Potential Risks of Meditation and How to Navigate Them

Meditation is often touted as a cure-all for stress and anxiety, and as a pathway to inner peace. While meditation offers numerous benefits, it’s possible to have negative experiences with the practice—and those are rarely talked about. 

In a study published by Clinical Psychological Science, 37% of participants in a mindfulness-based program had adverse meditation-related effects on daily functioning, and 58% had at least one adverse effect. These are alarming numbers and worth delving into. This post explores the hidden risks of meditation practices and offers tips for working through or mitigating them.

Possible Negative Effects from Meditation and Mindfulness

Unearthing Buried Emotions: Meditation can bring long-suppressed emotions like anger, sadness, or even trauma to the surface. This can be overwhelming and lead to feelings of anxiety or fear. However, it’s important to remember that these emotions are surfacing for a reason, and navigating them with a therapist or experienced meditation teacher can be incredibly healing. In short, while meditation can feel negative and uncomfortable, these feelings can be a normal part of the process of exploring your mind. Hence, it is helpful to be guided by a trained professional.

Dissociation and Depersonalization: Meditation involves focusing on the present moment and detaching from thoughts. While this is a key goal, sometimes this detachment can become excessive, leading to feelings of dissociation (feeling disconnected from your body) or depersonalization (feeling disconnected from yourself). If you experience this, it's important to shorten your practice or shift your focus to a more embodied meditation technique.

Physical Discomfort: Meditation regularly entails sitting for extended periods, which, especially for beginners, can lead to physical discomfort, including back pain, stiffness, or numbness. It’s crucial to choose a comfortable posture that supports your body and to listen to your body’s signals when it needs to move or adjust. If you can only focus on your physical discomfort while meditating, you won’t have much time for experiencing the other aspects of meditation.

Increased Anxiety: For some people, especially those struggling with pre-existing anxiety or trauma, meditation can initially worsen symptoms. Focusing on anxieties can make them feel magnified. If this occurs, start with shorter practices, focus on relaxation techniques, and consider practicing with a guided meditation specifically designed for anxiety relief or coping with trauma.

Finding the Right Teacher: Meditation is a journey, and having a qualified teacher can significantly impact your experience. Look for a teacher with experience and training, who emphasizes safety and can guide you through potential challenges.

Remember, Meditation Is a Practice: Like any skill, meditation takes time and practice. Some days will be better than others. Be patient with yourself, celebrate your progress, and don't be afraid to seek additional guidance if needed. Understanding that you may have an uncomfortable experience can help you flow through the process with more ease.

Unfortunately, many of the risks or negative experiences of meditation are actually part of the process. Spending more time “with yourself” can help you uncover repressed experiences. This isn’t to say that meditation need be harmful. It can be best in small doses or by following techniques that work well for your specific needs.

My first experience with yoga and meditation came in the form of a weekly university class. Meditation at first caused me to panic and hyperventilate; as a result, I stopped practicing yoga and meditation altogether. For me, sitting silently with my thoughts and anxiety caused more harm than good. However, over time I was able to discover ways return to the practice without experiencing the same negative responses.

The most effective method for me was to adopt more active forms of yoga and moving meditation. Walking meditation, for example, or focusing on a flow of the body and breath kept my mind focused on the present experience—which is much of what yoga and meditation is all about, observing your presence.

From there, with more adept teachers, I have delved deeper into other forms of yoga and meditation—all with varied success. Truthfully, meditation is still the hardest part of my yoga practice. It can still cause negative experiences and discomfort, but I am now aware of why and how to manage it. I will shorten the duration, take breaks, change the environment, or change the teacher, in order to make meditation more accessible. There is more discussion now in the wellness community about how to make yoga more physically accessible, but there hasn’t been a lot of discussion about how to make meditation and yoga more mentally accessible. There has been an increase in trauma-aware teachers, and while I think this demonstrates a growing awareness of the issue, but there still isn’t enough discussion of these risks and concerns to guide the growing numbers of people turning to these practices in search of the “advertised” relief.

If you are struggling with meditation or mindfulness or want to start these practices, take stock of where you are in your journey and what you want to achieve from the practice. Ask questions of instructors. And understand that you shouldn’t be afraid to deviate from conventions—the goal is for meditation and mindfulness to help you, not hurt you.