Éiriú-Eolas - Breathing Program

[monotonic]

I don't seem to have circulation issues. My hands are warm and feel fine although it is cold in the house at the moment. They are actually warmer than they would have been due to I'm guessing, cold showers. Presently they're fairly warm and I wonder if this is a biological anticipation of an impending cold shower. My nose does feel cold though. I did a search on blood circulation but I'm not sure what to look for and didn't have any luck.

Thanks for the suggestion Alana. We have a water bucket next to one of the AC vents, but I might try sitting a cup of water on some warm electronics. Alternatively, I had the funny idea of inventing a device to pull my in-breath up through water to humidify it, and maybe purify it. Perhaps the gentle burbling would be therapeutic and calming.

 

[Bar Kochba]

Hello! I have just begun EE again after a 2 month or so lay off. I was doing the program for about a year, and posting my results on the EE website forum. I will post here from now on.

I was following the diet as well as I could for a year or so. Exercising, EE, diet...was making good progress IMO. Last summer, I ran into some personal issues which resulted in me being very ill for 2 months and stopping EE entirely along with stopping the diet.

My first EE session in a long time was tonight, and I began nodding off during the round breathing. I fell asleep completely during the POTS. This is not strange to me, because that happened to me in the beginning stages of the program before. It sure did feel good to spend that hour or so breathing. :)

 

[Turgon]

Hello! I have just begun EE again after a 2 month or so lay off. I was doing the program for about a year, and posting my results on the EE website forum. I will post here from now on.

I was following the diet as well as I could for a year or so. Exercising, EE, diet...was making good progress IMO. Last summer, I ran into some personal issues which resulted in me being very ill for 2 months and stopping EE entirely along with stopping the diet.

My first EE session in a long time was tonight, and I began nodding off during the round breathing. I fell asleep completely during the POTS. This is not strange to me, because that happened to me in the beginning stages of the program before. It sure did feel good to spend that hour or so breathing. :)

That's great to hear you started doing EE again! You know I just recently started up again too. I've been coming up with a million and one excuses why I should do it but can't, the same with journalling even though I had some personal issues in my life as well. I made some poor, impulsive decisions that had an affect on other people in my life and felt alone, foolish and angry because of it. Hopefully starting up again helps you at least gain some perspective. And don't forget the Swamp is always there if you need to talk about anything. When it rains it pours and the stress can break us down in more ways then one.

 

[Drazen]

Hello! I have just begun EE again after a 2 month or so lay off. I was doing the program for about a year, and posting my results on the EE website forum. I will post here from now on.

I was following the diet as well as I could for a year or so. Exercising, EE, diet...was making good progress IMO. Last summer, I ran into some personal issues which resulted in me being very ill for 2 months and stopping EE entirely along with stopping the diet.

My first EE session in a long time was tonight, and I began nodding off during the round breathing. I fell asleep completely during the POTS. This is not strange to me, because that happened to me in the beginning stages of the program before. It sure did feel good to spend that hour or so breathing. :)

That's great to hear you started doing EE again! You know I just recently started up again too. I've been coming up with a million and one excuses why I should do it but can't, the same with journalling even though I had some personal issues in my life as well. I made some poor, impulsive decisions that had an affect on other people in my life and felt alone, foolish and angry because of it. Hopefully starting up again helps you at least gain some perspective. And don't forget the Swamp is always there if you need to talk about anything. When it rains it pours and the stress can break us down in more ways then one.

Glad that both of you decided to resume EE. I also had some problems regarding not giving enough effort in getting rid of some things that blocked my progress, but that is behind me now as I learned my lessons and I feel stronger and with more energy to do things.

I've been doing EE regularly. I noticed that I was not doing pipe breathing quite properly regarding throat constriction. The thing is that when I swallow the saliva, sometimes I don't get my throat/glotis position back like it was supposed to and I make sounds due to too much constricting. I guess, with practice, that will not be a problem anymore. :)

 

[Wunjo]

Oxajil,
I have noticed that my dreams have become very vivid around certain of my life histories that have plagued my behaviors for some time. In these dreams I am actually very angry and verbally aggressive towards the situations in my past. It is obviously a sign that something is happening because; defending myself in these situations was never a reality.

Nienna Eluch,
I will definitely play with the forcefulness of the breathing, I can see how this might throw it off. Initially I just try and follow the pattern of breath in and breath out with the cues, but as it speeds up, unless I am doing it with a full inhale or exhale, it either feels arbitrary and there isn’t any consistency between my breaths or if I allow it to be more natural then it is so shallow that I don’t feel anything. I am sure that thee is some aspect of my personality of extremes that is at play here. One positive aspect to the distress caused by this extreme aspect is that it pushes me outside of my comfort zone and forces me to be present. I guess I am just looking for an excuse to avoid this and not feel such intense emotions. I’ll keep playing with it.

Thank you

 

[Nienna]

or if I allow it to be more natural then it is so shallow that I don’t feel anything.

But isn't that what you are trying to do is not feel so emotional? Remember, the Breatha, or round breathing is a more intense way to bring up repressed emotions.

If you don't want to do it at all, then don't. Many, including me, had to quit it for a while in order to let the pipe breathing bring up emotions more slowly. Once some of the emotions were worked through, we started doing the Breatha again. So don't worry about doing it if you don't want to. I just want you to know that you shouldn't be breathing forcefully. This is supposed to be gentle and relaxing. ;)

 

[Graalsword]

Lately EE was quiet, without big news. The last beatha and POTS session (most especially at the end of the former and the beginning of the latter), had me laughing without reason for a few seconds. Maybe the laughter was the release of some suppressed energy, or emotion, I'm not sure.

 

[Explorer]

Oxajil,
I have noticed that my dreams have become very vivid around certain of my life histories that have plagued my behaviors for some time. In these dreams I am actually very angry and verbally aggressive towards the situations in my past. It is obviously a sign that something is happening because; defending myself in these situations was never a reality.

-snip-

I have experienced this too. In the past I never stood up for myself, but when I've been doing EE I have dreams similar to yours. Makes you feel good when you wake up, huh? :)

 

[Wunjo]

I'm still working on the"good" feeling so to speak. I know its positive and I'm excited about that. It's just a big surprise as I didn't even know I was this attached to it and held this much anger. I'm a pretty reserved person, maybe artificially so! :/ But after experiencing it I am definitely more dedicated to my practice.
Thank you!

 

[Aoide]

I'm doing EE for the last year and a half. There were times when I was skipping sessions due to my laziness and emotional blockages, but now it's a different story. I've been doing full sessions on Mondays and Thursdays and regularly on other days in a week. My problem is that I'm thinking and worrying too much over position of my glottis during pipe breathing and that causes deviation from proper breathing. Also, I feel heavy tingling in my hands during 3rd part of pipe breathing while I'm holding my hands on my neck or shoulders and that is troubling for me.

Warriors breath is difficult to perform loudly (exhalation with voice ) because of my partner's parents who are just below our room and the walls are thin. They wouldn't understand what we are doing. We haven't told them about EE, it would bring unnecessary problems with my partner's father because he is such a... Anyway we are doing it with as much sharp exhalation as possible.

Round breathing is relaxing me a lot. Sometimes I nod, but struggling to continue 'til the end of exercise. After breathing exercises (at late evening) I fall asleep at the beginning of the PotS and it's frustrating because I really want to meditate. During day I'm busy and my partner is working in shifts also, so we do it together as circumstances allow.

 

[monotonic]

I have found that when you are struggling to stay awake during EE, it could be better just to make it short and go to bed. Because trying to stay awake keeps you from relaxing, and staying up an hour longer will only contribute to your sleep deficit. Using this time to sleep instead will allow you to engage in EE fully sooner.

 

[TheLostBoy]

Forgive me that I've not got a whole lot to post, but I have only recently started EE more seriously (after having the DVD for a few months. 'Later/Procrastination/Tmrw Program'? Yeah..). I'm posting to begin sharing my results here as well as to keep myself motivated and be actively participating in the forum.

A week or so ago was my last serious run of EE sessions at about 3 full sessions in the week, and I found in those and all EE sessions so far that falling asleep is definitely not a problem for me. Very relaxing, and I'm fairly sure I can feel the difference between a normal relaxed state and the SMR, but no sleepiness or 'zoning out' yet.
The only 'stand-out' experiences so far is during the Beatha round breathing portions, my hands and forearms experience a very heavy 'tingling' or 'vibrating' sensation not at all unlike the 'pins and needles' sensation we experience after having sat on or otherwise restricted blood flow to an area for a length of time (only think bigger marker sized tingles instead of needles/'broader'). This sensation isn't painful, but more than obvious and I've noticed that after the third faster portion of breathing in Beatha it is most pronounced and my hands tend to 'arch backwards' towards that top of my forearms and get semi-stuck there, requiring a bit of effort to straighten my wrists/hands again against the resistance, after which they revert to arched. It is not painful, even when my wrists are 'stuck bending over backwards' for several minutes into the POTS. It is a bit weird, feeling certain muscles obviously being used, but me not meaning to use them at all.

So that's it for me so far, some strong tingling in the hands/forearms. I'll report back following any fairly significant developments.

 

[Aoide]

I have found that when you are struggling to stay awake during EE, it could be better just to make it short and go to bed. Because trying to stay awake keeps you from relaxing, and staying up an hour longer will only contribute to your sleep deficit. Using this time to sleep instead will allow you to engage in EE fully sooner.

You are right, I'm not relaxed when struggling definitely and I could use that time for a good sleep instead. Thanks for advice.

 

[LQB]

The only 'stand-out' experiences so far is during the Beatha round breathing portions, my hands and forearms experience a very heavy 'tingling' or 'vibrating' sensation not at all unlike the 'pins and needles' sensation we experience after having sat on or otherwise restricted blood flow to an area for a length of time (only think bigger marker sized tingles instead of needles/'broader'). This sensation isn't painful, but more than obvious and I've noticed that after the third faster portion of breathing in Beatha it is most pronounced and my hands tend to 'arch backwards' towards that top of my forearms and get semi-stuck there, requiring a bit of effort to straighten my wrists/hands again against the resistance, after which they revert to arched. It is not painful, even when my wrists are 'stuck bending over backwards' for several minutes into the POTS. It is a bit weird, feeling certain muscles obviously being used, but me not meaning to use them at all. .

Early on in EE practice, I had strong "pins and needles" in my hands from the Beatha that have subsided over time to almost nothing. One thing you might try is reducing the vigor (just a bit) with which you do the Ba-Ha - until your body gets a little more used to it.

 

[Explorer]

Some weird stuff is happening in my head during pipe-breathing and ba-ha. Its like stuff is being moved around . I can actually hear and feel it! Kind of high-pitched screeches and sensations of grinding. Anyone else experienced this? Any idea what it is? Totally weird and very interesting.