Meditation is a process of developing our minds so that we don't get stuck in our minds. Sometimes, in our meditation practice, there will be a lot of negative thoughts of anxiety, fear, overwhelm, and some intense body sensations. Meditation is a process where we allow all these experiences without suppressing or denying them and bring our awareness to them.
With awareness, we release these experiences without grasping them. With the practice of awareness, we understand that any difficult content that arises in the mind self dissolves if we don't grasp it. With consistent practice, we slowly start understanding the nature of our thoughts, mind, and suffering. So meditation builds our capacity to overcome the impediments of our mind. When the mind is free from grasping anything, it slowly settles down, and we experience stillness and joy. However, we don't aim to chase joy or bliss in our practice. We practice awareness, and when it's lost, recognise it and return to being aware.
To feel good, we can do various activities. Meditation is not about feeling good or concentrating on one object. Stillness, joy, and bliss are meditation experiences, but that's not the goal. The more one tries to exert effort and be more peaceful and joyful in meditation, the further away one will be from it due to many discursive thoughts and our tendency to hold on to them very strongly. In meditation, we don't settle our mind with force but by practising awareness and watching our tendencies of being attached or averse to our thoughts and desires.
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