MuadDib

After calming down and settling in, if I retain the breath, I immediately feel chi moving. Without breath retention, it takes me much longer to get to the same level of sensitivity. Why is this so? Is breath retention an efficient shortcut or is it some kind of cheating? If I hold out for too long, I have to gasp for air and I am no longer in the relaxed, blissful state. So it is important to know when to breathe again, but that's besides the point. I've done yogic breathing exercises regularly for some years, without really thinking about the underlying mechanism. There are some possible explanations here: https://medium.com/forbidden-realms I'm interested in what knowledgeable people have to say about the underlying mechanism of breath retention. Thanks.

I had a simple but profound realization a couple of days ago and I would like to share it. Some preliminary info first... As many of you probably know, modern science has acknowledged our gut as the "second brain." The number of microorganisms that live inside our gut is estimated to be greater than the "human cells" with our DNA. I am too lazy to find links, but I once read that scientists took a bio-sample from the gut of an aggressive/daring mouse and injected it into the gut of a shy mouse. A while later, the shy mouse began exhibiting aggressive behavior. This experiment hinted that our gut flora is in charge of much more than digestion. Pretty amazing stuff if you ask me... I never drank kefir for my first 30+ years and naturally didn't know what it tasted like. A few years ago, as part of switching to a healthier lifestyle, I took my first sip of kefir. It had somewhat pungent taste and smell. I did not particularly enjoy the drink; I cannot say I hated it; I had a mild dislike of it. Anyways, I stuck with it and consumed one liter of kefir per week. In a few weeks' time, I realized that I did not dislike it any more. A few more weeks of regular consumption, and I began to enjoy it. After two years of regular consumption, I now ABSOLUTELY LOVE kefir. I do not drink it for health reasons any more, I drink it because I enjoy it very much. The other day, it occurred to me that it wasn't "I" who liked drinking kefir. It was the kefir - loving bacteria that I introduced into my gut who was responsible for this. I am no biochemist, but I am guessing that as I kept drinking the stuff, kefir loving bugs proliferated in my gut. At some point, they became large enough in numbers to release chemicals which made my brain "happy" whenever I consumed the stuff. I believe this experiment is replicable, I invite anyone interested to give it a try. Just pick a food you dislike and regularly consume it. See how you feel about it after a few weeks. The realization that it wasn't "I" who liked kefir was very profound for me. What about other thoughts and behavior I have? How much of it comes from "me" and how much from external sources. The teachings about not identifying with thoughts make more sense now

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.

At the end of this summer, I decided to challenge myself not to go down with the flu or a cold over the next 12 months. It is a difficult challenge due to my current living conditions. I live in a crowded metropolitan city. I commute to work using a train and then the subway. It lasts 1.5 hours each way so I spend 3 hours per day commuting. During rush hour we get packed like sardines. Oh yes, I work at an office with poor ventilation. I have a stressful job. These are my living conditions Over the last few years, I made significant improvements to my eating habits, have taken a rigorous exercise regime, conditioned myself to taking cold showers and began energy practice. Still, I've been getting sick a few times each year due to what I believe the conditions I listed above. I used to accept it as an unavoidable fact of life. This season I willed myself not to get sick. I take 500mg vitamin C when I feel my defenses are weakened. I'm constantly exposed to the bug as there are many sick people on the train and in the office. Sometimes I visualize a shield of energy protecting my body when I'm on the train and people are sneezing and coughing. At other times, when I feel I have a slight fever, I hit the gym, break a sweat and do some weights to shake off the illness. Sometimes when I feel I'm on the verge of getting ill, I just literally shake down my body and focus my attention to warding off the illness. I'm happy to report I have fought it off so far. I think September and October are the hardest times due to change of season. Feel free to discuss. Any advice is appreciated

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.

In the past, when I used to attend yoga classes, I would adopt the following routine. Eat at noon, finish work at the office and go attend the yoga class in the afternoon. Skip dinner, meditate before going to bed on an empty stomach, wake up and take a cold shower. The combination of fasting, yoga/meditation and a cold shower gives me a high. Of course I am all for balancing things out, so the next day I would eat both lunch and dinner and go for strength training between the two meals. Sufi masters say you must first subdue the carnal desires of the body before you can make some headway in spirituality and one of the foundational methods they propose is fasting.

If you can manage to get out of the bed, take a cold shower. It will wake you up fully, you will feel full of energy, and you will start the day feeling you achieved some accomplishment. It takes a while to get used to, though.

I can't recall a specific intent of mine while it happened. It felt like the natural course of things to happen, although what happened is not exactly natural I do simple practices like zhan zhuang, some basic yoga for stretching, some meditations on the chakras - nothing fancy. I do feel unwell due to the virus situation. Having to work from home, suffering huge financial losses, worrying about parents' health etc. Maybe the dream was related to that...

I had a strange dream a few days ago. I was on my own, somewhere indoors, a dimly lit and heavy environment. I started turning around my own axis, like those whirling dervishes, but moving very slowly. After a couple of full turns, my body slowly started to raise from the floor, just a few inches. As I kept whirling slowly and floating, I thought to myself "Whoa, so that's what it feels like to float!" It was an exhilirating experience. After a while, I had more control and was able to move like astronauts do in a zero-gravity environment. Turning upside down etc. Then I thought "This is great, but if I wanted to do this again by will, I probably won't be able to." It was clearly something that happened to me, and not something that I made happen. Shortly after that, the dream ended. It felt pretty real. Any similar experiences?

Thank you for sharing this. I now shake as you described for a couple of minutes prior to my ZZ practice. It clearly helps circulation. One time, I shook for a few minutes 2-3 hours before going to bed. I was not able to sleep much that night. I intend to go for 15-20 minute sessions over the next few weekends and see how it goes.

I've been meaning to report back to this thread for a while. A few months ago, I my perineum started to twitch involuntarily, it felt like muscle spasms, not painful but just a little annoying as it was involuntary. It went on for a day or two, on and off. Then it stopped. A few weeks ago, a similar involuntary twitch/spasm developed in the LDT area. More specifically, right side of the lower abdomen. It went on and off for a little over two days. Then it stopped. I was beginning to consider seeing a doctor if it persisted. In case I had a parasitic worm or something inside my intestines. Thankfully I didn't have to. Other than that, nothing interesting happened. I keep practicing regularly.

@cheya I do get a lot of sun exposure during spring and summer but not much during winter. I will check my vitamin D levels. I eat a lot of greens and some fruits on a daily basis so I don't take huge doses of vitamin C as a supplement. @Cybele Thank you, sounds like a good addition to my arsenal. @Taomeow Where I live it's very rare seeing someone wear a mask in public. It's usually the unfortunate kids with leukemia that do @GSmaster I try to avoid it because having a flu feels like shit. It is due to a pathogen that attacks you, so I believe it makes sense to defend against it. IMHO having a brief cold is OK though. Anyways, I prefer other ways to detoxify like sweating and fasting. @rainbowvein Interesting, I will look into copper. On average, I ejaculate about twice a week. I am 36. More frequent during summer and less during winter. It also depends on GF's mood though