The Limitations of Meditation & why it's important to know them

„Most Meditations can be seen as unblending practices.“
(Unknown)

I love this quote for describing what meditation is in a nutshell: meditation is an incredible, deeply intuitive, wise, and humane tool to get in touch with yourself.

To see who you are apart from the relationships you lead, the roles you fulfill, the job you do, the needs you satisfy. In fact, it helps you to get a better sense of whether all of the above are inherently good for you or not.

In meditation, you can raise awareness on its most profound level: the awareness for your own human nature, with your feelings, in your body, the ebb and flow of sensations.

In meditation, you create the space your emotions need to pass through, to be welcomed and heard by you. You realize how your emotions are pointing to your needs, you can start to name them which eventually leads to their satisfaction.

In meditation, you can take the much-needed break from the world, you can tap into your own rhythm, most likely realizing that the world is too fast for your sensitive system and that you need to slow down to really be who you are.

And then meditation has limitations that I consider important to be aware of.  

In my experience, meditation can be a coping mechanism for not having to deal with one’s reactions to the world on a deeper level.

Meditation doesn’t address the imprints that a lack of (inner) safety, care, and love, leave in your psyche and nervous system. Meditation isn’t the tool to embrace those parts of yourself that are hurt to the degree that accompanying coping mechanisms can relax.

In fact, coping mechanism such as distraction, depression or a deep sense of unworthiness can be leveraged through meditation – even the most experienced teacher can only do so much to help you stay connected with & grow the healthy sense of Self that can be experienced in meditation.

The safety that comes with embracing your own experience, emotions, and needs cannot be meditated into your life; and neither can deeply engrained patterns & beliefs be meditated out of it.

In my view, it’s crucial to be conscious of the foundational support that meditation provides in self-connection and ensuing healing. To be more attuned with your feelings and needs will help you seeing clearly where your pain and its coping mechanisms are at play, and which of those parts you’re ready to get in touch with, integrate, and release. This is the essence & domain of trauma healing in the presence and with the support of others. And both modalities go beautifully hand in hand for a full self-embrace.