Meditation becoming too challenging while on NoFap

Hey,

Been meditating a lot, off and on. A few things that might work. One make the energy the focus of your awareness. The most important aspect, for me and the tradition I follow, is awareness. You can just be aware and sit. You can also focus on something. Awareness or mindfulness of the breath is the most well known. But this can also be something else. The sexual energy itself might be something to be aware of. Not acting upon it. Just observe what is going. If you find the energy growing. Take your mind of it and put your attention on an other object, for example the breath.

Second option is to try a moving meditation.You can do walking meditation. This is a good video explaining.


Third a more active movement method. For example yoga or Tai Chi.

Hope this helps.

 

Hey man, interesting thread - I was wondering if you have ever done a full vipassana course before?
I did a 10-day course a few weeks ago, and we was told to practice a minimum of 2 hours pr. day of Vipassana, else it wouldn't be beneficial to you.
1 hour in the morning & 1 hour in the evening is the minimum for Vipassana, according to Goenka, I think he is right in this.

Anyways, you should take this "Sexual-Energy/Hyperactivity" as a challenge in my opinion and see it as a way to grow, instead of a problem.
An idea could be to try to get as calm as you can before starting your meditation session, take 5 VERY deep and slow breaths before beginning, to get calmed down easily.
Eventually play some low volume nature sounds in the background if you have speakers, else headphones is an idea.
Then just observe all the feelings in your body, from head to toe and try to get more and more aware of them, and when you feel the energy flowing in you, start looking at it, and not attaching yourself to it or identifying yourself with the energy, just look at it, observe it and ask questions like: How is this energy moving inside of me? Where is the energy located? Is it hot or cold? Don't judge it, don't try to make it a positive or a negative, just observe it and watch it - and keep doing that.
The more you focus and observe on this energy, the deeper you will go into your meditative state.

I hope this will help you a little or atleast point you in the right direction.

If you have any questions regarding NoFap, Meditation or anything like that, feel free to PM me or just reply to this comment.

And remember, as Goenka says: You're bound to be succesfull

All the best,
- AlphaParty.

 

I do not know what type of Vipassana / mindfulness meditation you are doing, there are quite a few, but I am personally practicing the method as thought by Mahasi Sayadaw. In that method we start with awareness of breath in belly - the rising and falling movements as we breath. And if anything else comes up, such as thought or feeling (arousal, back pain, boredom, etc) we become aware of it until it goes away. Then we return to breath.

To focus on being mindful and keep ourselves objective we use a type of mantra. That matra is simply naming the which we observe objectively. So for example when we abserve berating on belly we would say to ourselves (not out loud but in our mind [or rather in our belly, if you will, cos mind should be with meditation object]): "rising", "falling", "rising", "falling", etc, etc. Then if something else comes we become aware of it and name it objectively too. If my back starts hurting from sitting for too long I would say "pain", "pain", "pain" while still sitting, not changing my position to get rid of pain but just focusing on it and observing it. I find that by doing so I get less annoyed by it and actually can sit in it longer. When arousal come I would focus my awareness on it and would just say mantra: "aroused" again and again until it goes away by itself. Then I would return to breath.

So in method I am doing we do not try to focus on one object (such as breath and nostrils) and push out all the other objects (such as thoughts or feelings). We just objectively observe whatever comes up and use mantra to name it, this mantra helps us to stay objective and not be lost in judgement or resistance. So same I would recommend for you. Use that as an object of meditation. Use the desire to move as an object of meditation. Or your annoyance with it all. Or your jumpyness feeling. Whatever obstacle comes up do not give into it but do not resist it either. Just observe it objectively and be aware of it.

 

Another thing that I probably should mention is meditations for sexual energy transmutation. I like Taoist Qigong methods by Mantak Chia. Get the book called Healing Light of the Tao: Foundational Practices to Awaken Chi Energy. Some may not like a lot of theories in there because it is essentially magic. But even if you are not into that kind of stuff I guarantee that his methods work. If you learn how to open what he calls The Microscopic Orbit, learn how to feel the Chi energy and move it through your body and store it into lower abdomen it will work. Doesn't really matter whether you believe Chi is real or not. It might just be training your brain alone. But whatever it does it works. So I would recommend that book.

 

I have meditated on and off for 25 years - quite intensely the last 6 months.

I recommend 'just sitting' meditation, in which we are open and present to whatever the current experience is (feelings,sensations, thoughts etc). This is sometimes called choiceless awareness.
It could help you because there is no control or technique to speak of, so you don't get frustrated trying to focus on one thing (such as breath) every time sexual energy arises. Also it welcomes ALL experience, so you realise that there is always something other than sexual energy going on at the same time. Y don't have to fixate.

Also, remember that 'sexual energy' is not one solid, tangible presence (although it may feel like it). It is a phrase you have given to represent a series of rising and falling phenomena - a thought, a physical response, an emotion, another thought etc. Seeing that can take the power away.

Good luck!