You settle onto your cushion and begin to meditate. Some days, your body is a symphony of sensations: tingling in your hands, warmth spreading through your chest, the subtle texture of breath moving through your nostrils, the gentle pressure of your sit bones on the cushion. Every moment is alive with felt experience.

Other days, there's almost nothing. Your body feels distant, abstract, nearly absent. You're aware, but not of anything in particular. No distinct sensations, no textures, just a quiet presence.

Which is "better" meditation?

The surprising answer: Both are valuable, and each serves different purposes in your practice. Understanding when to work with rich physical sensations and when to rest in the absence of them can revolutionize your meditation, deepen your insight, and help you navigate challenges that arise on the cushion.

This isn't about one approach being superior—it's about developing fluency in both, recognizing what each offers, and knowing when to emphasize one over the other based on your current needs, state, and stage of practice.

Let's explore these two modes of meditation, why they occur, what they teach, and how to work with each skillfully.

Understanding the two modes: Somatic vs. spacious awareness

Mode 1: Somatic meditation (feeling textures)

In this mode, meditation is explicitly anchored in physical sensations:

What you're attending to:

  • The texture and temperature of breath
  • Tingling, pressure, pulsing, vibrating sensations
  • Areas of tension or relaxation
  • The felt sense of the body in space
  • Subtle energetic qualities
  • The rising and passing of sensations

Characteristics:

  • Rich, detailed, textured experience
  • Concrete anchor for attention
  • Often feels "embodied" and grounded
  • Can be intensely absorbing
  • Clear object of meditation

Common practices emphasizing this:

  • Body scan meditation
  • Vipassana (noting sensations)
  • Somatic experiencing
  • Breathwork focused on sensation
  • Walking meditation with attention to feet
  • Yoga and movement meditation

The experience: "I can feel everything—the cool air entering my nostrils, the warmth as I exhale, my heart beating steadily, tingling in my fingertips, the weight of my body sinking into the cushion. Each moment is full of sensation."

Mode 2: Spacious meditation (minimal physical sensation)

In this mode, physical sensations recede into background, and awareness itself becomes primary:

What you're attending to:

  • The space in which experience occurs
  • Pure awareness without distinct objects
  • Silence, emptiness, stillness
  • The "knowing" that's present before sensations arise
  • Open, choiceless awareness
  • The witness consciousness

Characteristics:

  • Subtle, quiet, less "eventful"
  • No distinct anchor or object
  • Often feels expansive, open, formless
  • Can seem like "nothing is happening"
  • Awareness resting in itself

Common practices emphasizing this:

  • Dzogchen and non-dual meditation
  • Shikantaza (just sitting)
  • Open awareness/choiceless awareness
  • Resting as awareness
  • Advanced stages of concentration (jhana)
  • Self-inquiry ("Who am I?")

The experience: "There's awareness, but not of anything in particular. No strong sensations, no distinct objects. Just open presence. It's peaceful but also slightly unsettling—am I doing this right? There's nothing to hold onto."

Why you experience both (and when each arises)

Neither mode is a choice you consciously make every time—they often arise based on conditions:

Factors that create rich somatic experience:

1. Beginning stages of practice

  • Novice meditators are usually more sensation-oriented
  • Physical sensations provide clear, concrete anchors
  • The body is "louder" when you first start paying attention

2. High stress or activation

  • Anxiety manifests as physical sensations (tight chest, racing heart)
  • Trauma stored in the body creates intense sensations
  • When fight-or-flight is active, body signals amplify

3. After physical activity

  • Exercise, yoga, or movement heightens body awareness
  • Blood flow and energy feel more palpable
  • Physical engagement primes somatic attention

4. Certain techniques

  • Practices that explicitly direct attention to sensation
  • Body scan, breathwork, noting practice
  • Vipassana-style meditation

5. Physical discomfort or pain

  • Sitting discomfort demands attention
  • Illness or injury creates sensation
  • Hunger, fatigue, heat, cold

6. Energy practices

  • Pranayama, qigong, kundalini
  • These cultivate felt energetic sensations
  • Can create tingling, heat, movement sensations

Factors that create minimal sensation:

1. Advanced concentration

  • Deep absorption states (jhana) can feel "empty"
  • The mind becomes so still that distinctions fade
  • Sensations present but not "loud"

2. Calm, rested states

  • When nervous system is deeply settled
  • Parasympathetic dominance (rest mode)
  • Low physiological arousal

3. Certain practices

  • Non-dual practices that emphasize spaciousness
  • "Just sitting" without specific object
  • Open awareness meditation

4. Dissociation or numbing

  • Trauma response that disconnects from body
  • Depression that dulls sensation
  • Avoidance of uncomfortable feelings
  • (This is different from healthy spacious awareness—we'll distinguish below)

5. Mental absorption

  • Mind very concentrated, body recedes
  • Deep thinking or contemplation
  • Attention captured by thought

6. Natural variation

  • Some days sensations are subtle
  • Biorhythms, energy levels, time of day
  • No particular reason—just how it is

The gifts of each mode: What they teach

Both modes offer unique benefits and insights:

Gifts of somatic meditation (feeling textures):

1. Grounding and embodiment

  • Brings you out of head and into body
  • Counters dissociation and intellectualization
  • Creates sense of being "here," not lost in thought

2. Concrete anchor for wandering mind

  • When attention drifts, sensations call it back
  • Clear, tangible object to return to
  • Especially helpful for beginners

3. Direct insight into impermanence

  • Watch sensations arise and pass moment to moment
  • Nothing is solid or lasting
  • Direct visceral understanding of change

4. Working with difficult emotions

  • Emotions have physical components
  • By feeling sensation without story, emotion processes
  • Body holds and releases what mind can't access

5. Developing concentration

  • Sustained attention on sensation builds focus
  • Clear feedback when attention wanders
  • Progressive deepening available

6. Healing trauma

  • Trauma lives in the body
  • Somatic awareness allows processing and release
  • Reconnects to body that was abandoned for safety

7. Pleasure and aliveness

  • Physical sensations can be genuinely pleasant
  • Connects to vitality and felt sense of being alive
  • Makes meditation enjoyable, not just dutiful

8. Diagnostic information

  • Body signals reveal stress, tension, needs
  • Physical awareness supports health
  • Early warning system for imbalance

Gifts of spacious meditation (minimal sensation):

1. Non-attachment to experience

  • Don't need specific sensations to meditate
  • Frees you from seeking particular states
  • Meditation works even when "nothing happens"

2. Insight into consciousness itself

  • Recognize awareness as primary, content as secondary
  • Understand that you are not your sensations
  • Realize the witness that observes all experience

3. Profound peace and rest

  • Absence of "content" is deeply restful
  • Mind not processing constant input
  • Access to deep stillness

4. Freedom from the body

  • In chronic pain, spacious awareness offers relief
  • Not trapped in bodily experience
  • Discover identity beyond physical form

5. Advanced concentration states

  • Jhanas and absorption states feel spacious
  • Profound joy without sensory "content"
  • Refined happiness that's not based on stimulation

6. Non-dual recognition

  • Subject/object distinction dissolves
  • No "me" observing "sensations"
  • Direct knowing of unity

7. Flexibility of awareness

  • Can be with anything—or nothing
  • Not dependent on conditions
  • Works in any circumstance

8. Letting go of doing

  • Nothing to manipulate or improve
  • Pure being without agenda
  • Rest from constant efforting

When to emphasize each approach

The skillful meditator learns to work with both modes, emphasizing what's most helpful for current needs:

Emphasize somatic awareness when:

1. You're beginning meditation

  • Need concrete anchor for attention
  • Tangible reference point helps
  • Builds foundational skills

Practice: Body scan, breath sensation at nostrils, noting physical sensations

2. You're anxious or agitated

  • Strong emotions need somatic processing
  • Grounding in body calms nervous system
  • Concrete sensations anchor scattered mind

Practice: Feel feet on ground, hands on lap, breath in belly. "Where do I feel anxiety in my body?"

3. You're dissociated or "in your head"

  • Overthinking disconnects from present
  • Intellectualization avoids feeling
  • Need to return to direct experience

Practice: Progressive muscle relaxation, tactile sensations, movement meditation

4. You're working through trauma

  • Trauma stored in body needs somatic processing
  • Pendulation: feel sensation, then spaciousness, back and forth
  • Regaining body trust

Practice: Somatic experiencing, trauma-sensitive yoga, feeling sensations with resource present

Important: Work with trauma-informed practitioner, not solo

5. You want to develop concentration

  • Sustained attention on sensation builds focus
  • Clear feedback loop for practice
  • Progressive refinement available

Practice: Anapanasati (breath at nostrils), kasina practice (visual objects), body parts in sequence

6. You're experiencing pleasure or joy

  • Positive sensations deepen meditation
  • Pleasant states worth savoring mindfully
  • Cultivates appreciation for practice

Practice: Notice pleasant sensations, allow them, let them permeate awareness without clinging

7. Physical pain is present

  • Paradoxically, investigating pain deeply can transform it
  • Seeing its texture, changing nature
  • Finding edges, spaces between sensations

Practice: Pain meditation—direct attention into sensation, noting its qualities without story

8. You're cultivating body wisdom

  • Intuition speaks through body
  • Gut feelings are literal
  • Developing somatic intelligence

Practice: Check in with body before decisions, notice subtle pulls toward/away, trust body knowing

Emphasize spacious awareness when:

1. Somatic focus creates more agitation

  • Sometimes tracking sensations increases anxiety
  • Attention to body amplifies discomfort
  • Need space rather than focus

Practice: Step back from sensations, rest as the awareness that knows them, open choiceless awareness

2. You're very calm and concentrated

  • Deep states naturally become spacious
  • Trying to find sensation disrupts peace
  • Allow refinement to continue

Practice: Let go of object, rest in spaciousness, don't manipulate or seek

3. Physical pain is overwhelming

  • Detailed attention to severe pain can be too much
  • Spacious awareness holds pain without being consumed
  • Identity expands beyond body

Practice: "The body has pain, but I am not only the body. There is awareness of pain, and that awareness is spacious."

4. You're developing insight into self

  • Recognize that you're the awareness, not the contents
  • Self-inquiry and non-dual recognition
  • Freedom from identification

Practice: Ask "Who am I?" Notice awareness before sensation. Rest as witnessing presence.

5. You're attached to particular experiences

  • Seeking pleasant sensations
  • Avoiding unpleasant ones
  • Preference and aversion strong

Practice: Let go of all objects. Don't look for sensations. Rest in awareness that needs nothing.

6. You need deep rest

  • Somatic tracking can be effortful
  • Sometimes mind needs complete rest
  • Spaciousness is profoundly restful

Practice: Open awareness, sky-like mind, nothing to do, nowhere to go

7. Advanced practice stages

  • Natural progression in many traditions
  • After mastering concentration on objects, release the object
  • Recognize awareness itself

Practice: Shikantaza, dzogchen, mahamudra, resting as awareness

8. Sensations are too intense or triggering

  • Overwhelming sensations need space
  • Stepping back creates safety
  • Can return to somatic when regulated

Practice: Widen awareness like zooming out, put sensation in peripheral awareness, resource in spaciousness

The spectrum: It's not either/or

In reality, these aren't binary modes but a spectrum:

The continuum:

Highly somatic ← → Balanced ← → Highly spacious

Example progression in one session:

  1. Begin: Somatic — Feel breath sensations to settle
  2. Early middle: Balanced — Aware of breath, but also space around it
  3. Deep middle: Spacious — Breath still present but awareness more prominent
  4. Peak: Very spacious — No distinct object, just open presence
  5. Coming out: Balanced — Sensations return as you emerge
  6. End: Somatic — Feel body, orient to room, ground before standing

You can move fluidly along this spectrum based on what's arising and what's needed.

Common pitfalls and how to navigate them

Pitfall 1: Confusing dissociation with spacious awareness

Dissociation (unhealthy):

  • Numb, disconnected, "not really here"
  • Avoiding uncomfortable feelings
  • Feels empty in a depleted way
  • Trauma response, self-protection
  • Loss of agency and presence

Spacious awareness (healthy):

  • Present, clear, awake
  • Holding all experience with equanimity
  • Feels open, peaceful, restful
  • Chosen state, conscious
  • Full presence, even without content

How to tell the difference:

  • Dissociation lacks clarity; spaciousness has clarity
  • Dissociation avoids; spaciousness includes
  • Dissociation feels contracted; spaciousness feels open
  • Dissociation is reactive; spaciousness is responsive

If dissociated: Return to somatic anchors. Feel feet, hands. Orient to room. Build safety.

Pitfall 2: Forcing spaciousness before ready

The problem:

  • Reading about non-dual awareness and trying to skip steps
  • Dismissing sensations as "less advanced"
  • Trying to have no-self experience through will

Why it doesn't work:

  • Spacious awareness arises naturally through practice
  • Can't force emptiness; that's just more doing
  • Concentration and somatic awareness build foundation

The solution:

  • Trust the process and progression
  • Master somatic attention first
  • Spaciousness will emerge in its own time
  • If not arising naturally, you're not ready—and that's fine

Pitfall 3: Mistaking dullness for spaciousness

Dullness:

  • Drowsy, sleepy, unclear
  • Mind sinking, losing alertness
  • Foggy, clouded awareness
  • Can't tell you're dull (that's how dull you are)

Spaciousness:

  • Clear, bright, alert
  • Vivid presence even without content
  • Restful but awake
  • Knowing that you're aware

If dull:

  • Open eyes slightly
  • Sit more upright
  • Take deeper breaths
  • Return to more vivid object (sensations)
  • Stand and do walking meditation

Pitfall 4: Clinging to pleasant somatic states

The trap:

  • Experience bliss, tingling, energy
  • Try to recreate it next session
  • Become sensation-seeking
  • Lose the point of meditation (equanimity, insight)

The remedy:

  • Notice pleasant sensations without grasping
  • Allow them but don't chase them
  • Practice with unpleasant sensations equally
  • Remember: even bliss is impermanent
  • Shift to spacious awareness to release attachment

Pitfall 5: Rejecting somatic practice as "too basic"

The trap:

  • "I'm advanced now; I don't need body awareness"
  • Dismissing sensation work as beginner stuff
  • Thinking spaciousness is "higher"

The truth:

  • Somatic awareness is never outgrown
  • Masters return to body constantly
  • Integration requires embodiment
  • Hierarchy is ego

The practice:

  • Rotate through all practices regardless of experience level
  • Return to basics regularly
  • Value all modes equally

Practical exercises: Developing fluency in both modes

Exercise 1: The spectrum meditation (20 minutes)

Deliberately move through the spectrum in one session:

Minutes 1-5: Highly somatic

  • Focus on breath sensations at nostrils
  • Note texture: cool/warm, smooth/rough
  • Feel rising/falling of abdomen
  • Notice heartbeat, any tingling

Minutes 6-10: Balanced

  • Still aware of breath but soften focus
  • Notice space around sensations
  • Sensations in foreground, space in background

Minutes 11-15: Spacious

  • Let sensations fade to periphery
  • Rest as awareness itself
  • Notice spaciousness holding all experience
  • No object, just presence

Minutes 16-20: Return gradually

  • Let sensations return
  • Feel body again
  • Ground before opening eyes

Reflection: Notice which part felt most comfortable, which most challenging, what you learned.

Exercise 2: The switching practice (15 minutes)

Alternate between modes quickly to build flexibility:

2 minutes somatic: Feel breath sensations intensely
2 minutes spacious: Release object, rest in openness
2 minutes somatic: Return to sensations
2 minutes spacious: Let go again
2 minutes somatic: Feel body
2 minutes spacious: Open awareness
Final 3 minutes: Let practice settle however it naturally wants

This develops: Flexibility, non-attachment to either mode, ability to shift based on needs

Exercise 3: The inquiry practice (10 minutes)

Use questions to explore both:

First 5 minutes: Somatic inquiry

  • "What am I feeling right now?"
  • "Where is sensation most vivid?"
  • "What's the texture of this feeling?"
  • Investigate with curiosity

Second 5 minutes: Spacious inquiry

  • "What's aware of these sensations?"
  • "Where is the awareness located?"
  • "Can I find the one who's feeling?"
  • Rest in the space of not-knowing

Exercise 4: The difficulty practice

When challenging emotions or sensations arise:

Step 1: Somatic (2-3 minutes)

  • Feel the sensation of the emotion in your body
  • Where is it? What's its quality?
  • Don't judge, just feel
  • Notice it changing

Step 2: Spacious (2-3 minutes)

  • Zoom out
  • See sensation as object in awareness
  • Rest as awareness that holds it
  • Notice spaciousness can contain anything

Step 3: Back to somatic (2-3 minutes)

  • Return to sensation
  • Is it different now?
  • Feel it with compassion
  • Allow it to move through

This teaches: You can work with difficulty from both perspectives; each offers relief in different ways.

Exercise 5: The body-to-space scan (15 minutes)

A modified body scan that moves toward spaciousness:

  1. Scan through body parts (7 minutes)

    • Feet, legs, torso, arms, head
    • Feel each area with attention

  2. Feel whole body at once (3 minutes)

    • Body as unified field of sensation
    • Not parts but whole

  3. Notice space around body (2 minutes)

    • Awareness extends beyond skin
    • Space surrounding form

  4. Rest as space that contains body (3 minutes)

    • Body appears in awareness
    • Awareness is primary, body is content
    • Spacious, open, containing all

Adapting to your current life phase

Your needs change over time:

High stress period → More somatic

  • Grounding is essential
  • Body-based practices regulate nervous system
  • Concrete anchor for chaotic mind

Healing from trauma → Both, skillfully

  • Somatic: Process stored trauma
  • Spacious: Create safety and distance when needed
  • Pendulation between both

Busy, productive phase → More spacious

  • Counterbalances constant doing
  • Rests mind from task-orientation
  • Cultivates being, not just doing

Physical illness/pain → Both

  • Somatic: Work with sensation mindfully
  • Spacious: Find identity beyond body, relief from pain

Spiritual seeking phase → Spacious

  • Exploring consciousness itself
  • Self-inquiry and investigation
  • Moving beyond form

Depression/dissociation → More somatic

  • Reconnect to body and world
  • Grounding in sensation
  • Counteract numbness and disconnection

Anxiety → Start somatic, move spacious

  • Begin with body to ground
  • Then spaciousness to de-identify
  • Both work together for anxiety

The advanced integration: Neither-nor, both-and

With mature practice, a third possibility emerges:

Non-dual integration

Neither pushing away sensation nor clinging to it.
Neither seeking spaciousness nor avoiding it.
Just this: whatever is arising, held in awareness.

The experience:

  • Sensations present but not "mine"
  • Space present but not separate from form
  • No division between awareness and content
  • Everything as one seamless experience

How it arises:

  • Through years of practice
  • By working skillfully with both modes
  • When trying stops
  • In moments of grace

You can't force this. But by developing mastery in both somatic and spacious modes, you create conditions for this integration to naturally emerge.

Practical wisdom: Questions to guide your practice

Before sitting:

  • "What do I need today—grounding or spaciousness?"
  • "Am I in my head or disconnected from body?"
  • "Am I agitated or dull?"

During sitting:

  • "Is this approach working right now?"
  • "Am I fighting what's naturally arising?"
  • "Do I need to shift modes?"

After sitting:

  • "What did I learn from this mode?"
  • "What was challenging? What was helpful?"
  • "What will I try next time?"

Trust your direct experience more than any teaching, including this one.

A note on traditions

Different traditions emphasize different approaches:

Somatic-focused traditions:

  • Vipassana/Theravada (noting sensations)
  • Somatic psychology and body-based therapies
  • Hatha yoga and embodiment practices

Spacious-focused traditions:

  • Zen (shikantaza, just sitting)
  • Dzogchen and Mahamudra (Tibetan non-dual)
  • Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism)

Both/integrated:

  • Many contemporary approaches
  • Pragmatic meditation
  • Trauma-informed practice

No tradition is superior. Choose based on temperament, needs, and what calls to you. And remember: you can draw from multiple approaches.

Closing: The gift of both

Here's what years of practice reveal: Both modes are treasures. Both are paths to freedom. Both teach essential lessons.

Somatic awareness teaches:

  • You are here, embodied, alive
  • Sensation is rich, textured, constantly changing
  • The body is wise, holds truth, processes what mind cannot
  • Presence begins in feeling

Spacious awareness teaches:

  • You are not only the body
  • Consciousness is primary, content is secondary
  • Peace doesn't depend on particular sensations
  • Freedom is always available

Together, they teach:

  • You can be fully embodied AND identify with awareness
  • You can feel everything AND be disturbed by nothing
  • Form and emptiness are not separate
  • This very body is the vehicle for awakening

The meditator who can work skillfully with both—feeling deeply when appropriate, resting in spaciousness when needed, and allowing natural flow between them—has remarkable flexibility and resilience.

Some days you'll be a body meditating.
Some days you'll be awareness witnessing a body.
Some days the distinction will disappear entirely.

All of this is meditation. All of this is practice. All of this is the path.

So feel the sensations when they're vivid. Rest in spaciousness when it opens. Don't cling to either. Don't reject either. Let your practice be fluid, responsive, alive.

The question isn't which is better—it's which does this moment need? And can you trust yourself enough to know?

Related reading

For more on different meditation approaches:

"The body is not an obstacle to freedom; it is the vehicle for awakening." — Pema Chödrön

"Emptiness is form; form is emptiness." — Heart Sutra

May you feel when feeling serves. May you rest in space when space is needed. May you discover the freedom in both. And may you know yourself as the awareness that dances between—and beyond—both sensation and emptiness.

Your meditation is perfect exactly as it is.