

MrBruno wrote: I practice meditation since I saw required within my Jedi studies. Got all that seemed necessary to practice. When I started I tried all positions cross-legged in meditation (half lotus, Burmese and the position called "easy" that is how children learn to cross your legs to sit in school). The problem I face is that over time my meditation I feel a lot of pain just left knee. Read in several places that is normal in the beginning and that tends to go, but did not pass. Now adopted the Seiza position is very comfortable for me. Normally I do not feel pain in any joint in any exercise, only in meditation. The last time I went to the orthopedist he said it was all right.

Was wondering if anyone knows any explanation for this, or if there is another sitting position I do not know, or even something that you can take this rigidity of my knee.

As long as your spine is upright, it doesn't really matter how you sit. I can spend about 20 minutes in half lotus before my feet fall asleep, so for shorter sessions, I use that position as it's the only one where I'm not in danger of dozing off. For anything above 20 minutes, I sit in my office chair with a pillow wedged under my butt + lower back. That way I still sit upright. You should be sitting in a position just comfortable enough that you can spend 40 minutes in it but uncomfortable enough to keep you from falling asleep (hence the upright spine). If you're in pain, you can't fully concentrate on what you're contemplating, so unless you can't avoid it, try to sit in a position that allows you to be free of it.

I know that the typical image of a meditator is that of someone sitting in full lotus for 2 hours - the reality is that only very few people can sit in these positions for an extended period of time. And most of them have been doing so since they were children.

Also, there are two different kinds of pain you might experience in half-lotus etc. One is stretching pain, which positively will go away after a month or so of regular meditation. The other one (and I suspect your knee pain belongs to that category) is caused by medical conditions that expose themselves during unusual movement and sitting positions - those will never go away and shouldn't be accepted.