Éiriú-Eolas - Breathing Program

[Juba]

Hi all, I had a couple of problems during Beatha part of the EE, thanks to my own fault. I used shoulders during faster part of Beatha in stead of diaphragm and most of the time I got dizzy feeling. In last couple of weeks I was trying to focus on belly breathing and I do feel positive progress with less and less mistakes.
I also noticed that, when extremely stressed, I tend to start to relax and calm down in third set of pipe breathing, when putting hand of the shoulders, not before that. The Warrior Breath is extremely helpful in that kind of situations, and usually after it I feel like my "worries" and overthinking are almost gone, the heaviness on my shoulders and cramp in my back is gone, actually I feel much more peaceful. I also noticed that my mind often wander during Prayer of the Soul and it is pretty hard for me to focus back on the words themself. Most of the time when my mind is calm getting really sleepy before end of Prayer of the Soul, and afterward I have sound & deep sleep with colourful dreams, without waking up until the morning.

 

[Kay Kim]

Thank you lainey, for Eiriu Eolas quick guide. It certainly helped me to refreshed my memory that I have forgot about something.

Thank you Nienna, for reminded me about Bio-energetic(round) breath is not for constricting glottis. I remember that Laura's instruction, or something that I read that said round breathing is normal regular belly breathing, and that's I did but completely forgot yesterday, maybe due to excitement from new information I found.
It remind me that I need to be calm, no matter what happen. Haha.

Now, I want to make sure,
Is in-breath and out-breath both constrict to stimulates vagus nerve programs are...
Pipe Breath.
Prayer of the soul meditation.

And normal belly breathings are...
Warrior Breath.
Bio-energetic(round) Breath.

Is this correct ?
Thank you for assistance.

 

[patty2292]

Now, I want to make sure,
Is in-breath and out-breath both constrict to stimulates vagus nerve programs are...
Pipe Breath.
Prayer of the soul meditation.

And normal belly breathings are...
Warrior Breath.
Bio-energetic(round) Breath.

Is this correct ?
Thank you for assistance.

Both in and out are constricted yes. But POTs is not pipe breathing, just normally controlled belly breathing with your diaphragm.

 

[lainey]

Now, I want to make sure,
Is in-breath and out-breath both constrict to stimulates vagus nerve programs are...
Pipe Breath.
Prayer of the soul meditation.

And normal belly breathings are...
Warrior Breath.
Bio-energetic(round) Breath.

Is this correct ?
Thank you for assistance.

Both in and out are constricted yes. But POTs is not pipe breathing, just normally controlled belly breathing with your diaphragm.

Just constricted for the 3 stage breathing, not warrior or beatha.

 

[Kay Kim]

Thank you, Huxley and lainey.
In and out breath that constrict to stimulates vagus nerve is just for 3 stage breathing only.
I got it now.

 

[patty2292]

Hi all, I had a couple of problems during Beatha part of the EE, thanks to my own fault. I used shoulders during faster part of Beatha in stead of diaphragm and most of the time I got dizzy feeling. In last couple of weeks I was trying to focus on belly breathing and I do feel positive progress with less and less mistakes.

Its great to hear your making progress Eärwen!
If you are chest breathing (is this what you meant by using your shoulders?) then it will not be comfortable, as you cannot hold much oxygen when you breath with your chest - perhaps this is why you become dizzy.

I also noticed that, when extremely stressed, I tend to start to relax and calm down in third set of pipe breathing, when putting hand of the shoulders, not before that. The Warrior Breath is extremely helpful in that kind of situations, and usually after it I feel like my "worries" and overthinking are almost gone, the heaviness on my shoulders and cramp in my back is gone, actually I feel much more peaceful.

I love warriors breath for that effect! Really release all the stored tension that you have accumulated during the week. I think a good controlled shout is a very healthy way to release some anger and buried stress. I feel light as a feather when i let roar!

I also noticed that my mind often wander during Prayer of the Soul and it is pretty hard for me to focus back on the words themself. Most of the time when my mind is calm getting really sleepy before end of Prayer of the Soul, and afterward I have sound & deep sleep with colourful dreams, without waking up until the morning.

Have you tried the mediation with POT's Laura mentioned in the last C's session? Ive found after doing it every night prior to bed, i am able to focus my mind on the words and i dissociate from them less and less. It has been described in afew places that the focus of the mind is like a muscle which takes training and persistence to see controlled results. If your mind does wander, try not to be consumed by the thoughts and images - just let them flow without them grabbing you. With time you will be able to notice them happening and push them out of your sight.

 

[Nienna]

Hi all, I had a couple of problems during Beatha part of the EE, thanks to my own fault. I used shoulders during faster part of Beatha in stead of diaphragm and most of the time I got dizzy feeling. In last couple of weeks I was trying to focus on belly breathing and I do feel positive progress with less and less mistakes.

Its great to hear your making progress Eärwen!
If you are chest breathing (is this what you meant by using your shoulders?) then it will not be comfortable, as you cannot hold much oxygen when you breath with your chest - perhaps this is why you become dizzy.

Remember that during the Beatha portion - even the fastest paced breathing - you should be breathing gently, not forcefully. You don't have to get your lungs full during the Beatha part; just make sure that there is continuous breathing in and out without pausing/holding your breath. If you are breathing with your shoulders, it would mean that you are tense, which could be caused by trying to get your lungs full or air. Maybe while doing the fastest part, you could tell yourself to relax?

 

[Juba]

Have you tried the mediation with POT's Laura mentioned in the last C's session? Ive found after doing it every night prior to bed, i am able to focus my mind on the words and i dissociate from them less and less. It has been described in afew places that the focus of the mind is like a muscle which takes training and persistence to see controlled results. If your mind does wander, try not to be consumed by the thoughts and images - just let them flow without them grabbing you. With time you will be able to notice them happening and push them out of your sight.

Yes I do it pretty often, although I'm doing this kind of meditation during the day whenever feel stressed, frustrated or when having back and neck pains. Than I use word "relax" and it helps great deal, I also trying to observe my body posture, because I noticed that when stressed getting soldier posture, and when in depression than having "C" posture (like having Thoracic Kyphosis) and of course that makes my shoulders, lower back and neck tensed and painful. I tried to use other words but "relax" has the bigest impact on my body and mind and it is relatively easy to focus on it without mind wandering.
The whole EE I do before going to bed, minimum once a week, max tree time a week, and pipe breathing with Prayer of the Soul doing almost every night, it lulls me to sleep and I don't have to take melatonin.

Thank you for your observations and advices, they are most helpful. :)

 

[Juba]

Hi all, I had a couple of problems during Beatha part of the EE, thanks to my own fault. I used shoulders during faster part of Beatha in stead of diaphragm and most of the time I got dizzy feeling. In last couple of weeks I was trying to focus on belly breathing and I do feel positive progress with less and less mistakes.

Its great to hear your making progress Eärwen!
If you are chest breathing (is this what you meant by using your shoulders?) then it will not be comfortable, as you cannot hold much oxygen when you breath with your chest - perhaps this is why you become dizzy.

Remember that during the Beatha portion - even the fastest paced breathing - you should be breathing gently, not forcefully. You don't have to get your lungs full during the Beatha part; just make sure that there is continuous breathing in and out without pausing/holding your breath. If you are breathing with your shoulders, it would mean that you are tense, which could be caused by trying to get your lungs full or air. Maybe while doing the fastest part, you could tell yourself to relax?

Thank you Nienna, I'm really trying. :) Unfortunately that was one of my biggest mistakes, because I tried to breathe in as much possible of air. Right now is much better but I must constantly remind myself not to breathe in with wrong muscles and to be gentle on myself. In last two weeks I had couple of "wrong" inhalations during faster part of Beatha, but I sincerely hope that I'll manage to correct myself with the time and EE practice.
You are all really helpful and I'm grateful for assistance and valuable info, for a months I was pretty comfused and upset because I didn't know why my own experience of the EE changed in rather negative way (to be honest I was thinking, it is everything in my head and mind not the technique of the breathing itself and of course I could not imagine that I'm the one who is ruining experience of the EE in physical way, I'm such a ignorant fool ). But I'm willing to learn and correct myself.

 

[lainey]

Try not to beat yourself up about it earwan, are you practicing the stretches suggested at the beginning in order to loosen yourself up a bit?
I do a short yoga routine before I do EE and it really helps to calm and centre my mind and eases out any tension.

 

[Persej]

I wouldn't force myself with EE exercises. I think that twice a week is quite enough. And although you can't control the tempo, you can control the amount of air that you are taking in, so if you feel dizzy just lower the amount of air intake.

I introduced a couple of exercises while lying in bed before the meditation from something that is called Progressive Muscle Relaxation. You have a lot of articles and videos on the web about it. I like it.

I started doing the meditation when I wake up. Just a small meditation with 12 cycles (during the night I go up to 20, unless the energy starts flowing before that) and I discovered that now I can also activate that energy influx during the morning. A couple of years ago I never managed to do that, only in the evening was that possible. So that's another thing that changed.

Also, something else happened that was never possible before. I was doing the meditation and energy influx came in, it lasted about 3 cycles, and then, as usual, I was just lying in my bed feeling this gentle warmth in my body, and then after a minute or two another energy influx appeared. I was surprised because up to that night I could only do it once per meditative session. Never twice. It only happened once so far, but that was interesting.

Last night and this morning I could only activate this gentle warmth in my body, but not the influx of energy. So every fifth or sixth day I have a big burst of energy, on some days in between I have a mild burst of energy, and some days no burst of energy, just warmth. So obviously there are some rules to this but I have no idea what exactly is going on.

I tried to read some Gurdjieff's and Fulcanelli's explanations, but I can't find anything about this. They both talk about fire as a tool for transformation, but they don't talk about meditation as a tool for creating fire. Or maybe they did but I can't understand their explanations.

 

[sToRmR1dR]

I've found this "combination" of EE (online version) very beneficial,and I'd like to share:

Monday:

I.EE Breathing Program; II.POTS;

Tuesday:

I.PB+POTS; II.PB+POTS;

Wednesday:

I.3SB+WB+POTS; II.PB+POTS;

Thursday:

I.EE Breathing Program; II.POTS;

Friday:

I.3SB+POTS; II.PB+POTS;

Saturday:

I.PB+POTS; II.PB+POTS;

Sunday:

I.3SB+WB+POTS; II.PB+POTS;


The first phase is around noon,second is before to sleep.Thanks for the encouragement Ennio. :)

 

[nicklebleu]

Hi all,

I have had a bit of an issue with EE in the last 6-12 months that I'd like to run past ya'all - not sure what to make of it.

In the last 6-12 months I have been unable to even finish one whole session without falling asleep. I usually do the EE on Monday and Thursday night before going off to sleep. That's generally around 10pm, though even if I do it an hour earlier (which doesn't happen too often) the result is the same.

I do PB and WB sitting and lie down for the bioenergetic breathing and the meditation, but most of the time I don't even finish the first set of bioenergetic breathing and I fall asleep - I usually wake up an hour or two later with my headphones on, just long enough to put them away and go back to sleep.

A few times I have tried to do the whole program in the afternoon when off work, but the result is the same. I discussed this during our latest Australian Skype group meeting and someone said that this most likely was "zoning out", as described earlier in this thread. I am not sure if that is the case, for me it feels more like plain and simple falling asleep. I have had what I thought were episodes of "zoning out", but they qualitatively felt different.

The only way I can make it through the whole session is by sitting crosslegged, which is uncomfortable and thus prevents me from going off to sleep, but obviously this is not the solution.

I generally feel that I get enough sleep on average, interspersed with being called out at night, which disrupts my sleep-wake cycle enough to make me quite tired for a few days. I get around 7 hours of sleep at night and the quality now is quite good, mostly uninterrupted, or maybe a short waking up around 4:30am (I usually get up around 6am).

I have had some turbulent times in this period splitting from my wife but tried to to EE as regularly as possible (bar some interferences from work).

I must admit I am a bit at a loss by this as it seems to me that I don't get the full benefit of the program. To me it feels a bit of a slog - I still do it, but more out of a sense of "duty" than anything else. And no matter how hard I try (which may be counterproductive in its own right) the outcome is the same.

The other thing that seems to go parallel to that is that I have a very hard time to focus and quiet my mind. I am only able to focus on a few breaths, before my thoughts drift off to somewhere else. I know this sounds paradoxical - how can you go to sleep without a quiet mind? I don't have an answer myself.

So not sure what's going on and I would be greatful for some feedback or thoughts.

 

[herondancer]

I wouldn't worry so much about falling asleep. You are still getting the program's information through your headphones, even if you aren't consciously aware of it. Given the upsets in your life and your sometimes erratic sleep schedule, falling asleep isn't surprising. The body will do what it needs to do to heal, and it seems what it needs now is rest. As to curbing the drifting thoughts, it's a matter of practice. With time, it should get better. Try not to get down on yourself and just keep coming back to the breath.:)

 

[Lindenlea]

Hi Nick,

Maybe adjusting your your times from night to morning may help you.

I used to do Monday and Thursday nights, but I invariably ended up having a sleep for most of it, so I decided I would do the full pots after awaking on mornings, as there was no need or desire to sleep then. I usually do Saturday or Sunday and Wednesday, which suit me, and just the POTS each night, which guarantees I fall asleep.