Éiriú-Eolas - Breathing Program

[Arlind]

This is my 2nd time 'committing' to the EE program and even though early on still (just over a mnth of practicing it twice a week) thanks to far more effort in practicing and understanding all aspects this time around, I feel the start of profound improvements in my life. It doesn't surprise me as, intuitively and from a quote of the C's on breathing said something along the lines of it being 'the rythm of our interaction with creation'. What I've noticed in the last few yrs, apart from my old habit of shallow breathing, is that as life has served me with more lessons to learn and corresponding suffering, I have gone through some looong regresses into shallow breathing AND holding my breath. It's a little shocking to observe my (very apparent once I start paying attention) inability to breathe properly; something that happens outside of stressful situations.. when I get in my head etc

I'm not yet experiencing the breakthroughs that I've read through the last few pages of this thread but nonetheless I can feel something substantial building up in terms of benefits. And thinking about it it makes sense I'm not experiencing emotional out pours as I am guarded and don't let my emotions come through or myself to experience them fully.

So, in that respect, not only is EE giving me doses of serenity but also helping me better understand my inner-self, my progress (or lack of) with getting in touch with, understanding, fully experiencing my emotions. And that may mean I can follow up this work with aiding it in 'breaking through the prison of emotions' to borrow @Steph_rivers expression (thank you for sharing your painful lesson btw). This program, the opportunity to share and network with 'cleansed hearts' in this forum is mighty therapeutic. I know I thrive on honest, true connection. I'm very thankful of Laura and co's beautiful endeavour.

Anyway, I should have kept this short as I don't have a lot to share yet, but I do want to add that, likely, group practicing of the EE is what I need to aim for. Just a matter of me now making time to join the weekly online workshops. Also, love practicing portions of the program daily i.e. Pipe breath for stimulating the vagus nerve when inner-state calls for it, round breathing as I'm walking the dog, and bio-energetic before a cold dip.

Thank you all for sharing.

 

[Arlind]

On the point of me feeling of an overall build-up of benefits (a strengthening of 'being' for lack of a better term) I wanted to share an 'sleep paralysis' experience I had last night/ early hrs of the morning. This wasn't during EE practice but the way I responded may be related to it.

Recently, I have not been great with my sleep hygiene: many nights of falling asleep on the sofa, waking up 2-3am, which usually has resulted in the wasting my 'good sleep' time and difficulties of going back to sleep of any decent quality. This time I woke up just past 2am and for the next hr and a half+ cycled between writing a b'day card to my nephew (one of the important things on my mind) and attempting to relax enough (through some light Beatha) to try and rest.

By what I think was 4:30am, I had relaxed enough to feel sleep coming, while still partially conscious I felt the sudden shift into 'sleep paralysis'. This has happened to me before but on this occasion I was particularly lucid in sensing the shift. A good amount of the times this happens I tend to panic (it is such a weird panic as it's all internal without being able to express it through movement or sound), but apart from a brief and light panic towards the beginning, this time I actually remained fairly calm. I attempted to move my gaze (eyes were open or rather I could see as if they were), open it up so to speak, and then attempted to speak to my dog (felt him laying on the other side of the bedroom door). I think I managed to say his name (Kel) very slowly a couple of times but as this seemed to not change my situation one bit, I moved on to internally recite the POTS with Laura's meditation tempo, a phrase every outbreath. Inner speech I could actually hear pretty clear while in terms of outside of me I heard murmured, dragged out sounds coming (maybe Kel responding?).
After a few more moments (towards the end of the Prayer, although can't recall if and how many times I repeated it) I came out of the state, and unlike other times felt a sudden and effortless shift out of 'sleep paralysis'.

What stood out for me from the experience (a light one by paranormal standards) is the serenity of my response, calm and collected to an extent that I haven't reached before. I could almost say it felt like what some of you describe as your experience of zoning out ('being with the higher self') but with some 'action' thrown in. Being alert throughout not scared, working at it with confidence and dare I say 'faith' but.. that felt good.

Sorry for throwing in another long post after promising to keep them short haha but I would appreciate your thoughts on it.

 

[whitecoast]

I'm not yet experiencing the breakthroughs that I've read through the last few pages of this thread but nonetheless I can feel something substantial building up in terms of benefits. And thinking about it it makes sense I'm not experiencing emotional out pours as I am guarded and don't let my emotions come through or myself to experience them fully.

For what it's worth there's nothing wrong with long posts. I think there tends to be more risk of sharing too little instead of too much. The benefits of EE are definitely cumulative, so the more you do it the more you receive from the practice. And practising EE in a group is also great for limbic resonance, and perhaps could even be one way you can receive greater breakthroughs.

If you feel like there is a consistent block somewhere or a guardedness, sometimes that can manifest as pausing more during the bioenergetic breathing, or an excess of control on the exhale. In addition to keeping the breath connected and pauseless, one solution is to fully relax and let go on the exhale as much as possible in the lips, face, jaw, throat, ribcage, diaphragm, and pelvic floor. It can be harder to do it in the slow portion since you need to expel air at a more controlled pace to match the audio. If consciously relaxing the exhale as much as possible causes you to reach the end of the exhale before the signal to inhale, you can work around this by taking in more air on the inhale to keep the breathing circular/connected. Alternatively you can also practice it without the audio pacing so you can restart the inhale whenever your fully relaxed exhale naturally ends, while keeping the relative speed ups and slow downs overall. It seems like you may be doing that anyway if you are doing it while walking your dog or prepping for a cold swim?

It can also be helpful in some instances to work one-on-one with a live facilitator, since someone who is properly trained in a trauma-informed connected/bioenergetic breathing modality will be able to identify and guide you past dysfunctional postural and breathing patterns you may not be aware of or notice in yourself amidst the practice of the connected breathing technique that are blocking emotional releases. Similar to reiki, breathwork is not a regulated term, so it can be a jungle out there in terms of quality of facilitators and their training, and a bad facilitator can do more harm than good. If you live in a large city, there is a chance there may be a breathwork practitioner who studied under Edward Dangerfield or a student of his, with a modality called either conscious connected breath or facilitated breath repatterning. Similar to EE that's also a scientifically based modality I'm trained in and I can vouch for the quality of the instruction and how it's helped me, as a patient, experience a number of emotional breakthroughs and corrections to my unconscious breathing patterns. If they have good credentials/lineage, positive testimonials, lots of clinical experience, no red flags around drug use or questionable new age practices, and seem to know what they're talking about on a consult call, it might be worth checking out as a compliment to regular EE practice.

Recently, I have not been great with my sleep hygiene: many nights of falling asleep on the sofa, waking up 2-3am, which usually has resulted in the wasting my 'good sleep' time and difficulties of going back to sleep of any decent quality. This time I woke up just past 2am and for the next hr and a half+ cycled between writing a b'day card to my nephew (one of the important things on my mind) and attempting to relax enough (through some light Beatha) to try and rest.

When it comes to breathing techniques for falling asleep I would actually recommend pipe breathing because it much more strongly parasympathetic. Bioenergetic breathing can wake up a lot of unconscious processes which can lead to greater sympathetic activation percolating into your consciousness over time. Depending on what was going on in your unconscious it may have even had something to do with the sleep paralysis incident. I've definitely found myself in sleepless nights after doing bioenergetic breathing. If that can be source of trouble doing it less frequently or earlier in the day may also help. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Arlind]

If you feel like there is a consistent block somewhere or a guardedness, sometimes that can manifest as pausing more during the bioenergetic breathing, or an excess of control on the exhale. In addition to keeping the breath connected and pauseless, one solution is to fully relax and let go on the exhale as much as possible in the lips, face, jaw, throat, ribcage, diaphragm, and pelvic floor. It can be harder to do it in the slow portion since you need to expel air at a more controlled pace to match the audio. If consciously relaxing the exhale as much as possible causes you to reach the end of the exhale before the signal to inhale, you can work around this by taking in more air on the inhale to keep the breathing circular/connected. Alternatively you can also practice it without the audio pacing so you can restart the inhale whenever your fully relaxed exhale naturally ends, while keeping the relative speed ups and slow downs overall. It seems like you may be doing that anyway if you are doing it while walking your dog or prepping for a cold swim?

Thank you @whitecoast, all very valuable insight/ tips and fully agree that sharing more rather than risking of sharing too little is the way to go. I can work on reducing the unnecessary bits/ noise while relaying my experience in this early stage. The cumulative effect is something I'm observing. It's giving me motivation to continue and learn proper practice.

My approach to Beatha has been to try and get in the rhythm of it naturally, keep the breathing cycle connected while relying less on the audio pacing, try and match it without forced effort. Consciously relaxing both the inhale and exhale is great tip and will practice more of. Doing the slow version while walking my dog gives me the opportunity to practice without audio pacing and there I can aim for natural cycles which then I can try and incorporate during focused practice.
The pre cold dip breathwork is a variation of Warrior's breath that's similar to the Wim Hof technique, so, less sharp and more evenly timed breath work done while standing and without arm movement.

Thanks for the recommendations re: facilitators/ practicioners. It's something I should explore while I'm still not able to do it in a group setting, although in paralell I'll work on making that happen with the workshops that are offered here. There may be practioners that use the Edward Dangerfield modalities or similar here in Calgary so I'll look to find a quality program when back in the Fall.

When it comes to breathing techniques for falling asleep I would actually recommend pipe breathing because it much more strongly parasympathetic. Bioenergetic breathing can wake up a lot of unconscious processes which can lead to greater sympathetic activation percolating into your consciousness over time. Depending on what was going on in your unconscious it may have even had something to do with the sleep paralysis incident. I've definitely found myself in sleepless nights after doing bioenergetic breathing. If that can be source of trouble doing it less frequently or earlier in the day may also help. Your mileage may vary.

That makes a lot of sense, Beatha does seem to be designed to do exactly what you describe. It eventually amounts in greater sympathetic system activation and there's a good possibility it may have contributed to pre-conditions of sleep paralysis (this is an obscure topic to me so just speculating here). I should've mentioned that this was an exception and my go to breathwork to help with sleep is Pipe breath for obvious reasons.
Even though I don't suspect practicing Beatha is a factor in my sleep issues (the brunt of it is carried by my poor sleeping hygiene, restless mind, and a tendency to not go deep in experiencing/ resolving emotions) I will experiment with doing EE practice earlier in the day. Worth exploring to make sure and would only require some adjustment of my routine.

 

[FRV]

Does anyone have any recommendations for EE with bloating and cannot get deep enough breathing?

I have never had permanent bloating before but the last almost 2 years I have had a problem and it causes me to not be able to deep breathing like I used to. I will admit I haven't dived in EE as much as I'd like to and now that I am willing to put in the consistent effort I have a physical block.

Obviously addressing the root cause to what is causing such terrible bloating is key yet I feel like I'm stuck in a strange loop. I need sleep and rest to heal my body pair with proper breathing yet this bloating causes me to breathe shallow and when I try to breath deeply I feel like I might pass out.

I have been doing extreme amounts of cleansing and purging emotional, mentally, spiritually, sexually, and now I am starting to pair it with physical detoxing through diet changes.

Yet the bloating is not going away and I don't want to wait to practice more of EE.

Does anyone have any tips, recommendations, or even encouragement?

Breathing properly and deeply has been a very important part of my life and I am frustrated (not as angrily frustrated as I was before due to acceptance of situation) to not be able to breathe properly and feel a bit lost.

As we know improper breathing affects EVERYTHING from the amount of oxygen in blood aka circulation, sleeping, mental and spiritual wellness, digestion even!

I have been trying to do this alone as the doctors have not been helping and prescribed me something that was $200 and caused EXTEREME pain, which is ironic as I will do everything to not take pills but I felt hopeless. This reset me though and reminded me that others have helped themselves without doctors through research, trial and error, and networking so I would love to read more personal stories and experiences (I am going through this thread and reading as) from you all!

 

[Honzap]

Does anyone have any recommendations for EE with bloating and cannot get deep enough breathing?

I have never had permanent bloating before but the last almost 2 years I have had a problem and it causes me to not be able to deep breathing like I used to. I will admit I haven't dived in EE as much as I'd like to and now that I am willing to put in the consistent effort I have a physical block.

Obviously addressing the root cause to what is causing such terrible bloating is key yet I feel like I'm stuck in a strange loop. I need sleep and rest to heal my body pair with proper breathing yet this bloating causes me to breathe shallow and when I try to breath deeply I feel like I might pass out.

I have been doing extreme amounts of cleansing and purging emotional, mentally, spiritually, sexually, and now I am starting to pair it with physical detoxing through diet changes.

Yet the bloating is not going away and I don't want to wait to practice more of EE.

Does anyone have any tips, recommendations, or even encouragement?

Breathing properly and deeply has been a very important part of my life and I am frustrated (not as angrily frustrated as I was before due to acceptance of situation) to not be able to breathe properly and feel a bit lost.

As we know improper breathing affects EVERYTHING from the amount of oxygen in blood aka circulation, sleeping, mental and spiritual wellness, digestion even!

I have been trying to do this alone as the doctors have not been helping and prescribed me something that was $200 and caused EXTEREME pain, which is ironic as I will do everything to not take pills but I felt hopeless. This reset me though and reminded me that others have helped themselves without doctors through research, trial and error, and networking so I would love to read more personal stories and experiences (I am going through this thread and reading as) from you all!

Not experience with bloating specifically, but this year had several middle of the season pollen allergy attacks and recently injured back (due to my own idiocy but on half mend already) prevented me from deep breathing I used to be able to perform with ease.
Key here is not overextend yourself. Listen to your body and if it is straining, giving any kind of difficulties or pain, slow down or stop entirely. Also pick a position/s which is easiest for your condition. Sitting in a lotus pose may not be for everyone especially not for extended period of time.
EE, at least for me, is very spiritual experience and frustration simply has no place here.
Cannot concentrate? Oh well, will do better next time. Cannot relax enough, oh well, there is tomorrow. Experiencing various body cramps usually means I am tired beyond normal, sleepy etc., well next time do the EE earlier or give yourself time to finish mentally whatever previous activity before starting EE.
It gets better with time and repetition.
Do not give up and do not give in. Take care of yourself and enjoy the show.

 

[whitecoast]

Consciously relaxing both the inhale and exhale is great tip and will practice more of.

If you can relax your body more in some ways while inhaling that can also help. But keep in mind that when you're inhaling with your diaphragm, ribcage, and pelvic floor you are naturally compressing and massaging your viscera and other organs and stimulating their brain signalling via the visceral afferent system, so it's more physiologically normal and healthy for there to be some exertion going on there instead of just fully letting go. That "exertion" can be either spontaneous and vibrant or more controlling and forced, depending on how used someone is to belly breathing.

Does anyone have any recommendations for EE with bloating and cannot get deep enough breathing?

I have never had permanent bloating before but the last almost 2 years I have had a problem and it causes me to not be able to deep breathing like I used to. I will admit I haven't dived in EE as much as I'd like to and now that I am willing to put in the consistent effort I have a physical block.

Obviously addressing the root cause to what is causing such terrible bloating is key yet I feel like I'm stuck in a strange loop. I need sleep and rest to heal my body pair with proper breathing yet this bloating causes me to breathe shallow and when I try to breath deeply I feel like I might pass out.

I have been doing extreme amounts of cleansing and purging emotional, mentally, spiritually, sexually, and now I am starting to pair it with physical detoxing through diet changes.

Yet the bloating is not going away and I don't want to wait to practice more of EE.

Does anyone have any tips, recommendations, or even encouragement?

Breathing properly and deeply has been a very important part of my life and I am frustrated (not as angrily frustrated as I was before due to acceptance of situation) to not be able to breathe properly and feel a bit lost.

As we know improper breathing affects EVERYTHING from the amount of oxygen in blood aka circulation, sleeping, mental and spiritual wellness, digestion even!

I have been trying to do this alone as the doctors have not been helping and prescribed me something that was $200 and caused EXTEREME pain, which is ironic as I will do everything to not take pills but I felt hopeless. This reset me though and reminded me that others have helped themselves without doctors through research, trial and error, and networking so I would love to read more personal stories and experiences (I am going through this thread and reading as) from you all!

If the bloat is a persistent issue you may have a chronic digestive issue issue like Crohn's, SIBO (small intestive bacterial overgrowth), or irritable bowel syndrome. If the doctors have not been helpful, maybe consider seeing a naturopath or another holisitc health practitioner who may have some ideas on how to address the root cause of the problem, instead of just handling symptoms? On here, there's a number of threads dedicated to digestive health, microbiome support, and nutrition, which may be beneficial for you to look into.

I'm also hearing you when you say you want to not have to wait for your digestive issues to be fixed to practice EE. The good news is, you don't have to. I have some suggestions to modify the techniques so you can still derive benefit from it.

Pipe Breathing
Even if you do need to rely on accessory breathing muscles instead of the full breadth of diaphragmatic movement to breathe regularly, doing so while pipe breathing (i.e. with throat constriction to stimulate the vagus nerve) will still help you stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. This will improve the function of your digestive organs. While belly breathing does have health benefits, it's not the only mechanism of action that makes pipe breathing effective; the throat constriction also is.

Bioenergetic Breathing
Beatha breathing can be done more subtly. Again, even if you're making more use of accessory breathing muscles instead of going full hog on the diaphragm, the main mechanism of action for bioenergetic breathing is the connected, pauseless breathing. Practising bioenergetic breathing consistently while trying to make use of the diaphragm, even if it's only doing 15% of the work of breathing, will help to repattern unconscious breathing patterns around whatever breathing muscles you're using. If your digestive illness has a psychosomatic root to it, the emotional release process may help to correct your digestive symptoms, on top of whatever types of holistic medical approaches you take. These will work synergistically.

I'm also hearing your concerns about getting enough oxygen. One tool which can help your body oxygenate more without using top-down breathing techniques is hyperbaric oxygen therapy and Samozdrav devices.

 

[Yas]

Obviously addressing the root cause to what is causing such terrible bloating is key yet I feel like I'm stuck in a strange loop. I need sleep and rest to heal my body pair with proper breathing yet this bloating causes me to breathe shallow and when I try to breath deeply I feel like I might pass out.

Hi FRV, you've received some good feedback already, so I just want to second some of it.

I'd say, relax. Don't force the breathing if it is difficult for you at the moment, but you don't need to stop doing it either. You can, for example, practice a bit of pipe-breathing without the audio, reducing the count if the 6-3-9-3 is too much to handle at the moment. You can do a shorter count such as 4 (breathe in)-2 (pause)-6 (breathe out)-2 (pause), or even shorter. One key thing is to make the exhale a bit longer than the inhale because it is during exhale that we stimulate the vagus nerve more for relaxation. Just sighing is enough to stimulate the vagus nerve.

You can adapt the breathing exercise so that it isn't something that stresses you out, but allows you to relax, and by relaxing, you might be able to help your body heal from whatever is causing you to be bloated.

Anyway, this is only what you can do with breathing. I think it is important to address the underlying cause of your bloating, and you said you've been working on that. You mentioned going to doctors already, have they checked for parasites? It could be something as simple as parasites causing the bloating, so perhaps checking for that would be useful.

If you have been changing your diet and detoxing a lot, perhaps you need to do it less intensely for your body to settle a bit. Sometimes, detoxing too much all at once can cause some inflammation and your body needs to eliminate all the toxins properly before you continue. So make sure that you are not over-doing it, let your body eliminate the waste and settle so that it can work through detox more properly.

I hope it helps!

 

[FRV]

Hi FRV, you've received some good feedback already, so I just want to second some of it.

I'd say, relax. Don't force the breathing if it is difficult for you at the moment, but you don't need to stop doing it either. You can, for example, practice a bit of pipe-breathing without the audio, reducing the count if the 6-3-9-3 is too much to handle at the moment. You can do a shorter count such as 4 (breathe in)-2 (pause)-6 (breathe out)-2 (pause), or even shorter. One key thing is to make the exhale a bit longer than the inhale because it is during exhale that we stimulate the vagus nerve more for relaxation. Just sighing is enough to stimulate the vagus nerve.

You can adapt the breathing exercise so that it isn't something that stresses you out, but allows you to relax, and by relaxing, you might be able to help your body heal from whatever is causing you to be bloated.

Anyway, this is only what you can do with breathing. I think it is important to address the underlying cause of your bloating, and you said you've been working on that. You mentioned going to doctors already, have they checked for parasites? It could be something as simple as parasites causing the bloating, so perhaps checking for that would be useful.

If you have been changing your diet and detoxing a lot, perhaps you need to do it less intensely for your body to settle a bit. Sometimes, detoxing too much all at once can cause some inflammation and your body needs to eliminate all the toxins properly before you continue. So make sure that you are not over-doing it, let your body eliminate the waste and settle so that it can work through detox more properly.

I hope it helps!

Thank you for the advice !!! This all has helped mentally so much already

 

[FRV]

If you can relax your body more in some ways while inhaling that can also help. But keep in mind that when you're inhaling with your diaphragm, ribcage, and pelvic floor you are naturally compressing and massaging your viscera and other organs and stimulating their brain signalling via the visceral afferent system, so it's more physiologically normal and healthy for there to be some exertion going on there instead of just fully letting go. That "exertion" can be either spontaneous and vibrant or more controlling and forced, depending on how used someone is to belly breathing.



If the bloat is a persistent issue you may have a chronic digestive issue issue like Crohn's, SIBO (small intestive bacterial overgrowth), or irritable bowel syndrome. If the doctors have not been helpful, maybe consider seeing a naturopath or another holisitc health practitioner who may have some ideas on how to address the root cause of the problem, instead of just handling symptoms? On here, there's a number of threads dedicated to digestive health, microbiome support, and nutrition, which may be beneficial for you to look into.

I'm also hearing you when you say you want to not have to wait for your digestive issues to be fixed to practice EE. The good news is, you don't have to. I have some suggestions to modify the techniques so you can still derive benefit from it.

Pipe Breathing
Even if you do need to rely on accessory breathing muscles instead of the full breadth of diaphragmatic movement to breathe regularly, doing so while pipe breathing (i.e. with throat constriction to stimulate the vagus nerve) will still help you stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. This will improve the function of your digestive organs. While belly breathing does have health benefits, it's not the only mechanism of action that makes pipe breathing effective; the throat constriction also is.

Bioenergetic Breathing
Beatha breathing can be done more subtly. Again, even if you're making more use of accessory breathing muscles instead of going full hog on the diaphragm, the main mechanism of action for bioenergetic breathing is the connected, pauseless breathing. Practising bioenergetic breathing consistently while trying to make use of the diaphragm, even if it's only doing 15% of the work of breathing, will help to repattern unconscious breathing patterns around whatever breathing muscles you're using. If your digestive illness has a psychosomatic root to it, the emotional release process may help to correct your digestive symptoms, on top of whatever types of holistic medical approaches you take. These will work synergistically.

I'm also hearing your concerns about getting enough oxygen. One tool which can help your body oxygenate more without using top-down breathing techniques is hyperbaric oxygen therapy and Samozdrav devices.

Thank you so much this helps.

 

[FRV]

Not experience with bloating specifically, but this year had several middle of the season pollen allergy attacks and recently injured back (due to my own idiocy but on half mend already) prevented me from deep breathing I used to be able to perform with ease.
Key here is not overextend yourself. Listen to your body and if it is straining, giving any kind of difficulties or pain, slow down or stop entirely. Also pick a position/s which is easiest for your condition. Sitting in a lotus pose may not be for everyone especially not for extended period of time.
EE, at least for me, is very spiritual experience and frustration simply has no place here.
Cannot concentrate? Oh well, will do better next time. Cannot relax enough, oh well, there is tomorrow. Experiencing various body cramps usually means I am tired beyond normal, sleepy etc., well next time do the EE earlier or give yourself time to finish mentally whatever previous activity before starting EE.
It gets better with time and repetition.
Do not give up and do not give in. Take care of yourself and enjoy the show.

You all have been so helpful, I appreciate the feedback greatly

 

[Honzap]

Another 6 month update with EE.

During this half year I missed 5 days due to lower back injury which made it very difficult to stand, sit or lay down for extended period of time. It also brought a lot of anxiety in terms of limitations of ability to move around and feeling in low spirits in general.

Three stage breathing brought two interesting moments. Both completely surprising. Usually I either focus on my breathing and don`t think anything else, or people, interactions from the past emerge in front of my eyes.
So first moment came in form of an idea and a confirmation at the same time the middle of deep breathing. It rang in my head as "I am healing". And a very peaceful feeling followed.
Second moment manifested few days later as a feeling and information mixed in together. Somehow fear of death disappeared. It had been replaced with a sense of urgency to do more than I am doing right now. Like forget the death exists but you are still running out of time. Really difficult to describe the exact feeling. I am contemplating what the "doing more" means. More studying, yes, more learning, definitely, and then turn it into doing somehow.

Warrior breathing pretty much the same, no difference since the last time.

Bio-energetic breathing was done twice a week. Due to the injury I was switching between sitting position which is preferred and laying down on my back. There was no difference as far as I could tell.

Meditation. Again due to the injury and inability to relax properly I cut down the meditation to Prayer for the Soul only for couple of weeks. It took several full mediation cycles to get back to the point where I would zone out again as previously. Also, not doing the full meditation carried over and affected my daily life. More anxiety, absent-mindedness and cloudier thinking than usual.

It does matter to stick to the regimen as prescribed, make time and not deviate from the plan. Done properly (or missed) has far bigger impact on my being than meets the eyes.

 

[SST]

I was reading Arlind's posts and forum members' responses in regards to sleep paralysis.

It hit a nerve with me. I have been suffering from sleep paralysis since I was very young (maybe since age of 8-9, can't remember accurately). I am 50 now. Í used to panic earlier in childhood, but not so much nowadays. There have been period of my life when I used to go through this daily for weeks.

Sleep paralysis typically occurs:
a. in the nights following extreme exhaustion during daytime, &
b. if I had a nap during daytime, then on the same night I would undergo this phenomenon, fairly consistently.
Most times I know whether Sleep Paralysis will occur before I hit the bed, depending on the type of day I had, or on whether I had a nap or now before the evening.

Over time, I found a remedy sort of (for me, may not work for others) to minimise / prevent Sleep paralaysis by splashing cold water on the forehead before going to sleep. However, at rare times this also does not prevent it.

One feature of this phenomenon is that I have to force myself violently out of the paralysis. It takes anywhere from 3-10 attempts to literally whip myself out of it.

There have also been quite a few instances, where I could feel the presence of something / some hazy greyish humanoid shape hovering over me, or applying pressure on a part of my body, during the paralysis event.

Recently on a trip to Dubai in April 2023, I was staying in a hotel and had taken 5mg melatonin tablets to aid sleep. I am not sure it was the melatonin enhancing the experience but the ensuing paralysis event was unnerving. It was as if a bunch of human hands were pulling and pushing at my body for a good minute or two, before I could snap out of the event. This occurred for 2 consecutive nights. The third night I could not go through it and had to drink a few shots to crash out.

It is a load that I have to carry throughout my lifetime I guess. Maybe some of you have undergone similar conditions. If any of you can suggest a few things I could do to improve the situation, I would really appreciate it.

 

[3DStudent]

If any of you can suggest a few things I could do to improve the situation, I would really appreciate it.

I don't have any specific advice but there are some threads on it. This one seems to have some pointers:

Sleep Paralysis - Black Figure/Orbs

In the past 6 months I have had 4 cases of sleep paralysis. 3 times I know 100% for real and the 4th time I am not sure if I had a dream about it or if it really happened. I have had sleep paralysis and orbs floating above me at night before i nthe past but very infrequent. This freqency is...

cassiopaea.org

 

[SST]

I don't have any specific advice but there are some threads on it. This one seems to have some pointers:

Sleep Paralysis - Black Figure/Orbs

In the past 6 months I have had 4 cases of sleep paralysis. 3 times I know 100% for real and the 4th time I am not sure if I had a dream about it or if it really happened. I have had sleep paralysis and orbs floating above me at night before i nthe past but very infrequent. This freqency is...

cassiopaea.org

Appreciate your response.