kinesin

@Growly Such as bloating, tight feeling in the stomach and possibly digestion issues? Part of the parasympathetic nervous system's job is to control the process of digestion, and part of the sympathetic nervous system's job is to inhibit it. If you extend and slow down your exhalations, you'll activate the parasympathetic system causing your anxiety to reduce, and sending signals to your gut to relax and begin the digestion process. Those symptoms you experience in your stomach are because the anxiety interrupts your digestion. Try this - Either lying down or seated, bring your awareness to your breathing. Take a deep breath in through your nose (not as deep as you can go, just reasonably deep), then let it go through your mouth. Take another deep breath in, then let it go through your mouth a little slower this time. Take a third deep breath in, and then let it go even slower again. Notice the pause at the bottom of the exhalation, wait a moment, notice the slight urge to take another breath and then do so. Now keep repeating this pattern, but the next time you breathe out, direct your awareness to your stomach and try to let a little of that tension go out with the breath. Another slow deep breath in, another slow extended breath out, letting your stomach soften as you do so. Continue the pattern a few more times. Your stomach might make some noises - that's a good sign that you've got the breathing pace right, because this relaxing breathing pattern will stimulate your digestive system. Do it at least a few times a day, and as often as you can, try to become aware of your breathing. If you catch it being quick or shallow, deepen and extend it a little. Your anxiety should reduce quite quickly. Also whatever you do, if your goal is to reduce anxiety don't do the Breath of Fire, that's a stimulating exercise which will make your anxiety worse. It has it's proper role, but it isn't what you should do if you're trying to reduce anxiety. Neither the parasympathetic or sympathetic nervous system is 'bad', both play their imporant roles in the functioning of the body and should be kept in proper balance.

@spiritualryan Why can't it be that easy? Where is your surprise originating from? Where is your struggle to believe in the easiness coming from? I'm kidding, but also poking toward a greater truth, which is that no, it's not quite that easy. You're definitely on the right path, but make no mistake it's a long path with many false peaks which later give way to further insight as you realise there's still much further to go.

@Seraphim Astral projection is absolutely real, but not in the way that video shows it. I'm sorry if this offends, but we have to be quite harsh when it comes to blatant falsehoods which could cause a person to stray from the path of genuine truth and insight - that video is highly misleading and isn't demonstrating what it claims to be demonstrating. The girl is simply looking at the objects through a tiny gap in the mask which opens up when she tilts her head - she even says so directly at a couple of points, for example at 7:20 when they say she's "seeing through the light spots in the mask" and 11:30 when she says "that one is a very small hole" and that she can see through it. I'll be charitable to the adults in the room and suggest that they genuinely want to believe that she's not doing this and is infact seeing without sight, and not necessarily trying to knowingly decieve. This simply isn't how astral projection works.

The physical, mental and spiritual planes are mirror reflections of one another. Many people these days view mental images and visions as being 'just' mental, as if their origination within the mind makes them innately meaningless. This is not the case however, as the mental and spiritual are deeply entwined. To give an answer from the mental perspective, that experience you had was a deep and subconscious mental construct. It was a real-time visualisation of your mind's processing the act of letting go of your child and accepting that they were passing on, kind of like a waking dream which deeply symbolises the reality behind what is currently occurring. The mind abides in the mental plane, but the content of the mind is reflected from the physical and spiritual planes. A dream, a mental image, a symbol, a metaphor... these are not hollow illusions, they're direct reflections of a spiritual reality which can only be glimpsed through their mediums. Nobody can tell you that the spiritual plane actually exists and that your child is actually abiding there, you can only realize it for yourself. I personally believe it does exist, because I've seen its reflection in the physical and mental planes.

Firstly OP, I just want to mention that I understand how you're feeling. I've been through this exact experience myself relating to general depression, spiritual dryness and also traumatic relationships which ended. The first thing I want to point out is simply a hopeful sign which you may or may not be able to appreciate in your current mindset, but which is there regardless. You came here and posted this thread. The fact that you did that shows that you've reached a turning point in your suffering, where you turn your attention toward help and solutions. By accepting that you haven't been happy and by making efforts to correct things, you've found yourself on a new upward path out of your suffering. Secondly, a practical piece of advice to aid your contemplation. Notice how in the process of writing about your struggles in this thread, you've recognised certain realities about the nature of your suffering. Recognise that it was the act of writing about them which enabled that insight. I'm a huge believer in the power of writing to provide insight into our own minds, and I've used writing to learn many truths about my own psyche which helped me to overcome similar negative feelings I had about ex girlfriends and loneliness. For me, one thing which helped was writing out my own fears. By doing this, I realised that I was terrified of being romantically alone in life, because I feared that my happiness was dependent upon having a relationship. Once I recognised this belief within myself, I was able to address it and re-ignite the knowledge in myself that wellbeing is *never* dependent on external factors, not even love and relationships. To recognise that desire to be in a relationship is actually based in fear of being alone and miserable enabled me to 'let go' of that desire once I realised that fear itself was the only thing making me feel alone and miserable. This is simply what I realised about my own emotions through the process of writing. Your own feelings may be entirely different, but my intention here is to convince you to do more writing on the topic so you can reach greater understanding and escape from this particular suffering. I have a secret folder on my PC where I simply open a new .txt file each time and spend 20-30 minutes writing on a given topic without fear of how well it's written or how other people might percieve it. Every time, I finish the session with new insights and those insights have been absolutely invaluable to my personal and spiritual development. Try it out.

There are actually 2 distinct things which people generally refer to as 'anxiety'. Cognitive anxiety, and physical arousal. To clarify, arousal doesn't refer to sexual arousal but simply energetic activity in the nervous system which produces anxiety's physical symptoms such as jitteriness, raised heart rate, fast breathing, sweating etc. Cognitive anxiety can and often does produce physical arousal, but not all physical arousal is the result of cognitive anxiety. The first step is to recognise which type of anxiety you're experiencing. Are you worried or fearful of something in particular which leads to your symptoms, or do the symptoms originate seemingly out of nowhere? Are they more mental or physical in nature? If your anxiety is originating in the mind, then meditation techniques aimed at quieting the mind will help. If your anxiety is arousal based, you need to treat it physiologically. For this, getting a rough sense of the broad functions of the nervous system is necessary. There are really only 4 things you need to know about the nervous system - 1: The parasympathetic nervous system. Governs energetically 'down' functions in the body. Rest and digest mode. 2: The sympathetic nervous system. Governs energetically 'up' functions in the body. Fight or flight mode. 3: The vagus nerve is the main nerve which mediates activity between the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems. 4: Respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Sounds like something bad, but is actually a normal function. When you take a deep breath in, this activates the vagus nerve and your heart rate increases along with general sympathetic activity. When you let a deep breath out, this releases pressure on the vagus nerve thereby slowing heartrate and increasing general parasympathetic activity. Google those terms so you get a bit of a sense of how they work. The main takeaway from this knowledge is the realization that by controlling your breathing in specific ways, you can directly influence your arousal level. Don't just take my word for it though, please experiment with your breathing and see for yourself. Try long, slow inhalations followed by longer, slower exhalations and pay attention to how you begin to feel after 5 or 10 breaths. This video provides a short and sweet summary -