Éiriú-Eolas - Breathing Program

[Alana]

You may find it helps to just concentrate on the pipe breathing when you feel your stress levels rising. It works for me. Take a break from doing the BaHa portion of the programme too. I took a long break, well over a year, from doing BaHa as the effects were too powerful for me. On Mondays and Thursdays, I'd just do three stage breathing and PotS, I left out Warrior's breath too - this will keep the energy levels down to relax you.

Wisteria--I agree with Trevrizent's post. It is what I have had to do as well--cut out BaHa for as long as you need to, then perhaps try once a month or once a week later.
I want to add that if you wake up in the middle of the night with anxiety, etc. try in bed, doing pipe breath and POTS and meditation. No warrior's breath. It helps me fall back asleep, it might do the same for you. It sounds like the reason everything snowballed on you is that you were doing the entire program each day. I hope you are better soon.

I only began attempting to practice the whole program daily after things started snowballing on me. I thought that it would help me cope with everything and help prevent me falling back into negative patterns. Instead, in this rare instance, I think it only served to exacerbate everything.

It's going to be difficult to remove BaHa from my practice because, prior to the snowball, it was most definitely my favourite part. When I first began to practice EE, I hated it. I experienced so many powerful negative emotions, in addition to (at times) rather violent physical reactions. But after I had persisted through these issues, my experiences began to transform into something very wonderful. Although I guess this is a little irrelevant at the present moment anyway, because my sickness prevails over all breathing exercises.

I agree with the advice given you so far, Wisteria, and i wonder if your body is drawing the line here and trying to get your attention with what it really needs? ;) The beatha part of the EE can be the most intense both for our body (many deep breaths, too much detoxification) and our emotional world (repressed feelings coming up to be felt and be released), and we all need a space in between every time we practice it so that our body and heart can slowly process and release their toxins.

I am also concerned about your luck of sleep. Whatever is going on in your life, getting adequate sleep (time wise and quality wise) will make a big difference, and will help you deal with everything more effectively. Did you have the opportunity to check out this thread yet? Try out some of the suggestions offered there, and see hoe it goes.

And i love wisteria trees!

 

[Wisteria]

Take a break from it all for a few days.

Well, I took your advice Trevrizent, and I feel a great deal better for it. Not 100% as yet, but definitely better. I was clearly far too overworked and overstressed. It is a pity that I only had three days before 'duty called' once more, but it is certainly better than nothing.

I have not practiced any of EE since my last post. I have attempted to do the POTS at night before sleep, but my mind is rebelling with a vengeance. I find that this fact is tending to rile and frustrate me quite considerably as of late, so I am trying to ease back with even the meditation and not push myself too hard until things calm down a little and my regular breathing returns to normal.

We're glad you took the time and energy to share what's going on . It may not be the best time for starting the detox diet yet, but it might help to read the different threads/recommended books, and get a feel for it. It could sort of "prep" your body and mind. I found that when I wanted to start something I was a little apprehensive about, this kind of mental rehearsal made the doing much easier.

I am also glad you shared Wisteria. I had the same issues about posting in the beginning, but I just bit the bullet, like you did and it got a bit easier as time went on.
FWIW, all kinds of life situations can interfere with starting the UltraSimpleDetox plan. Besides what Herondancer said--getting a feel for the diet from reading for awhile, when you feel ready, you can start at your own pace eliminating, let's say gluten/wheat--then all grains except buckwheat, quinoa (which are pseudo-grains.)
This is what Mr.Anderson and I have been doing over the weeks because we cannot do the detox diet yet. Then when we are settled, we plan to do the detox diet followed by the testing of specific foods (like eggs or nuts, etc.) Meanwhile we are feeling much better without the wheat/gluten/grains, dairy, hot spices, tomatoes and a few other things. We are learning to recognize the inflammation signs in the body as well!

Hope this helps.

I have been hovering over the diet orientated threads for a quite a while already. I must admit that I find the severe restrictions rather overwhelming. And there seems to be new evidence against previously considered good/health foods cropping up every day! But I think I may now be leading into a topic more suited to another thread.

To cut out absolutely everything that is harmful is today's modern society is a rather huge challenge, and to be honest, I'm not sure how brilliantly I will do on my own. But I can certainly see the many benefits from doing so, and the extra encouragement I have received from this forum is.. well... encouraging! ;D I think working gradually to cut out the is a great recommendation. And I can't wait to cook up a batch of Laura's buckwheat blinis!

I am also concerned about your luck of sleep. Whatever is going on in your life, getting adequate sleep (time wise and quality wise) will make a big difference, and will help you deal with everything more effectively. Did you have the opportunity to check out this thread yet? Try out some of the suggestions offered there, and see hoe it goes.

Thank you Alana. Yes, I have seen that thread before. Unfortunately my insomnia seems to be a tad more stubborn. I already practice the majority of those points, and the ones I do not, are purely because of circumstances I cannot presently control. But I am working hard to rectify that.

Thankfully - primarily because I took some time off work - I have managed to finally get some sleep. And I am sure it won't come as a surprise to any of you to hear that it did me wonders.

 

[Ollie]

Hi Wisteria

I'm glad that things have started to improve, even if in a small way.

You may like to consider doing as little pipe breathing as you go through the day, even gradually building it up to three stage breathing. Take it easy and see how it goes, it may even help bring your breathing back under control, it will certainly calm you down. :) Possibly do the pipe breathing too before you recite PotS. This may help to quell the rebelling mind.

I have been hovering over the diet orientated threads for a quite a while already. I must admit that I find the severe restrictions rather overwhelming. And there seems to be new evidence against previously considered good/health foods cropping up every day! But I think I may now be leading into a topic more suited to another thread.

To cut out absolutely everything that is harmful is today's modern society is a rather huge challenge, and to be honest, I'm not sure how brilliantly I will do on my own. But I can certainly see the many benefits from doing so, and the extra encouragement I have received from this forum is.. well... encouraging! Cheesy I think working gradually to cut out the Evil is a great recommendation. And I can't wait to cook up a batch of Laura's buckwheat blinis!

That's the place many of us started from. :) It is a challenge until you start it, then you wonder what all the fuss was about! :) The benefits are just too big to ignore. Plus, buckwheat blinis and bacon/sausage are a great way to start the day. :)

This may help, or not.

 

[Jeremy F Kreuz]

Hi,

I have not posted a lot the last months but several things have been going on. First I started therapy which is a great help in getting into contact with the inner child. secondly I have made changes to my diet and I am for the most part gluten and dairy free (not yet on the full detox diet). I also increased the frequency of the full EE program to almost daily ( last ten days I skipped one night). The combination of all seems to speed up things amayingly. The level of energy is increasing by the day. What I want to share here is a dream I had last night after doing the full EE.

written last night directly after the dream.

Dream 14 march 2011
It starts with some kind of party and in a separate room of the house where my grandparent used to live. I make love with my wife. This is the first time in a dream that I make love to my wife. It is great. The day passes in joy. Later that night we sleep with another couple in the same bed: N and her new boyfriend I. I wake up while this couple is secretly making love in a very animalistic way, at least from the male side. He is not respecting her in any way and she is not enjoying it. While she is violently taken I stretch out my hand and N holds it for support. After a while my wife and I wake up, disrupting the lovemaking of the couple with greatly upsets I, but seems to save, help N. She is relieved this is over and confesses that she is inhibit in her lovemaking and it always took a long time for her to make love with her boyfriends, up to several years. I agresses me but, knowing I took take him down, I resist using physical violence and say something that disarms in him and the attack stops. I go downstairs in the cellar and see some sparks of fire. I realize this could be the beginning of a great fire but decide not to do anything about it, hoping the fire might die down by itself. Later in the middle of the night we are awaken by the sirens of the fire brigade who rushes to the house ( that is about to be sold the next day (by my sisters and me)) (we recently sold the house of my father after his death 8 months ago). My father and smaller sister with her boyfriend are also there (my father died about 8 months ago), as is a large part of the family from both my parents. When we look at the house it is already ablaze, the roof is on fire and a room underneath it (my old room?). In the cellar there Is also a raging fire. I go up to the captain of the fire brigade and say I am the owner of the house. He says to me that this is not of his concern as this is a public fire. The neighbors are awaken as part of their house is also on fire (the room of the boy who attending the same school and class then me). (in the dream the house of my grandparents is mixed up with the house I grew up). Nobody seems very upset about the fact that the house is on fire. Even though I saw the fire starting and said nothing I don’t feel very guilty about is (a bit but I deny it or ignore it) and I feel rather relieved that the old house is burning. Not for long the fire has stopped by the fire brigade and when we look we see there is nothing left of the house. There is an empty clean square without any trace of a fire. The area has turned into a beautiful public place with an area for a statue. (my sisters jokingly say there could be a statue of me be placed, for creating this place and for my remembrance. Behind where the old house stood, there is a now cathedral revealed, the one of my hometown, and left of it there is the town hall of my hometown (where my wife and I got married). On the right is the house of our neighbors (in the house where I spent most of my youth which is not the old house of my grandparents, but in the dream the setting is mixed). There seems to be no damage to that house of the neighbors. In fact the old house has disappeared without a trace. The fact that it was to be sold tomorrow seems not to bother anybody, except later during a meal that the family is sharing after the event. Everybody is contemplating what was lost in the house. My father mentions that copies of a book I have written (emtpyness, Nevada) is lost, together with the many artifacts upon which the book is based, In the dream I have a flash that in that story, written many years ago, the story ends with the burning of the old house (this is not the case in the actual story). I am not sure about that and the copy that my father personally keeps is consulted. And indeed, in a small section of the book it is written that I burn the old house to clean something and that is how the story ends. This seems to relieve my father and he shares this revelation with the rest of the table (he sits at the head of the table). Upon saying that a niece is starting to complain about the loss of her heritage that was stocked in the cellar of that house, which amounts up to 23000 euro. She is supported by her parents, my sisters father, and it is added that this is the second time they lose money because of my father. This seems to be a very old story, some ancient family secret. Upon which my father has a very emotional outburst (I have never seen him like this in real life) where he reveals this secret: it is always suspected that my grandfather forced him to marry my mother because she was pregnant and that his sisters and brothers never believed that he really loved my mother, that he only married her because he had to. My father says that this curse of disbelief haunted him his whole life but that it is not true and he truly loved my mother and that this disbelief needs to stop. Why it has to do with the loss of money is not said. The family is shocked about this revelation and there is first a deep silence. Then the family starts discussing and attacking my father. I stand up and start defending my father and thank him for what he has said, adding that this curse is haunting me too, that I always believed that I married my wife because she was pregnant and that I suspect myself of not really loving her. I say there is some karmic heritage here and that knowing this from my father makes me better understand this heritage. I thank my father again. The family start arguing with me, saying I have to stop this kind of crazy talk and that I should respect my mother. Upon which I bang on the table and scream that my mother was a tyrant, a sadist and loved to hurt others. The family insists that I stop and I repeat these same words. My sisters are silent, shocked but not angry. I sense my father to be proud of what I say, at least for the courage to do so. Then the family leaves table and start walking away, throwing their belts on my head as I am passing. This is where the dream ends.

I felt very relieved after this dream. Like indeed some kind of curse was lifted and burned away. Making place for a square where behind a cathedral is revealed. I contemplated what my father has said in my dream could be true, that there is something about the beginning of the marriage of my elders that is not known by me and my sister. As my older sister was born three years after they married, the only possible solution is that my mother had a miscarriage, or that a abortion took place (for money). The people who knew about this, could be the older sister of my father, the older sister of mother (those were the ones that argued during the dinner) and for some strange reason the second brother of my mother (which she in real life didnt like very much). I know this is assumptions from my side and the meaning in the dream could be totally different, but this came directly in my mind as i rose from the bed and thought about the dream.

I am currenlty in Darfur in Sudan, doing some work for a humanitarian organisation. When I went out after the dream to smoke a cigarette in front of my room, I encounter the night guard on his patrol around the compound. He was an old man dressed completely in white, with a white turban. In therapy, which consists for a good part out of goin into trance (hypnosis) I encounter a man very similar to this guard. In the trance he is some wisdom adviser. (I will expand on this iin another post). I was surprised by this coincidence that I seemed to have had a revealing dream and that I meet a guard dressed like the man I met in my trances.

jeremy

 

[aragorn]

If you have any pointers for doing more conscious belly breathing during the day, I sure could use that.

Hi SolarMother, I've been thinking about this question of yours. I've been too busy to come up with good material to post to you, and I'm sadly a bit over worked right now too. But I want to give you some pointers. We've all probably noticed that the wonderful expanding breathing that we do while sitting or lying down doesn't work as well while standing, so where's the problem? The problem with breathing while you stand up, as I see it, is mainly because the core muscles are not active enough or/and trained. I once went to see a specialiced physiotherapist and asked him about his. He explained it like this:

Imagine the core muscles (pelvic floor: Levator ani & Coccygeus, Transversus abdominis) as a cylinder. Then picture a outer cylinder around it, that would be your outer abdominal muscles (External/Interior oblique, Rectus abdominis). Now, if the inner cylinder/core is weak, it means that the outer cylinder/muscles must take on the work of supporting your upright position. If they would not do this, the only thing that would keep you straight would be your back (this is why many who suffer from back problems: their core muscles are too weak). So, when the outer cylinder, the outer abdominal muscles are tense, the 'wall' of that outer cylinder is not flexible as you can imagine. So it's hard to get any expansion.

The solution would be to train and synchronize your core muscles. There are many good exercises for this, just google 'core muscles' and you'll find it. Here's one I just found:

_http://www.activebodypilates.com/core.pdf

The idea is to train your breathing like this (do this sitting or standing, sitting could be easier at first):

- Before inhaling: activate/suck in your pelvic floor (look that up, if you don't know how to do it. Especially for men this can be tricky). Mind you, that this doesn't mean that your belly gets tense - the belly should be relaxed, the activation feels much lower.
- Keep that little activation in your pelvic floor and inhale. You'll probably feel strange doing this at first, but it gets easier.

After some trying, you'll probably notice that your ribs will expand much more too. That means that your outer muscles (cylinder) is more relaxed. It feels wonderful when you feel the greater expansion. Some talk of 3D breathing, meaning that the middle section expands in every direction: front/belly, sides/ribs and back. This would be the correct and most efficient way of breathing for singing. When the ribs expand more easily and loosely to the sides and back, there's more control of the diaphragm since the diaphragm is 'glued' to the lower ribs at its sides. If you want to train your singing, a great way to feel the appogio, that means support or push (like pushing the rib cage from the inside), would be to try to keep the ribs expanded while you exhale. Training like that will give you even more control of your diaphragm. Gosh, it seems I'm little of topic here...

Anyway, so there may be many causes to your problem, but the most common problem would be the weakness of the core muscles as I described. So, train those muscles and see if it helps. :)

Another thing, as I briefly mentioned before, would be the tenseness of the solar plexus. I'll get back with more info on that, there are a couple of very good Japanese exercises for softening the solar plexus,but they are very difficult to explain in writing. Maybe I'll do a YouTube clip, who knows...

 

[Aiming]

What I want to share here is a dream I had last night after doing the full EE.

Thanks for sharing this dream, Jeremy. It's really interesting and the symbology of the old house burning away and being replaced a beautiful place seems significant.
The part about the family secret reminds me of something I've read somewhere, about how healing ourselves also implies healing previous family dynamics, even healing whole ancestral lines. (But no data here, so fwiw.) Do you think it possible to ask your father about this some day in order to verify this dream?

In any case, even if the characters in your dream were 'merely' your inner representatives of your family members, that is, solely related to your inner psychological dynamics, it still applies to say that by healing the present, one is healing the past and changing the future. :)

Good luck!

 

[Wisteria]

This may help, or not.

Everything you and the others have said has helped greatly! I really appreciate you all taking the time to speak with me. :D

Unfortunately I do not believe I will be physical capable of practicing pipe breathing for a few more days. But I'm sure it won't be any longer than that, so I'm not particularly worried.

Once again. Thank you all so very much.

 

[Jeremy F Kreuz]

Hi Enaid,

thanks for the feedback,

Do you think it possible to ask your father about this some day in order to verify this dream?

My father died about 8 months ago. But if I see his older sister, I might be able to speak with her. I would have to find the right external considerate way to approach the topic though.

In any case, even if the characters in your dream were 'merely' your inner representatives of your family members, that is, solely related to your inner psychological dynamics

I also tend to interpret the dream in that way. Like the scene where there are two couple sleeping in the bed, I tend to understand that the couple making love in a violent way is me not respecting my wife, while some core inner self is still holding her hand (the real me).

thanks
ewald

 

[Aiming]

I also tend to interpret the dream in that way. Like the scene where there are two couple sleeping in the bed, I tend to understand that the couple making love in a violent way is me not respecting my wife, while some core inner self is still holding her hand (the real me).

Fwiw, you said you dreamt that you were making love to your wife for the first time in a dream and that it was great. Maybe this -- within the dream context of the old house burning down -- is the outlook for a new development and you seeing the other couple having sex in this violent way is you for the first time seeing clearly how hurtful this old way has been to your wive, and you holding the woman's hand is that you're beginning to understand her position -- so the way I read it was that the dream showed you a new outlook in this matter, that something has been opened in you to begin to meet your wife in a healthy and truly caring way.

 

[SolarMother]

If you have any pointers for doing more conscious belly breathing during the day, I sure could use that.

Hi SolarMother, I've been thinking about this question of yours. I've been too busy to come up with good material to post to you, and I'm sadly a bit over worked right now too. But I want to give you some pointers. We've all probably noticed that the wonderful expanding breathing that we do while sitting or lying down doesn't work as well while standing, so where's the problem? The problem with breathing while you stand up, as I see it, is mainly because the core muscles are not active enough or/and trained. I once went to see a specialiced physiotherapist and asked him about his. He explained it like this:

Imagine the core muscles (pelvic floor: Levator ani & Coccygeus, Transversus abdominis) as a cylinder. Then picture a outer cylinder around it, that would be your outer abdominal muscles (External/Interior oblique, Rectus abdominis). Now, if the inner cylinder/core is weak, it means that the outer cylinder/muscles must take on the work of supporting your upright position. If they would not do this, the only thing that would keep you straight would be your back (this is why many who suffer from back problems: their core muscles are too weak). So, when the outer cylinder, the outer abdominal muscles are tense, the 'wall' of that outer cylinder is not flexible as you can imagine. So it's hard to get any expansion.

The solution would be to train and synchronize your core muscles. There are many good exercises for this, just google 'core muscles' and you'll find it. Here's one I just found:

_http://www.activebodypilates.com/core.pdf

The idea is to train your breathing like this (do this sitting or standing, sitting could be easier at first):

- Before inhaling: activate/suck in your pelvic floor (look that up, if you don't know how to do it. Especially for men this can be tricky). Mind you, that this doesn't mean that your belly gets tense - the belly should be relaxed, the activation feels much lower.
- Keep that little activation in your pelvic floor and inhale. You'll probably feel strange doing this at first, but it gets easier.

After some trying, you'll probably notice that your ribs will expand much more too. That means that your outer muscles (cylinder) is more relaxed. It feels wonderful when you feel the greater expansion. Some talk of 3D breathing, meaning that the middle section expands in every direction: front/belly, sides/ribs and back. This would be the correct and most efficient way of breathing for singing. When the ribs expand more easily and loosely to the sides and back, there's more control of the diaphragm since the diaphragm is 'glued' to the lower ribs at its sides. If you want to train your singing, a great way to feel the appogio, that means support or push (like pushing the rib cage from the inside), would be to try to keep the ribs expanded while you exhale. Training like that will give you even more control of your diaphragm. Gosh, it seems I'm little of topic here...

Anyway, so there may be many causes to your problem, but the most common problem would be the weakness of the core muscles as I described. So, train those muscles and see if it helps. :)

Another thing, as I briefly mentioned before, would be the tenseness of the solar plexus. I'll get back with more info on that, there are a couple of very good Japanese exercises for softening the solar plexus,but they are very difficult to explain in writing. Maybe I'll do a YouTube clip, who knows...

Aragorn-thank you for your response, I am just now finding your post--its very informative.
Its funny that you are telling me this about sucking in the pelvic floor because I do know what you mean by that--it is exactly what I had to learn to do when learning how to dance the argentine tango! In fact, it is all coming back to me--the expanding rib cage/mid-section, while sucking in the pelvis-- so it is a good thing I have felt this before and it is not entirely new. And my core muscles used to be strong too :P
I know I really need to strengthen them again--I admit I am lazy about it--I used to have an incentive for that when I danced years ago.
That would be great if you end up doing a utube clip for softening the solar plexus!

 

[Luis Miguel]

Here is a little update, it has been a while. Lately I have been feeling a lot of heat and insomnia after the meditation, for one month or so, but I keep feeling great at the next day. The zone outs are not very constant this days, and sometimes - but not often - I still wake up with the feeling of an struggle and agitated, related to the dark heavy presence that I talked about here at other time, it's like a battle of sorts, I used to feel an electrifying anger when this happen, and i "won" almost all the "battles" :P, thanks to this feeling, or that's what I think, this "battles" had decreased almost at the point of not happening at all, but a few weeks ago it happen and I loose, but it was peculiar, I felt a heavy pressure in my back and a strange laugh, eerie actually, and i couldn't get up, I tried to fight it with the mentioned feeling and no luck, I felt like blocked. As I mentioned before I see this as an inner battle of some opposite unconscious forces, so to speak, but i feel that the mentioned blockage was a sign of something, maybe a strong part of IT does not want to go and is fighting? Dunno really, just speculating in here. But well, overall, EE keeps doing miracles in my life, and I have been feeling a lot of hope recently, in general.

 

[Ollie]

This week, I missed out doing BaHa on Monday due to my experiences of the previous week. On Thursday, what a day – a very wet sauna followed by lots of elimination throughout the day – as afar as EE is concerned, it was a case of wet-eyes and yawning during three-stage breathing, wet eyes during BaHa and a micro zone out during the third cycle, coming out to catch the end of it.

Something is definitely going on (besides getting used to eating coconut oil).

 

[SolarMother]

This week, I missed out doing BaHa on Monday due to my experiences of the previous week. On Thursday, what a day – a very wet sauna followed by lots of elimination throughout the day – as afar as EE is concerned, it was a case of wet-eyes and yawning during three-stage breathing, wet eyes during BaHa and a micro zone out during the third cycle, coming out to catch the end of it.

Something is definitely going on (besides getting used to eating coconut oil).

Hi Trevrizent. I had the 'micro-zoning' out happen as well--it happened twice the other night, once during the BaHa and once during the meditation. It was a sort of 'time lapse'--don't know how else to explain it. During BaHa, Laura's voice was there, then gone, then back again in another segment! Is this what happened to you? It was not my mind wandering!
Its been one heck of a week for me as well. Mr.A and I are 'homeless' (as of mid-April) and we are going to have to post on that after the Super Moon gathering! A part of me feels like this is a huge release into the unknown and to be seen as an adventure, though. Lots of tear shedding as well.

 

[Ollie]

...

Hi Trevrizent. I had the 'micro-zoning' out happen as well--it happened twice the other night, once during the BaHa and once during the meditation. It was a sort of 'time lapse'--don't know how else to explain it. During BaHa, Laura's voice was there, then gone, then back again in another segment! Is this what happened to you? It was not my mind wandering!

That's right, if you look at the EE frequently answered questions (FAQ) thread, either on the forum here or on the Eiriu Eolas forum you'll find an explanation.

 

[SolarMother]

...

Hi Trevrizent. I had the 'micro-zoning' out happen as well--it happened twice the other night, once during the BaHa and once during the meditation. It was a sort of 'time lapse'--don't know how else to explain it. During BaHa, Laura's voice was there, then gone, then back again in another segment! Is this what happened to you? It was not my mind wandering!

That's right, if you look at the EE frequently answered questions (FAQ) thread, either on the forum here or on the Eiriu Eolas forum you'll find an explanation.

Thanks, I'll check that.