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Balance
USA
967 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 12:51:41 PM
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Here's something that some of you might find interesting as an observation and a practice that can be used during the workaday.
I've noticed by observing myself and others that the "sighing breath" is connected to patterns of thought and emotion that perpetuate day after day. When the body is tired and it sighs there is a mental/emotional reaction that has roots that seem to be connected to intensely stressful events from our past.
Watch your own thoughts and feelings during the sigh, and watch others dear to you, persons to whom you have some knowledge of their patterns, and observe the breath connection to feelings and thoughts that have "negative" habitual patterns that are rooted to very old events. There seems to be a deep perpetual identification with the sighing breath. There appear to be far less sighing breaths in my experience that are connected to "positive" moments, thought there are some.
I have noticed that I can get into a habit of disconnecting the sigh from the old mental/emotional patterns. When the body sighs it seems to be lacking in oxygen and has become somewhat "exhausted" with toxins, or overabundance of carbons(?) (I don't know the physical sciences too well). When I feel a sigh come up I allow it to be a purely now-time physical event with a little bit of force in the exhalation. I make an effort to help the body expel the breath. I have also noticed now a pre inhalation as well. Just a healthy breath of physical release. If I focus on the sigh like that there seems to be a break in the old mental/emotional habitual patterns. If the sigh is unconscious it tends to stay in the old patterns of thought and emotion.
Try it 
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 3:30:55 PM
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| It helps if you also moan "Oy" as you exhale. |
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Balance
USA
967 Posts |
Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 4:27:43 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Jim and His Karma
It helps if you also moan "Oy" as you exhale.
That didn't help it much for me Jim.
I did put a "J" in front of "OY" and it had a good feel to it.
"JOY!"
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 6:29:33 PM
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Thanks for that Alan.
It's so funny.. I was having a really stressful day at work.. clients calling.. things that needed to get fixed NOW.. others at work making demands etc. I found myself go "Siiiiighhhh!!!" and the lady who sits next to me said,"having a bad day?" and I said, "Oh! yes, when it rains, it pours!!!!". And I thought to myself, "how strange that I sigh and this specific sigh, only when I am really swamped with work and feel overwhelmed. Wonder why?". Then got busy with work and may have sighed a few more times without realizing. A few hrs later I saw your post, and there was my answer.
There have been so many of these co-incidences(?? Not!!!) in my life lately.
Thanks again for posting. |
Edited by - Shanti on Apr 16 2008 6:31:26 PM |
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Balance
USA
967 Posts |
Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 6:50:23 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Shanti
Thanks for that Alan.
It's so funny.. I was having a really stressful day at work.. clients calling.. things that needed to get fixed NOW.. others at work making demands etc. I found myself go "Siiiiighhhh!!!" and the lady who sits next to me said,"having a bad day?" and I said, "Oh! yes, when it rains, it pours!!!!". And I thought to myself, "how strange that I sigh and this specific sigh, only when I am really swamped with work and feel overwhelmed. Wonder why?". Then got busy with work and may have sighed a few more times without realizing. A few hrs later I saw your post, and there was my answer.
There have been so many of these co-incidences(?? Not!!!) in my life lately.
Thanks again for posting.
Hi Shanti
Try it out and see if it works in helping get beyond the habitual patterns of feelings.
I hope this helps.
"Coincidences" are nice, aren't they?
Jim, I tried the "OY" again and it does work okay, but the breath expelled with a bit of push from the diaphragm up and out without any word works best for me. |
Edited by - Balance on Apr 16 2008 9:18:37 PM |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 6:57:20 PM
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| oh, god...sorry, alan, I thought people would know I was joking. OTOH, that's how great discoveries are stumbled into! |
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Balance
USA
967 Posts |
Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 7:00:13 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Jim and His Karma
oh, god...sorry, alan, I thought people would know I was joking. OTOH, that's how great discoveries are stumbled into!
I knew you were joking, but I tried it anyway  |
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Steve
277 Posts |
Posted - Apr 17 2008 : 3:47:41 PM
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Having a stressed day ... feeling overwhelmed by emotions ... in a funk
Introduce your sighs to the 'Laughing Buddha'  .
An effective way to loosen up and free stuck emotional energy in the solar plexus area ... if thats your need .... well then performing the 'Laughing Buddha' exercise may be for you  .
(Please excuse the introduction, guess I've watched one too many infomercials  )
1) Stand comfortably with feet spread apart a bit wider than shoulder width, knees slightly bent
2) Arms raised above the head with palms facing upward to the sky and finger tips of each hand pointing toward each other ... the elbows will be somewhat bent with the elbow joints pointing away from the side of the body.
3) Tongue extended out ... as far out of the mouth and down as possible (not licking your nose here ... other direction down)
4) Then out loud begin laughing as loud and freely as possible the more uncontrollable the better ...
Ha..Ha..Ha..Ha........Ha..Ha..Ha..Ha........Ha..Ha..Ha..Ha ..... and so on for a few minutes
5) After a few minutes relax (oh yeh and stop). Really releases the abdomen-solar plexus area and stuck emotions.
Of course, if you do this at work during a stressed out day, they might call the guys in white jackets to come take you away or formally relieve you of your job duties. But you'll feel better and amazingly free at least until you realize you have no job or income.
But then there is a balance to everything ... Ha...Ha...Ha...Ha
Not joking .... this really is a good exercise for breaking up stuck emotions in the solar plexus ...
Love and Light,
Steve
PS. Just did a search and saw Jim and others discussed this in more detail before (archives) .... http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....C_ID=223#223
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Edited by - Steve on Apr 17 2008 5:04:05 PM |
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Balance
USA
967 Posts |
Posted - Apr 17 2008 : 7:11:47 PM
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Hey that's a great one Steve, and your presentation was excellent, made me want to try it.
Boy that link goes back to the yahoo group, before my time. Jim's an old-timer! And obsidian9999 must be David? |
Edited by - Balance on Apr 17 2008 8:39:07 PM |
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Victor
USA
910 Posts |
Posted - Apr 18 2008 : 02:31:14 AM
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I find that in meditation when I feel an area deep inside release that I will often sigh and it feels like a delicious sensation so I don't really associate a genuine sigh with a negative experience. More the overly dramatic social sighs. Sometimes when I am feeling emotional stress and then a thought comes to me that clicks as "right" and that allows my heart to open I will get a release in the form of a sigh as well.
It is the same with tears. True weeping is an emotional release but it is so often just another dramatic gesture that people use with each other. |
Edited by - Victor on Apr 18 2008 04:12:27 AM |
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Steve
277 Posts |
Posted - Apr 18 2008 : 05:52:09 AM
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Hi Victor,
Very interesting post in which you have touched upon another vantage point that can lead to further understanding of the workings of the heart vs emotions and how to go deeper into the heart and release stored up emotions.
As you mentioned, there is a 'delicious sensation', one that is directly related to the pure feeling from the heart. We can enjoy that 'delicious sensation' with our feeling. If we follow it, feel and enjoy it without effort or observing or attempting to direct and control it using the mind or brain ... it will take us deeper into even more delicious sensations from the heart.
However, we also have blockages in our heart caused by the effects and accumulation of stored up emotions and past trauma. As we learn to let go to better feel and enjoy the delicious sensations of the heart, the stored up emotions and blockages will begin to be released and dissolved. (It is actually the Love that dissolves them.)
As the emotion is released ... (could be tears, laughter, a wave of depression, anger .... anything) we don't want to hold onto the emotion, we don't want to repress it ... it is best without resistance to allow it to be experienced and to wash through the system and be released ...
There is a tipping point, however, which determines where the process proceeds. Once the the emotion has been released (at least in good portion) its intensity will diminish ... then with our feeling we can easily come back to and enjoy the delicious sensation within our heart again ... the removal and dissolution of the emotional block might still be continuing at a subtle level but thats OK ... the release that occurred actually helping us to follow and enjoy that delicious feeling even more because the heart is now more open and the Love can work better.
However, without proper understanding and returning to that delicious feeling, we can also choose to continue to follow our emotions after the release point has been passed ... that will actually bring us out of the heart and the emotions that we continue to follow will begin to feed on themselves and begin to generate more emotion ...
On the level of feeling and using the heart ... does this not seem somewhat similar to the process that we use in deep meditation with the mantra and thoughts?
In deep meditation with the mantra, inner silence, bliss ... is cultivated.
In diving into the heart enjoying the feeling ... peace, calm, joy, happiness, love reveal themselves ...
I love Yogani's reflection on the heart that Christi recently pointed out to me. What I have crudely attempted to describe has assisted me with what Yogani terms as 'melting in love'. Its just about enjoying and letting the Love work.quote:
Yes, I have heard also that "the heart is last to open." But I think it is more involved than that. In the lessons, we begin with the heart because desire is the engine that drives all yoga. Desire that is intensified and directed toward spiritual unfoldment is bhakti, and this is all heart work. Practices feed back into the heart, increasing bhakti every step along the way. So the heart is opening all the time, along with the rest of the nervous system. Then ecstatic conductivity begins to rise and we are melting in love inside in the face of so much ecstasy and rising inner sensuality – more heart opening. Finally, when shiva (silence) and shakti (ecstasy) are merging and we finally go directly to the crown, then it all pours down and the heart goes all the way into overflowing pure divine love. Maybe that last step is what is meant by "the heart is last to open." But the truth is, yoga begins with the heart, the heart is opening every step of the way, and it ends with the heart, as we finally become an expression of divine love on earth. And all of these steps of the heart will not be traumatic, as long as we do the yoga practices that cultivate smooth purification and opening of the nervous system. This is what the heart calls us to, and this is what opens the heart.
Love and Light,
Steve |
Edited by - Steve on Apr 18 2008 11:17:27 AM |
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Balance
USA
967 Posts |
Posted - Apr 18 2008 : 11:08:37 AM
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| Beautiful Steve and Victor. Thanks for bringing it deeper. |
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Releasing Breath
