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rjr
USA
5 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 31 2014 : 3:33:16 PM
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Hey there,
Need a little help please. Cant seem to figure it out on my own.
Ive been practicing asana's for 3 years now. I practice daily and its a mix of hatha and vinyasa flow, all depends on how I feel.
Six months ago while traveling I took a kundalini class and it blew my mind. So I bought a book called kundalini yoga sadhana guidlines and I started teaching myself at home. All went well and I was feeling great until one day (after a month) I got this anxiety out of nowhere, really weird, it lasted for 4 days, it was intense. I stopped doing kundalini after that because I got scared. I felt like something went wrong with my nervous system. So I breathed my way out of it and stuck to my regular practice.
I started practicing again this week and again this anxiety surfaced again. I dont know whether to continue or stop, Id like to continue though, I enjoy the practice itself, and a few times I got this big feeling that was amazing. So, anyone out there an advanced kundalini yoga practitioner that can guide me ? I'd really appreciate it, there is no KY where I live so I have no one to ask.
Thanks
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Edited by - AYPforum on Aug 31 2014 3:59:11 PM |
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BlueRaincoat
United Kingdom
1734 Posts |
Posted - Sep 02 2014 : 11:03:49 AM
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Hello RJR Welcome to the AYP forum
Your experience resonates with me to some extent. I too have started my yoga practice with hatha yoga and continued to do asanas only for many years without any other practice like meditation, systematic pranayama or anything more advanced. During those years I too developed anxiety problems, as well as chronic stress. I am now convinced that asanas alone are not effective and I completely share Yogani's view that meditation should be the foundation and central piece of any yoga practice. Especially tinkering with kundalini without a solid meditation practice can lead to all sorts or problems. So the question I'm going to ask is - does your current yoga practice include a regular meditation routine? If it does not, then I would suggest you look around for a meditation technique that suits you and start to practice it regularly. Yogani has described two types of meditation in the AYP lessons:
- breadth focused meditation, which he recommends to people who are very sensitive/over-sensitive to meditation
- mantra meditation which is the deeper, more advanced method of the two.
In case you'd like to explore the AYP meditation methods, here are the links:
- mantra meditation at http://www.aypsite.org/13.html
- breadth meditation http://www.aypsite.org/367.html (scroll down to the bottom half of the page)
Regarding the anxiety - meditation will help a great deal. Modern psychology also has some very good advice to offer. Anxiety is one of those conditions which is best confronted (when you have an episode don't try to avoid it, but face it/ delve into it. Avoidance can become part of a conditioned reflex type mechanism which will perpetuate the problem. This website explains it very well:
http://www.anxietycoach.com/anxietytrick.html
I hope this helps. Please do come back if you have any more questions on this. I'll be more than happy to share my experience with you if that is helpful.
I hope you will find a way to solve the problem very soon   |
Edited by - BlueRaincoat on Sep 02 2014 11:40:36 AM |
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rjr
USA
5 Posts |
Posted - Sep 02 2014 : 5:57:32 PM
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Hi there, appreciate the reply, very kind of you, thanks !
Ive been meditating for ten years now, its meditation that got me into asana. I started with TM, followed by vipasana and finally nidra. I now do a mix of all three on a daily basis. I think I have a good idea of how my mind works. Im very aware of my ego, Im always observing, I usually understand from where my thoughts and emotions come from, I rarely react, I always analyze and end up finding the root of the emotion or thought (ego being silly), I think I'm good in that department.
At this stage, the only thing that comes to my mind is this ... I think the intense movement, and breath of fire, might be bit too much on my nervous system, so the problem is physiological not mental. Ive also read a few articles (backed by experiments) by doctors that say breath of fire is sometimes tough on the brain bc the brain doesn't get enough oxygen. Any thoughts maybe on the physiological effects of KY ? could it be that I need to keep practicing until my body gets used it ?
I think Ill continue practicing KY and just learn how to modify it in a way where it suits both my body and mind. When theres a will theres a way. I just hope I dont go nuts hehe. |
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BlueRaincoat
United Kingdom
1734 Posts |
Posted - Sep 03 2014 : 10:53:28 AM
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HI rjr
It sounds like you are an experience meditator, so the only other point to check - that I can think of at least - is self-pacing. How much beadth of fire do you do (or used to do before stopping)?
As pranayama goes, breadth of fire (bhastrika) is a very strong practice and even short sessions can have dramatic effects. In the AYP system it comes in quite late, after the practitioner has gone though a lot of purification, having done spinal breathing (sometimes years of it), which is a more gentle pranayama. And when breadth of fire is finally introduced, Yogani recommends starting at 2 minutes practice intervals, to be increased to 3 minues as/when stability is achieved. He does not recommend doing this technique for more than 5 minutes at a time. Perhaps you'd like to have a look at his lesson:
http://www.aypsite.org/171.html
As for the effects of KY - yes, you can get a variety of simptoms (unpleasant emotions or sensations in the body) if kundalini awakens prematurely or forcefully. And it's not surprising you ran into a problem after doing pranayama. All pranayama nudges kundalini. Speaking from my own experience, I would say pranayama really has to be done in the right dose for each of us. While overdoing meditation for a few minutes doesn't upset me, overdoing pranayama even for a couple of minutes has quite dramatic consequences - instead of balancing my energies is causes overload symptoms. If you are thinking of reintroducing this practice, I would recommend starting from a very low threshold (even counting breadths rather than minutes to start with), then give it 4-6 weeks before slightly increasing the practice time. If the yoga system you are following has a gentler pranayama method, perhaps you can stick to that for a while, or check on AYP's spinal breathing:
http://www.aypsite.org/41.html
I hope this helps. I wish you smooth practice and good progress. |
Edited by - BlueRaincoat on Sep 03 2014 4:15:42 PM |
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Anxiety after kundalini practice
