One minute breath

[Guest guest]

I have found it very helpful in building time for the one minute breath to use

the Tantric Sa Ta Na Ma tape to "count seconds" for me. It takes 5 repetitions

to make 20 seconds, you can start with 3 and work your way up. This frees your

mind from doing the counting or from looking at a clock (and when you are just

counting mentally, the mind may tend to cheat a little and speed up the count)

Of course you can use any other repetitious mantra--just see how many seconds

per repetition.

Peace, Love & Light, Sukhmani

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I have such difficulty with the one minute breath. Inhaling is difficult for

me to stretch out to 20 seconds, holding the breath for 20 seconds is ok, and

exhaling for 20 seconds is totally scary for me. I start shaking alot and

also feel like a failure because while my lungs are fine, I just can't seem

to do it. While I realize that the point here is not to judge myself, but to

be, I seem to forget in the midst of this breath. Then I just play with the

breath, trying all sorts of things... sometimes avoiding the panic by

reverting to a more normal for me breathing pattern, sometimes desparately

sucking in air, sometimes seeing what comes up. Is it better to do something

like an 11-11-11 kind of a pattern and sustain it or is it better to try for

the 20-20-20 and ride the roller coaster ? Or maybe you know other ways to

work with it.

My yoga teacher said that its no surprise that the exhale is the

hardest, as it is about being out there in the world, which sometimes also

feels scary or unsafe at some level to me. Your help is gratefully

appreciated. Sat nam, Sheri

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I went to Google to search for "one minute breath" and came across this web

site that has very helpful guidance for developing one-pointed mind, and

thoughts about how to extend the breath. <A

HREF="http://www.imagical.com/ap/ChaoSpirit.htm">Chaochou's Astral Projection

Resource Center</A>

Sheri

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I have the same kind of difficulty with the one minute breath. I also have

trouble keeping track of 20 seconds. To measure I think the mool mantra.

Sometimes I get confused because of the difficulty with the breath, but I

like to hear the mool mantra going through my mind. I don't like to have

the clock going off every 20 seconds. I feel like it's saying, "Oh you

floundered again." Does the exact time matter so much?

 

This morning, Saturday, I woke up at 2 am and should have just done my

sadhana then. That's what I do when I am feeling very stressed and in dire

need of sadhana (most of the time). Instead I went back to sleep, woke up

at 5 and stayed in bed until 6. That didn't leave much time for sadhana. I

am getting very tired of hearing this critical voice that always sounds like

"you flounder again (above). I just felt relieved to be so rebellious and

to feel well rested. So after 40 minutes, instead of sticking out a long

sadhana, I took a walk and felt even better. Then, I continued the rest of

my Sadhana routine. I like having a routine, but sometimes I feel

compulsive about it. Being compulsive just stirs up that critical voice

that definitely reduces the pleasure of doing Sadhana.

 

Sheri, you seem to hear this same kind of nagging voice. What do you do

about it besides my method of rebelling? Essentially it's like turning off

a nagging mom.

 

It's all in my head.

 

Sat Nam, Gian (Ellen)

 

-

<Neshamaaa

<Kundaliniyoga>

Saturday, June 08, 2002 9:12 PM

Re: One minute breath

 

 

> I have such difficulty with the one minute breath. Inhaling is difficult

for

> me to stretch out to 20 seconds, holding the breath for 20 seconds is ok,

and

> exhaling for 20 seconds is totally scary for me. I start shaking alot and

> also feel like a failure because while my lungs are fine, I just can't

seem

> to do it. While I realize that the point here is not to judge myself, but

to

> be, I seem to forget in the midst of this breath. Then I just play with

the

> breath, trying all sorts of things... sometimes avoiding the panic by

> reverting to a more normal for me breathing pattern, sometimes desparately

> sucking in air, sometimes seeing what comes up. Is it better to do

something

> like an 11-11-11 kind of a pattern and sustain it or is it better to try

for

> the 20-20-20 and ride the roller coaster ? Or maybe you know other ways to

> work with it.

> My yoga teacher said that its no surprise that the exhale is the

> hardest, as it is about being out there in the world, which sometimes also

> feels scary or unsafe at some level to me. Your help is gratefully

> appreciated. Sat nam, Sheri

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam Sheri,

 

"I have such difficulty with the one minute breath." My very first meditation

was

one minute breath. I seem to remember fiddling around with 15 seconds and then

18 seconds and when I realized I could do 18 I just did twenty.

 

My approach was that I intended to do it, I silently asked for help a couple of

times

but I always kept my intent, and if I stopped or gasped for air, I went right

back to

the meditation and eased back into it.

 

"Inhaling is difficult for me to stretch out to 20 seconds, holding the breath

for 20 seconds is ok, and exhaling for 20 seconds is totally scary

for me."

I learned to inhale slowly, the breath so faint that you can barely feel it

coming through your nose and filling your lungs.

The holding is easiest and also provided the heat and the fireworks later on.

The exhaling is perhaps the most challenging, speed up your WaHe Gurus if you

are running out of breath, trick yourself.

 

The thing about pranayam meditations, from my viewpoint is that the farther

along and the deeper you go, the more the body losens up and relaxes,

there is a physiological change at different time intervals. You will be aware

of them.

 

The first 20-30 minutes is always the same, the body must 'warm up' and get

accustomed to the new breathing pattern. It seems you are stuck in

that interval.

Thats ok, 'cheat' a little if you have to. Once you get past 30-45 minutes your

body gets into it, 'higher self' seems to be in control, but

you've got to get to the point where you are feeling the changes. Adjust the

speed of the mantra when needed, start with just 15, go to 18 and

stay there a while then go to twenty.

I always started off at 15 on the very first rep, then either went to 18 or 20.

The 20

is just too much of a shock for my mind-body.

 

I seemed to have a lot of 'congestion' early on too, I would gasp and felt like

there

was something pressing on my chest. But I refused to give in. Yes my first

month

was rough. I don't know if it was kapha or what.

 

No, don't play with the breath. Intend to move up, challenge what the mind-body

presents to you as your 'limit', its never failed me.

 

Lastly, I really feel like several of the breath meditations, especially this

one, are about fear, base-level first chakra fear. Fear of holding

the breath too long, of running out of oxygen, of death. Thats what I felt.

But you know what? Its all just

a big @@##$$%% illusion.

 

Thats fantastic that you've chosen this meditation. Many people just give up

on it,

convinced they can't do it.

 

Try this. After Adi Mantra, just sit silently and ask for help from the 'Golden

Chain',

with the intention that you are going to do the meditation for 20-30 minutes no

matter what comes up or what your body throws at you.

 

You'll do fine.

 

Blessings

 

Brad

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam Sheri,

 

Here are a couple of things that helped me to increase my timing with the one

minute breath.

 

1) Start with a lower timing.. work into it easily like Brad said. Starting

with something you feel comfortable with and then slowly stretch your limit by

adding another 2 seconds. Then when you have become comfortable at that level,

move up another 2 seconds.

 

2) Relax into it. Before starting do a relax check! Take a moment to feel

every part of your body systematically, feet, legs, hips, stomach, chest, back,

shoulders, arms, neck, throat and all the facial muscles and features. And

notice if you are holding any tension, send a gentle message to each part of

your body to relax.

 

Often with more challenging meditations, we start to tense up with out even

realizing it, usally because a negative thought has come into our mind about our

ability to do the meditation. This is usually accompanied by a corresponding

tension in the body which can inhibit the depth of our breathing, so it helps to

do a quick scan a couple of times during the meditation, to see if we are

holding anywhere.

 

So once or twice scan the body and let go and relax through the legs, hips,

belly, chest, shoulders and _facial muscles_ in particular.

A good time to do this is during your inhale (when we can have the tendance to

hold the shoulders and belly).

 

3) One of the problems can be that we are inhaling or exhaling the air too

quickly. You could try, very softly, partially closing the glottis, which is

the upper part of the throat, this will produce a slight even sound as the air

passes through, and will enable you to control better the speed that the air

comes in and out.

 

Are you contracting the abdomen on the exhale, bringing the navel towards the

spine? If you exhale from the lungs and chest and then continue, bringing the

navel in by slowly and gently contracting the abdomen, then you will have a

greater and more complete exahle, continue exhaling until the very last ml. of

air is expelled (without straining) and then very gently let your abdomen start

to slowly relax and expand in a controlled way, which will naturally drawn in

air to start off your next inhale. Inhale so that your belly becomes round like

a balloon, fully extended, and then move your focus up towards inhaling further

to expand the chest and lungs.

 

Hope this helps, don't be hard on your self, just start with something that's

manageable and then challenge your self (in a very loving and gentle way

ofcourse!) to go a little further and work upwards!

 

brightest blessings,

 

Krishan Shiva Kaur

 

 

 

 

 

 

___________

SikhNet - http://www.SikhNet.com

___________

Get news on Sikhism and the Sikhnet web site

Sign up at http://www.SikhNet.com/

 

___________

Promote your group and strengthen ties to your members with email

by Everyone.net http://www.everyone.net/?btn=tag

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

A correction to my previous post.

 

A good time to do the quick 'relax scan' is during the breath retention

(holding), that's when we have the tendance to hold tension in the shoulders and

belly.

 

Sat Nam

Krishan Shiva Kaur

 

___________

SikhNet - http://www.SikhNet.com

___________

Get news on Sikhism and the Sikhnet web site

Sign up at http://www.SikhNet.com/

 

___________

Promote your group and strengthen ties to your members with email

by Everyone.net http://www.everyone.net/?btn=tag

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam,

 

When I do one minute breath it is at the very end of my practice, with lots

of breath of fire and breathing before hand. This it is easier but not

easy. But not impossible which I find with no pranayama before.

 

Work up to 20 minutes.

 

To get the exhale, I do short little pieces of exhale to extend it. This is

probably cheating but it helps. I also pump my navel which distracts me and

generates energy. And chant mantras.

 

Sat Nam,

 

Gururattan Kaur

 

Sat nam,

 

Gururattan Kaur

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam Sheri group,

 

"To get the exhale, I do short little pieces of exhale to extend it."

I do the same, some exhales for me are unexplainably 'short-breathed' and some

are

smooth, no problem.

 

Another thought, I don't believe this comes with a mantra. I did it with

WaHe Guru. So I just counted 20 WaHe Gurus, same as Sodarshan but

16.

 

Brad