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Meditation is the method of choice for spiritual practice in many religions. The benefits of meditation don't stop at this level though. Your mind and body benefit immensely from meditation . There are few drawbacks though, one should be aware before taking up meditation.

The problem is ... within us. We all carry a baggage of traumas buried deep down in our subconscious minds. These are unpleasant events, consequence of our own or other people actions that affected us. Our minds try to protect us by covering up these experiences. In other words, we forget. Or do we? Keep on reading to find out ...

These memories remain down there in our subconscious mind and affect us at an emotional level. They also affect our thinking process and our behavior.

We may forgot the facts or the details but similar circumstances will bring back the unpleasant emotions we once experienced. That is why sometimes we may feel depressed, angry, or unhappy without a reason. They may even affect us, with a Freudian twist, as a dream of an animal chasing us. All the same: this is the subconscious memory of uncomfortable emotions and feelings we once experienced.

We can also dissociate or disown these memories and this is another way our mind deals with them. So, you are going along and you meet somebody that acts in a way that reminds you of your own regrettable behavior that resulted in a trauma inflicted to yourself or somebody else. You will dislike that person without an objective reason because you disowned that behavior. Did it happen to you?

Meditation is all about awareness. In the process of becoming aware of our thoughts, a key ingredient in meditation, we may eventually bring back all sort of memories. Good memories may resurface bringing back happy feelings. Mind does not segregate the bad memories though, so we may remember things we strongly wanted to forget. And our mind did just that before meditation brought them back.

So you may say then: do not meditate! Well, this is a matter of preference. Some people prefer to live life on autopilot some others (myself included) prefer to become aware at a more subtle level.

Also, sooner or later in our evolution as a human being we must deal with these uncomfortable memories anyway. The Eastern mystics call them karma. In science they are part of the subconscious mind.

Once you dealt with those traumas and let them go, you will be no longer susceptible to the specific unconscious memories and negative emotions.

You will be living a more balanced life, with less mood swings, with less ups and downs. This does not mean living a less exiting life, but rather a life where you are in control of your emotions and eventually choose the positive ones. You will be happy, or happier more often, to say the least.

There are some very efficient ways to deal with this meditation upheaval. The key is to let go and detach emotionally of these thoughts.

This is where EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) are very helpful, regardless if you know or not the source of the negative emotion. EFT works synergistically with meditation to help you advance faster on your path toward a better mind.

The EFT wording may look like this:

“Even though I have this … negative feeling … which makes me unhappy (depressed / sad / anxious) and slows down my evolution as a human being,
I choose to identify the cause of …this feeling… release it (let it go) and advance on my spiritual path”.

If following few sessions of EFT you find out the source of these negative emotions you may want to be more specific and replace the “negative feeling” with that particular detrimental memory. For example:

“Even though the thought of what I did … (or what I’ve experienced when ..) makes me unhappy (or feel guilt / shame / anxiety) and slows me down my evolution as a human being, there is nothing I can do to change the past so,
I chose to let go (or release) this thought and move on my spiritual path and become a better person”.

Sentiments of guilt, shame, blame and alike are very detrimental for one’s spiritual evolution (or mental balance). These sentiments must be released before getting any further. They act as weights attached to your legs when you try to break free, to run toward freedom. The memories will still be there but without any emotional charge they will easily fade away. This is  how EFT works.

If spiritual evolution is not your goal, you can replace that with mental balance, calmness, balanced personality, developmental stage or similar.

The EFT tapping can be done right after meditation if some unrest or other upheaval is detected.

And don’t forget to end your meditation and / or EFT with few minutes of relaxation (in yoga is called savasana).

To do that, just lay on your back and think as you breathe out of a wave of relaxation that sweeps your entire body from the top of your head to the tip of your toes. This will extent the natural relaxation of your torso muscles associated with exhaling, to the entire body. Enjoy!

For details of basic EFT and other EFT benefits please follow the link:  Emotional Freedom Techniques