Éiriú-Eolas - Breathing Program

[Yas]

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

Apart from reading that thread about sleep paralysis, I was wondering if perhaps it would be good to find someone who provides Neurofeedback in your area and go through some sessions. The best type is NeurOptimal, you can find a thread about it here (if you haven't seen it):

NeuroFeedback, NeurOptimal and Electroencephalography

NeuroFeedback During the SOTT talk radio broadcast on Sunday 3rd November 2013 Nora Gedgaudas talked a lot about a science for training the human mind called NeuroFeedback. In this article I shall attempt to deliver a very concise description of this science. The medical science in depth is...

cassiopaea.org

 

[Angelspath]

Hello, I'm curious if anyone has a problem with choking in their sleep? I wake up with a strong cough as if I've choked, my trachea closes and I can't breathe air anymore. It's like someone's suffocating me hard. A few days ago my husband had to give me artificial respiration because I wouldn't be able to start breathing on my own. When blowing air he felt resistance and barely blew air into me. Now I'm afraid to sleep alone at night....

 

[SST]

Apart from reading that thread about sleep paralysis, I was wondering if perhaps it would be good to find someone who provides Neurofeedback in your area and go through some sessions. The best type is NeurOptimal, you can find a thread about it here (if you haven't seen it):

NeuroFeedback, NeurOptimal and Electroencephalography

NeuroFeedback During the SOTT talk radio broadcast on Sunday 3rd November 2013 Nora Gedgaudas talked a lot about a science for training the human mind called NeuroFeedback. In this article I shall attempt to deliver a very concise description of this science. The medical science in depth is...

cassiopaea.org

Thanks. I will look it up

 

[Yas]

Hello, I'm curious if anyone has a problem with choking in their sleep? I wake up with a strong cough as if I've choked, my trachea closes and I can't breathe air anymore. It's like someone's suffocating me hard. A few days ago my husband had to give me artificial respiration because I wouldn't be able to start breathing on my own. When blowing air he felt resistance and barely blew air into me. Now I'm afraid to sleep alone at night....

Hi,

Does this sound similar to what you experience?

Sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder that causes frequent pauses in breathing during sleep. Most people with sleep apnea experience symptoms such as loud snoring and daytime sleepiness. The two main types of sleep apnea are obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and central sleep apnea (CSA).

In OSA, a narrowing of the airway during sleep leads to breathing disruptions. In CSA, the breathing disruptions are caused by a lack of communication between the brain and the muscles involved in breathing.

Here's more: Sleep Apnea: Symptoms and Causes | Sleep Foundation

If you think it is similar to what you have, maybe it would be good to find out with a doctor first, and that might lead you towards options to make it better.

 

[Possibility of Being]

Hello, I'm curious if anyone has a problem with choking in their sleep? I wake up with a strong cough as if I've choked, my trachea closes and I can't breathe air anymore. It's like someone's suffocating me hard. A few days ago my husband had to give me artificial respiration because I wouldn't be able to start breathing on my own. When blowing air he felt resistance and barely blew air into me. Now I'm afraid to sleep alone at night....

That's a scary experience for sure. Apart from sleep apnea, another possibility can be acid reflux. The trachea closes to prevent the acid from getting into the lungs. There are several ways to avoid it: sleeping on your left side, using more pillows so that upper part of your body is elevated, and most importantly, not eating too late. But as Yas said, best consult your doctor to find out what causes it in your case.

 

[SST]

That's a scary experience for sure. Apart from sleep apnea, another possibility can be acid reflux. The trachea closes to prevent the acid from getting into the lungs. There are several ways to avoid it: sleeping on your left side, using more pillows so that upper part of your body is elevated, and most importantly, not eating too late. But as Yas said, best consult your doctor to find out what causes it in your case.

Hello, I'm curious if anyone has a problem with choking in their sleep? I wake up with a strong cough as if I've choked, my trachea closes and I can't breathe air anymore. It's like someone's suffocating me hard. A few days ago my husband had to give me artificial respiration because I wouldn't be able to start breathing on my own. When blowing air he felt resistance and barely blew air into me. Now I'm afraid to sleep alone at night....

I have had similar experiences maybe twice in my life. But it is more sleep paralysis for me, which is the problem. I went through Inner Engineering (Sadhguru, Isha Foundation) and learnt one meditation process in that program - Shambhavi Mahamudra. It helped me to mitigate my paralysis problem and some other issues to some tangible extent, but this is not to say that it will help you. You could look into it.

 

[dennis]

Just got the mp3 download of the EE instruction. When I've tried this before I've encountered what others have described, losing count, distractions, correct posture, etc and so have not been consistent.

Going to start over -

Thank You!

 

[whitecoast]

For anyone who's been on the fence about starting Éiriú Eolas - or for those of us who have practiced it but would simply like a somewhat fleshed out reminder of its potential benefits when done on an on-going and consistent basis, you might enjoy watching the most recent MindMatters show, as described below. While the discussion is not about Éiriú Eolas per se, we do discuss some very central ideas behind the program, and what makes working on our breathing so beneficial to begin with.

MindMatters: Breathe Deep to Reap The Benefits of a Healthy Mind: The Tao of Natural Breathing

I finished reading The Tao of Natural Breathing about a month or so ago. I really enjoyed the book for a number of reasons. The author does mention Gurdjieff a couple of times but he really seems to have taken to heart the notion that when it comes to utilizing breathing for growth everything begins with observation. This begins with our awareness of our breathing and whether we a breathing using the proper biomechanics, i.e. breathing with the diaphragm and the nose instead of the chest and mouth. Chest and mouth breathing can be suitable in fight-or-flight situations, when lots of energy and gas turnover is required, but in our regular life situations it’s rarely suitable. I appreciate how the author begins with talking about the organs and muscle groups of breathing, to help people get a better idea of where and how things can go wrong when breathing.

The intimate connection with breathing and emotion is highlighted in this quote on pg 55:

We may see, for example, how anger is associated with shallow inhalations, strong exhalations, and tension throughout the body—especially in the neck, jaw, chest, and hands. We may see how fear is associated with rapid, shallow, and irregular breaths, and the sensation of a tight knot in the lower abdomen. We may see how grief or sorrow is associated with a kind of spasmodic, sobbing, superficial breath, and a hollow, empty feeling in the belly. We may see how impatience is associated with short, jerky, uncoordinated breaths, and tension in the front of the chest, as though our hearts were leaping ahead of us. We may see how guilt or self-judgment is associated with a restricted, suffocating breath, and an overall sensation of being weighed down. And we may see how boredom is associated with a shallow, lifeless breath, and little sensation anywhere in ourselves. We may also notice how feelings such as love, compassion, kindness, and wonder are associated with deep, comfortable breathing, and an open, energized, receptive feeling throughout the entire body. Each of us, of course, will discover variations in his or her own physical and emotional topography.

The author stresses further on that we need to take “sensory snapshots” of our internal states to see how our minds and bodies function in reaction to various influences. The book by and large doesn’t deal with trauma, or at least not directly, but he does make reference to how awareness of our own negative states or shadow (to use a Jungian phrase) frees up vital organic energies of ours for greater flourishing and growth. One of the maxims I’ve learned in a breathwork course I’ve taken is that “tension masks sensation,” meaning that any sticking point of somatic tension in the body can have a corresponding visceral or affective component.

Later on in the book the author provides information on how to guide certain types of energy through the body. I’ve experimented a little bit with these and some of the techniques landed for me more than others. But one very consistent thread was always the emphasis on awareness, and how gently working with the breath causes our own breathing to become more “elastic and spacious,” and that goes with our own awareness of our internal states as well. He draws some connections between proper breathing and the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, which is a notionI’ve also heard shared by Joe Dispenza in the past book of his Becoming Supernatural. Inner Smile was probably one of my favorites aside from Microcosmic Orbit.

“Taoist sages say that when you smile, your organs release a honey-like secretion which nourishes the whole body. When you are angry, fearful, or under stress, they produce a poisonous secretion which blocks up the energy channels, settling in the organs and causing loss of appetite, indigestion, increased blood pressure, faster heartbeat, insomnia, and negative emotions. Smiling into your organs also causes them to expand, become softer and moister and, therefore, more efficient.”

{snip}

Based on my own personal experiences, I believe that a sustained smile, especially a smile directed toward one’s own organs and tissues, triggers the release of beneficial chemical substances from the remarkable pharmacopoeia that is the human brain—chemicals that can have an immediate healthful impact on the body. When I described the process of the inner smile to neuroscientist Candace Pert, and asked her if she believed that it could produce substances beneficial to the body, she replied “Absolutely.” In going further into the question, she pointed out that peptides “modulate feeling,” and she suggested that as we are “feeling,” as we are “focusing on” an organ, as we are “paying attention to the autonomic circuitry” involved with it (circuitry which is composed mainly of peptides), “we have the potential to regulate the organ.”

What the whole process seemed to be hinting at is, with consistent practice one could cultivate a mechanism internally where one could send a signal to smile, and this would cause the parasympathetic and ventral vagal system to directly switch on. One thing I’ve experimented with related to this was imagining there’s a switchboard in my head and I just always find and turn the dial for my ventral vagal system always up to 100%. Success is mixed, and it really seems to depend on my ability to relax and maintain a full and spacious awareness of my emotions and viscera and body and the like.

In the book the author contraindicates pretty much every breathing technique out there until we are able to breathe with our bellies and noses. I’m not sure what to make of this. One one hand people can benefit from techniques that directly influence the parasympathetic nervous system, like pipe breathing. On the other hand, I also recognize the primary aim of being totally relaxed and without tension in the body, and I think to whatever extent one applies conscious control of our breathing pattern to breathe a certain can, if used over zealously, can entrain a certain breathing pattern that applies control, even unconsciously, to deviate from the goal of complete relaxation. For example someone who does too much of the pranayama technique of alternate nostril breathing may find themselves always trying to breathe out of a certain nostril or in a certain nostril pattern to reduce stress and relax more, never mind that our nose is designed to alternate naturally, and that artificially applying control to that can distort the nearby systems. I've heard similar said about ujaia breath, where constant control in one's throat can also make the breathing pattern more rigid.

Really interesting book, for sure.

 

[Arlind]

I finished reading The Tao of Natural Breathing about a month or so ago. I really enjoyed the book for a number of reasons. The author does mention Gurdjieff a couple of times but he really seems to have taken to heart the notion that when it comes to utilizing breathing for growth everything begins with observation. This begins with our awareness of our breathing and whether we a breathing using the proper biomechanics, i.e. breathing with the diaphragm and the nose instead of the chest and mouth. Chest and mouth breathing can be suitable in fight-or-flight situations, when lots of energy and gas turnover is required, but in our regular life situations it’s rarely suitable. I appreciate how the author begins with talking about the organs and muscle groups of breathing, to help people get a better idea of where and how things can go wrong when breathing.

The intimate connection with breathing and emotion is highlighted in this quote on pg 55:


The author stresses further on that we need to take “sensory snapshots” of our internal states to see how our minds and bodies function in reaction to various influences.

Thank you for introducing and distilling some of the central ideas of the book @whitecoast. I feel like I can take away very valuable information and context to help me understand best approach and improve on my breathing. In the last 10 months I have somewhat regularly practiced EE, drawing inspiration for the technique purely from Laura's instructions and the video of the ladies doing it. Although I've increasingly felt more benefits (calming and adding lucidity to my thoughts) with continuous practice, I do wonder if they're minimal due to untrained technique and not approaching it correctly i.e. not focusing enough on obseravtion/ awareness of my breathing AND internal emotional state at all times. Seems essential when striving to learn to 'breathe for growth'. It is essentially part of doing the Work.

The improper breathing states you find yourself in when experiencing negative emotions described in the quote are spot on in muy case and I feel that there's a long road of practicing and keeping awareness ahead for me. The intimate connection between breathing and emotion is very apparent when you start to intently and consistently observe. Sporadic doesn't cut it same as in sporadic application of the Work has not gotten me any meaningful results in growing.

Love the suggestion to take "sensory snapshots" and cultivating a mechanism internally (or just being creative about it to start with, like in your case) where one could "send a signal to smile". I will apply both.

Just got the mp3 download of the EE instruction. When I've tried this before I've encountered what others have described, losing count, distractions, correct posture, etc and so have not been consistent.

In the last EE shared session I did online with the group I felt I overcame (to an extent) similar challenges to what you've listed here, especially with 'zoning out' or 'dissociation'. @dennis On top of being consistent, doing your practice in a group may help you correct those issues. There's soemthing about a group setting (even remotely connected like in my case) that grounds you in the experience, knowing you're doing it together.

On a side note, I wrestle with the thought of dissociating as although I know it is meant to be positive in this context (connecting with your highert self as the Cs put it) I do wonder if I swerve and end up in good old fantasizing and losing awareness. That awareness though minimal likely needs to be there. Something interesting happened during this session though where I found myself zoning out in interesting 'plays', almost dreamlike experiences. In one of them (during the Beatha portion) I seemed to be be kneeling down and reluctingly holding on to (hand) jewellry and expensive colthing accessory I was wearing while a Paul like figure was removing them gently from me while speaking to me. It felt as a 'cleansing'. Though I can't remember any of the words his tone was loud but soft hitting, did not make me uncomfortable if anything the whole experience was soothing, except for some negative emotion coming from me being attached to the rings and gems he was removing from my hands.

Interesting experience, kinda makes me want to let go more during EE sessions.

 

[Uperios]

Why Proper Breathing Is the Key to Optimal Health​

Why Proper Breathing Is the Key to Optimal Health - Interview with Dr. Peter Litchfield

The interview above features Peter Litchfield, Ph.D., who is, in my view, one of the best breathing experts in the world. I’ve taken his breathing course, which gave me a deep appreciation for what he’s teaching. None of the breathing experts I’ve i…

www.bitchute.com

Story at a glance:

• Dysfunctional breathing habits are typically developed in response to some type of emotional trauma. The trauma gets embedded in your brain circuits, and when you encounter triggers, they activate specific breathing habits, some of which may significantly lower your carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration level
• The higher the CO2 concentration you can maintain while remaining within the biologically normal CO2 concentration range, the greater the likelihood that your breathing is supporting your health and performance
• Breathing techniques such as belly breathing, deep breathing and Buteyko breathing may not address breathing triggers or why you developed an inappropriate breathing habit in the first place
• When you overventilate you get numerous physiological changes. As a result, overbreathing can trigger a wide variety of physical and psychological changes, which can be reversed by implementing breathing behavior analysis learning techniques
• Breathing behavior analysts help you become conscious of your breathing habits, what’s triggering them and how to resolve them. This is important, as improper breathing habits can unconsciously sabotage your health

 

[Honzap]

Since I passed 2 year mark on the EE program, I wanted to post few updates.

Three stage breathing
I do the program sitting in front of a window with my eyes closed. So it happens the window is facing direct North. Lately I got this mental impression of shifting 10 degress to the West (350 degree on the compass). Yep, dug out compass and measured
When it happed it made me open my eyes and check to find out that my body was still perfectly positioned the original way, but on mental level there is this shift. Experimenting further I have purposely started with sitting 10 degrees offset and still get the same mental shift. Not sure what it signifies. Probably nothing.
Second thing, my eyes get watery to the point of tears. Not crying, but tears flowing. This was not the case before. Again no clue what that means.

The Warriors breath
Nothing to report here, still yawning in between the series.

Bioenergetic breathing
Events from the past keep coming. Those long forgotten, some significant, some less. I start with attention to each breath, but eventually it auto-switches to those episodes from my past. Lately I have been thinking about forgiveness to myself and others involved in past events during breathing. I found out it helped in some way and majority of the events are not being presented anymore. There are few that keep coming back. And then there are few that didn`t come in a while that make sudden appereance. Thinking this is part of the healing on the levels I cannot fully understand today.

Meditation
Zoning out on regular basis. The longest one took about 4 hours. Started at 9:30pm and woke up at 1:30am with ipad next to bed. It took me a minute to figure out where and how did the computer screen glow come about, that I never picked it out as I normally do

Overall I feel more at peace than before.

 

[JGeropoulas]

I just came across this video that makes me wonder about the physiology of the technique presented. It also makes me wonder if this might be related to the traditional positioning of the hands for "prayer".

 

[whitecoast]

I just came across this video that makes me wonder about the physiology of the technique presented. It also makes me wonder if this might be related to the traditional positioning of the hands for "prayer".

I don't think this is related to the hand position of prayer, since it appears just to be held for the sake of exertion.

Here's what I'm seeing, breaking down each mechanic into psychoneurological and biochemical corollaries:

1. hands held in prayer position
2. slow nasal inhale (⬇sympathetic, ⬆nitrous oxide) to fill belly
3. slow nasal exhale (⬆parasympathetic, slight sympathetic due to control to extend the duration)
4. pause at the bottom (⬆dorsal vagal parasympathetic, ⬆ CO2) with strong exertion pressing the hands together (⬆sympathetic, ⬆ CO2) until you feel a strong urge to breathe
5. repeat two more times.

I'm not a fan of this technique for relaxation. When you are exerting your muscles you are sending sympathetic afferents to the brain, which is going to conflict with the parasympathetic signaling.

One benefit I see with this technique is to increase CO2 tolerance, which can allow slower unconscious breathing. Even though CO2 tolerance does vary a lot over the course of a day, greater tolerance can be trained, which is strongly recommended for people who lean towards hyperventilation.

In some respects, because CO2 is a stressor, training it at the same time as you're entraining the parasympathetic nervous system is also at a slight cross-purpose. Physiological sigh has been shown to promote more relaxation than box breathing, while box breathing trains CO2 tolerance more. Pipe Breathing in some ways is a hybrid of these techniques, where each get trained.

 

[JGeropoulas]

I don't think this is related to the hand position of prayer, since it appears just to be held for the sake of exertion.

Here's what I'm seeing, breaking down each mechanic into psychoneurological and biochemical corollaries:

1. hands held in prayer position
2. slow nasal inhale (⬇sympathetic, ⬆nitrous oxide) to fill belly
3. slow nasal exhale (⬆parasympathetic, slight sympathetic due to control to extend the duration)
4. pause at the bottom (⬆dorsal vagal parasympathetic, ⬆ CO2) with strong exertion pressing the hands together (⬆sympathetic, ⬆ CO2) until you feel a strong urge to breathe
5. repeat two more times.

I'm not a fan of this technique for relaxation. When you are exerting your muscles you are sending sympathetic afferents to the brain, which is going to conflict with the parasympathetic signaling.

One benefit I see with this technique is to increase CO2 tolerance, which can allow slower unconscious breathing. Even though CO2 tolerance does vary a lot over the course of a day, greater tolerance can be trained, which is strongly recommended for people who lean towards hyperventilation.

In some respects, because CO2 is a stressor, training it at the same time as you're entraining the parasympathetic nervous system is also at a slight cross-purpose. Physiological sigh has been shown to promote more relaxation than box breathing, while box breathing trains CO2 tolerance more. Pipe Breathing in some ways is a hybrid of these techniques, where each get trained.

The relationship between the traditional hand position and this was just conjecture that perhaps this technique was used at some distant point in the past, which then became a meaningless ritual, just as many myths and rituals today are the distorted/meaningless remnants of much deeper truths/practices of the past.

I'm confused to hear that CO2 is a "stressor," because I was under the impression that CO2 was a calming molecule which is why it's allowed to build up by holding the breath, or exhaled and collected into a paper bag, then rebreathed to relax the diaphragm spasms that cause hiccups.

 

[whitecoast]

I'm confused to hear that CO2 is a "stressor," because I was under the impression that CO2 was a calming molecule which is why it's allowed to build up by holding the breath, or exhaled and collected into a paper bag, then rebreathed to relax the diaphragm spasms that cause hiccups.

The mechanism by which CO2 mitigates hiccups is by stimulating the sympathetic nervous system to keep the airways more open.

CO2 is a chemical indicator of our bodies expending energy. A large increase of this tells our cells there is a large environmental challenge we are facing, which reinforces sympathetic activation. If you were running from a bear, your survival chances increase if your cells use the biproducts of activation to further increase activation in a positive feedback loop. If instead CO2 was a parasympathetic stimulus your body in essence would be hitting the gas and brakes at the same time, which would make you less effective in emergencies and also lead to syndromes of autonomic dysfunction.

Breathing supraphysiological doses of CO2 (eg 3 to 7% CO2 gas mixtures) has been found to induce panic attacks in people, even those without an amygdala (!), and can actually be used to reduce anxiety by way of training increased physiological tolerance to normal levels of CO2, which is lacking in people who have breathing pattern disorders which lean towards hyperventilation and sympathetic activation.

In a sentence, CO2 is a stressor, and in the practice of breathing exercises it acts as a hormetic eustress.