Requesting Advice

[Nigel333]

Hi,

I'm in need of some advice. (great forum btw, have been reading helpful and interesting posts for a few hours now)

I'm a complete yoga beginner, so if I say or ask something stupid, please forgive me.

I do have some experience in meditation though. I meditate each day before going to bed.

I always avoided yoga, I don't know why.  Guess I associated Yoga mostly with Hatha Yoga and with fighting with oneself.

To be honest, at that time, when I actually did read something about Yoga and possible energy releases, I though it was a bit of bull. I know better now.

I started doing Pranayama after buying "the little book of yoga breathing". I tried a lot of exercises in a short time, and needless to say that I had some negative experiences.

I decided to back off a little and only do Anulom Vilom Pranayama twice a day for 3 minutes, followed by a short meditation. This was about one and a half week ago.  This seemed to settle in ok, but since -in the mean time- I also ordered "Spinal Breathing Pranayama" from Yogani, I implemented this in my practice also. (within a week)  

The first days this was actually very pleasant. I felt very energetic and the cold outside had less effect on me.

The last days however, were not very comfortable. I felt very agitated and had some pretty scary schizophrenic thoughts.

So I cut down the pranayama time to just a few minutes and meditation a little longer.

Basically I´m looking for practice advice. I´d like to do both Anulom Vilom and Spinal Breathing followed by a meditation twice per day. Later on I´d like to add Kapal Bhati Pranayama too.

I know it´s best to alter the practice based on your own experiences, but would like to know how you would go about building a practice from meditation-only to the one described above.

I find it also difficult to know when to increase the practice-time.

I realize my post is a little scattered, with the broken English and all, but I hope you get my point.

Thanks
Nigel

[CarsonZi]

Hi Nigel

Welcome to the forum.  Go to the top right hand side of any page on the forum and click the Main Lessons link.  Have a read through the first 3 lessons, and keep in mind that you should have a decent base in meditation (and doing meditation before bed is never recommended) and an easy time finding the "silence" before adding pranayama to your practice.   Meditation is lesson 13 and I believe pranayama is lesson 30 something maybe.  I think the general rule here at AYP is that you should be doing 20 minute twice daily meditations for a couple of months at least before adding on the pranayama part.  Just some food for thought.  Have a read through the Main Lessons.

In Love,
CarsonZi

[Nigel333]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply CarsonZi!
I appreciate it.

I didn't even notice that the whole of the advanced yoga practices book is freely available online!

I maybe still ordering the book though, for easy reference.
I hope it gets me up to speed, because atm I feel I jumped in way to quickly.

[CarsonZi]

Now you got it bro!  Free and easy.  And right at your fingertips.  (Thanks Yogani!)  And don't worry, start from the beginning and it'll all work out blissfully![]

In Love,
CarsonZi[^]

[brother neil]

why would a lesser form of purification (spinal breathing) cause more trouble then a more potent form of purification (deep meditation0?
i am love, i am joy, i am peace
i am brother neil

[riptiz]

Hi neil,
Simply because they work in different ways.Deep meditation works on the superconscious parts of the brain. Spinal breathing(AYP method) works by stimulating and encouraging prana to rise throught the sushumna and is not particularly a lesser form of purification.In fact it is used in this way in Kundalini Maha Yoga at a later date for actually encouraging shakti to rise through the the sushumna, but this is once the Kundalini is awakened.Before then we practice spinal breathing from the crown downwards which in my expereince seems gentler as it is intended for purifying the sushumna and not specifically for encouraging shakti to rise.
L&L
Dave

[brother neil]

Rip, maybe what you are saying is part of an answer as to why I have problems in the i am deep meditation, (as i discussed in the thread titled "frustrating") maybe my prana body needs to catch up with my superconscious abilities?  not tyring to be egoic but as i have said I see all kins of things in the i am meditation but my normal everday breathing has been noticeably limited.  Lately with more focus on the breath my posture and lung capacity has greatly expanded.  If what you are saying is true I think it may be a possibility
i am love, i am peace, i am joy, i am you and you are me, we are one
bother neil