Breathwork And Healing

[Victor Mgazi]

Are there any technical differences between Holotropic Breathing and Shamanic Breathing ? Anyone experienced with this?

Also, is Shadow work critical for awakening Kundalini ? 

 

I've become fairly aware of my own energy blockages. Practicing emotional awareness helped me realize that there are certain emotions that are more constant than others.. in my being. This meditation helped me notice that I've been carrying certain emotions almost all my life that have affected my psychology in the most subtle but effectual manner. The emotion has been residing around my chest and throat area. It's a subtle but heavy feeling of compression and something else that I don't know how to describe.

Before, I wasn't really aware of it but now that I've been paying attention, I've noticed that there are specific emotions that are more everlasting than others. I think that this is what is usually referred to as ‘emotional baseline’, I don't know. Focusing on these feelings has made the emotion/s more apparent and more heavy in my being. I don't know what it is or where it comes from, but I do know that I need to relieve myself from it.

So basically I want to awaken my Kundalini, and I'm aware of the blockages in my being. I'm trying to go about this not resisting and releasing in the best possible way that I can. Meditating on the emotions only makes them strong and more noticeable, but I don't know where to go from there, I don't know how to release them. 

Lastly, what does pranayama do exactly, and should I be practicing it if I want to awaken Kundalini ?

[Waken]

Just giving my thoughts on some of your questions, as I don't know the answer to all of them.
If you're interested in breathwork, you might want to check out https://breathworkonline.com/workshops/ I found Michael online sessions amazing. You could do just a couple online sessions, and try it on your own afterwards, or get a subscription so you can just do as much as you want for 48 bucks or something per month. You might find these sessions a lot more powerful, pleasant and fun when doing them from Michael with a group than the Shamanic Breathing.

Okay you notice stuck emotions within yourself. You do not need to know where an emotion is coming from to heal or release it. I used to practice a lot on focusing on emotions and dissolving them that way. That however was way too time-consuming and not effective enough. When an emotions comes up, I feel it and be with it, otherwise, I leave it and do some processes. Of course there are many ways to go at releasing emotions, as that's pretty much what all processes are for. You probably want a good consistent practice for healing oneself, and there are many many that do just that, for example Isha center has good ones, or the breathwork is also good, or whatever else. I wouldn't take awakening Kundalini as a goal, but then rather to heal oneself.  
Pranayama is a good practice I'm pretty sure, it will heal you and get you in a good energetic state. I don't know a lot about it though. I would do a practice that resonates with you. Lately I'm doing certain mantra-based practices which I love and am going deep with.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Waken

[Victor Mgazi]

@Waken okay, I appreciate the reference and the advice. 

Yeah, I take healing and releasing blockages as the same thing. I understand Kundalini awakening as becoming your higher-authentic self, in which case is really just a conductor of this energy/force that we've labeled ‘kundalini’. I read about these ‘energy centres’ called “chakras” and it sounded related to shadow work.

Processing emotions by simply being aware of them works for some emotions - more receptive and impulsive emotions, I think. But there are more deeply rooted ones that aren't as easy to “dissolve”, like the one in my chest and throat area. I don't really have a clue as to what's going on there so I want try out more psycho therapeutic forms of meditation so I can deal with whatever is burdening me more effectively.

1 hour ago, Waken said:

Pranayama is a good practice I'm pretty sure, it will heal you and get you in a good energetic state. I don't know a lot about it though. I would do a practice that resonates with you.

I don't know much about it either, I only know that it's a type of breathwork, that's it. But if what you say is true, that it's good for healing, then I'll do a little more research on it. The thing is I'm trying to find one technique and commit to it, I don't want to be all over the place with this self development work. 

After watching Leo's “Shamanic breathwork” video, I'm thinking about getting into it by next month and commit to practicing it along with a couple of other forms of meditation.

Recently, I've only been doing emotional awareness and the do nothing technique. Both effective in my experience.

Anyway, I'll definitely check out the link and see what I discover. Thanks