Éiriú-Eolas - Breathing Program

[Alana]

Lots of anger releases from three-stage breathing. Feeling fatigued and irritable.

Remember, this is anger from the past. In your daily life, try and stay centered in the moment at all times while acknowledging what you feel but not letting it fuel any new thoughts and behaviors and color your perceptions about the present. If it feels a bit schizophrenic to be acknowledging different stuff from different time periods in the same moment as now, then welcome to reality. I've read your writing. You'll be able to work it out. :)

Thanks, Buddy.

I am finding this a little hard at the moment. My thoughts are all over the place as it is. It will pass, though, I know. Its just gotten a little bit more intense.

Remember to do some pipe-breathing whenever you feel these intense emotions. Buddy is right. If you keep in mind that all these emotions you are feeling now are from the past, and what you are going through is a way to "purge" them, it makes it easier. I went through this myself, a few times since I started the program. Pipe breathing and remembering not to identify with the emotion in the moment (hard, but doable) was what helped the most. Hang in there.

 

[Explorer]

Thanks guys.

 

[James Henry]

Had my first group experience with EE a couple of weeks ago. Now that I have had time to process it better I wanted to share some of the differences I noticed from doing it alone.

First I had no anxiety at all of being interrupted or disturbing others. The whole group was focused and in an environment conducive to separating the outside world. It allowed me to relax more deeply from the start.

I did not have to focus on Laura's voice instructions, you could see, hear and feel the proper rhythm from the group. With the group dynamic in sync my personal energy seemed to increase more, riding with the flow. I felt like a divine whistle.

With the exception of two minor issues I'll detail below, my whole body felt cleansed and rejuvenated, bodily tension evaporated much faster and more deeply. The clarity of my mind seemed more focused with little to no noise creeping into my awareness. (At first a little negative interject of "As a group first-timer will I disrupt the energy of the group." But this quickly dissipated.) I was aware of and could sense all parts of my body that I brought my attention to as I mental scanned. My breathing was clear and my heart was strong with no trace of tension. (In hindsight I now noticed I focused more on my structure, muscles, tendons, bones, shell of skin and mind; than my organs except for my heart and lungs.)

Two minor issues noticed were a small amount of sinus drainage and some tension in both of my knees. The sinus issue may be attributed to diet (I am not yet on the full Ketogenic diet, working my way through paleo first) and some prior tension from home.

The knees issue needs to be investigated further. Although my one knee has had torn ligaments in the past and occasionally acts up, this was different. It felt like two equal spheres of tension/(energy?) surrounded my knees. It did not feel like complete blockages because from calf to foot and thigh to head all felt clear and flowing. Possibly may have been a result of being in a shoulder width horse stance with a slight bend of the knees while doing the warrior's breathe. Feedback on what these spheres may have been trying to tell me is welcomed. I knees to know. lol

Overall it was one of the most relaxing yet energetic experiences I have had in a long time and I am grateful I had the opportunity to be involved with a great group of people. Many thank you's to all of them.

 

[whitecoast]

I've been practicing bio energetic breathing for awhile now, but inconsistently. As in, there is a month in which I would do no beatha, but then I would do it 4 or 5 days in a row, depending on how I was feeling.

I've noticed that starting it up after a small hiatus, I would get this sort of aching in my heart area, like I'm experiencing something emotionally taxing. But my actual conscious emotions aren't as strong as the physical feeling. A related symptom I've experienced is, I feel like my vagus nerve is highly stimulated after pipe breathing and meditaion before bed, but when I wake up I feel as if my body has reset to the regular basal vagal tone. My thoughts are more scattered, I'm less in my body, etc. Does that mean I'm still clearing away things in my subconscious and in my body? What keeps pulling me back?

If I get stressed out during work, I find I have a greater urge to sing now. I guess this means I've really internalized how useful vagal stimulation is. :)

A more tangential topic relates to an experience I had with a long race/obstacle course I did a month ago. It was 22 km long in the mountains, and we had to climb over and under things, swim through dark areas, crawl though snow, and run through electrical wires at the end. By the end I was very tired, cold, and emotionally exhausted. I was zapped three more times before crossing the finish line, and I just felt a deluge of anguish and tears after. My throat was sore and my whole body was shaking. I recognize that I did just go through an exhausting challenge, but the way the shocks seemed to unlock something in me made me wonder if it helped purge emotions the way bio energetic breathing does? I've heard electroshock therapy being used before to treat depression, and it made me wonder if I experienced a miniature dosage of that treatment.

All comments welcome.

 

[Oxajil]

A related symptom I've experienced is, I feel like my vagus nerve is highly stimulated after pipe breathing and meditaion before bed, but when I wake up I feel as if my body has reset to the regular basal vagal tone. My thoughts are more scattered, I'm less in my body, etc. Does that mean I'm still clearing away things in my subconscious and in my body? What keeps pulling me back?

That's a possibility yes. Something to observe may be to see whether that only happens when you do EE before going to bed, or that it happens every morning when you wake up. If it happens every morning, then it may be something related to your health. If it only happens after you've done EE then it may indicate that you're still processing something. What may help if it gets too uncomfortable, is try doing a couple of pipe breaths once you've woken up.

A more tangential topic relates to an experience I had with a long race/obstacle course I did a month ago. It was 22 km long in the mountains, and we had to climb over and under things, swim through dark areas, crawl though snow, and run through electrical wires at the end. By the end I was very tired, cold, and emotionally exhausted. I was zapped three more times before crossing the finish line, and I just felt a deluge of anguish and tears after. My throat was sore and my whole body was shaking. I recognize that I did just go through an exhausting challenge, but the way the shocks seemed to unlock something in me made me wonder if it helped purge emotions the way bio energetic breathing does? I've heard electroshock therapy being used before to treat depression, and it made me wonder if I experienced a miniature dosage of that treatment.

I've read about electroshock therapy, and I don't think that's something that you experienced in the way that you're explaining. What I do think is that purging emotions is a way of your body to get stress out. I remember after a really long and hard day at work I would get the urge to cry, and sometimes letting it go helped for me. Another possibility is, is that the way your body felt, the shaking and soreness of the throat etc, could've reminded you of a past (traumatic) experience where you more/less felt the same way (physically), which then made all those emotions come up that were present at that point in time.

Just my thoughts on this, I hope this helps. Others may have better feedback though, so fwiw.

 

[daddycat]

I've been doing the meditation portion just before going to sleep on a lot of nights. I'll be listening to it and the next thing I know it is over, so I guess I am falling asleep.

My spouse is trying to be supportive, and reminded me to do the full program a couple nights ago when the children fell asleep early.

 

[Niall]

The knees issue needs to be investigated further. Although my one knee has had torn ligaments in the past and occasionally acts up, this was different. It felt like two equal spheres of tension/(energy?) surrounded my knees. It did not feel like complete blockages because from calf to foot and thigh to head all felt clear and flowing. Possibly may have been a result of being in a shoulder width horse stance with a slight bend of the knees while doing the warrior's breathe. Feedback on what these spheres may have been trying to tell me is welcomed. I knees to know. lol

Something you might want to reflect on is what was going on in and around the time(s) you when you tore your knee ligaments? If physical injuries are the manifestation of a bundle of emotional knots, then in combination with conscious efforts to recapitulate, EE can gently untie them.

 

[Niall]

I've been practicing bio energetic breathing for awhile now, but inconsistently. As in, there is a month in which I would do no beatha, but then I would do it 4 or 5 days in a row, depending on how I was feeling.

If you're generally going that long without doing it, then I wouldn't recommend literally throwing yourself for a loop for doing it so many days in a row.

Steady, constant rhythm is the key. If you're going to do it, why not do it in synch with others - Mondays and Thursdays?

I've noticed that starting it up after a small hiatus, I would get this sort of aching in my heart area, like I'm experiencing something emotionally taxing. But my actual conscious emotions aren't as strong as the physical feeling. A related symptom I've experienced is, I feel like my vagus nerve is highly stimulated after pipe breathing and meditaion before bed, but when I wake up I feel as if my body has reset to the regular basal vagal tone. My thoughts are more scattered, I'm less in my body, etc. Does that mean I'm still clearing away things in my subconscious and in my body? What keeps pulling me back?

An aching in your heart area? If that's as bad as it sounds, I would stop doing beatha all together and get it checked out with a doctor.

A more tangential topic relates to an experience I had with a long race/obstacle course I did a month ago. It was 22 km long in the mountains, and we had to climb over and under things, swim through dark areas, crawl though snow, and run through electrical wires at the end. By the end I was very tired, cold, and emotionally exhausted. I was zapped three more times before crossing the finish line, and I just felt a deluge of anguish and tears after. My throat was sore and my whole body was shaking. I recognize that I did just go through an exhausting challenge, but the way the shocks seemed to unlock something in me made me wonder if it helped purge emotions the way bio energetic breathing does? I've heard electroshock therapy being used before to treat depression, and it made me wonder if I experienced a miniature dosage of that treatment.

I doubt it, although why anyone would voluntarily put themselves through that rigour, I don't know! Are you in the military?

Electroshock therapy is like radiotherapy and chemotherapy: barbaric. To the extent that we can say it 'treats' depression, electroshock fries brain circuits, removing the bad memories and/or the pain associated with the memories. The net result is an even less conscious, and even more damaged, person. It's the opposite of EE, which relives the memory in a safe conscious setting so that the negative emotions associated with them can be separated and detoxed/let go, while the memories are saved and remain available to conscious recall. This latter part is crucial for growing in knowledge. Our 'negative experiences' teach us lessons.

 

[beetlemaniac]

A more tangential topic relates to an experience I had with a long race/obstacle course I did a month ago. It was 22 km long in the mountains, and we had to climb over and under things, swim through dark areas, crawl though snow, and run through electrical wires at the end. By the end I was very tired, cold, and emotionally exhausted. I was zapped three more times before crossing the finish line, and I just felt a deluge of anguish and tears after. My throat was sore and my whole body was shaking. I recognize that I did just go through an exhausting challenge, but the way the shocks seemed to unlock something in me made me wonder if it helped purge emotions the way bio energetic breathing does? I've heard electroshock therapy being used before to treat depression, and it made me wonder if I experienced a miniature dosage of that treatment.

All comments welcome.

I have had similar symptoms doing high intensity interval training on a stationary bike. I would go on an all-out sprint at maximum exertion for 30 seconds and then drop down to a more leisurely pace for 1:30 seconds and repeating that for 4 or 5 times. My body would sometimes shake and I'd have feelings of sadness just come up during the sprinting phase. It's quite cathartic when it happens, my thought patterns change and I feel more joy afterwards (it could be the endorphins). I doubt it has anything to do with electroshock therapy, but maybe the release of emotional "stuff" stored in the various muscles of our body, that were frozen in position as "armoring".

 

[whitecoast]

Thanks for the replies, Oxajil, Kniall, and Beetlemaniac. :)

[quote author=Oxajil]That's a possibility yes. Something to observe may be to see whether that only happens when you do EE before going to bed, or that it happens every morning when you wake up. If it happens every morning, then it may be something related to your health. If it only happens after you've done EE then it may indicate that you're still processing something. What may help if it gets too uncomfortable, is try doing a couple of pipe breaths once you've woken up. [/quote]

There are mornings when I do feel much better, and they are often the ones where I skip bioenergetics and do pipe breathing and meditation. I often do pipe breath each morning in the shower whenever I remember myself, so that always helps.

[quote author=Kniall]Steady, constant rhythm is the key. If you're going to do it, why not do it in synch with others - Mondays and Thursdays?[/quote]

As luck would have it I ended up doing it with two days in between, which is pretty close to the Mon-Thurs separation already. As for being in sync, I have felt the benefits of EE in a group setting, but I guess I'm more sceptical about it causing a similar effect with people spread around the globe (even if its within the same 24 hour period?) Has anyone else felt a difference doing it on Monday versus, say, a Saturday?

Another thing I also thought was beneficial about doing beatha more often was that it shortened my temper by a noticeable margin, which gave me more material for self-observation and opportunities to fight internal considering. No heads were ripped off in the conducting of that experiment.

[quote author=Kniall]An aching in your heart area? If that's as bad as it sounds, I would stop doing beatha all together and get it checked out with a doctor.[/quote]

Okay. I tend to distrust doctors, since I feel a lot of pressure to maintain strategic enclosure.

[quote author=Kniall]I doubt it, although why anyone would voluntarily put themselves through that rigour, I don't know! Are you in the military?[/quote]

I thought it was a good opportunity for intentional suffering. I've always felt that I'm way too cerebral, and that getting more into my body and being action-oriented would have been beneficial more me from a personal growth standpoint. I guess the same thing that pushed me to do beatha 4 days in a row is the same thing driving me to exhaust myself physically and emotionally on some forsaken mountain.

[quote author=Kniall]Electroshock therapy is like radiotherapy and chemotherapy: barbaric. To the extent that we can say it 'treats' depression, electroshock fries brain circuits, removing the bad memories and/or the pain associated with the memories. The net result is an even less conscious, and even more damaged, person. It's the opposite of EE, which relives the memory in a safe conscious setting so that the negative emotions associated with them can be separated and detoxed/let go, while the memories are saved and remain available to conscious recall. This latter part is crucial for growing in knowledge. Our 'negative experiences' teach us lessons.[/quote]

Thanks for this information. Knowing this, I think I just cried because of how hard I pushed myself and how much I endured.

[quote author=beetlemaniac]but maybe the release of emotional "stuff" stored in the various muscles of our body, that were frozen in position as "armoring".[/quote]

That was my initial thought as well. But I can't tell if it came from current or past suffering. I was pretty stoic through the whole race, and all the defences came down the moment it ended.

 

[Niall]

I tend to distrust doctors, since I feel a lot of pressure to maintain strategic enclosure.

Do whatever you think is best, but going to see a doctor is not incompatible with maintaining strategic enclosure.

I doubt it, although why anyone would voluntarily put themselves through that rigour, I don't know! Are you in the military?

I thought it was a good opportunity for intentional suffering. I've always felt that I'm way too cerebral, and that getting more into my body and being action-oriented would have been beneficial more me from a personal growth standpoint. I guess the same thing that pushed me to do beatha 4 days in a row is the same thing driving me to exhaust myself physically and emotionally on some forsaken mountain.

As the term is used here on this forum, that is not intentional suffering. It's more like 'misuse of sex energy':

Sex

Sexual energy can be misused by running different centers of the body with it. It may animate the moving, emotional or thinking centers, where it manifests as a sort of frenetic hyperactivity. The moving center will break records, the emotional center may conceive of meant-to-be romances where there are none or launch itself in fanatic frenzies for diverse causes, the thinking center may manufacture sandcastles of cosmologies with no basis in fact.

See also:

Suffering, Conscious and Mechanical

Stressing yourself needlessly in this way, to the point of risking serious self-harm, is antithetical to everything that is taught here.

 

[Buddy]

Another thing I also thought was beneficial about doing beatha more often was that it shortened my temper by a noticeable margin, which gave me more material for self-observation and opportunities to fight internal considering. No heads were ripped off in the conducting of that experiment.

Stressing yourself needlessly in this way, to the point of risking serious self-harm, is antithetical to everything that is taught here.

I agree with Kniall here, whitecoast. If I knew that you had been exposed to certain esoteric practices for awakening the emotional center, I might understand an implicit intention here. Even so, it's overkill because modern day versions of this experimentation follow safer aerobic guidelines, like working at a maximum of about 80 percent capacity for no longer than 30 minutes at a time before a sudden stop. Perhaps a bit of patience with this process might better qualify as some useful intentional suffering?

 

[whitecoast]

Stressing yourself needlessly in this way, to the point of risking serious self-harm, is antithetical to everything that is taught here.

I agree with Kniall here, whitecoast.If I knew that you had been exposed to certain esoteric practices for awakening the emotional center, I might understand an implicit intention here. Even so, it's overkill because modern day versions of this experimentation follow safer aerobic guidelines, like working at a maximum of about 80 percent capacity for no longer than 30 minutes at a time before a sudden stop. Perhaps a bit of patience with this process might better qualify as some useful intentional suffering?

I don't intend EVER to put myself through that challenge again. I think learning to pace myself, rather than alternating between inactivity and overclocking, would be very beneficial for me.

Thanks all of you.

 

[James Henry]

The knees issue needs to be investigated further. Although my one knee has had torn ligaments in the past and occasionally acts up, this was different. It felt like two equal spheres of tension/(energy?) surrounded my knees. It did not feel like complete blockages because from calf to foot and thigh to head all felt clear and flowing. Possibly may have been a result of being in a shoulder width horse stance with a slight bend of the knees while doing the warrior's breathe. Feedback on what these spheres may have been trying to tell me is welcomed. I knees to know. lol

Something you might want to reflect on is what was going on in and around the time(s) you when you tore your knee ligaments? If physical injuries are the manifestation of a bundle of emotional knots, then in combination with conscious efforts to recapitulate, EE can gently untie them.

Thank you Kniall for your feedback.

The event when I tore the ligaments in my left knee happened in junior high school and was indeed emotionally dramatic. It involved standing up to a bully and then getting in to a fight. Over the years I have made conscious efforts to exam the event and thought I worked it out a while ago. But as you suggest, I will look at it again further.

I do want to keep an open mind thought and exam it from other angles also, since it was in both knees and not just the left.

A day or so ago while searching for answers or clues, I came across a post that talked about iron overload, ligaments and arthritis that resonated with me. (Can't find exact post again, still searching) This led me into looking at getting a blood test done when I can afford it (no health insurance). I was born anemic and it has been decades since I have had blood work done.

It may also have been "a little weak in the knees" anxiety, practicing with an established and accomplished group that built up and needed released.

 

[daddycat]

I did the full program last night so I could be in sync with the Monday Thursday schedule. It was late and I was tired, so I had to force myself to do it. I don't remember much of the beatha or meditation portions, so I guess I fell asleep during much of them.