Éiriú-Eolas - Breathing Program

[Drazen]

My partner and I were doing EE mostly late in the evening before and at many times we were falling asleep, tiredness/sleepiness is what get us often if we are doing it late. Recently we changed our time for EE to early in the evening or late afternoon and it is much better for staying awake and focused so maybe that can help some of you. I know that there are times when many of us can't do it when we want because of our obligations or something/someone else that restrict us, but when we can we should do it when best suits us.

 

[SeekinTruth]

nicklebleu, I agree with Prodigal Son, in regard to the "zoning out," just take it as it comes -- if you do, you do, and if you don't, you don't. Many who have written in this humongous thread have also experienced less zoning over time compared to the beginning of doing EE, myself included. Both how often and how long / "intense" the zoning out episodes are. I've been practicing regularly since the program was first released in summer 2009 and haven't zoned anywhere near like I used to in the beginning in a pretty long time.

And again, like Prodigal Son said, the changes could be very subtle for some and much more intense for others, but it's all cumulative and with regular practice, it will be exactly what you need, how much you need at each stage of your cleansing and healing. :)

It is a question of practising it (EE) by letting go (where it wants/needs) here is not it? I guess we do not have to expect things change suddenly, (this is not closed) and pay attention to our bodies during the session is the most important work to do. Is it the right way?

Yes, regular practice with no anticipation and everything will work at its own pace. It is the experience of so many of us that just regularly doing EE will have many cumulative effects and even if they're subtle, they're definitely doing what's needed for each of us, and largely on an unconscious level. Same with doing 6 to 8 pipe breaths and POTS right before sleeping every night (try to do 6 to 8 sets of POTS also) and it works all night in your subconscious.

So just relax and do the full program without Beatha every day if possible, and WITH Beatha twice a week -- Mondays and Thursdays if possible -- unless it's too much and you're having to much emotional upheaval / releases, then cut Beatha to whatever feels right. Then you can always try increasing Beatha to twice a week again later and see how it goes. The more you do the program the easier it gets and the more you enjoy it. Even thought I enjoyed it right from the beginning, the Beatha got much easier after several months and also more enjoyable -- no longer a struggle to get through all the slow and fast cycles.

 

[mada85]

Yesterday I left out the beatha, as, after five consecutive sessions that included the beatha, I was having a really strong emotional storm, so to speak, which was affecting my ability to function - I was on the verge of tears all the time, and talking about anything even slightly painful would trigger floods of tears, not to mention waking up in the night crying. I need to have an even mood at present as I'm returning to work this week after seven months off due to ill-health. Actually I missed the beatha, like missing an old friend, and I think I will incorporate it again in a week or so, but probably just do it once a week or so. It's amazing how powerful the beatha is!

 

[beherenow]

Hi all, I'm not sure where to start but I would like to report my first experience with EE.

( Please note...I've been "sitting on the fence" for almost 2 yrs now. I was rather exuberant, foolish and inexperienced when I first got here, and I jumped right in, got a little scratch, and retreated. Once I got over that, I thought it best to just listen for a while and work hard to catch up with all the material and work on myself, and my own programs and issues. There's SO many things that are collinear with my life and what you all are doing that I finally HAVE to push myself beyond my trust issues... though i still have a "thing " about sharing personal stuff with people I "don't know"...which i know is hypocritical because so many here share, and I feel that I now "know" some of you, at a certain level..so I will do a re-intro in the near future....and thank you all for your contributions...I can't even begin to list all the things you've awoken me to..)

So, even though I bought the EE discs...a year ago now..I FINALLY! made the decision to start.(.. got that "all or nothing" Scorpio thing going) I was actually harboring some fears about it working...I know that sounds kinda stupid...I even had this programed excuse..." just WHO is this DCM you pray to?"..so lame! ( i grew up with the standard white jesus-rural american church template and then rejected it all when I started to explore more logical thinking...kinda threw out the baby jesus and the bathwater!)

My fear of success with the program came from this...first, I had dabbled in some Hatha yoga and pranayama about 10 or 15 years ago...and it worked in some of the same ways you promote this to work. At the time i was working a little and playing music in bars at night...and I felt so good(and had one of those white light experiences).But I pushed the "musicians lifestyle" too hard, and quit doing the exercises..and burned out.

Theres also that little nasty voice in my head (Mr. P) that says..."yeah it will work...but what are you gonna do without me and that false personality you and your friends love so much".....I think i've finally realized that guy is basically full of crap, even if some people "think he's cool"...and I must move on and grow...even if i don't know whats next.

So I did the whole thing yesterday afternoon. My arms got a little tired...and I couldn't do the half-lotus like I used to, but at 50, and having worked a lot of hard labor jobs in the past...it wasn't too bad, joint wise. The ba-ha part was really wonderful..very energizing.
About a third of the way through that I felt the tears coming, but it subsided as quick as it came.

Then my head got the tingles..a little similar to a vitamin B12 flush, but not as unpleasant and crawly as that. It actually felt like I was submerged in water and floating, with just my face above the surface ..the tingles came from the sides of my head and neck..and it felt as though all my beard hairs were sticking straight out...the sensation advanced slowly and stopped at the beard hairline. !! strange...but not unpleasant.

I must concur that the sound of Laura's voice has something wonderful within it. At the end of the breathing with the POTS I just broke down and wept...which I half expected, being a big wuss-sensitive type. (I stopped fighting that feeling a long time ago.) It was very cleansing....and a bit different than the grief that sometimes overcomes me. Thank you so much.
Kind Regards
Dave

 

[ytain]

Hello,

I have a question: is this technique/program easy to follow for a deaf person?

I ask this question. From watching the introduction video I can see that it is not easy to reproduce the 'h' sound since it's not a common to be felt or seen since it's not a visible sound (it doesn't produce tactile vibrations).

Do you have another alternative that would work for a deaf person?

Ytain

 

[nicklebleu]

Hello,

I have a question: is this technique/program easy to follow for a deaf person?

I ask this question. From watching the introduction video I can see that it is not easy to reproduce the 'h' sound since it's not a common to be felt or seen since it's not a visible sound (it doesn't produce tactile vibrations).

Do you have another alternative that would work for a deaf person?

Ytain

Hi Ytain,

I think that this technique can be mastered by a deaf person just as well ... maybe it will take a bit longer. And probably a person coaching who can communicate with the deaf person would be helpful to take over the "listening part" - but I think once you master the pipe breathing you will feel - rather than hear - if it is done correctly. You will develop the sensation of constriction in your larynx that will tell you that you are doing it correctly.

I would definitely try to teach this to whomever you are referring to as this is one of the most efficient techniques of stimulating your vagus nerve, which has many benefits as described in the intro.

Hope this helps ...

 

[Alana]

Hello,

I have a question: is this technique/program easy to follow for a deaf person?

I ask this question. From watching the introduction video I can see that it is not easy to reproduce the 'h' sound since it's not a common to be felt or seen since it's not a visible sound (it doesn't produce tactile vibrations).

Do you have another alternative that would work for a deaf person?

Ytain

That's a very interesting question, Ytain, and thank you for bringing it up. I am not sure I have the answer, but here's my 2 cents:

I think that as long as the person understands that the exhalation of pipe breathing is just like when we put moisture on our glasses to clean them, or put moisture on a window on a winter night and then draw on it (as we did as children) they will be able to reproduce it exactly. Regarding the inhalation, they can be advised to start with exhalation, and then pause in the middle of it, close the mouth and inhale through the nose holding the same shape in their throat as during the exhalation.

I would also think that in this situation, it would be very important that a person who knows how pipe breathing sounds like is next to them and listens in to the noise that comes from the deaf person's breathing and help guide them, with either sign language, or lip reading or hand gestures and/or drawing.

My 2 cents...

 

[ytain]

Interesting answers, but they also lack knowledge regarding teaching of sounds to a deaf person.

The 'h' sound is the most difficult sound of all sounds to teach to a deaf person who is learning to speak.

My mother tongue has very few words that uses 'h' sounds so the English language is quite strange in this regard.

Let me give you an example: the 'h' sound cannot be lipread nor felt from someone else when lipreading that person. What I mean by feeling that sound is to touch the neck of the person with my hand to determine how the sound feels via physical vibrations. The 'h' sound is the only sound that cannot be felt nor seen. Only normal hearing people can learn it via a frame of reference (parents/family entourage). Hard of hearing or deaf born people cannot use this frame of reference cause its purely auditory.

Also in regard to your answers, I don't have a way to ask someone else to assist, because I've already dropped most of my friends cause they don't seem to be interested in growing or to awaken. So this present situation doesn't allow me to have someone to assist me with this breathing program.

Thank you for your answers, they defined my choice to not use this program. I've found another that is more physical, not based on breathing.

Ytain

PS: Laura, could you add a disclaimer to your program that it cannot be recommended to hard of hearing or deaf born people without the assistance of another normal hearing person.

 

[Zadius Sky]

PS: Laura, could you add a disclaimer to your program that it cannot be recommended to hard of hearing or deaf born people without the assistance of another normal hearing person.

Hi ytain,

I am hard of hearing (deaf in the left ear and sixty percent loss in the right) and it took me years to work on my speech and how to use the visual perceptions to accumulate the way I communicate with the world. The "s," "th," or other "soft" sounds are sounds that I cannot hear - thus my difficulty in hearing the right words that people often speak. I need to lipread in order to "fill in" the gaps, so to speak.

I first started using this program when it first came out in 2009 and it does took me a while to understand how the pipe breathing works. The "h" sound that you're referring is the "ah" sound and I can lipread it (at least in English - a slightly open mouth as to breathe out). Alana gave a very good example of how to do that as I commonly understand it. If you have eyeglasses, exhale on it before wiping it (I do this alot with my eyeglasses). That exhale is the "ah" sound and it can be felt, imo.

Where are you, regionally? Maybe there is an EE class that you can attend to and the instructor there can be able to help you?

fwiw.

 

[ytain]

Hi ytain,

I am hard of hearing (deaf in the left ear and sixty percent loss in the right) and it took me years to work on my speech and how to use the visual perceptions to accumulate the way I communicate with the world. The "s," "th," or other "soft" sounds are sounds that I cannot hear - thus my difficulty in hearing the right words that people often speak. I need to lipread in order to "fill in" the gaps, so to speak.

I first started using this program when it first came out in 2009 and it does took me a while to understand how the pipe breathing works. The "h" sound that you're referring is the "ah" sound and I can lipread it (at least in English - a slightly open mouth as to breathe out). Alana gave a very good example of how to do that as I commonly understand it. If you have eyeglasses, exhale on it before wiping it (I do this alot with my eyeglasses). That exhale is the "ah" sound and it can be felt, imo.

Where are you, regionally? Maybe there is an EE class that you can attend to and the instructor there can be able to help you?

fwiw.

My case is different from yours, I'm born with profound hearing loss, so I'm unable to hear any sound without the help of a hearing aid, however the hearing aids do not help me either because of the distortions they introduce at the amplification I require to hear at. To see how big my hearing loss is, this is the value from the audiogram I had it done in the past, -120dB. Translated to speaker wattage used for electronic speakers you use for computers or stereo players, it is equivalent to 500W speakers used in a dance club. You can also see the comfort level produced at various decibel levels at this link _http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html

I did search for one EE instructor locally or closest nearby and no, there's no one.

Ytain

 

[nicklebleu]

Hi ytain,

Yes, you are right, I don't have a lot of experience with deaf people ... but I still think, that you should be able to learn pipe breathing. Because I think that you are probably much, much more attuned to what your larynx does than other people. You have learnt to feel your voice rather than hear it.

To try to expand a bit on what Alana said:
Exhalation is like exhaling on eyeglasses to then wipe it off. You can modify this a little by applying a bit of constriction in your throat - this will slow down your exhalation just a little bit, so that you will have to slightly increase pressure to maintain the same flow of exhalation.
Inhalation is a bit more difficult, but goes along the same lines. It is essentially constricted inhalation. Try to inhale though your nose and constrict your airway to slow down your flow. You will notice, that constriction is possible at different levels of the airway. It can be done at the level of the nasal passage, it can be done by the back of the nose (soft palate) and it can be done on the level of the vocal chords. And I think that even without a trainer with practice you should be able to learn to distinguish the different levels of constriction - they all feel slightly different. I don't really rely on auditory feedback to control the constriction, but rather on where I feel the constriction and the slowdown of the air entry.

Yes, of course there are any other breathing/mediation programs, but I think that the EE programe is unique. So it might really be worth to persevere ... :)

I hope this might be of any help and I wish you all the best!

 

[beetlemaniac]

Yes, of course there are any other breathing/mediation programs, but I think that the EE programe is unique. So it might really be worth to persevere ... :)

I agree! So maybe this model of the human respiratory tract might help you locate that muscle you need to constrict. I think it is called the glottis, if I'm right than this diagram should tell you where it is. It's true that you can't feel very much there with your fingers (during pipe breathing), like you can when you make a "zzzz" buzzing sound, but there is still a mild sensation of airflow, which is stronger that breathing nasally. Sorry if this doesn't make a lot of sense. Maybe the first step is to try and describe how you breathe normally. Try and discover where the air flow is felt most, whether in the nose or throat. Some people also breathe directly through their mouths.

Blue arrow points to the glottis.

 

[ytain]

nicklebleu, beeetlemaniac,

That's interesting, however I cannot determine how strong or weaker the constriction must be, to be required for the pipe breathing because I have to consider the safety/or prolonged strain on the required muscles.

When I tried first the h sound during the introduction video, my cat looked at me like I was hissing. So I guess I don't have the right feedback in this case.

All of the speech pathologists I've trained with, told me that I must not constrict a lot because it could make me lose my voice. The same also applies when speaking, because I find it tiring after a time. For me the production of sounds is not automatic cause I lack the right feedback. The vibrations I feel (on my jaw) during the production of sounds cannot be trusted for determining the sound's range of frequencies. So in this situation I have to monitor about 20 to 25 points of interests in the production of a sound, like air flow, tongue muscle tension, position of various parts of the tongue etc.

I breathe with my diaphragm instead of chest breathing because then my voice is deeper and lower pitched. During meditations I don't breathe thru the mouth cause if I do that, I end up with a very very dry throat.

I've already made my choice, so thank you for your replies. Let's leave the thread to the respective topic.

ytain

 

[nicklebleu]

ytain,

I wish you all the best on the quest for the breathing/ meditation program that suits you best. If you want, you can always come back and tell us about your experience - you certainly are in a unique position and I think it is always interesting to hear what way others take and how they fare ...

Good luck! :)

 

[Nienna]

nicklebleu, beeetlemaniac,

That's interesting, however I cannot determine how strong or weaker the constriction must be, to be required for the pipe breathing because I have to consider the safety/or prolonged strain on the required muscles.

When I tried first the h sound during the introduction video, my cat looked at me like I was hissing. So I guess I don't have the right feedback in this case.

All of the speech pathologists I've trained with, told me that I must not constrict a lot because it could make me lose my voice. The same also applies when speaking, because I find it tiring after a time. For me the production of sounds is not automatic cause I lack the right feedback. The vibrations I feel (on my jaw) during the production of sounds cannot be trusted for determining the sound's range of frequencies. So in this situation I have to monitor about 20 to 25 points of interests in the production of a sound, like air flow, tongue muscle tension, position of various parts of the tongue etc.

I breathe with my diaphragm instead of chest breathing because then my voice is deeper and lower pitched. During meditations I don't breathe thru the mouth cause if I do that, I end up with a very very dry throat.

I've already made my choice, so thank you for your replies. Let's leave the thread to the respective topic.

ytain

Ytain, forget the "h" sound.

I don't know if this will help you or not. Can you say "ah"? Can you say it in a whisper? If so, draw it out and whisper, "ahhhhhh". While doing this, can you feel the slight constriction in your throat? All you need is a slight constriction, nothing forceful as that is overdoing it. It should be gentle and not taxing the throat muscles.

If you can do this, practice it for a while on the exhale, as you are doing saying "ahhhh" until you get the feel for it, then, as Alana said, stop in the middle of the exhale, keep the constriction in the throat and inhale through the nose.

With practice, it becomes very easy to do.