Contractions & Trying to Breath in Meditation

[kieranperez]

When I sit in meditation I’m always struggling with deep contractions in the body, particularly in my chest. The contractions in my upper chest are located around the heart chakra. Whenever I smoke some weed (which is rare), do deep emotional/shadow work and maybe cry hard after facing deep issues, or do psychedelics, the tension there is the first thing that always seems to need to be worked on. Afterwords I can breathing totally clearly.

When I sit in meditation it’s as though my circulatory system down to my diaphragm is like a straw with the top half totally closed off and I’m literally choking sometimes to get air and thus relax my body. 

I’ve gone through Zen Body Being and Leo’s video on Body Awareness to relax the body and more direct pranayama and what not but it’s not fixing it at all. 

I try to relax but the whole top half of my body feels closed off and my body has that whole anxious shaking to it. 

Suggestions?

[okulele]

I sometimes have similar body related issues. It's really natural to want to get rid of it, I know.

What I do, and what ultimately always works if I stick with it long enough, is ask myself - 'What is it really?'

I'll get answers, opinions, judgments and I say - 'Ok, ok, but what is it really?'

And I go like this. If I am really patient and dedicated to find out (which is not easy when the body is fucked up) I will eventually see what it really is and be free of it.

Soooo, my advice is, when this happens, ask yourself what it is really. And then ask and ask and ask and ask until you know

Hope this helps.

Edited July 8, 2019 by okulele

[kieranperez]

@okulele I do something similar the problem though is that from the contraction and the struggling to breathe, all my attention is caught in my head. 

It feels like I’m squeezing air past my torso to get into my diaphragm. That’s the best way I can put it as far as what it feels like. My back shakes, my shoulders contract and tighten and shake, and my awareness stuck in my head and can’t stop thinking to the point where I drive myself both crazy and actually exhausted. 

Mind you, this happens in a matter of a minute or 2. 

Im not even out of shape is the thing other. I’m not some 200 or 300 pound guy. I’m 6’0” 135 pounds and can run 15 miles out the door no problem. 

I don’t expect necessarily want some quick fix but god... really? After only a minute or 2? I literally can’t meditate. It makes keeping integrity with a meditation practice feel impossible and demoralizing. 

@Leo Gura any suggestions? I’m still doing research but could use some leads if you got any 

Edited July 8, 2019 by kieranperez

[okulele]

@kieranperez I hope it gets better soon. Hang in there ?

[White Monk]

Hello, 

 

  I can supremely relate to this, I struggled with this exact issue for a long, long, long, long time. Good news is, it comes and it goes like other probems you have faced AND OVERCOME! One very cool thing I've realized is that in order to work through these contracted states you have to be brave and open to looking and these parts of your experience that seem unbearable. Trust me brother, trust me I know exactly what that contraction feels like, impending doom to put it simply lol. It makes the most normal days seem like absolute garbage. The resistance to the feeling seems to only feed into deeper contraction and make the problem worse. Two things which helped me a lot were becoming curious and absolutely open to whatever that contraction might be, and absolutely loving it it. Anything absolute seems to dissolve boundaries, therefore dissolving your current set of problems you face as well.

Another thing is focus get your concentration at peak performance 20 minutes of just non-stop focus on one thing, have it be something you actually want to focus on. Personally for me I like Sadghuru's I am not the body, I am not the mind because there is something a whole lot more mystical that happens when he says those statements, and my mind and heart are both on board

Last thing most people 50-80% of people have a lot held back emotionally as far as anger, fear, excitement, love, joy, laughter, power, shit even love. A LOT of that gets stored in the throat area, I would say a large majority of people are a bottle waiting to explode with emotion. When you meditate, I am not sure what you do, nor am I concerned BUT, relax your expressive mechanisms, neck and throat and let go, let your body do exactly what it needs to do. AND LOVE IT. An open throat and loose jaw from my experience provides a gateway for all that isn't our true selves to be let go of and released. In a process like this, it is only about feeling and letting go, keep your neck and jaw lucy goosey though. 

 

 

[White Monk]

 @kieranperez Forgot to tag you 

[White Monk]

@kieranperez forgot to tag you

[Jonac]

I started to put my life in order and some pains go away