Newcomer question regarding Self-Pacing

[Ace]

Hello everyone ,

This is my first post in this forum and I'm extremely happy I found this site with incredible dense information and dedicated practicioners.

My question basically is how I see signs of overdoing the practice and if my current way of practicing could be improved. In order to give more information on my practice and situation, I'd like to introduce myself and my schedule.

I'm 22 years old in good health and I'm a student at the moment and possibly for 2-3 more years, if I do my master. I tell you this, because I'm extremly dedicated to get the best possible results from my practice as long I have the privilege of having so much freetime. That's why the concept of Self-pacing is somewhat hindering me to accomplish my goals.

My current practice consists of 2,5 hours on average every day. This time is usually divided into three sessions, consisting of around 50-60min each. I normally do 10min asanas, 15-20min spinal breathing (with sambhavi) and 20-35min of meditating.

I understand the concept of Self-pacing and already read some posts concerning the possible dangers form early kundalini awakening, but I feel that I'm at a quite early stage in practice and as long as no symptoms show, I could continue with 2,5hours a day. In fact I plan to increase the time to 3-4 hours over the next 2 months.

I would love to have some feedback from more experienced practicioners, because this issue is really important for me in my current situation. I'm constantly thinking about my spiritual practice and I want to do anything possible to progress further.

My deep gratitude goes to Yogani for creating this site, which enables some guy in Germany to practice advanced yoga techniques[]

We live in a wonderful time with endless possibilities, bless you all

[BlueRaincoat]

Hello Ace, welcome to the AYP forum!

Is your meditation the AYP mantra meditation?
How long have you been practising yoga? At what intervals did you introduce spinal breathing and then the mulabandha/shambhavi?

[Dogboy]

Hello Ace & Welcome!

Here is the link to introduce you to the AYP self pacing approach: http://www.aypsite.com/plus/38.html

You definitely have a strong spiritual drive, putting in almost twice the time of the standard AYP approach and looking to add more.  This could be a freight train gathering too much speed to make the turns looming ahead. The problem with taking on too many practices too soon is when overloading does occur, it may hit very hard, requiring you to cut back dramatically to deal with the symptoms. After operating at GO GO GO! you will find yourself in a really deep hole, having to reign in both practices and a runaway Bhakti.

Seriously, what is the rush? As Yogani states over and over again, it's a marathon not a sprint. You are young and maybe a bit impulsive; you have a lifetime to build your spiritual house. Allow a stable foundation before constructing your temple. Kundalini can be a lover but also a destroyer, your time is best spent preparing a stable vessel. No doubt you are feeling invincible today, which would make a big setback hard to recover from.

If I were you I would scale back the SBP to half. Instead of adding more practices, find yoga moments within the everyday living. Give your strong spiritual desire an outlet in reading.

If you do have trouble, you have come to the right place for support.

[jusmail]

Runaway train seems apt here. No need to rush. As Yogani often says the fruits of your practice will show up in your daily life not in overdoing the practice. Again, there are no prizes for striving too hard or going the extra mile. Less is more very often.

[Ace]

Wow, I didn't excpect to get replies so fast! Thanks for welcoming me[]

to BlueRaincoat:
 

quote:

Is your meditation the AYP mantra meditation? How long have you been practising yoga

Yes it is and I'm really enjoying it. I have been practicing yoga in ayp style for more than a month now. Before that, I practiced Samatha meditation with a focus on the breath for around 2 years but not so sincererly as now, more on and of. But for 4 months now I'm really serious about meditating, I did an home retreat for example, where I had one day wiht 7hours of meditation.
I favour ayp mantra meditation, because I feel like I'm in a mcuh deeper meditative state and somehow it takes less effort to meditate in comparison to samatha.

 

quote:

At what intervals did you introduce spinal breathing and then the mulabandha/shambhavi?

I introduced sambhavi already in my second week of ayp practice, I tried to practice muhlabanda but I'm struggling to do it. Everytime I flex the muscle I can't relax anymore and it's kinda uncomfortable to do it for such a long time. But I read some üost in the forum and right now I'm just felxing when the flow reaches the top. I know it was probably a bit impatient to introduce it so early but the way I understand those additions to spinal breathing is that they  give additional stimulation to the flow of prana and my prana flow is still quite weak, so I'm not too concerned. Actually I'm a bit frustated by my pranayama sessions and want to find additional ways to increase the flow.

Thank you very much for your response, if you have any other thoughts let me now

to Dogboy

 

quote:

Seriously, what is the rush? As Yogani states over and over again, it's a marathon not a sprint. You are young and maybe a bit impulsive; you have a lifetime to build your spiritual house

There is no rush and I do have so much time, especially because I'm still young. But let me explain, why I want to rush anyway:
My life has improved to a great extent ever since I picked up spiritual practice, this involves cognitive ability, health and happiness.
Now the way I think: More practice - leads to more benefits. So the more I practice now - the sooner I get the benefits (the longer I can enjoy them).
This logic has an important premis "More practice - leads to more benefits", and that premise could be proven wrong, if I hit the deep hole you mentioned. If I stop seeing "more benefits", I'll recognize I have to change something (cut back practice), but as long everthing is getting better, it's really hard to make the decision to cut back practice for me. I think I'm still in the process to get the foundation of my spiritual house, so I think build this foundation rather quick, because a foundation unlike a temple, might not be able to crush.

 

quote:

Kundalini can be a lover but also a destroyer, your time is best spent preparing a stable vessel. No doubt you are feeling invincible today, which would make a big setback hard to recover from.

As I mentioned above, my energy flow is still somewhat weak, so I don't think kundalini issues is of any concern, yet. But then again I'm a total newbie compared to most of you guys on this forum.

[Ace]

Oh I messed up the quotes.

[Dogboy]

Ace,

Review this lesson: http://www.aypsite.com/plus/58.html

'Patch work' and 'pedal to the metal' practice is a recipe for disaster. You do not want to try and manage a kundalini crisis and obtain a masters degree at the same time. When you have a headache, do you take the whole bottle of aspirin at once? Your practice is medicine against a mundane existence; treat the practice as you would a prescription.  Be smart about your approach. Surrender anticipated outcomes. Slow and steady wins the race.

This is easy! Why complicate it?

(Paste your copied selection between the 'quotes' to have them view correctly).

[BlueRaincoat]

No worries about the quotes, we get the picture.

Well, Dogboy and Jusmail have already advised you to go slow. I am going to do the same, only in stronger terms perhaps.

The AYP method is a race car - it's the fastest you can go while staying on the road. It's designed for busy people, with families and jobs, and the practices are quite intense. With spinal breathing added to mantra meditation after week one and shambavi in week two, you have already turned that race car into a rocket, and there is no knowing where you'll end up. If you read some older threads on this forum, you will see there are a few people who have rushed through all the techniques in the AYP book in something like 18 months. After which they hit the wall - they can't even meditate any more. One I AM and the headache starts.

quote:Originally posted by Ace
My question basically is how I see signs of overdoing the practice

Unfortunately, for many practitioners there are no early signs. And the more you've overdone it the harder it will hit you. For people with many years of yoga experience, I think there is some hope they might spot the overload early. But that level of self-awareness takes years to build up.

I can see how starting from Buddhist meditation has given you the impression meditating for hours is better than meditation for 20 minutes at a time. Buddhist meditation can be very superficial, even staying at a conceptual level. Mantra meditation is a lot deeper and a lot more intense. My advice would be to do just 20 minutes of mantra meditation twice a day for 6 months, then consider adding further techniques. You are still at the very beginning and you're yet to find out what your level of sensitivity to practices is.

I'm sorry if I appear to rain on your parade, but it seems to me that you are very much underestimating the power of these techniques.

I recommend going though the AYP lessons and finding the Q&As on self-pacing. For instance, have you read Lesson 193 - Expanding Practice Time Safely?

Practice safely and enjoy.

[Ecdyonurus]

Hi Ace - welcome!  

One sentence hit me in your first post, where you stated that you are thinkimg about your spiritual practice all the time.

Well, to me this already sounds like a kind of overload, and at least it is a sign of life imbalance.

Do your practices and after that engage fully in daily activity.

We do yoga for a better life, we do not live to do yoga all day long.

[Ace]

WOW! This forum surely is amazing, thanks for all the replies in such a short time. You guys really make me question my approach.

I haven't decided what to do,yet, but I think I should really slow it down.  That hits me really hard, because for the past months meditation really was MY THING. Everyday not one hour goes by when I don't think about meditation. I spent a crazy amount of hours on the internet and forums researching everything about meditation. When I finally found aypsite, it was such a glorious day for me! I finally found a very advanced, full and just fabolous approach and all from ONE SOURCE. I thought, now all I have to do is put in all my effort and advance though the lessons. But it seems like it's not like that.

I feel kinda lost right now, because my desire to get better at this is extremly strong at the moment, I started amaroli two days ago. I even drank my urin to get a bit better at this!!! Everyone single person I know would think I'm crazy.  I just don't know where to direct all this craving and motivation I have for meditation, if I have to practice with one foot on the break???

If you guys have any suggestions for anything that could help me to speed up my progress, please help me!
I honestly don't know where to direct all this motivation I have towards this goal. Are there any other, lighter practices I could do, that wouldn't lead to me being unable to practice?

I always imagined yogis from every tradition also spent years in solitude in the Himalayas, practicing all day long...
When will I be able to step my game up again, if I'm reducing my practice times right now`?
Is there a difference in Mantra Meditation and Pranayama, when it comes to self pacing`?

to BlueRaincoat

quote:I recommend going though the AYP lessons and finding the Q&As on self-pacing. For instance, have you read Lesson 193 - Expanding Practice Time Safely?

Thanks for sharing and I read the post, this means I'm free to do three sessions (in the manner presented in the thread) on weekend days?

I'm sorry for so many questions but I feel like I got hit in the head. I'm very new to this and just applied my general thinking of "more effort = better results " to it. Thank you very much for all your help

[NewbieGG]

There is no secret spiritual place where you can live in sunlight flowers and butterflies .Do not create false reality . Life is out there . Life is yoga , yoga is life .

 

[Ace]

to Ecdyonurus:

 

quote:One sentence hit me in your first post, where you stated that you are thinkimg about your spiritual practice all the time.

Well, to me this already sounds like a kind of overload, and at least it is a sign of life imbalance

I know it would seem like this for someone reading this post and not knowing me. I'm actually living a pretty normal student life, living in a appartment with 4 people, going to uni every day, plus I do love to go out on weekends and meet people. What is true, is that I'm obsessed with improving myself and because I found that meditation and yoga is the best practice we have for this, I'm obsessed with Yoga. But I didn't see it as a imbalance but as something good. I found something in my life, that's worth putting all my effort to it, and that's what I'm trying to do.

 

quote:We do yoga for a better life, we do not live to do yoga all day long

I know and I'm not practicing yoga because I find it more enjoyable than other things. I practice it in order to improve myself, on a cognitive level, on a personal level and to get healthier. I don't know what life has to offer after I finished studying, but I want to be at my absolute best at that time. I don't want to live a life full of limitations and dependencies on outer conditions!!
I just believe with all my heart in the transforming power of yoga and I believe we have no limits if we use all the tools, that life has to offer to us.

So to make it short, I am practicing yoga for a better life, that's also why I made this post, so that I make sure it leads to a better life. It seems like I have to reduce my effort now, but it's really hard to do so[]

Thank you very much for posting and your concern

[BlueRaincoat]

Ace, your dedication to bettering yourself though yoga is a good thing. That is a good guarantee that you will stay on the path and do what it takes to succeed.

I can tell you for sure that you are not the only one who is having to temper that desire for progress. As you advance in yoga, you will find that raising the energy level is not difficult, but the system (not the least your physical body) needs time to adjust and gradually build the stamina to sustain that energy. This is slow work and there are no shorcuts.

One very important rule: Never take two new practices at the same time. You need to give each new practice a few good months (sometimes even years) to bed in. That's because it takes time for its effects to become clear. Meditation is the core of yoga. Take the time to really delve into it. Don't rush to add other techniques before you have really integrated DM.

Remember one thing - As long as you are meditating every day, you are making progress. It may not feel like it, it may take many months before it becomes obvious, but you are without a doubt making progress. Slowing down is not about reducing your effort - I would rather see it as making a commitment - your commitment - that you will stay the course. What Yogani describes in his AYP book is decades of practices. You don't go through all that in 3 years.

Amaroli is another powerful practice. It also stimulates kundalini. You should wait to get a good level of inner silence before taking up amaroli. When you have stabilized DM, give it its own slot for exploring and integrating it.

My advice is to stick to DM for now. By all means try to fit in a third session at weekends, see what difference that makes compared to the days when you only do two.

Stay safe. Slow and steady does it.

[kumar ul islam]

You have great desire and when the fire of the self burns so intensely maybe this is your time your karma for enlightenment only time and practice will tell many blessing to you peace and love .

[jonesboy]

Hi Ace,

One thing you have to understand. Self pacing isn't about holding you back it is about keeping you on the edge of progressing.

Many of us have learned the hard way. You move on to a new practice, maybe even try two because they don't seem like much. Everything is going smooth, as a matter of fact you start to feel great!

Then it is like a baseball bat hits you up against the side of the head and may not go away for day's. For me it has seemed like I was experiencing a panic attack a anxiety attack. I don't have any anxiety issues. The last time I overloaded it lasted 3 days. It can have a major effect on your emotions which can have an impact on your family and work life. It also makes me very aggressive and willing to buck up to people.

I can assure you that just doing 5 min of SBP, 15 min DM and 5 min of Samyama can open everyone of your chakras and lead you to amazing heights of onesness. All of the advanced practices are there for you if you need them. Most, again most people don't!

There is a depth to the practices that never stops. You are just scratching the surface.