Leg Pain During Meditation: Causes and Solutions

Maybe you are wondering how to meditate without legs hurting? Pain in the legs during meditation has not only physiological reasons, but also mental, psychological, energetic and karmic reasons.

Possible Physiological Causes of Leg Pain:

• enslaved body (not only the legs themselves, but also back, neck, arms, and head);
• incorrectly configured pose;
• sedentary lifestyle;
• unhealthy food;
• incorrect drinking regime;
• alcohol and other intoxicants.

Possible Mental Causes of Leg Pain:

• negative emotions;
• inflexibility of mind, conservatism;
• obsessive, uncontrolled thoughts.

Psychological Causes of Leg Pain During Meditation:

• confrontation (resistance increases pain);
• unwillingness to move forward, achieve goals, overcome difficulties;
• fear of the future;
• self-doubt.

Energetic Causes:

• problems with the Muladhara Chakra;
• strong Apanavayu.

Karmic causes:

• negative karma accumulated in this and past incarnations (killing other living beings, anger and aggressiveness, living in passions, greed).

Physical Causes of Pain after Yoga:

• excessive wokdload;
• not correct doing of asanas;
• excessive joint mobility due to muscle weakness;
• untreated injuries;
• insufficient amount of fluid in the body;
• at the first stages — movements unfamiliar to the body (in this case, pain is a variant of the norm).

Mental Reasons:

• egoism, pride, the desire to constantly prove something;
• inadequate assessment of your strengths and abilities.

Psychological Reasons:

• fear of life;
• no internal support.

Energy Reasons:

• violation of the energy flow or inability to pass it in the leg area;
• life on the lower chakras;
• hypersensitivity to external energies (feeling the pain of another person as one's own).

On the physical plane:

1. Observe the drinking regime. Use water with lemon to alkalize the body.
2. Observe your waking and sleeping, work and rest routines.
3. Avoid intoxicants and anti-inflammatory medicines.
4. Start to remove toxins fr om the body.
5. Alkalizing and simple plant-based diet.
6. Start doing self-massage with oils according to the type of body constitution.
7. Take a hot bath after class.
8. Pay attention to cleansing practices-Shatkarmas.
9. Start your practice with a warm-up session.
10. Increase the load gradually.
11. Focus on adjusting the correct body position in both meditation and hatha yoga.
12. Alternate tension, relaxation and stretching during yoga.
13. Do the asanas performed in both directions the same time and number of approaches.
14. Perform all hatha yoga poses with slow, deep breathing and relaxation of all the muscles that are not involved in holding the body in a given position.
15. Walk in the fresh air more often: such walks improve blood circulation and strengthen the legs, relieve stress and tension, which helps to improve the interaction of the head and legs.
16. Until the body is ready for a long meditation, place pillows under the pelvis and thighs.
18. Practice mindful breathing with concentration on the problem area: imagine that you are breathing through a painful place.
19. Practice inverted asanas, especially before going to bed.
20. Sit cross-legged as often as possible (at work, while reading, while eating).

On the mental plane:

• Develop flexibility of mind, learn to listen to others, accept their point of view, move away from conservatism.
• Increase your concentration.

Coals are burning in a fire and we sprinkle some water on them. What happens then? The water is cold and the coals are hot. The contact between the hot coals and the cold water will produce a loud hissing sound. The burning coals do not welcome the cold water and thus protest loudly. This reaction is the result of two things coming together with radically opposite characteristics. One has the trait of burning, the other that of cooling. If we continue to sprinkle water on the burning coals, each time there will be a hissing sound but gradually the fire in the coals will be extinguished and they will cool down- now, no amount of water poured on them will produce any sound. Similarly, as the mind gets concentrated, it becomes pure and brings relief. These short moments of purity are like water being sprinkled on the burning coals of negativities. Their contact generates all these physical discomforts. Slowly and gradually, these will disappear.

Mr. S.N. Goenka

On a psychological level:

• Work with negative emotions. Try Metta meditation.
• Practice mindfulness. At the time of pain, pay attention to this sensation. See what it looks like, what color and size it is, and wh ere it is located. Such attention can reduce the feeling of pain or irritation. Observation also teaches you to notice that unpleasant sensations are not permanent, so there is no point in attaching special importance to them.
• Do more actions that benefit society and strengthen self-confidence.
• Develop humility, acceptance.

«It's hard even for Iron man to stay still with legs crossed. But, if you don't die of pain, you won't rise again. If we overcome this difficulty, we will not be afraid of any other» «Conditions for achieving great perfection».

On the energy plane:

• Build a harmonious lifestyle, establish healthy relationships with yourself and the world around you.
• Develop moral qualities according to the instructions of yama and niyama.
• Give up bad habits, maintain the level of consciousness on the higher chakras.
• Take a selective approach to everything that is immersed in the inner world (communication, books, movies, mass media, social networks).

On the karmic plane:

Live every day without forming negative karmic nodes. Move forward with dignity through any difficulties.