Kriya Yoga- Need help with Maha Mudra and Kriya Pranayama

[lmfao]

When doing Kriya Pranayama, you're supposed to constrict your throat when breathing in (ujayi pranayama breathing). As well as constricting the throat, you're using alternate muscles to breathe in it seems. Maybe not different muscles for breathing but it's at least different. Somewhere in the diaphragm you have to put force/pressure into it.

I find that when doing this, I get exhausted afterwards and it's quite strenuous. I feel short for breath when doing it as well ( I try to do 12 in a row without any normal breaths in between) . Is it normal to be short of breath? What's going on? Carbon dioxide build up? 

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With Maha Mudra, the inhalation is supposed to be around at least 10 seconds (the book says up to 15). There's no instruction in the book about how to breathe for it, but to achieve a 10-15 second inhalation you have to force or manipulate your breath in some way. I find it strenuous to force it this way, putting pressure in my throat or diaphragm to do it. 

And then ofc Maha Mudra is strenuous because of holding the breath, constricting the anus and concentrating with the ohms.
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Did Kriya Yoga today. After doing Maha Mudra, I still had Kriya Pranayama to do. Whilst doing Kriya Pranayama, my throat was involuntarily vibrating constantly and making my breathing jerky. I realised I was straining too much, and I lowered the pressure. Even still, my throat was vibrating, twitching and jerking.

Probably throat twitching because I had been using those muscles a lot, even when doing maha mudra. Because I don't see how you're supposed to breathe in for 10 seconds 

What's going on? Is this just tiring? After doing Kriya Yoga today I feel exhausted

Edited November 26, 2020 by lmfao

[flyingwhalee]

Hey there mate,

First of all it seems that you're putting way too much emphasis on consctricting your throat. Try simply reducing the flow of air a little bit, so that you somewhat hear the "SHEEE" air does when it flows through the upper part of your throat. It should feel quite natural and EASY. Don't be tense during Pranayama, you're not doing any bandha. Also it's normal to feel short of breath when you begin Kriya, as you're getting used to take long and slow breaths, in my experience it goes away in a matter of days / weeks. But here's a quick hack for you i use: try to do a couple of Wim Hof breathing rounds ( consists basically of hypervenilating your body with 30 consecutive deep breaths without pauses between them, then holding the breath for around 2 min. 1 round should take you 5 min). You'll find Pranayama / Maha mudra muchh easier after.

If it ever helps anyone, i used this to successfully do Kriya Supreme Fire a bit early in the process. It requires you to be able to hold your breath for at least 1min30, which most of us can't do easily.

Hope it helps, best of luck mate. You'll thank yourself later by sticking to Kriya

[lmfao]

@flyingwhalee Thanks for the advice. I'll try to use minimal force next time.