Shamanic Breathing Mega-Thread

[Lynnel]

14 hours ago, Jamie Universe said:

@Lynnel I've had stomach pains, where I breath in my stomach to much, I'm not sure but it feels almost like I'm straining, because I can make it go away almost away if I don't breath as deeply. However I tried to keep breathing at that deep rate for a little while and it didn't seem to get worse necessarily, so idk tread carefully.

Yeah after some thoughts my issue seems unrelated to this practice Manipura healing from kriya yoga I guess.

[Petar]

@Lurtsi My experience was exactly the same as yours. I did the breathing for about 20 mins because it was too intense for me to continue. When i openend my eyes  both of my hands were like that in your picture and i couldnt move them like they were paralized in that position. Other than that the whole experience was nice and after the breathing i felt a bit of clarity in my mind.

[VadsterLobster]

I've done 4 times at home and 1 session in Holotropic Breathwork Workshop. In workshop it was more effective. I didn't have psychedelic like spiritual quests but it was quite cool.

The breathwork workshop teacher said that spasms are because of blockages in the body and they will go away with practice. But I dunno about it really. I should research it.

And he highly recommend to don’t do this alone because you can have a lot of involuntary movements and harm yourself. You should keep that in mind.

[Shroomdoctor]

Hey guys,

 

So after doing this once a week for three weeks I have to say its amazing. At the moment it works for me more in terms os "peeling the stress from the week from you" and it works wonders. After I have done a session I feel amazingly calm and collected and clear.  I have not yet, experienced "deep cleaning" though. Maybe that will come later.

[Pernani]

You know how they say that weird dreams and nightmares are a sign of purification? Well I had one of those tonight and it woke me up from my sleep but not really, I was half asleep half awake, and I could feel my body as there was a surge of energy rushing through every part of it, it was warm tingly and intense, my arms were crossed together and my fingers were twisted against each other, I immediately thought of the shamanic breathing experience, it felt exactly the same!

So maybe there is more to those symptoms than mere oxygen deprivation, since I wasn't really deprived of oxygen or anything and my heartbeat was normal.

[Pernani]

Second time trying the technique while fasting : I noticed this time there was less fear and nervousness during the technique, I actually finished my 15min n could go on for more, there was the usual tongling all over the body especially my limbs, not so much on my face and I noticed the tingling is less intense than first time. Although what was different this time is that my whole body is dripping of sweat, i only noticed this when I finished but its freaking crazy I dont even sweat this much in workouts.

also I noticed some movements in my belly and my traps were erect af, and they still feel a bit sore and painful.

[Frankie10]

Has anyone tried to combine this with psychedelics? 

[Rilles]

Duration: 20 mins

Eyes open laying on bed, moderately empty stomach

Music: 

 

Effects:

- Moderate tingling in both hands 

- Pain in upper part of throat (regular thing for me, I might have a blocked throat chakra)

- Slight pulsation in left temple

-Slightly pleasureable feelings around 15 min mark

 

No psychedelic like effect

No spasms

No emotional purging

 

Will ramp up to 30 mins for next time! 

 

Any advice?

[Jamie Universe]

Duration: 30 mins

 

1-20/25 minutes:

When I started off it took some experimenting/trying out to make my breath equal in-out, and also breathing in a consistent and easy amount, there was also a lot of resistance and also uncomfortable until 20-25 mark. there was slight tingling also in my hands

 

25-30 minutes:

Breathing sort of clicked, and resistance went away, the tingling was stronger to. Also this really weird thing happened to me, where my pointer fingers started to rise, and it was a very apparent force that was making my pointer fingers rise. I could best describe as feeling energetic or something, and eventually my middle finger was starting to rise, I could put them down but it sort of sprung back upwards, my natural finger position (and probably yours too) is with the fingers curled a little. Also I feel hyper vigilant afterwards, it feels like everything is extremely clear, imagining stuff in my mind is clearer too, and I didn't try it, but I bet I could hold my breath for a lot longer than I usually can, I think I noticed I almost forgot to breath lol - because of breathing heavily.

 

- no apparent emotional purging, I wonder why?

 

Side notes:

- mouth produces saliva for a while, and if there's to much saliva just swallow it really quick, but eventually your mouth will be dry enough to just keep it open

 

 

[Pernani]

I recently tore a pec tendon, I'm not sure if I can still practice this while I'm recovering..

[Lynnel]

I did 35 minutes today.

Pretty easily. I feel some slight headaches and no tingling almost. A burning sensation on my face at times. Some heat on my cheeks way after the session.

I always get crazy crazy ass dreams. That's my main indicator some purging is happening.

Really curious to see what's gonna happen at 40, 50, 60, minutes.

[Lynnel]

I've done 35/40/30 minutes per day 3 days in a row and it's amazing.

Some tips for beginners :

1. Breath with your belly ! Don't strain your muscles but breathing in/out of the belly is way more pleasant than breathing in the ribcage
2. Do not make any "AAAHH" sound while breathing, as if you were doing ujjayi => friction creates heat + it dries your mouth needlessly which can get very painful if you're doing long session. The key component is to breath using the mouth and never stop in a 1:1 fashion.
3. try different types of music and feel which one is the best for you
4.  Very key : do it for a few days in a row and you're gonna feel some very very deep emotions come up. It's amazing. You need to gain momentum with this technique if you wanna go very deep. Each time you use it daily you go deeper and deeper.

[Silvester]

Are there unhealthy side effects if you do this daily for a longer period of time? 

[Elisabeth]

Holotropic breathwork seminar 

Went to one 5 days ago. There are some differences in the approach of the facilitator (trained by Grof) and Leo's technique, so I'm gonna write a bit those differences and a bit about my experience. 

So first, the breathing instructions. According to the facilitator there are two main possible strategies for breathing: either deep breathing with your full breath, which suffices to be done for a very short time for effects to show (~2 minutes), or breathing moderatelly without the pauses between breaths, which needs to be done for a longer period (~20minutes, that would be what Leo is doing). No recommended way of breathing (ie chest or belly). Everyone gets to choose their own strategy. The objective is to breathe intensely until something starts to happen in your body, then go with the process - which can be done even without breathing (recommended for better concentration), start breathing again if the process is slowing down - no need to breathe intensely for 2,5 hours straigth. 

The music was pretty loud and rythmic, and supposed to guide people through the process a bit. First very dynamic upbeat to help you breath intensely and get into the energy, than still intense but slower and more gentle carrying you away (at one point I noticed an angel-like choir, 7th chackra energy song), than getting more earthly

There was an iportant element of setting an intention for the ritual. In the morning we shared what specific topic we wanted to work on in our lives. It's recommended to set your intention beforehand, but once you start breathing, don't think about it and let go of expectations. "The arrow is already flying."

Bodywork. The facilitators are helping people through their process with gentle (or not so gentle) touch, letting you press against their hands if you need to press against something. A lot of people reported after breathing that this was incredibly helpful. It's also a safety-net you've got on the seminar, that they will come around and help you if you get stuck somewhere (like, in a paralysis) and don't know your way back. 

Drawing right after your breathing session (you get color pencils and a paper with a faint circle to draw a "mandala" or whatever into it, you don't even have to get up to get it), and the subsequent sharing, helps anchor your experience. 

My breathing experience

I set an intention to understand the topic of certainty/incertainty, and even before I started breathing an insight came that it's actually about trust and self-trust. 

I chose breathing intensely in short bursts in the first dynamic phase. I wasn't lying down most times either, rather sitting, standing on all four or moving my body around to help me breathe and honor the rather intense energies in my body (I had some tension and frustration in the days prior, also the music just made me wanna move). I had no real cramps though my forearms were getting stiff. I was letting myself get carried away and move however my body wanted me to, but I was fully there. 

At one point, and I don't remember the crossover, my body simply shut down and went into a deep relaxation. I was lying on my back and the thumb and index finger on my left hand formed a circle (no conscious intention there). My body went into sleep paralysis, and my mind was slow. (Reminds me of yoga-nidra.) First I got some fragments of 'mundane' thoughts like the noise you get in meditation from the stuff you think about all day, then the mind got a little more focused and I remembered my intention. I didn't do anything with it, I just remembered it, and it felt like it was sinking in. The whole 'sleep' state felt really regenerating - like deep healing forces within the body and the psyche were allowed to take over. I don't know how long I was in that state, maybe 10 - 30 minutes, then I started slowly to wake up. 

When I moved, the helpers came around with body work, and I had a huge emotional release. I remember one first pressing against my shoulders, than holding my head and rocking it gently (I imagine it really could have reminded the body of being a baby which can't hold it's head yet), and another providing pressure against my legs. I was holding my belly and pressing with my legs and expressing all the tension inside me, I knew I was doing it and could stop if needed and at the same time I still wasn't quite there, still half in sleep-trance, not fully "me" doing it. And at one point I screamed intensely and it was like deep pain and desperation was leaving my belly (while at the same time the rest of the body just felt well and safe). This was a profound release that wouldn't have happened without bodywork. 

Then I kind of woke up already and went to the toilet (with a person helping me a bit, because the floor made sudden swings from right to left ), got back and spend some more time breathing and resting. (I had the need to lie on my belly.) Then the facilitator came around to ask how I feel and I got my mandala. 

The aftermath:

I slept for 12 hours that night, and I have more need for sleep and relaxation. Relaxation feels really healing when I do it. I'm more sensitive (I have to be careful with sensory overload), but generally calm and in a good mood. I have had little anxiety since the seminar. And I think something deep regarding my intention of certainty/self-trust might have shifted slightly. It's still too early to judge if there are any permanent shifts. (The facilitator said the process is running usually for another two weeks.)

Conclusion:

The seminar is totally worth it. Breathing at home is great, but you can let go of control more fully at the seminar and they are able to facilitate emotional releases with bodywork. 

The technique felt safe to me, for me as I am today, although it's advanced in the sense that people who are very afraid of their own emotions (as I was a few years ago) could run into trouble. 

Intention is important, so is trusting the healing forces inside you to do their work. 

Edited June 17, 2018 by Elisabeth

[Lynnel]

@Elisabeth Great experience ! Usually having support does help you letting go of some of your barriersю

My most recent report :

- I did 45 minutes yesterday : did feel some release and was quite sad at a point but overall not a too rocky experience. I had very vivid dreams after.

- Today, I did 60 minutes : I feel like it's paying off. I feel a lot of repressed sadness at the moment, shit does come up so you can integrate it.

I'll stick to 60 minutes because it can get quite intense and I don't wanna overstrain. I'll relax for a while. I can't imagine what a full week of 60 minutes daily would do. I wouldn't recommend it honestly unless you have a lot of yoga and other practices under your belt.

Like everything this technique is not magic but if done enough it feels quite powerfull and can yield good results.

Emotionnal integration always takes time because any permanent progress is usually slow. Which is good since permanent progress is what we're striving for here.

I'll try some more 60 minutes sessions after I explore more psychedelics and then maybe build up to 90 minute sessions. You gotta try it to know how amazing it can get, but I feel like a full week or even two week bootcamp with 60 minutes of breathwork daily is gonna be incredible.

[Elisabeth]

Here's another teachers take on these kinds of methods which youtube happened to offer me

 

[Lynnel]

On 20/06/2018 at 9:28 PM, Elisabeth said:

Here's another teachers take on these kinds of methods which youtube happened to offer me

 

So I did two 30 minutes sessions, today and yesterday, and I tried two things :

Holding my breath after the 30 minutes for 2-3 minutes

AND sometimes breathing faster. Good lord. It's insane what this technique does if you breath faster like they recommend in the video.

Leo specifically said to pace ourselves but I feel like I can get better results if I breath on a 1 second exhale/ 1 second inhqle thing, maybe because those are very deep breaths and prana accumulates faster. And I do feel like this whole technique is about pumping prana into your body.

So I tried this method today, and breathing deeply and sometimes a bit faster, after 25 minutes I felt intense energy/shakiness in my arms and my feet. I had to stop at 28 minutes because I became afraid since I couldn't move my fingers anymore.

I had crazy ass dreams after yesterday's session and I felt sleepy during my meditation today so I guess this technique worked wonders.

TLDR : if this technique is not working for you try breathing a bit faster ! (but be freaking careful !).

[Romazho]

hoooooooooooooooooooollllllllllly shet I just did a 20 minutes session and that was crazy. I never experienced something like that before... I tried to do 30, but I just could not do it and I don't know why I stopped... I just gave up. Maybe because it was physically demanding.

My fingers forced themselves into a weird position after 10 minutes (especially my thumb). I was doing like the meditation pose with my finger without even wanting to do it in the first place, it just happened. My fingers started tingling after like 1 or 2 minutes into it. I don't remember what I was thinking about during the session...

After I stopped, I realized that my whole fucking forearm was numb and it took like 10 minutes for it to get to be normal again. After that I raised my arms above my head (I am still laying down) and my fingers started to feel weird again, but this time it was a different weird, it felt like I was flexing my muscles, but I wasn't, I resisted it at the begging, but than I remembered to surrender myself to this unpleasant feeling. So, I did and after that I was feeling FUCKING HAPPY. I had a smile on my face for like 2-3 minutes. I also felt burning sensation at my fingers in the end.

so thank you Leo for sharing this technique with me! I will definitely try it again.

[Leo Gura]

@Romazho Welcome to a little taste of real spiritual work

[NoSelfSelf]

@Leo Gura what does it mean that my solar plexus and head is vibrating after 15 min ?