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Hey man, that is strange, I’m not sure why that happened. Did you validate your email address? Write me at “thetaobums @ gmail dot com” and I will help you.
Sean
I don’t think there is such a thing as raw coconut oil.
But anyway, how do you consume your coconut oil? Just curious. Thanks.
> try 9 bottle breathing. It is very short and simple yet everyone hates doing it. Literally, everyone. But it is well worth it.
Good sell, Max. 🙂 I always did hate this 9 bottle breathing practice but when you put it this way I will give it another try. What should I look forward to, watch out for, etc.?
Thanks,
Sean.Karen, if you write me at somlorNOSPAM@gmail.com (remove the NOSPAM part) I can lend you my “Be Breathed” video if you are interested. Actually, there is another video that might even be better for you I can lend you that starts off even gentler and integrates the exact concepts in “Be Breathed” with a yoga set called “The Five Tibetans”. I can figure out who I lent that to and have them mail it directly to you. 🙂
Re: Buteyko breathing. That you are struggling at 12 seconds tells me that this is definitely going to help you as you move up to 30, 45, 60 seconds. If your absolute max is 10-12 seconds, then train that day with just 7 second holds (or even 5 if need be). Do that for 5 breaths than take a break. Just breathe normally for half a minute or so. Then do another set of 5 breaths, holding exhale for 7 seconds. Take a break, etc. Do maybe 5-10 sets of these a day and soon you will be up to 10, 15, 25 second holds no problem.
Here’s a copy and paste of a variation I wrote about a ways back on The Tao Bums that introduces movement to Buteyko breathing. It’s basicaly Buteyko + Be Breathed.
“Stand erect and on the exhale lean forward a bit, rolling your shoulders forward, curling up your pelvis and pulling up on your diaphragm. Count until the discomfort suddenly starts to rapidly increase. Subtract a second or two from that number and use that for the rest of your session that day.
On the inhale, rapidly stand up straight, rolling shoulders back, relaxing your pelvis into a subtle backward arch and let go of your diaphragm. The released tension from having your diaphgram pulled up will have it drop and, along with the movement, automatically suck in a passive inhale. In other words, you don’t need to actually inhale, the relaxation of your diaphragm and the upward movement of your body will suck in a breath for you. Without pause, immediatly contract back into the active exhale and hold.
I do 5-10 reps of these and around 10 sets.
In between reps do a very relaxed, looser version of the same thing but only hold the exhale for 1/4 or 1/3 of the time you’ve established for your main reps. I find this an important step to avoid switching to gasping/holding in between reps. Do these relaxed reps until your system has calmed down and it’s completely natural and easy. Then start a new aggressive set.”
🙂
Sean.
I second Max’s recommendations for endogenous breathing. Here is another overview of this style of breathing’s purpose and benefits.
Regarding how this reconciles with natural breathing. IMO, the whole purpose of doing work or anything difficult is to remove artifically created obstacles in place that are preventing/constricting your Tao/natural flow. So having a natural breathing style that is appropriate and nourishes you is the ideal, but at this point there may be issues (ie: fear, unconscious beliefs, trauma, bad habit, etc.) that you need to unravel and resolve in order to uncover and establish breathing patterns that work for you. Hence the myriad of techniques, some more direct than others.
Besides the Frolov device that Max recommended, you may also want to check out Be Breathed. I think really integrating your breathing with your movement with a practice like this could do wonders. 🙂
Sean.
The Tao Bums“Scientific Stretching” book and tape by Kurz and/or “Relax into Stretch” book/dvd and “Forced Relaxation” dvd by Pavel will all point you in the right direction if you want to get into a full side split in less than 3 years.
Side split is one of my three primary physical goals right now and I’ve been doing a ton of research. I’m no where near there yet but you can read about my progress to a full side split (my goal is by mid December) among other things on my blog and also on Tao Bums if you are bored enough.
🙂
Sean.
You can just use html right in your post for bold and italics. enclose whatever you want to bold with < b > text here < / b > (remove spaces before and after brackets) … and use < i > text here < / i > for italic.
sean 🙂
Hmmm… I think because some things will always be out of your control.
This is a morbid example, but, for example, imagine a Zen master being severely beaten with a stick all the while remaining “in zen”. It’s possible right? But his body feels the pain fully and the hardwired survival mechanisms are also likely causing thoughts to arise of how he might escape this fate.
Strong feelings, strong thoughts … these are also just phenomena that arise and pass like clouds, right? But something/no-thing is at their core and is also their container. This is where the full release is IMO. It’s pre/supra cognitive/emotional/physiological.
Hmmm… but then there would be people who work so hard to become what they despise, beautifying or uglifying, all the while trying to keep track of which was the one they hated more (they have since become very convoluted) and perhaps all this in order to avoid some emotional problem and cultivate a belief that they are doing something spiritual when really they are full of fear and shame.
:p
Your technique reminds me of some of Crowley’s, mainly used to “destroy social accretions”, which is really just a way to face and release addiction for approval, both from yourself and others.
Plato wrote> “Release” begins the moment you realize that what you are holding onto is fundamentally devoid of meaning–empty.”
I think release can also occur through realizing that, fundamentally, both grasping and resisting are futile.
Hmmmm…
Actually release probably just happens and then we attach our metaphysics to it.
But I brought up this other distinction because I do think you can fully release something that you intellectually find very meaningful and still emotionally feel strongly towards. Releasing IME is pre-cognitive and even pre-emotional although not devoid of either.
http://www.radiantrecoverystore.com/soymaker.html
But also be aware of: http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/24/gannon.html
and counter argument: http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/26/desmaisons2.htmlI used to prefer Odwalla oat milk because it has the least sugar content but then Coca f**ing Cola bought Odwalla and discontinued it. Grrr…
Sean.
There are visualizations you can have and even play with, ie: of your car exploding or an axe chopping at a tree or gremlins running around your lawn. These pictures are not likely related to any useful/powerful process. Merely daydreams. Or brainstorming your next painting or film.
Then there are visualizations that are not only accurate metaphors for real processes … but are also keys for participation in these processes … especially when engaged in as if they are true.
Two examples…
First, stay seated staring at this post and picture a ball bouncing on your desk. Picture yourself taking out a gun and shooting it and the ball bursts.
Woopdee dooh. Empty visualization.
Second .. stand up and imagine your head is a balloon and the rest of your body and limbs are dangling strings. Walk around the room as if this were true. Sit down. Stand up. Jump. Bend over.
It’s likely that this latter experiment produced a noticeable effect. The images used accurately reflect a process, and more importantly engage real processes that direct your whole self to make a change.
“Actualization”, as Michael calls it, is “just semantics”, but is also useful for making this distinction.
Now … wether or not Chia/Winn’s imagery is accurately describing real processes … and wether engaging this imagery can actually initiate real work outside of your imagination is a whole nother argument …
My two cents would be that really stepping into the as if frame is crucial for making visualization work. IMO problems arise when you get stuck in the frame and turn it into a rigid belief. “My legs and arms really are strings. My head is a balloon.” This is one of the reasons magickians create astral circles to do their ritual work in. Creates a safe space to temporarily surrender completely to a strong “as if” frame for a specific working without having to believe it literally after stepping out of the circle.
:p
Sean
The Tao BumsThelerner,
I don’t believe the organs gods are independent of my mind either, but then again I don’t really believe any god is. I do think that anthropomorphising *anything* is a powerful way to develop a deeper full-body relationship with it. Which is a major reason I love and use Winn’s shen theory even though I don’t take it literally.
Language probably evolved first as a means of communicating with the tribe. Slowly this external language became internalized as a method of communication between our own neuro/biological processes which eventually gave rise to a more or less unified experience of self, ie: inner dialogue. But we are still probably much more sophisticated at communicating with what we at least temporarily believe are sentient beings than we are in manipulating symbols, because we have doing the former much longer. Breathing colors and moving symbols in and out of my organs definitely has power. But it’s quickly capable of being handled entirely by basic cerebral processes. Whereas when I let myself believe for a moment that there is a living God inside ie: my Kidney, and that I am in it’s Divine Presence, it draws way more into the interaction than just one part of my brain.
🙂
Just my two cents.
Sean.
