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Iced Earth
USA
17 Posts |
 Posted - Dec 06 2006 : 3:19:23 PM
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| I have been practicing the deep meditation technique for several days and I am already noticing inner silence more often. But for the past year I have been more conscious of my breathing, and taking control of it in difficult situations. With the AYP practices, including spinal breathing, is it still a good practice to keep an awareness of the breath during daily activities? |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Dec 06 2006 : 5:35:51 PM
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Hi Iced Earth,
Welcome to the forum... 
Your question is a common question for people who start with mantra meditation. In AYP.. we don't consciously focus on the breath, or where your eyes go.. or where the mantra should be located.. or anything else for that matter. You pick up your mantra.. and repeat it in your mind.. and if you lose it.. you gently pick it up again..
If you look at this topic Breath and Mantra your question has been discussed here. I hope this helps.
Wish you all the best in your chosen path.. |
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riptiz
United Kingdom
741 Posts |
Posted - Dec 06 2006 : 5:40:00 PM
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Hi Iced Earth,
Not sure what the AYP stance is but by simply breathing through the nose and diaphragm in your daily life will make a difference in anyone who uses this method.The best teacher for this method is a baby in the crib or cot as they breathe this way naturally.By returning to this natural way will make a difference in energy flow.
L&L
Dave |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Dec 06 2006 : 5:50:03 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by riptiz
Hi Iced Earth,
Not sure what the AYP stance is but by simply breathing through the nose and diaphragm in your daily life will make a difference in anyone who uses this method.The best teacher for this method is a baby in the crib or cot as they breathe this way naturally.By returning to this natural way will make a difference in energy flow.
L&L
Dave
What Dave has said is true. You can do this during the day. However during your meditation, don't follow your breath. The problem I have found with keeping my awareness on my breath all day is .. it creeps into my meditation.. but this is not true with everyone. So if doing your breath awareness during the day does not interfere with your meditation.. maybe a good practice to follow.. dunno..
Keep in mind though.. don't do spinal breathing all day.. I remember I had a tendency of following my breath as in spinal breathing all throughout the day.. that is a no no.. but just normal.. in-breath and out-breath.. humm.. that has been recommended by people to be in the present.. the "Now"... so maybe you could try that..
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Edited by - Shanti on Dec 06 2006 6:04:05 PM |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4379 Posts |
Posted - Dec 06 2006 : 5:54:42 PM
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quote:
With the AYP practices, including spinal breathing, is it still a good practice to keep an awareness of the breath during daily activities?
Hi Iced Earth,
Welcome to the forum. I agree with Shanti in terms of what we do with the breath during practices. If your question is about what we do with the breath during daily activities, well...
Yogani doesn't recommend doing practices outside of practices, if that makes sense  . So we have our practice times, which are quite strictly controlled by ourselves, and then when we are not practicing, we just get on with our life so to speak. However, of course it is not as simple as that, because one of the results of AYP practice, over time, is that we become more aware, of everything around us, and inside us, including our breathing. But making an effort to be deliberately aware of the breath during daily activities could be classed as an extra (unregulated) practice, and so would not be recommended. As I am sure you have noticed, bringing our awareness to the breath calms the nervous system, and causes the retention of prana in the body, so it has similar effects to some of the AYP practices and could cause a "doubling up" effect. This would make it difficult to self-pace our practices, and could lead to energy overloads….
It’s great that you are asking lots of questions… keep them coming.
Love and light,
Christi
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Kirtanman
USA
1651 Posts |
Posted - Dec 07 2006 : 2:52:23 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Iced Earth
I have been practicing the deep meditation technique for several days and I am already noticing inner silence more often. But for the past year I have been more conscious of my breathing, and taking control of it in difficult situations. With the AYP practices, including spinal breathing, is it still a good practice to keep an awareness of the breath during daily activities?
Hi Iced Earth,
Welcome to the forum -- and good question!
I certainly agree with the other responses - and would like to add:
While I concur that following or being aware of the breath as a practice (outside of spinal breathing) is not recommended -- I do find it very helpful to literally bring my awareness back to my breath, at least several times per day, outside of sitting practices - because:
*If I find myself actually doing this, it means I wasn't fully present - which still happens many times per day, for me.
*Like many of us, I tend to breath with more tension, and less fully than is optimal -- and bringing my awareness / attention back to my breath for even a few moments can help to get me back on track.
I am very grateful that years of involvement from a fairly early age in both vocal music and martial arts, helped me to train myself to breath diaphragmatically (fancy, formal-ish term for "belly breathing" - if you breathe into your belly, slowly, in a relaxed manner, and aren't afraid to let your belly expand - the rest will pretty much take care of itself.)
The reason I bring this up, is:
Even with that benefit (of not having to *remember* to breathe into my abdomen instead of my chest), I still find myself bringing my awareness back to my breath at least several times a day - and needing to relax, every time I do so ("otherwise" doesn't seem to be a possibility - if I am present, completely - I am aware enough of my breath to keep it relaxed already, and so, there's no need to bring my attention _back_ to my breath. Make sense?)
That's big, actually --- for all of us:
I'm no expert - this is all via experimentation -- but -- it is _almost always_ (and possibly always) a matter of my _mind_ drawing me away from presence which brings tension to my breathing. Except for those rare "adrenaline" moments (someone almost crunches your fender in the parking lot, etc.) - tension in my body almost always comes from lack of presence.
Breath follows mind --- and every bit as importantly - mind follows breath.
If I'm feeling stressed out, and my mind is racing -- I take a moment to "Breathe" (Just Breathe) - with hat tip to Anna Nalick and her awesome song -- and --- oh so amazingly -- my "racing thoughts" decrease to a moderate idle in literally 30-45 seconds of slow, relaxed breathing.
In that sense, bringing awareness to the breath *could* be called practice, depending on how one defines "practice" -- but I think of it more as "practice support" - in the same way that things like diet, quality sleep and exercise are practice support.
Hope that helps - and again, welcome!
Peace & Namaste,
Kirtanman
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riptiz
United Kingdom
741 Posts |
Posted - Dec 07 2006 : 4:05:41 PM
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Hi,
Yes I agree with Kirtanman that allowing the natural way of breathing to return to be your normal way gives greater benefit.I also find it automatic due to my many years of martial arts training and very rarely need to focus on the breath with intent.As for affecting yourself by classing it as an extra practice? I've never seen a baby affected by breathing in the way that God intended us to do.It needs to become the norm and not a concentrated effort.If anyone doubts this method then ask yourself, when was the last time you tried putting food in your nose? The mouth is for eating and the nose is for breathing.
L&L
Dave |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4379 Posts |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 3:02:10 PM
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quote:
Dave wrote:
As for affecting yourself by classing it as an extra practice? I've never seen a baby affected by breathing in the way that God intended us to do.It needs to become the norm and not a concentrated effort.If anyone doubts this method then ask yourself, when was the last time you tried putting food in your nose? The mouth is for eating and the nose is for breathing.
Hi Dave,
I think we are talking about two different things here.
I agree with you about the natural breathing. I too breathe through my nose and into my belly, and believe it is a healthier way to breathe. So yes, I don't see any harm coming out of being aware of the way in which we are breathing, throughout the day, and a lot of good can come of it. What i was talking about in my post above was something slightly different. I was refering to the act of deliberately being aware of the breath throughout the day... as in the air (and prana) moving in and out of our body, rather than the way in which we are breathing. Prana follows the breath (prana actually means air or breath in Sanskrit), and as our ecstatic conductivity grows, we become just as aware of the movements of prana in the subtle nervous system, as we breathe, as we are of the movements of the air currents. When this happens, bringing our attention to the breath inside or outside of practices, will cause a build up of energy (prana) in the subtle nervous system. If we do it a lot outside of practices, and our practices are already at the edge of what we can handle, in terms of moving forward safely, then the addition of conscious breathing, on top of our existing practices, could cause energy overload symptoms. This is what I was refering to when I refered to conscious breathing as being an additional practice. In my experience, it happens to a certain extent anyway, but if we don't make a deliberate thing out of it, we don't run into energy problems as much.
Love and Light
Christi. |
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
Posted - Dec 08 2006 : 3:14:34 PM
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| Good post Christi. |
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riptiz
United Kingdom
741 Posts |
Posted - Dec 09 2006 : 05:55:44 AM
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Hi Christi,
Yes I believe you are quite correct in your statement.Of course we all take responsibility for our actions and if we get excessive energy flow by upping practices then it is on our own heads but I think you are wise to caution others to take care.Personally I don't get excessive symptoms and am willing to put up with anything that comes my way to make progress but we are all different.Luckily my martial arts background has given me good grounding and so I experience very little problems.
L&L
Dave |
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Breath awareness throughout the day
