Shamanic Breathing Mega-Thread

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, NoSelfSelf said:

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

What does anything mean?

[NoSelfSelf]

@Leo Gura Everything has a reason why its happening thats why we raise our conciousness to understand better...

[Leo Gura]

@NoSelfSelf Look around your room right now and notice that everything you see has no meaning. Exclude no object.

Just sit with that for a few minutes.

Repeat every day for a month.

[NoSelfSelf]

@Leo Gura Then there is no queastion left to ask nothing to figure out understand 

[herghly]

Only starting this now 

i did 10 minutes today it's much harder than I expected. 

After my timer went off I held in the last breath for as long as possible this made the process much more powerful . 

Do you do any breath retentions during this ? 

And what results have you got from shamanic breathing ?

[lmfao]

Is anyone here very experienced with holotropic breathing? I've never done it, and I'm a little excited and nervous at the same time to start it. What I want to know is, how effective is the technique? Do you feel like you have really cleansed yourself significantly from taking up the practice? I want to hear what my realistic expectations should, although I should still go into the practice openminded-ly with no expectations. 

[Widdle Puppy]

Holotropic breath work seminar report: I attended one myself this weekend. My report bellow is just kind of a general mix of the seminar itself and my own experience. There is a post above which is similar in describing the seminar I attended. Read it for detailed breakdown. My report bellow is also my own reflection of my experience. 

I would say this technique is open in the sense where they allow for a lot of different beliefs or handlings of your experience. There are few rules regarding this technique and it is mostly meant to be practiced in a group setting. There is not much theory or instructions given either. It's left sort of open and part of me felt judgement and indignation about this coming from a place where I've practiced more monastic and strict awareness/enlightenment work like Dhamma (Vipassana). I've found sometimes that it's difficult to keep different techniques, meditations and the mindsets that accompany them from mixing but that's okay. I tried my best to keep an open mind going into this seminar and it's something I would recommend to other people new to Holotropic breath work as well.  

You are to breath "in a circle." Either deeply or you can just do a natural breath without pauses or through your nose, whatever. They get you going with a deep breathe and then let you go from there. I felt different within minutes. They are very supportive and caring which is absolutely beautiful especially for someone like me who feels sometimes like there is no love or any real support in my life and that I'm a one many army taking on the world. I'll never quit. I've done shorter breathing sessions on my own and my experience was similar to this one but what made this special was the feedback at the end and the supportive environment. I felt safe through the entire seminar in the physical environment however still reluctant and shameful to open and let everything out. 

It's a great experience however and I feel like I released some things and shined some more awareness on the areas I need to work on. I spent most of my session in a state of paralysis with numb limbs. I could't open my hands. I felt comfortable crying during the session which I did a good bit of. It felt really hard to work through this experience of emotions and sensations and honestly part of me is afraid to work through it in a group setting. I feel a bit embarrassed to cry in public and feel open around people I've never met.  A lot of stuff came up in my session however I feel optimistic because I know it's part of the healing process and is a sign the technique works. 

I would like to continue using this technique on my own as I travel a lot and it's hard to attend seminars and individual sessions of things. I will attend another one in the future though and would ideally like to maybe work one on one with someone so I feel more comfortable to work through what comes up during the breathing experience. Perhaps shorter sessions (30 minutes max) once a week along with my meditation.  

[Leo Gura]

@Widdle Puppy Good report!

[wpw]

I went to three breathing sessions called rebirthing, I'm pretty sure it is like holotropic breathwork. Non-stop breathing out of your mouth and focus on your bodily sensations.   

I did experience some emerging emotions/feelings, but the women said I would pop into my head at times. She said she could tell as she's done this for years etc. 

The technique was non stop breathing in/out of your mouth, eyes closed. She would stand over me, guiding me with her breath, prompt me if she thought I was popping into my head   

I experienced some numbness too,  the length was about like 40 minutes of actual breathing, after three sessions I decided it wasn't too effective.     

However, I starting dating this girl who said she had been holotropic breathwork in a group setting, and the sessions went on for like three hours or more and that it was hugely transformative.                                                                                                                                                                                                

Has anyone else gotten great results from breathwork?  Did I see the wrong practitioner - done longer sessions/been in a group ? 

 

 

[Mohammad]

@dude  I had same experience as you. lasted for about 12 minutes, and then I just freaked out. took about 5-10 minutes for my body to recover. My fingers were contracted and I could barely move them. Was not very pleasant experience. And also I had no significant mental experience, just some sensations in my body.

I'l try it again someday, just need to learn about this technique a little bit more.

[Marcell Kovacs]

Alright, so between the 2nd and 8th of July I decided to undergo a one-week "retreat" (I guess you could call it that?) of Shamanic Breathing starting with 30 minutes on the 2nd and building up to 60 minutes on the 8th.

Each and every day I completed one session, which I started shortly after I woke up during those mornings. I decided I would create a Word document and do some journaling each and every day regarding how the sessions had gone, what I had experienced and other miscellaneous stuff. I thought I would paste my notes into this topic, because

• some of you might find it useful
• I might as well share them, because why not.

As my report says prior to starting the "breath week" I had already done 10 sessions most of which were quite clumsy, so I didn't come into starting this retreat with having tons of experience under my belt.

The following is my "trip report":

Quote

Shamanic Breathing journal

Prior to starting this journal on July 2nd, 2018 I have already done about 10 sessions.

2018/07/02 – 30 minutes

I was breathing quite fast, after around 10 minutes my hands and my legs started becoming numb. My face was also vibrating, however what I noticed for the first time is that there was a different kind of numbness that started out in my feet and slowly moved upwards to my calves, then to my glutes, where it eventually stopped. My legs were vibrating below that point, which probably means that emotions that resided in those parts of my legs were let go of. Also I guess this sort of numbness is what I need to get to „move up” to my chest or belly area to let go of the serious traumas/emotions that reside in those areas of my body. Also I felt heavy pain in my hands, which eventually made me stop breathing so heavily. I did however push through the whole 30 minutes, so I guess I was successful!

Takeaway: The numbness that was moving up through my feet until my glute is what I want to move up to my belly or chest area. This can be done by doing the technique for longer durations, however I have to build up to that. Next time I’m doing 35 minutes.

 

2018/07/03 – 35 minutes

I started breathing slow, then eventually increased the pace. I had similar effects happening to me as yesterday, maybe this time around they weren’t as intense. I felt the „numbness” stopping in my legs, and no matter the pace I was breathing at, the intensity kind of stopped at around 30 minutes even if I started breathing faster upon noticing this. I also had a mini insight of taking Kriya Yoga seriously and starting it.

Takeaway: Keep increasing the time limit, check Leo’s video on how to breath properly and also the other video that was posted in the forum. START DOING KRIYA YOGA AND PURCHASE THE BOOK AS SOON AS I RECEIVE MY PAYMENT!

 

2018/07/04 – 40 minutes

During the first 20-25 minutes nearly nothing happened, then having fixed the mistakes I was doing by watching Leo’s breathing technique, I managed to get the numbness up to my chest, which was kind of cool. Although it wasn’t vibrating like my legs were in the previous instances, I definitely felt tiny vibrations. Speaking of vibrating legs, they were vibrating again, however not as strong as in previous instances. Also, my hands were not as numb as they usually are during these kinds of sessions, which was quite surprising. I’m not quite sure what’s the most effective way of using this technique yet, however I’m trying to do it for a week and then not do it for another week to let the emotions purge and see what happens.

Takeaway: Everything’s coming together, check Leo’s breathing guide again and the Wim Hof video again to improve the way I breathe.

 

2018/07/05 – 45 minutes

I was so close to giving it up in the first 5-10 minutes, but I’m so glad I stuck to it. The effects were really similar to what I had experienced yesterday with a couple of minor differences. There was one point during the „cooldown period” as I like to call it (The period between when the time ends and I get up from the floor.), when I felt something rushing through my entire body which was amazing. I also had thoughts about video games very vividly even though as of October 2016 I had completely dropped playing video games and haven’t played since. Another thing that’s great is taking a small snack before starting the sessions. Today for the first time I ate a banana before I begun, because previously I was having lots of thoughts about just food in general and junk food as well.

Takeaway: Everything’s fine, keep it up! I'll be eating a banana every time before I start from now on.

 

2018/07/06 – 50 minutes

Similarly to yesterday, I had huge resistance towards beginning today's session, which is the sign of the initial motivation wearing off, so I should expect resistance every day from now on. I'm glad I eventually didn't call it a day, I’m not going to lie. I don’t actually remember much apart from struggling for the first few minutes (as usual) and then around the 30 minute mark I had total numbness all over my body and I started shaking like a motherfucker, so that was probably a huge trauma that I managed to release. After that was done, not much happened afterwards. During the cooldown period I fell asleep nearly the whole way through and eventually woke up to realize everything was normal again. My hands are shaking as I’m typing this more than they usually would after such a session even though I've gone through the cooldown period and everything was fine! Don't rush through the cooldown period!

Takeaway: I’m very fucking proud of the fact that I pushed through the initial resistance towards doing this today and busted through the session. It would’ve been a mistake not to, because I’m pretty sure I released some pretty big trauma today.

 

2018/07/07 – 55 minutes

Shit was intense during the last 20-25 minutes as usual, some big emotions were released today as well, similarly to yesterday. My legs were numb even after finishing for a while, however everything went great, it was all good!

Takeaway: Again, keep it up, I guess?

 

2018/07/08 – 60 minutes

Possibly the most profound session I had up until now. As always, things started out slow, this is something I’m used to now, but by the 25-30 minute mark I had similar effects to the one I had yesterday and before that, however I feel like I went even deeper and more emotional baggage was released. At one point I even felt the veins in my forehead and I heard the sound of the muscles of my mouth as I was breathing. My hands were not very shaky after the session surprisingly, I guess this was also the most time I spent in the cooldown period so far, which probably means that lots of stuff was released. Pretty fucking intense shit if I may say so myself.

Takeaway: It’s until one builds up to about 40-45 minutes of breathing constantly that this technique starts getting very effective, as Leo said. Can’t wait to see what kind of crazy shit is going to be happening around the 90 minute mark once I build myself up to that, however now it’s time for a week of meditation, integration and purging!

Some additional notes:

I think this technique kind of flew over the community's head! There's not much activity going on in this topic anymore, which leads me to believe that many of you have given up on it, if which is the case, I urge you NOT to!

This technique if implemented in the fashion I did is EXTREMELY powerful! One thing I want to stress out is if you get yourself to do such a procedure you should expect to have some fucked up dreams, as @Leo Gura said in the video which will lead you to sleep longer durations than you normally would, therefore (again, I'm just repeating what Leo said) it's probably not ideaI to go to work the same day you're doing these sessions, however I have an online job, where I work 4-5 hours every day and I'm also focusing on my life purpose once I'm done with that every single day, so I guess it's doable. I haven't noticed any side effects of working after I was done with these sessions and practicing my life purpose afterwards, but then again, given the fact that I only work 4-5 hours a day, on top of that it's from home it's not nearly as stressful as doing the whole 9-5 thing.

If you are a student like myself given that we have summer vacation right now you truly don't have any excuse not to do a "retreat like" breath week that's similar to what I've done and trust me it's very effective and it's worth undergoing it! I'm still a long time away from fully "embodying" what had happened (again, as Leo said it takes weeks or months for this stuff to be completely released/purged, which is when you start to see the full implementation in your everyday life) yet I can already see differences in my social behaviour, which is more authentic, my happiness level and I'm also sensing a much healthier, greater connection with my body.

However I've got to be honest here, it could be placebo so far, we'll see what happens in the upcoming weeks, only time will tell. What isn't a placebo effect, though is that during the week of doing these sessions I've definitely had both minor and major insights which have grown me. Some confusions from the past have been clarified.

I also have to mention that I luckily haven't had as serious traumas as people who got abused as children had, but I was bullied during the first two years of high school, which created countless neurotic patterns in my life which I suffer for to this day. If you happen to have had some terrible catastrophes happen to you, you're probably going to have more intense releases than I had.

My initial vision with this retreat was to work on what I had mentioned above, because ever since Leo introduced this technique in the video, intuitively I felt like this is potentially the technique I both need and have been looking for. I feel the same way about Kriya Yoga, which is a habit I unfortunately haven't started yet, however the book mentioned in Leo's video is on the way, so in the future I'll also be comparing the two techniques side by side, because there's definitely some overlapping between the two.

Also starting from this Monday (16th July) I began a second "breath week", during which my plan was to start from 60 minutes (which is where I had previously built my capability up to) and go all the way to 90 minutes. I've just finished my third session out of seven today and I keep getting blown away by how effective this technique is, it seems to be working wonders and the integration isn't even done yet!

If there's demand for it I will also share the trip report for this week's sessions once I'm done with the seven days.

[wpw]

I did 2O minutes yesterday and released some big intense emotions, had a cry.. 

I will continue to use the breathwork and look to turn it into a habit like my meditation practice    

 

Edited July 19, 2018 by wpw

[wpw]

I went to like 40 - 5o minutes this time

Fear kept popping up, 

Something significant was I got a wave of fear so I sunk into it - and I was went "somewhere else" LOL 

I said ' OH SHIT and like sat up"   My mind said claim down, I guess my rational mind shut whatever happened down 

even my ears popped ...   Other than I got a purple haze like a purple filter on what I was seeing..  

 

Ha.. I'll keep doing this 

[Lynnel]

After coming back form India I've done 2 sessions, 15 minutes and 25 minutes.

Each time I stopped because the vibration was getting way too powerful to the extent I couldn't even feel my body anymore and that scared me. But holy shit that technique is effective.

Two things : I don't seem to get much crying but I do get some emotional release, which usually happens the day AFTER. I also get a lot of organic insights which is very very nice.

I wonder if there is a breaktrough in this shaking, some sort of deep release once you shake enough, but feeling your whole body and face shaking like that is quite amazing honestly. This is honestly one of the best techniques I've come accross so far.

@wpw Give yourself time to integrate sometimes. There is more to life than increasing it's speed

[wpw]

@Lynnel yes, yeah right cause I woke up with some real fear the next night. I am giving breathing a rest for a week so I can integrate 

[wpw]

I also went to a TRE practitioner, which is physical exercises that induce temouring - it basically does the same thing as the breathwork, brings out unresolved emotional material.  So I will cut out breathing for a while. The lady who runs it told me to slow down and instead of "opening up a can of worms" pick one worm out of the can at a time or you'll end up with a mess.   

Edited July 24, 2018 by wpw

[Leo Gura]

On 7/18/2018 at 6:34 AM, Marcell Kovacs said:

However I've got to be honest here, it could be placebo so far

Your whole existence is a placebo

[Marcell Kovacs]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Your whole existence is a placebo

I'm yet to awaken to that fact.

[Lynnel]

16 hours ago, wpw said:

I also went to a TRE practitioner, which is physical exercises that induce temouring

Got any more info ? That sounds interesting

Yeah the amount of things you're able to process greatly varies with your previous experience. Yoga, meditation, psychedelics can make "you" very very strong.

[wpw]

@Lynnel  https://traumaprevention.com/  It's a set of 7 exercises to stimulate parts of the body to release tension by temrouring etc.   I could explain it but I think you can find the exercises online or in a book/DVD.