quote:
Originally posted by Victor
Kechari seems to somehow protect the head and nerves from excessive pressure from kumbhaka in just about any pose or head position
pardon the tangent, but I'm working on pressure issues of many sorts right now. I don't "practice" kumbahaka, but it comes spontaneously when I get some stillness happening, and/or when my heart opens (I'm not sure the two aren't the same thing....words fail when talking about the heart). And, yes, it creates pressure, but there are lots of frictions and pressures and blocks in practice...you don't notice them until you start letting them go!
They can be anywhere in the body, related or not to kumbhaka. In fact, letting go, in and of itself, can be pressure! Even if you're not "trying" in practice, there can be pressure...pressure from chakras that can't quite open, from nadis that aren't quite slippery, nodes of energy straining to pour free, etc.
What I've found is there's a degree of surrender which can be achieved with the full body so that anything acting on any point (I phrased that vaguely intentionally) can act cleanly through that point. Any block or energy node or feeling of pressure can liquify and yield.
I can't tell you how to do it. Maybe you could already do it ages ago. But, to come back to point, the release of pressure works best when it comes from deep DEEP surrender, rather than leveraging kechari, etc. I understand what you're trying to do, because leverage is an Iyengar yoga tool. I think it'll only take you so far.
Let go. Surrender. More. More. More. Everywhere and without reservation.