MuadDib

Yes. I recommend sun - dried apricots if you can find them, and raisins. A handful of dried fruits a day should get you a long way. Drink lots of water for a while, as it helps the stuff move down your system.

Yes when I think about it, it is kind of gross. I certainly don't do it intentionally 😁 But every time we swallow, we swallow a little bit of mucus whether we want to or not. The stuff just travels down to the throat. An option is to clear the throat and spit it out, but spitting is generally looked down upon. Athletes spit it out though without any hindrance. I am also habitually an abdomen breather, unless I am in a very stressful situation. I find myself breathing shallowly in those situations. The nostril blockage problem is a night time issue for me when I am usually relaxed and breathing from the abdomen. Until the nostrils get blocked 😂

I hear you! The follow-up to that scenario is finally having both nostrils blocked so you have to breathe from the mouth. Then you end up with a stinky dry mouth and invite many health problems. I did some research on this a while ago. Many factors contribute to night time congestion. The main one is that during the day your head is upright and the mucus flows down to your throat and gets swallowed into the stomach. At night, this natural flow diminishes greatly due to lack of gravity effects. The best fix is sleeping straight on your back with your head elevated over a pillow. I am.not used to sleeping this way, but I am trying to make an effort. My sleeping quality is not good. A complicated issue this is, and I am sorry to go off-topic.

A few years ago, my yoga instructor said the same thing. Air flow alternates between the right and left nostrils about every 30 minutes, she said. I confirm this from personal experience as well. As a side note, being able to breathe comfortably from the nose is a bliss. We get reminded of this whenever we have a congestion.

Been going at it since June. Connection between the navel and ming men is clearly established now (3rd exercise). Sensations regarding the 4th exercise (ldt to solar plexus) are not very strong yet. Since last night I've been having twitches from the inside around my lower abdomen. I take it as a positive sign.

This has happened to me a few times too. When I fix my attention on the root chakra, the third eye begins vibrating. As the third eye is related to visualization, it could be about that. I do not use visualization techniques in my meditations, at least not consciously. Perhaps sometimes I am unintentionally visualizing the root chakra and it activates the third eye. Just a theory.

Very deep, sir 😏

I've gone through the videos recently. I found them to be very useful. I got convinced of the system's effectiveness after trying out the first few exercises. I decided to adopt it as a practice until year end, depending on the rate of progress.

My apologies. It rhymes with the topic and brought back lots of memories for me Will is like muscle, it will get stronger if you exercise it. Set your mind on something small, something very inconsequential and accomplish it. Exercise your will. As life progresses, you may find what feeds the fire in you. Then you can set a big goal and perhaps even dedicate your life to it. No hurries, everything happens in its own time.

Some traditions acknowledge the time of day just before sunrise, we are energetically very vulnerable/sensitive. I would advise keeping calm, taking the point of view of an observer and try to smile (both on the outside and also inner smile) if you can. Also keep in mind that your body has limits. When your body cannot take it any more, you will sleep, possibly making up for some of the lost hours you had in the past few days.

I am doing the MCO course of Damo. It's very kind of him to put this material online for free. I was kind of stuck in my practice and the material came in at a good point for me to proceed. I've previewed the material and I believe it's top notch. Currently, I'm doing the first 4 exercises, up to the one where the ldt and mdt are connected and qi is thickened. Hopefully I will report back in a few months once I've gone through the whole practice.

Best way is to remove any prohibited items from your home. This way, even if you feel a strong urge, you will end up over-eating something that is allowed in your dietary plan. I stopped buying bread over three years ago, for example. I'll only eat bread at a restaurant or at someone else's home, if I have to. Also, they say it takes about 21 days to break a habit (or form new ones). Stay strong in the beginning, and sugar cravings will dissipate very quickly. I am a man who likes his apple pie. The other day, my fiancee made a surprise and brought some home knowing that I like it very much. I didn't feel like eating it. We almost had a fight about it so I had to compromise and eat some pie. I didn't enjoy it at all and resented my fiancee for putting me on the spot like that. So, as silent thunder mentioned things get difficult socially sometimes, and compromises have to be made. But I suggest remaining steadfast and strong in the beginning. Compromises can wait

Actually, your six packs are already there under fat and skin tissues. If you want to make them visible to the eye, you will need to lower your body fat ratio to single digit levels. No abs exercise in the world will get you there unless you get your body fat ratio really low. For most people, it is out of reach due to life style. In my experience, core exercises actually help with abdominal and reverse breathing, not hinder it. As a matter of fact, I feel my breathing becomes inefficient when I put on a few kgs of weight and develop a bigger belly. So I would say from experience that when you work towards a 6 pack (doing core exercises and lowering body fat ratio), you will help your breathing become more efficient.

I started this thread back in October, before covid19 started spreading around. I want to share a few experiences since then. Unfortunately, I did catch the flu I think 3 times between November and mid - January. This was disappointing as I had made a point of resisting it just prior. I continued my research on how to effectively combat this. In February and early March, when the corona virus began raging the world, I went about my routine life, commuting 3 hours a day on public transportation with no masks, no social distancing etc. (Where I live, the government had taken no precautionary actions yet, we've had over 150,000 "official" cases so far). I've been commuting on public transportation over 10 years, and I did notice people were coughing much more frequently than what I consider normal. The government admitted the virus had entered the country by mid - March and my employer had us work from home since then. I believe there is a high chance I've been exposed to covid19 in the early period, but I never got tested. Even if not, I'm pretty sure I got exposed to some nasty flu variant - everyone was coughing all over each other in very crowded spaces. Since the beginning of February, I stuck to the following regimen and never fell ill. I stopped taking vitamin C on a daily basis. Whenever I felt the beginnings of an attack (sneezing a couple of times, itchy throat and inner ears), I took a much larger dose of vitamin C than I would previously take. Basically, I kept taking 500 mg on a few hour intervals until I felt better and the feeling of a coming cold/flu was gone. Usually this would add up to 2.5 - 3.0 grams per day, for a day or two. Once I felt that I had the upper hand, I would take 1000 mg and then stop taking it fully. I had the beginnings of the attack at least four times, and warded it off easily every time. I currently take a nice multivitamin every other day that has pretty much all the essential vitamins and minerals (it has only 120mg of Vitamin C for example). I don't take anything else. Of course I continue eating well, exercise physically and energetically, and generally take care of myself as usual. I intend to follow this strategy and see if it keeps working the next flu season.

Humans differ very little in terms of dna, but we differ immensely in terms of the variety of gut bacteria we carry. We get our first stock of the bacteria from our mother, and then we absorb the rest through the food and drinks we consume. And the variety of bacteria we carry play a big role in determining which foods are good sustenance for us and which are intolerable. Beyond the main guidelines (avoid processed food etc), every person's optimal diet will be unique. One dietician wrote that since we get our first batch of gut bacteria from our mother, and most genetical dispositions are similar in close family members, we should observe our close family members. What do the ones who are having health problems eating? Try avoid those foods. What do those healthy family members eating? Try including those foods in your diet. As others mentioned above, it is a trial and error process. It is not too hard though, if you are observant.