u/kinkyfella4

About two years ago, I feel like I was a completely different person socially. I was extremely quick witted, humorous, and could form sentences almost instantly. I had a much larger vocabulary available to me and could effortlessly come up with jokes, observations, clever replies, etc. I also felt like I had a certain charm when talking to women that came very naturally.
Since I started meditating consistently, I feel like a lot of that has disappeared.
My mind is definitely quieter now, and meditation has helped me in many ways, but I sometimes wonder whether I’ve become too detached from the constant stream of thoughts that used to fuel my spontaneity. I don’t have the same verbal speed or playful mental associations that I used to have.
I’m not necessarily saying meditation caused it. A lot of other things have changed in my life over the last couple of years too. But the timing makes me curious.
Has anyone else experienced something similar after getting serious about meditation?
And if you did, were you able to bring back that quick wit, verbal fluency, humor and social spontaneity without losing the benefits of meditation?
I’m especially interested in whether there’s a way to balance a quiet mind with being mentally fast, playful and expressive.

Last night I sat down to meditate, and after a while, everything in front of my eyes went pitch black. My thoughts slowed down to the point where I could literally just watch them move past.

Gradually, that blackness started expanding. It felt like my entire body disappeared, leaving only this dark, spacious consciousness. There were no lights or visual imagery just that deep blackness expanding further with every breath, even though I wasn’t trying to focus or concentrate on anything.

The weirdest part was time perception. Usually when I get deep into practice, time flies by. But this time, what felt like a solid 40 minutes was actually only 20.

Has anyone else experienced this specific kind of space and reversed time perception?

Having experimented with Focused Attention, TM, and "Do Nothing" methods, I recently noticed a shift in everyday awareness.
While watching the Chainsaw Man Reze movie, the background narration that usually accompanies my daily life fell away entirely. Instead of perceiving reality through a filter of mental commentary, there was just raw, unfiltered experience.
It wasn't something I forced through concentration—it just happened effortlessly. Has anyone who practices non-dual awareness or open monitoring experienced this spontaneous shift during normal daily activities?

I’ve experimented with a wide variety of meditation techniques over the years, but most of them unfortunately ended up triggering severe insomnia. I eventually pivoted to "Do Nothing" meditation, which has been a game changer for me.
I’ve been practicing meditation consistently for over 700 days now. While my sleep has improved significantly, I’ve started having very frequent, vivid dreams. after shifting to do nothing style...
The issue is that these dreams are often about my ex-partner (with whom I’ve been in no contact for four months), or they are unrecallable yet carry that same specific emotional weight. It feels like the practice is surfacing things I thought were settled.
Has anyone here practicing non-directive techniques (like Shikantaza, Dzogchen, or Mahamudra) experienced this? Is this common for the mind to "clear the backlog" or process suppressed emotions in this way?
Any insights, advice, or perspective from this community would be greatly appreciated.