Restlessness in Meditation: When Settling Feels Impossible

There was a class where no one could land. People kept adjusting their posture. Someone cleared their throat every thirty seconds. When the silence stretched even a little, eyes opened, hands moved, and a few people looked around the room like they were checking for an exit. When we shifted into dialogue, the words came fast and scattered, jumping from topic to topic without much pause.

When students are invited to feel restlessness directly — rather than interpret it or suppress it — it often begins to reorganize on its own.

About halfway through, one participant blurted out, “I don’t know why, but sitting still just makes me anxious.” A few others nodded immediately. I felt it too — a subtle buzzing in my own system, an urge to keep things moving, to say something useful, to not let the quiet get awkward.

That’s restlessness.

Is Restlessness the Opposite of Mindfulness?

Restlessness isn’t just a busy mind. It’s an activated state in the body. It’s energy that doesn’t know where to go, or doesn’t feel safe slowing down. In traditional language, restlessness is often paired with worry, but in lived experience, it can feel more like agitation, impatience, or the sense that something needs to happen right now.

Students caught in restlessness often believe mindfulness will make it stop. When it doesn’t, they assume they’re bad at practice. But what mindfulness usually does first is make restlessness more obvious. The stiller the environment, the louder the inner movement feels. That can be deeply unsettling, especially for people who are accustomed to staying busy as a means of coping.

As teachers, we sometimes respond to restlessness by trying to contain it. We lengthen instructions. We over-structure. We talk more to fill the space. Or we subtly speed things up, hoping momentum will smooth things out. None of this is wrong, but it’s worth noting when our own discomfort with unsettled energy drives our responses.

How to Teach Mindfulness to Anxious or Restless Students

In that class, instead of trying to calm everyone down, I invited people to notice what restlessness actually felt like. Not as a problem, but as a sensation. Where is it strongest? Is it buzzing, tight, jumpy, hot? Does it move, or does it pulse? The room didn’t suddenly become peaceful, but something shifted. People stopped fighting what was happening.

That’s often the key with restlessness. It doesn’t respond well to force. It responds to being met. When students are invited to feel restlessness directly — rather than interpret it or suppress it — it often begins to reorganize on its own. The energy doesn’t disappear, but it becomes more workable.

The Physical Symptoms of an Unsettled Mind

For teachers, restlessness can be a mirror. When we feel compelled to keep things interesting, productive, or smooth, it’s worth asking what we’re afraid will happen if we don’t. Sometimes restlessness is protecting something tender: fear of silence, fear of not knowing, fear of being seen as ineffective. Mindfulness teaching puts us right up against those edges.

When students see that restlessness doesn’t scare us — that it doesn’t need to be fixed or escaped — they begin to trust their own capacity to stay with difficult energy.

One of the most powerful things we can model is staying present when the room feels unsettled. Not rigidly calm, not performatively grounded, but honestly here. When students see that restlessness doesn’t scare us — that it doesn’t need to be fixed or escaped — they begin to trust their own capacity to stay with difficult energy.

Moving Toward Peace: When Stillness Finds You

Restlessness isn’t the opposite of mindfulness. It’s one of the ways mindfulness shows us where the system doesn’t yet feel safe to settle. When we work with it patiently, without judgment, it becomes a doorway rather than a distraction.

And sometimes, when we stop trying to make stillness happen, stillness finds us on its own.

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This is part 5 of a 6-part series on the hindrances. Subsequent articles will be published weekly, so check back next week to read a deep dive on Doubt.

If you are interested in gaining a more comprehensive understanding of meditation, mindfulness, and how to share these practices with others, consider our Mindfulness Teacher Training (MTT).