Too much release during meditation

[Elizabeth]

Hi,
   I have just started doing the I Am meditation this last week and I am following the guidelines from the book Advanced Yoga practices. Because I experienced a premature awakening of the third eye and crown chakra 18 months ago doing mantra meditation I am erring on the side of caution and I am only doing the practice for 15 minutes and then lying down to rest for a further 10 to 15 minutes. The premature awakening came about because the release I experienced doing mantra meditation was too intense and it continued long after I stopped doing the meditation and then the practice altogether. I have healed a lot from that experience and feel  it is time to start again. This time doing the Iam practice I am very aware when the release begins, I stop thinking the mantra and let it pass then when the next release happens even though I stop the mantra to let it pass it continues on and sometimes I have to lie down or sometimes my heart will start to race and I feel a little nausiated. I rest a while before getting on with my day. During the day today I felt  sensitive to noise and a bit weird within myself but not too bad. I am wondering though if I continue on whether the reactions during the day are going to get worse. The weird feeling did wear off by mid afternoon. When I experience the dive within before the release there is no silence or feelings of bliss just the discomfort of the release is all I experience. Any suggestions on how I can bring more balance into my practice? I have been doing spinal breathing before the practice for about 5 minutes because i have practiced spinal breathing in the past and experienced the benefits.

[Richard]

Hi Elizabeth welcome to AYP and the forum,

Sounds like you are doing exactly the right thing in managing your practices this way.

You may need some further grounding one of the simplest and best ways to ground excess energy is walking.

Have a look here Crown Chakra - Premature Opening

Take it easy and don't forget to self pace see here

[Christi]

Hi Elizabeth,

Welcome to the forum  ,

I agree with Richard, you are going about things the right way. If 15 minutes of mantra meditation is too much then cut back to 10 or even 5. Spinal breathing should help give you stability in terms of your energy movements. When spinal breathing becomes well established you should be able to direct prana away from your crown chakra towards your third eye, if things are becomming unstable up there. Normally excess energy at the crown is far more of a problem than excesses at the ajna chakra.

If sambhavi is not too stimulating, it can be an effective way to bring energy away from an overstimulated crown chakra and towards the third eye.

Do plenty of grounding activities, and stay active. A fair bit of purification has to go on before you begin to experience the "good stuff", but with regular practices, it's only a matter of time.

All the best.

Christi

[Anthem]

Hi Elizabeth,

Welcome to the forum.

I am also quite sensitive to meditation and would agree with Christi that if symptoms are too intense, reducing time would be the solution. Pranayama can help with stability, but for sensitive meditators it can also be too powerful an amplifier if too much is done. In my case, I do only 2-3 minutes of pranayama related work prior to 7 minutes of mantra meditation and this has been working very well.

If you are uncomfortable with the energy sensations, you can try reducing pranayama down and to observe if that makes your experience any more stable. A close friend of mine is very uncomfortable with energy sensations and finds them easily amplified with pranayama so elects to do just meditation.

Best of luck![]

[Elizabeth]

Thanks everyone for your prompt responses and valuable advise. There is something that I forgot to say in the last posting and that is that I am only able to do one session of meditation in the morning, my intuition tells me not to do any more than that because I will become too unbalanced. The last time I practiced mantra meditation which led to the premature opening of the chakras I went against my intuition some days and did a session later in the day which led to me not being able to sleep hardly at all and sometimes waking up in the night feeling like I was going crazy. I dont want to ever go through that again and so I think it is best to only do a session in the morning until I become stable in it and can build up the time a little before I attempt to start sessions later in the day. What do people think, any suggestions?

[Richard]

Hi Elizabeth.

Yogani wrote
 

quote:
Ten minutes is much better than no minutes, and ten minutes twice a day is much better than twenty minutes only once a day. There is a natural cycle of meditation and activity that is optimized by meditating twice a day. The "twice" is at least as important as the length of meditation.

You are obviously very sensitive to meditation and your inner guru is telling you to slow down.

I suggest you try just 5 minutes of meditation twice daily to start and gradually build up, if you do this you shouldn't feel any extreme after effects. Don't forget the grounding I cant emphasise enough how important it is just go for a nice long walk after meditation or whenever you get the chance it really does work.

If you are still feeling these extreme effects then yes cut back to one meditation a day but two will produce much more balanced results even if they are no more than 5 minutes each

[miguel]

Hi Elizabeth,i have the same problems as you.We are sensitive to practices..
Twice a day dm is much much better than once a day.maybe you need "only" 5 mtes twice a day,10 mtes...only you know what is right.But try first 5 mtes twice a day for some weeks and build up along the time.
Remember:in yoga "Less is more".
If you cant manage 5 mtes twice a day try this:

http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=5115

It helped me a lot.You can do both practices if you want (breathing meditation the days you feel overloaded,and dm the days you feel well,it works very well for me).Or maybe you need only breathing meditation for the moment...

Pranayama is a powerfull tool.My advice:dont do it for the moment.Wait until you feel well and stable with dm.
Maybe in the past sbreathing helped you and it worked well for you,but maybe now its excessive.Of course,dont try mulabhanda,shambavi...

And the best tool is self-pacing,look at this,its very usefull:

"All of these practices are very powerful, especially when integrated as we are doing, and should be done easily and precisely. If you are inclined to extend the time of your practices, do so very sparingly to see what happens at each step. Limiting yourself to not adding more than five minutes of anything in a month, is a reasonable approach. Even then you could creep yourself into an unstable situation. So use your common sense. If activity outside practices is smooth, you are doing okay. If it isn't, then chances are you are pressing too hard or too long. Be sure and keep active in your regular daily life. That is as much a part of it as the practices. Activity stabilizes the pure bliss consciousness and divine ecstasy we gain in practices."

Dont forget resting the time you need after dm.Its very important.If somedays you feel you need 30 mtes of resting,do it.it is a cleansing tool  also.

Grounding activities are a great advice too,it helpsa lot.three times a week,for example,i do some jogging.Exercice helps a lot.

Hope it helps and hearing good news from you in the future.

[Konchok Ösel Dorje]

I would suggest continuing with meditation; short sessions. Perhaps drop the mantra. It resonates with the brow too strongly for you. Do body awareness, scan your feet, legs up through your abdomen. Try to let your energy settle down literally, into the lower parts of your body. Naturally for you it will bubble up after some time. Then just do simple breath awareness with abdominal breathing.

Right now you have an overdose of energy in the head. This should not happen until the lower chakras have had their spin. If the brow chakra is pierced before others, it means you have attachments that must be overcome. Actually meditation is the remedy for this problem as well as loving-kindness, repentance and selfless service.

For the spin out feelings, I suggest you eat meat, have a beer, go out and see friends, laugh and play. Get with your lover and enjoy. Walk barefoot in the mud. Grounding...

One of the best things, and I don't know if the aboriginals have this in Australia, but in the States our Native Americans have a sweat lodge. You get in packed tight in a tiny dome it's in the mud, and the hot rocks, steam, drums and song are very cathartic. Many people break down crying and purge deep attachments. Do that if you can...

[Christi]

Hi Elizabeth,

I went through a period where meditating in the evening was too stimulating and disturbed my sleep. At that time I would only meditate in the mornings and it all worked fine. And as Migual suggests above, I also would only practice breathing meditation when I found mantra meditation too stimulating.

Good luck.

Christi