Ashok Gupta explains why traditional meditation is done on an empty stomach—claiming digestion can consume roughly 30–50% of the body's resources, which can make meditation heavy or sleepy if done after eating. He recommends sitting-up meditation (not horizontal), working up to 30–40 minute sessions to allow the mind to settle, and using other relaxation practices (stretching, massage, guided visualizations, nature) when meditation provokes anxiety. Gupta also asserts neuroscientific benefits (seasoned meditators show reduced amygdala reactivity) as supporting evidence for these practices.
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In ancient times, from for millennia past, meditation has always been done on an empty stomach. Now why is that? Well, when you eat a meal, a lot of your body's resources go to digestion, which is why sometimes after lunch we can feel that lunchtime slump, that afternoon slump, that bit of tiredness, resources go to digestion. It's estimated up to 30 to 50% of your body, body's resources and energy can go towards digestion. And therefore, if you meditate on a full stomach, you're going to get a, you are going to get more of a sleepy, heavy meditation. And what we're doing with meditation and this is really the, the secrets, we're letting some secrets out here. We are using energy to create more energy, right? So when you haven't eaten, you've hopefully got the maximum amount of energy that you're able to muster at that point, which is then using that energy to calm and still the mind, to not be reactive to your environment and training the mind through that meditation or soften and flow. And that's why we meditate on an empty stomach. We breathe on an empty stomach. We do yoga or stretching or whatever you do as a physical activity. We don't take a big meal and then go and go out for a run or go and do some physical activity. We generally do it before we eat. Yeah. So that's the reason why meditation has always been done on an empty stomach. As we said, if meditation is something that you try and you find an anxious reaction to it and you can't bear with it, then use some other techniques. Like on our website, the stretching with Heather that we now have some of the other meditations we put all relaxation and visualization exercises we provided and then practice with those for a while to relax your nervous system and you can always come back to the meditations. So number one is regular daily relaxation. And I would now feel, I would love for you to now experiment with a 30 minute and the 40 minute versions to go deeper. Yeah. And yeah, as we said, they might say, oh, but Ashok, you know, there's so many other things I want to do during the day. I'm just sitting there doing nothing. Right. And that is the arts. Can we sit there and do nothing? Isn't that interesting? It's the hardest thing to do in the world is to do nothing, is to sit there and do nothing, allow your mind to do nothing. And yet that training enables the mind to learn to not be constantly looking and being reactive and being busy and instead training to be calm and still. So it's not in any way wasted time, I think 30, 40 minute meditations. Now, if you can manage that, it's not obligatory, but if you can manage that, you'll really see another step change in your health. Because many of you will notice that with a busy mind, it takes the first 15 minutes just for the mind to even get to any kind of settled state. Right. And so if you can go with the 30 or 40 minutes, please just trust me, it'll be the most valuable use of your time to do that, despite it feeling like just sitting here and doing nothing. Ashok. So we provided all the 30 and 40 minute versions. Why are we asking for meditation to be sitting up? Because, once again, it is not the equivalent of sleeping or taking a nap, which is what the body associates with being horizontal. This is training the mind whilst fully conscious to be calmer and less reactive. And studies show the amygdala becomes less reactive when we meditate over time, seasoned meditators, their amygdalas actually shrink so that they become less emotionally reactive to the environment around us. And this is science. You can, you can Google yourself, you can see this. So these are real physical changes we're making to your brain through this. Now, I'm not just saying this for fun. This is so, so important for your healing. Yep. So let's see if we can extend those meditations a little longer. So that's our first step is the relaxing the nervous system. And combined with that, you figure out what is something that does help me genuinely relax? Is it having a massage? Is it sitting in a hot tub? Is it, you know, lying down and doing a softening flow? Some people do do softening flow lying down. It's the one of them that you can do lying down. Is it something else? Is it sitting in nature? Whatever it is that relaxes and calms your nervous system. Yeah. Do more of.
