Over-Sensitivity to Practices

[Bodhi Tree]

quote:Originally posted by Horst

However, learning about high sensitivity for the first time, was a huge relief of a psychological burden for me. In a similar way, I guess, is the admission of being an alcoholic the first step towards cure.

Yes, "learning about" is quite different than "admission of being". The first keeps a healthy distance between sense of self and acquired habits; the second marries identity with habits, thereby causing suffering.

So, do whatever works, but in AYP for Recovery, I will be presenting the case that "admission of being an alcoholic" is not necessary, and in fact, is counterproductive to successful recovery and transformation. Just as you mentioned, I don't have to announce that "I am yogi" to commence with yoga practices and sustain my devotion. All I have to do is dream with a big heart, and follow my dream of living a life of ecstatic bliss.

@BlueRaincoat:
The resilience of my nerves has increased, but mainly as a result of backing off a little and using self-pacing. For me, there still is some healing occurring from heavy drinking and drug use. I practice daily for sure, but my sessions are shorter than when I first began balls-to-the-wall. However, certain enchancements have helped, like solar centering and adding the suggested syllables to the baseline mantra. For me, samyama is incredibly effective, as well as kechari mudra (stage 4, and even stage 5 on days when I'm super-calm and abiding in the grace of Her magic).

[Holy]

Dear Blue,

here some more info regarding your good tone inspite of all the fat-intake

The body can use carbs, proteins and fats as a source of energy. Carbs are reduced to glucose and used for feeding all cells including the brain. When you stop eating them, stored carbs are adressed and the moment they are depleted, which takes about 8-12 hours, then the body starts to eat up the proteins in the body, means the muscles get broken down in a very ineficient way into again carbs in the form of glucose. Because of the great inefficiency of this process, the body starts to shift to using up the fats in the body by a process called ketogenesis. In other words, fats are transformed into keton-bodies, which perform in replace for glucose. What has been not known before very few years, these ketone-bodies cross the brain-blod-barrier and are used as a fuel for the brain aswell. All babies are naturally operating in this ketosis-mode and making maximum use of the mother milk to grow very fast and stable. The process of ketognesis reaches maximum efficiency after 3-5 days of no carb-intake or starts to increase over days and weeks if the amount of carbs is reduced to below 30g per day. The moment it reaches about 70-80% of efficiency the whole body and brain will be sustained by energy 24/7 without the known fluctuations that happen if the body has become dependent on carbs solely. The body can store only few amounts of carbs, but big amounts of fat.

The moment more carbs are eaten and go into the bloodstream as glucose, insulin is produced to store the excessive amount of them as fats in the body. While this the body gets very sleepy. After months and years of too much carbs, the body looses its ability to use body-fats as a source of fuel, therefore the body will whine every few hours and want to eat more carbs. Because of this reason the body-fat increases while the body still cries for more energy, even though it is FULL of fat all over the place. And the moment the available carbs decrease, the brain does not get enough energy and mental faculties also breakdown.

A good portion of carbs can make one feel very high and alive and also go into dramtically heightened states of nondual joy and bliss and intense outpourings of all kind of good qualities, but very soon the insulin production will make you fall in the same way. When the body has relearned to use his body fats as a constant source of energy, which comes by reducing carbs to their natural proportion, then these fluctuations do not happen and a more constant and much stronger energy base is formed. The body starts to use carbs and fats together. Becaue of this naturally you will constantly burn fat so to speak and will get into Tarzan shape sooner or later Tarzan also didn't eat much carbs. If you look into the structure of available food in nature, fruits contain about 5-15% of carbs, legumes about 1-5%, nuts dependent upon type 3-20%, meat and fish have nearly no carbs at all. Fish and meat have proteins in the range of 20-25%, fat from 5-15%, nuts have proteins from 5-17%, fat ranging from 30-70%. Legumes also contain 5-25% proteins, 0-20% fat. This is what nature provides directly for eating. The moment manufactoring of food comes, the ratios can change completely, from extreme carbs to extreme fats to extreme proteins. Bread and pasta as examples of manufactored food contain about 60-75% of carbs.

Prana can compensate the downfall of too much insulin-production after the intake of too much carbs to some degree, therefore most advanced Indian yogis, who are eating mostly carbs and have big bellies do not suffer from any sleepiness. The sun-energy is also helping alot. But the extreme bellies show clearly that something has gone out of balance In colder countries if you eat carb-heavy in the noon-time, working efficiency afterwards decreases by at least 70% to the observation here

As most of us do practices and directly eat something afterwards, food plays a big role in the flow of energy and the stability of the whole body-mind. But carbs are only one aspect. Digestion and metabolism is another. A body that is used to use the physical body, will digest faster and more completely in a shorter time, means denser food will not block the flow of energy, nor will carbs trouble the system too much as the body has learned to use fats constantly as a source. In other words, sports also do lead to ketogenesis, as carbs are depleted very fast and the muscles are needed  very much, therefore the fats must be adressed as soon as possible by the body. Still if you constantly give the body carbs, like sugar-water or snacks, then it will not happen.

@Blue, not to forget to eat essential fats aswell. There are essential fats, essential proteins, but no essential carbs. Nuts and seeds are our friends (= Dairy fats are also good for male bodies as they promote the production of testosterone which helps in the growth of muscles and strengthens many different aspects of the male physics very much. Female bodies are less dependent in this regard

When it comes to the last part, coming back from oversensitivity. If you look at it practically, it is a clear topic. If only one part of the body is used to promote spiritual transformation, the success and failure is all dependent upon that part aswell. As long as that element works fine, all is fine. The moment that element gets injured and needs time for recovery, nothing can be done except to wait until that element works better again.

If you use two elements for the spiritual transformation, the moment one element fails, the other can keep doing. The delay will only be in half. If there are three elements in work, when one needs longer recovery time, still 2/3 are doing their job.

Awakening does obviously not need much body-mind-transformation at all. Still we see that the strongest and most capable awakened guys have transformed many or all parts of the body-mind in good amounts.

Less is more is true in regards of using one element. Better using less meditation but still being able to continue happily instead of suffering from too much of it. Better less meditation than no meditation. But practically speaking, if you only use one hand, then your life experience will be reduced to it. You may become extremely capable with that arm, more than others with one arm, but someone with two arms will do the same things much easier. And if he strengthens both arms, he will easily surpass the one-armed. Still someone, who not only uses his arms, but also his legs, much more things will be done by him without any big additional effort. The legs are already nature-given to be used, the same as the arms and the head! (=

With this, happy and smooth practice to all!

[Dogboy]

Holy!

[sunyata]

quote:For what it's worth, I would not advise getting entangled in the identity of being a highly sensitive person. It's funny, I was talking to a buddy today who kept insisting that he is an "empath", i.e. highly sensitive to the emotions of others. I told him that claiming such an identity would only reinforce the over-sensitivity.

I think it's good to be "aware" of how your body mind functions, disregarding it is not ideal.  Identifying with it and repeating the same pattern is where the issue may arise. However, once you have had even a glimpse of your true nature, it’s hard to go back to the unconscious way completely.


Sunyata

[sunyata]

quote:Yes Bodhi Tree, I agree with you. In spiritual terms we want to de-condition ourselves and not put more chains on, whether it is being an HSP or even a yogi, just drop it all. However, learning about high sensitivity for the first time, was a huge relief of a psychological burden for me. In a similar way, I guess, is the admission of being an alcoholic the first step towards cure. What each individual makes from intellectual knowledge is up to themselves. So, I don't want to toss the baby out with the bathwater...

Yes[]

[sunyata]

Holy,

Great inspiration to cut out carbs[]- one of my many weakness-rice, pasta, desserts[:p]

[Holy]

Hi Sunyata,

no need to cut them out fully. There are many many approaches to low-carb, the fitness-scene is quite advanced in their research in this regard. E.g. there is a diet, where you remain low-carb from Monday-Friday, means below 30g per day. Within these 5 days ketosis gets activated to a good degree and your energy in these workings days is top. Because the carb-reservoirs are depleted until the end of the week, two days you can eat as many carbs as you can handle Then continuing with low-carb from Monday. What happens is, the process of ketosis does not stop in this way and the body has even dual-fuel for several days starting from Saturday until the carbs are naturally reduced at the mid of the week. After several weeks into this kind of diet the body learns to operate in dual-mode quite nicely. Only if you eat lots of carbs for 1-2 weeks daily again, you will start to feel the sleepiness and dizziness of the insulin peaks more and more, which is a good hint to eat more natural again

Not to forget, there are diffeent chain-lengths of carbs, also different carb-fibre-complexes, like in fruits, where the assimilation and the insulin-peaks are much lower alltogether. So if it is only about that aspect, it can also be handled to a good degree with looking at what kind of carbs one eats. Still when it comes to ketosis and fat-deposites, the amount plays a role aswell.

Knowing this, carbs can also become handy, small children are often given some warm short-chained-carbs together with fats to get sleepy and go to bed earlier The problem is, most of them have too much prana flowing and also ketosis is still at work depending on age and how their parents have fed them over the years But give someone a good portion of pasta or pizza and he will sleep very nicely afterwards

Did you know, in India there are companies which give their workers 1-2 hours time after lunch for sleep? As their dishes are mainly carb-based, it is a known reaction, therefore these companies have big rooms with many beds only for this purpose In the country where I live, the ratio is more balanced and the remaining carb-effects people either compensate with coffe or you see half-sleeping people at "work" I am not a coffe-fan, low carb works best in that regard here (=

Was on low carb for half a year very happily, but am trying out the above model since 4 weeks. So far very succesful aswell, even though it felt strange to consiously eat all the chocolate and pasta etc. at the weekends

Back to the topic, low-carb just came as an element of stabilizing daily practices (=

[dv2014]

lot of info; thank you Horst, Sunyata, BlueRaincoat, Holy and all

[SeySorciere]

When talking of over-loading/self-pacing it is good to note that one cannot expect to be moving prana in the body without any discomfort at all. You will be feeling energy moving through the different parts of the body, in particular the chakras such as a tension at the third-eye; you will be feeling differently about a number of things. As long as the discomfort is not too much, we ride it out. It will pass. Don't go unnecessarily so far into self-pacing at the expense of our progress. As always common sense prevails.

The Guru is in you

Sey

[Dogboy]

quote:When talking of over-loading/self-pacing it is good to note that one cannot expect to be moving prana in the body without any discomfort at all. You will be feeling energy moving through the different parts of the body, in particular the chakras such as a tension at the third-eye; you will be feeling differently about a number of things. As long as the discomfort is not too much, we ride it out. It will pass. Don't go unnecessarily so far into self-pacing at the expense of our progress. As always common sense prevails.

This is so true.  I believe many new yogis make this error.

[BlueRaincoat]

Horst, Sunyata and Bodhi Tree

That is an interesting debate you are having about being a sensitive person.

It reminds me of a video clip with Eckhart Tolle, where he is explaining how things can be acknowledged as they are (what is is), but without sticking a label on oneself (or others). The later is bad because it adds to and reinforces the ego (This is what Bodhi is saying should be avoided it, isn't it Bodhi?). I  guess "being a sensitive person", according to Tolle's view is a "conceptual judgement" and it freezes that feature into an identity. But it is possible, he says, to take that reality into account using "non-conceptual intelligence" - a deeper knowing, which will lead you to what is needed in that situation.

I might be making it sound more complicated that he does. Have a look at the clip - it starts as a discussion about good or bad, so bear with it for a minute at the beginning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MfEt40m2G0

@Holy
Thank you for the nutritional clarifications.
I didn't know nervous cells can feed on anything else than glucose. It must be quite  a recent discovery. Very interesting.

[Bodhi Tree]

Yes, simplicity is best, BlueRaincoat. So here's a very simple breakdown:

Effective: To recognize symptoms of overload as they arise, and to find remedies via the means of self-pacing, grounding, wisdom from the community, and most importantly, the inner guru.

Not-So-Effective: To form a mental belief that you are an "HSP", "empath", "alcoholic", or whatever, and to force your mind to operate from the narrow perspective of that identity/label/construct, rather than taking the symptoms on a case-by-case basis from our foundation of attentive serenity.

You see, when we push our mind to cling hard to ANY identity whatsoever--even a pretty, glittery, noble or spiritual one--there is a very subtle contraction in the heart that stifles the outpouring of divine love. Obviously, the outpouring of divine love is the optimal condition of enlightenment. So, all we have to do is let any residual, hard clinging dissolve in rising stillness.

Now, it's very, very important to recognize that identities in themselves are not enemies, per se. It's how we regard them internally that matters. So, for instance, when I sit in an AA meeting and say, "My name is Cody, and I'm an alcoholic," I say it tongue-in-cheek and in the spirit of: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." However, I don't believe that identity. But there are many people in AA who do believe it (with the hard clinging maneuver), and they suffer accordingly.

Part of the whole deal is that when divine love is flowing, there isn't much need for the ego to cling to any identity because it becomes so obvious that there is a power from within Our Being that is moving on its own accord...stillness in action. The ego has cooperated with, and opened up to, that mysterious source. Therefore, the ego is very much necessary. In this sense, the ego is not eliminated, but rather illuminated. That is why Yogani has said: the ego is the vehicle of enlightenment.

I think one of the reasons that Eckhart Tolle (and other teachers of his fold) portray the ego as an enemy is because their ego is not trying to accomplish anything particularly colorful or textured. They're just trying to be teachers who can authentically speak with a spiritual vocabulary of non-duality (which is kind of bland and boring to me), so their main focus is sticking with the witness stage and detaching from the ego. Or perhaps they've already completed a successful career and are basking in retirement? Good for them, but what about a dancer who uses their body like a beautiful instrument? What about a civil engineer who needs to understand sophisticated conceptual frameworks? For them, the body and mind (ego) must be dear and intimate friends. Such artists and craftsmen might say, "I am a dancer", or "I am an engineer", but if they are abiding in inner silence, they will recognize those identities as very thin reflections of what they are DOING. And they will also recognize that what they are DOING is merely a reflection of their BEING, which is infinite potential (stillness).

Labels and identities are convenient at best, and detrimental at worst.

The trick is that we have to fall into inner silence, then bounce back into the ego (hello samyama!). That's why the teachers I admire most have displayed, demonstrated, and expressed their inner divinity though a medium beyond the ad nauseum repetition of non-duality logic and word games. Yogani has creatively expressed himself by writing a very realistic, adventurous novel that inspires readers to pick up practices and embrace the divine feminine (hurray Devi Wilder!).

None of this brilliant creativity, ingenuity, or divine love requires clinging to any identity. Nor do we need to resist any identities either. They may float around in our mind, or get pinned onto us by others, but they will have no real power. This happens automatically when self-inquiry is relational (occurring in the flow of stillness).

Now, some affirmations can be helpful, in the same way training wheels on a bike are helpful. "I am a child of God"; "I am an evolutionary creature full of potential"; "I am stillness in action". Such affirmations have intrinsically wide parameters, unlike the other limiting identities previously discussed. Even so, the positive identities don't need to be harshly clinged to--only passionately uttered and ultimately dissolved in stillness, like every other thought or feeling.

OK. I know I just went off on a long tangent, but bringing it back to the topic of sensitivity, it's helpful for me to regard the body/mind as the temple in which the Spirit dwells. The Spirit surely goes WAY beyond my body/personality, but here I am, still functioning as a unique individual.

Hope this helps.

[lalow33]

quote:Originally posted by SeySorciere

When talking of over-loading/self-pacing it is good to note that one cannot expect to be moving prana in the body without any discomfort at all. You will be feeling energy moving through the different parts of the body, in particular the chakras such as a tension at the third-eye; you will be feeling differently about a number of things. As long as the discomfort is not too much, we ride it out. It will pass. Don't go unnecessarily so far into self-pacing at the expense of our progress. As always common sense prevails.

The Guru is in you

Hi Sey,
I qualify as a sensitive meditator.  I have been able to go back to mantra meditation by being very gentle.  Any physical or mental discomfort, I stop the mantra until it passes.  This works for me.  My life is so much  better.  There seems to be absolutely no push through or just deal with it.  I seem to not be able to " ride it out".  But very gentle mediation works.

[Dogboy]

quote:Hope this helps.

Helped me!

[sunyata]

quote:It reminds me of a video clip with Eckhart Tolle, where he is explaining how things can be acknowledged as they are (what is is), but without sticking a label on oneself (or others...I guess "being a sensitive person", according to Tolle's view is a "conceptual judgement" and it freezes that feature into an identity. But it is possible, he says, to take that reality into account using "non-conceptual intelligence" - a deeper knowing, which will lead you to what is needed in that situation.

Yes[]

Hence, I think why Yogani emphasis inner silence as a prerequisite to adding on practices. Inner silence is the rise of the inner guru which guides you both in your inner world and outer world until they become "One" and then "beyond". Inner Silence acts as a buffer and does not let you cling/identify but at the same time accept/recognize ones personality. In duality, there is personality and I think this is what makes life flavorful.


Sunyata