As a meditation teacher who specializes in helping people when their practice goes wrong, many people come to me seeking answers as to why meditation makes them feel worse.
It’s so frustrating. You start meditating because you want to feel better… and it ends up making your feel worse?!.. You might even wonder what’s wrong with you. And answer: Nothing.
The problem you’re facing is more common than you think. But the good news is that I have never come across a situation or a person for whom meditation could not be made to work.
So long as you are flexible enough to adapt your meditation practice to meet your needs, then I promise you meditation can work, and I’m about to show you how.
In this guide, I’m going to share what I’ve learned about fixing a problematic meditation practice.
Why & How Meditation Makes Things Worse Sometimes
Yes it’s true. I admit it. Meditation can sometimes make things worse. I’ve had people share all kinds of side effects ranging from “meditation gives me anxiety” to “it made me put on weight” (the latter is actually more realistic than you might think because meditation slows metabolism). Those are just two example of the struggles.
| How Meditation Can Make Things Worse | Why This Happens |
|---|---|
| Increased Anxiety or Panic | Focusing inward can amplify anxious thoughts or trigger suppressed feelings, especially without grounding techniques. |
| Dissociation or Depersonalization | Certain meditation styles (e.g., long silent sits) may detach individuals from their sense of self, especially those with trauma history. |
| Emotional Overwhelm | Mindfulness can bring unresolved grief, anger, or sadness to the surface without providing coping tools. |
| Loss of Motivation | Overemphasis on detachment or non-attachment can be misinterpreted as apathy or passivity. |
| Spiritual Bypass | Using meditation to avoid facing personal problems rather than addressing them directly can delay healing. |
| Triggering of Trauma | Stillness and introspection can bring traumatic memories to awareness, causing flashbacks or emotional distress. |
| Identity Confusion | Deep meditation or ego-loss experiences can destabilize a person’s sense of who they are, especially during identity crises. |
| Physical Discomfort or Injury | Extended sitting without proper posture can cause pain or chronic strain if done without guidance. |
I’m sorry but it’s partly on you
Now I hate to say it, but ninety percent of the time, problems happen in meditation because the individual didn’t respect meditation enough and went into it without proper training. I see this all the time in my pivate lessons, and it’s not surprising given that the media constantly talks about how “easy” meditation is. Yeah, so easy… right?
Consider that meditation was originally designed for monks. Consider also that it’s so powerful it can potentially alter brainwaves to near seizure-like neural activity and even extend the length of telomeres, a marker of life longevity. Hence why we really should take this practice seriously.
And if you need even more reason to be sincere in your practice, consider your own mind. Many techniques significantly heighten introspective awareness. And that means that if you’re depressed or anxious or stressed, some techniques will make you more aware of it and will thereby increase those negative states (at first).
So. Meditation isn’t something you want to take lightly. Have respect in the way you’re approaching it.
A Wiser Approach To Meditation
The wise way to approach meditation is to consider who you are as an individual (and especially any challenges you might have), how to work with your own mind, and which techniques are going to help you.
Let’s start with who you are.
In my private meditation sessions I always ask my clients some basic questions to workout who they are. For instance, I’ll ask their general mood and any mental health challenges. This is vital because it informs me of where we should and shouldn’t go in their meditation practice.
For instance, if I discover that they frequently experience depressive thoughts, I’ll avoid techniques that are too introspective because they could amplify that negativity. Such a person would do much better with meditation that focus on the body or the environment, therefore avoiding the pain that is currently in their mind. Note that this just in the beginning; it changes as they become more experienced and more skilled.
And how about a person who frequently experiences dissociation, that sensation when you feel spacey? Well, they clearly should avoid dissociative meditations, such as Vipassana, right? Associative techniques like sensory association would be much better.
And so in starting this way, by analyzing who you are and your unique challenges, you can begin to create a plan for your meditation practice.
Respecting the path
There is something of a path to the way we should approach meditation. Now please don’t get me wrong, I one hundred percent believe that you have the right to meditate however you want, but if safety is your priority then yes there is a path to meditating safely.
I recommend that in the beginning you start by learning grounding techniques and how how to anchor yourself in the moment, because this will stop you from drifting off and getting lost when you meditate. Exercises like basic body awareness, mindful walking, and five senses work will help here.
Once you know how to ground yourself you can then start doing the techniques that everyone talks about, like mindful breathing, vipassana, etc. These are dissociative but you’ve now learned to stay anchored so you’re good to go. And with these techniques you will start to calm and clear the mind. You can also do methods like Body Scan and Somatic.
At this point you’re anchored and calm and you’ve created the groundwork to do deeper meditations, which are usually spiritual methods like Self Inquiry and Neti Neti. If you’d started these earlier you would lose yourself in visions or drift off to goodness knows where. Or you might sink into whatever is inside your mind, which might have been painful before you cleared your mind in the previous step.
Finally, you’re ready to go to the advanced meditations like Kundalini and Merkaba. These are known to have potential side effects such as anxiety attacks when done by the uninitiated. But you’ve walked the path now and your trained mind is ready for them.
As I said, it’s totally up to you how you meditate, but in my experience as a meditation teacher, if you skip any of the stepping stones on this path, you might end up feeling worse because of it.
Fallback
No matter how wisely you approach meditation it is always possible that you could experience negative effects. So here are some emergency procedures for when things go wrong:
- Just stop: You don’t have anything to prove by making it to the end of your meditation session.
- Go back to the very basics: If you’re in a session and you start to feel bad, just notice how your body is just lying down / sitting down, in a safe space, and how all you have to do is breathe.
- Open your eyes a little bit: If you’re going too deep, opening your eyes a little bit will increase sensory stimuli, helping to pull you back.
- Just do mindfulness exercises: If you’re in a bad patch in general and your meditations consistently feel bad, stop doing full-on meditations and just do some basic mindfulness exercises for a week or so (things like mindfully listening to music, or going for walks in the park).
Summary
If meditation makes you feel worse, you are not the only one. It definitely can happen. And it is usually caused by a misunderstanding of the practice.
By acknowledging your own challenges and respecting meditation with sincerity, you can create a practice that makes you feel great. No more anxiety or dissociation when meditating.
This is what I specialize in as a private meditation teacher. So if you would like my help, if you would like to have a meditation practice you can be happy with and confident in, reach out to me.
Paul Harrison is a meditation teacher with 20+ years of experience and a deep passion for helping others. Known for his empathy and authentic approach, he’s dedicated to guiding individuals and teams toward mindfulness, clarity, and well-being.