Hello friends
Forgive me if this question has been dealt with before; I'm not so handy with the search function on this site.
For the last 4-5 months or so I've found myself paring the practice right back, reducing time and letting go of any ambition to add practices beyond basic SB and DM. This seems to be right given the feedback I've been getting internally; or as I sometimes think of it: the feedback I've finally listened to instead of battling. I think i'm really only now learning to self pace.
So I've been doing shorter but more effective sessions of just SB and DM -more effective I think because I've learned to really let go in the process in ways I can't really describe in a short post - it's like I'm much more sensitive to it than I realised before and I can only take either practice in modest gulps, then stop and rest within the practice as soon as I feel discomfort, then start again when the discomfort is gone...and like this I'm carrying on and it seems to be going well.
A few months ago I got it down to 5 mins SB and 10 mins DM twice a day, but found that even that was making me frazzled emotionally. So I decided to go on a diet and take it all the way to 5 mins DM twice a day preceded by a couple of minutes SB. I did that without a trace of discomfort for almost a month...then edged up to one session in the morning of 5 mins SB and 10 mins DM, then a couple of weeks later I tried the same in the evening.
It became clear quickly that it was still too much though - a high followed by an irritable low the next morning, and I've backed off to 5 and 10 in the morning followed by roughly 2.5 and 5 in the evening.
Does anyone see a problem with having uneven lengths like this - should I be doing only 5 minutes twice a day or only 10? I feel doing only 5 is too little, but that could be impatience on my part - and 10 twice a day is obviously too much. But what I'm doing just now seems just right - only very occasionally I feel a bit on the edge, but mostly very smooth.
Thanks very much for any thoughts.
Jack
