Kundalini Overload: Grounding/Front Channel Block

[Jim and His Karma]

Jeff's reply was good. If you've read my first posting in this thread, there are a ton of suggestions for putting attention (and thus energy) into the ground ("lower down" isn't quite as helpful as, like, Earth). Stomping feet isn't one of them. Have you tried any of my suggestions?


 

quote: I have experienced somewhat of an opening but it seems to close again the day after.

That indicates to me that there may be a physical problem involved. Most of the blocks yoga dissolves are created by infinitesimal actions repeated over the course of many years (think Grand Canyon/Colorado River). You can open them, but the block will return over the long run if you cease yoga practice and fall back into the same unconscious patterns.

But if it's snapping back next day, it's not the aggregation of feathery infinitesimal actions, there's something way more macro and physical happening here, and I think your idea of craniosacral therapy is a good one. I'd encourage you, though, to mentally separate two issues. There's the block, and there's the feeling of energy pooling behind the block.

Lots of healers know about blocks. Blocks, by one name or another, are what many (perhaps most) therapeutic efforts are directed toward. The energy issues which are made worse by the block are not directly part of that problem, they're more of a secondary consequence. So I wouldn't complicate the issue by discussing them. Don't talk about the energy, talk about the feeling of blockage (really, they're two sides of the same coin; we don't notice blockage unless SOMETHING'S trying to flow past). That will be much more understandable and addressable by your healer. I've found that outlining a whole grand story about kundalini flows and overloads and stuff just over-complicates, and either confuses healers or excites them and makes them want to add more energy to your system. Any healer who feels comfortable dropping the word "kundalini" is probably - regardless of what they SAY they do - going to add energy, and worsen problems. There's no science of SUBTRACTING kundalini. That's not a thing.

So focus on blockage, both in how you monitor the treatment, and in how you discuss the condition with the therapist. After ten years of kundalini, I can honestly say that there's never been a good reason for or a good result from discussing my kundalini with anyone ever....except to compare notes with fellow yogis.


 

quote:I have just become aware of the 'throat dilution' technique you propose, however I am still a little unsure of how to do this. Am I effectively moving my Adam's apple down, whilst performing the beggining of a yawn?

If I was suggesting you move your Adam's apple down, or moving anything else, I'd have said so. What I'm suggesting is an energetic action, not a physical one. And while I realize that's something most people find difficult to conceive and do, the fact that it's something you've previously learned to do with your ear canals makes it possible to transfer that know-how to the throat.

Reread what I wrote. Don't just sail through, pay close attention. I'm not doing a sloppy job of telling you how to do something concrete, I'm doing a careful job of telling you how to do something hazy![]

[Kduzza]

quote:Originally posted by Jim and His Karma

Jeff's reply was good. If you've read my first posting in this thread, there are a ton of suggestions for putting attention (and thus energy) into the ground ("lower down" isn't quite as helpful as, like, Earth). Stomping feet isn't one of them. Have you tried any of my suggestions?


 

quote: I have experienced somewhat of an opening but it seems to close again the day after.

That indicates to me that there may be a physical problem involved. Most of the blocks yoga dissolves are created by infinitesimal actions repeated over the course of many years (think Grand Canyon/Colorado River). You can open them, but the block will return over the long run if you cease yoga practice and fall back into the same unconscious patterns.

But if it's snapping back next day, it's not the aggregation of feathery infinitesimal actions, there's something way more macro and physical happening here, and I think your idea of craniosacral therapy is a good one. I'd encourage you, though, to mentally separate two issues. There's the block, and there's the feeling of energy pooling behind the block.

Lots of healers know about blocks. Blocks, by one name or another, are what many (perhaps most) therapeutic efforts are directed toward. The energy issues which are made worse by the block are not directly part of that problem, they're more of a secondary consequence. So I wouldn't complicate the issue by discussing them. Don't talk about the energy, talk about the feeling of blockage (really, they're two sides of the same coin; we don't notice blockage unless SOMETHING'S trying to flow past). That will be much more understandable and addressable by your healer. I've found that outlining a whole grand story about kundalini flows and overloads and stuff just over-complicates, and either confuses healers or excites them and makes them want to add more energy to your system. Any healer who feels comfortable dropping the word "kundalini" is probably - regardless of what they SAY they do - going to add energy, and worsen problems. There's no science of SUBTRACTING kundalini. That's not a thing.

So focus on blockage, both in how you monitor the treatment, and in how you discuss the condition with the therapist. After ten years of kundalini, I can honestly say that there's never been a good reason for or a good result from discussing my kundalini with anyone ever....except to compare notes with fellow yogis.


 

quote:I have just become aware of the 'throat dilution' technique you propose, however I am still a little unsure of how to do this. Am I effectively moving my Adam's apple down, whilst performing the beggining of a yawn?

If I was suggesting you move your Adam's apple down, or moving anything else, I'd have said so. What I'm suggesting is an energetic action, not a physical one. And while I realize that's something most people find difficult to conceive and do, the fact that it's something you've previously learned to do with your ear canals makes it possible to transfer that know-how to the throat.

Reread what I wrote. Don't just sail through, pay close attention. I'm not doing a sloppy job of telling you how to do something concrete, I'm doing a careful job of telling you how to do something hazy![]

I've re-examined what you wrote about throat dialation and grasp what you're pointing towards much more clearly.. I will try it out for the next few weeks and see how I progress.
I think it it likely that my poor posture might be a major contributing factor in facilitating the blocks.. My head is kind of forced into the forward head posture due to the 'energy in and around the head/neck area, whenever I move my head into its proper posture with the chin tucked and elongated neck, the pressure is much more apparent and I become somewhat space out..
I have booked an appointment with a Chinese herbalist as well as a craniosacral therapist, and have been and will continue taking very long walks (as you reccomended) as well as direct contact with the earth.
I am also wondering whether a visit to a neurosomatic therapist or a chiropractor may be necessary in order to facilitate proper posture. Do you believe that improper posture may play a role in the blockage of energy?

[Jim and His Karma]

quote:Originally posted by Kduzza
I think it it likely that my poor posture might be a major contributing factor in facilitating the blocks.. My head is kind of forced into the forward head posture due to the 'energy in and around the head/neck area, whenever I move my head into its proper posture with the chin tucked and elongated neck, the pressure is much more apparent and I become somewhat space out..

You may find it helpful to refrain from attributing cause/effect. Whenever I do that, I most often discover it's the other way around. Or neither this nor that.

quote:Originally posted by Kduzza
I have booked an appointment with a Chinese herbalist as well as a craniosacral therapist,

If you do more than one therapy, how will you know which was effective? Or which caused undesirable effects?

As for the rest, I've suggested countless times throughout this thread (in fact, from the very first posting) that paying too much attention to this stuff exacerbates the problem. You are not ever going to fiddle yourself into perfection...though I realize yoga attracts inveterate fiddlers (as does this thread in particular, as was my fear).

Perfection is right here, right now, in spite of (or, more precisely, encompassing) the peas beneath your mattress. Open up, self-pace, and ground. If you want some grounding suggestions, I've provided enough to last you for years in the topmost posting. I'm not sure why people assume I'm some trove of fiddling know-how. That's not my purpose here. Good luck.

[Kduzza]

quote:Originally posted by Jim and His Karma

quote:Originally posted by Kduzza
I think it it likely that my poor posture might be a major contributing factor in facilitating the blocks.. My head is kind of forced into the forward head posture due to the 'energy in and around the head/neck area, whenever I move my head into its proper posture with the chin tucked and elongated neck, the pressure is much more apparent and I become somewhat space out..

You may find it helpful to refrain from attributing cause/effect. Whenever I do that, I most often discover it's the other way around. Or neither this nor that.

quote:Originally posted by Kduzza
I have booked an appointment with a Chinese herbalist as well as a craniosacral therapist,

If you do more than one therapy, how will you know which was effective? Or which caused undesirable effects?

As for the rest, I've suggested countless times throughout this thread (in fact, from the very first posting) that paying too much attention to this stuff exacerbates the problem. You are not ever going to fiddle yourself into perfection...though I realize yoga attracts inveterate fiddlers (as does this thread in particular, as was my fear).

Perfection is right here, right now, in spite of (or, more precisely, encompassing) the peas beneath your mattress. Open up, self-pace, and ground. If you want some grounding suggestions, I've provided enough to last you for years in the topmost posting. I'm not sure why people assume I'm some trove of fiddling know-how. That's not my purpose here. Good luck.

I understand what you're saying in terms of letting things be, however it's much easier said than done. I'm 17 so I have some pretty crucial exams coming up, and the blockage is preventing me from being able to retain any information, as well as connecting with the people I love. It may seem like obsessive fiddling, but I did not foresee something like this occurring.

I am however somewhat optimistic as I believe I will come out of this with more gratitude for every aspect of life.

Today I experienced an opening after the throat dilation. It was like a warm lovey feeling that lasted for a whilw, and the head pressure dissipated. This for me is promising as I now have a better understanding and know this is something that can be worked with.

[Jim and His Karma]

quote:Originally posted by Kduzza
I understand what you're saying in terms of letting things be, however it's much easier said than done. I'm 17 so I have some pretty crucial exams coming up, and the blockage is preventing me from being able to retain any information, as well as connecting with the people I love.

Didn't realize you were so young. FWIW, you express yourself beautifully for a 17 year old. You're doing great!

Listen, it's not that I don't (clearly) remember the sensation of being adrift without an instruction manual (or anyone who could "fix" me), and of clutching at whatever straws I could manage to grab at. I'm not scoffing at your situation. I'm just trying to direct your attention somewhere helpful - which is anywhere but where it currently is.

Yoga in general, and kundalini awakening in particular, draw us inward...sometimes to an excess. Grounding is the solution. Outwardness. Worldliness. Engagement. All different words for the same thing. But as I try to direct your attention there, I can feel resistance. You want to go the OTHER way. It's a pull. And my point is that this very inclination, this very pull, IS the problem. IS the block.

You are infinite space. Any sensation of limits, borders, edges, or blocks, is nothing but a perceptual habit reinforced over time. There's nothing actually there, aside from a tendency to put attention there.  The block is you (i.e. your resistance), not something afflicting you. The best way to relax that resistance is via meditation (with good self-pacing) while grounding (e.g. my suggestions in the first post in this thread). The more you conceive of a block, the more blocked you become. That's how it started in the first place. The perspective comes first (once again, cause/effect is not what you think!).

quote:I will come out of this with more gratitude for every aspect of life.

This is a helpful tip: don't look for change. You aren't self-perfecting. That's a myth. It doesn't happen (which is one reason all these supposedly perfect gurus invariably turn out to be so shmucky). You'll continue to be flawed and ungrateful (unless you learn to pose/pretend real well....in which case you may eventually fool even yourself). Only self-deluded yogis transform into god-like beings.

Everything can stay exactly as-is. You know that military phrase, "As you were"? That's as spiritual a phrase as they come. I was doing what you were doing at your age (I'm nearly triple it now). And if I could send myself a message back in time, that's what it'd say.

Have you noticed that after all this yoga, you still get mad/petty/greedy/other bad things, just like you always did....but (big "but"!) you view yourself at those moments from a slightly more distant and dispassionate viewpoint? Like you're watching yourself get upset from a viewpoint of total calm? And have you noticed that, as you practice yoga, you find yourself switching to this viewpoint sooner and sooner (and, just as importantly, that it's not something you control or will....it just happens)?

That's the whole ball game right there. You still act shmucky and human (because that's what you are!), but the deepest part of you, which has always remained sublimely indifferent (not cold-hearted, just sort of...mature) , becomes more and more your viewpoint.

I'm guessing you've noticed all this. So read the tea leaves: this is what yoga's working toward. Not changing/improving you or your behavior, just easing you out of your mistaken perception that you're That Guy (you can't be that which you can observe). His shmuckiness and ingratitude and all the rest can stay. "As you were!"

Same for this block issue. Find that same viewpoint of spacious dispassion, and the same indifferent acceptance of EVERYTHING, just as-is. The block issue can continue if it wants to! But (to use the hideously misused vedanta question), who's blocked?

quote:Today I experienced an opening after the throat dilation. It was like a warm lovey feeling that lasted for a whilw, and the head pressure dissipated. This for me is promising as I now have a better understanding and know this is something that can be worked with.

Great! But don't overdo it!! It's very powerful. Deceptively so, like lots of tiny yoga moves. Openings feel great, but you've already learned why discipline and restraint and ease are critical. Too much of a good thing, etc....

[Jim and His Karma]

quote:Originally posted by roohiiq

hi i'm experiencing a new thing its a little bit different. the headache form the channel block is too much
and its not painful some times i even enjoy it!. and its under control, i can make it appear when i want and make disappear in about 2 minutes.
what does this mean ?

roohiiq, it sounds like you are just on the edge of "too much", and you are, for some reason, trying to push things a little further until it IS too much.

I understand the impulse to "play" with this stuff. But you need to remember that you can overload yourself very easily (and, again, it sounds like you're right at that point). And you need to remember that sometimes problems come with a delay, so you feel that what you are doing isn't bringing you a bad result, then, a day or two or three later, you see that there WAS a bad result.

And overloads, once they happen, are difficult to deal with. It's a lot easier to be careful now than it is to fix an overload later!

[Jim and His Karma]

Diarrhea is not a bad result. It's a common symptom of an opening experience in the abdomen (I've mentioned further up this thread that people following my grounding advice may experience diarrhea with fever and even kidney pain). There's a difference between experiencing a healing crisis and experiencing overdoing. It sounds like you haven't yet experienced serious overdoing. You will. And when you do, you will may regret your recklessness.

As to your final question, I don't think this site is the place to find what you're looking for. This isn't a system for the heedless, it's sort of the opposite of that. Bookmark this web site for later, once you find yourself approaching this work with more respect for its seriousness and pitfalls. I don't mean to sound scold-ish or condescending, though. Please just take my suggestion at face value; I don't get the feeling you can be convinced! But I do wish you the very best (and, btw, I love Iranian culture - poetry, music, food, people, sense of humor, etc.)

[SeySorciere]

Dear Roohiiq,

What do you expect will happen after a Kundalini Awakening? Why are you so intent on forcing it, even to the extent of putting your life at risk, even death as you say? What do you think it will bring you?


Sey

[Experientialknowing]

From one stupid deluded idiot to another I thank you for taking the time to write this.

quote:

There is an epidemic of spiritual practitioners who believe they're  crackerjack at this spirtual stuff. They know what they're doing. They're on the right track, and, really, it's just a matter of further polishing and refining their very capable spirtuality. They tend to get combative at the suggestion that they're deluded about anything. They need to feel "right". Their expectations, alas, are rock solid, and their assumptions (oh, but very SPIRITUAL assumptions!) are unshakable. It's a huge, huge hindrance. If you're not deeply resigned to your essential idiocy, this sure isn't the path for you!

Every glorious opening I've experienced in yoga brought with it a sharp acknowledge of what an idiot I'd previously been. In the beginning, this fueled my smugness, because I assumed that as my pockets of idiocy were revealed, I was becoming more and more "perfected". But, no, I keep finding more and more ways my perspective is stuck and narrowed and self-serving, and that insights which should stretch to Andromeda hardly make it past my own chin. So...I no longer feel like I'm an inch from some supposed finish line, requiring just a smidge more polish and refinement. I EXPECT my expectations and assumptions to be laughably off. And that expectation is super helpful for yoga.

We're all complete idiots, and yoga is the process that shows us this. So if you're not able to accept your own idiocy - even thirst for revelation of your own idiocy - then this is all really just a jerk-off. So this is long-winded congratulations! Cherish the realization of your own delusion and thickness! There's lots more of that to come! So go easy on expectations and self-direction (let go, let mantra!).

And, most of all, don't fall into the trap of thinking that these "aha!" flashes are forging some new, better, wiser you. There's a lot of mythology about yogic perfection (which has its roots in icky Brahmin classism, but that's another story). Here's an insight that's very seldom stated and almost completely missed by nearly everyone: you are deluded thickness through and through. There's no inner gem to polish. Everything that's specifically you is nothing more than fuzzy-headed clenching. That's what you are. That's who you are. Your body and mind are just a cheap, dull contraction (the good stuff never seems to come from you, right? Epiphany, inspiration, eurekas all seem to come from "out of nowhere"). Remove the fuzzy-headed clenching, and literally nothing remains. So the only thing to do is to let go, falling backwards into the vast What Is. Trust that you'll float. It's ok!

I realize I will offend some readers by my statement that "you are deluded thickness through and through".  I get into trouble with that sort of statement here because folks want to feel smart and spiritually capable. Not me. I do yoga 'cuz I know for a fact that I'm a deluded idiot. And I get the feeling that you, like me, are inclined to welcome and cherish revelation of that same essential fact.

Most people do yoga to feel smart. A few do it to feel stupid. Welcome to the stupid pool!

[Jim and His Karma]

You're welcome!

I had a dream once where I came across a group of people who described themselves as "waker-uppers". They insisted they knew a lot about waking up (hey, they had lots of experience....they'd been working at it for years!). They wore special uniforms, they had adopted sanskrit names, and they spoke of miracles and powers and purification. All were certain they were really close to waking up.

[Kduzza]

quote:Originally posted by Jim and His Karma

quote:Originally posted by Kduzza
I understand what you're saying in terms of letting things be, however it's much easier said than done. I'm 17 so I have some pretty crucial exams coming up, and the blockage is preventing me from being able to retain any information, as well as connecting with the people I love.

Didn't realize you were so young. FWIW, you express yourself beautifully for a 17 year old. You're doing great!

Listen, it's not that I don't (clearly) remember the sensation of being adrift without an instruction manual (or anyone who could "fix" me), and of clutching at whatever straws I could manage to grab at. I'm not scoffing at your situation. I'm just trying to direct your attention somewhere helpful - which is anywhere but where it currently is.

Yoga in general, and kundalini awakening in particular, draw us inward...sometimes to an excess. Grounding is the solution. Outwardness. Worldliness. Engagement. All different words for the same thing. But as I try to direct your attention there, I can feel resistance. You want to go the OTHER way. It's a pull. And my point is that this very inclination, this very pull, IS the problem. IS the block.

You are infinite space. Any sensation of limits, borders, edges, or blocks, is nothing but a perceptual habit reinforced over time. There's nothing actually there, aside from a tendency to put attention there.  The block is you (i.e. your resistance), not something afflicting you. The best way to relax that resistance is via meditation (with good self-pacing) while grounding (e.g. my suggestions in the first post in this thread). The more you conceive of a block, the more blocked you become. That's how it started in the first place. The perspective comes first (once again, cause/effect is not what you think!).

quote:I will come out of this with more gratitude for every aspect of life.

This is a helpful tip: don't look for change. You aren't self-perfecting. That's a myth. It doesn't happen (which is one reason all these supposedly perfect gurus invariably turn out to be so shmucky). You'll continue to be flawed and ungrateful (unless you learn to pose/pretend real well....in which case you may eventually fool even yourself). Only self-deluded yogis transform into god-like beings.

Everything can stay exactly as-is. You know that military phrase, "As you were"? That's as spiritual a phrase as they come. I was doing what you were doing at your age (I'm nearly triple it now). And if I could send myself a message back in time, that's what it'd say.

Have you noticed that after all this yoga, you still get mad/petty/greedy/other bad things, just like you always did....but (big "but"!) you view yourself at those moments from a slightly more distant and dispassionate viewpoint? Like you're watching yourself get upset from a viewpoint of total calm? And have you noticed that, as you practice yoga, you find yourself switching to this viewpoint sooner and sooner (and, just as importantly, that it's not something you control or will....it just happens)?

That's the whole ball game right there. You still act shmucky and human (because that's what you are!), but the deepest part of you, which has always remained sublimely indifferent (not cold-hearted, just sort of...mature) , becomes more and more your viewpoint.

I'm guessing you've noticed all this. So read the tea leaves: this is what yoga's working toward. Not changing/improving you or your behavior, just easing you out of your mistaken perception that you're That Guy (you can't be that which you can observe). His shmuckiness and ingratitude and all the rest can stay. "As you were!"

Same for this block issue. Find that same viewpoint of spacious dispassion, and the same indifferent acceptance of EVERYTHING, just as-is. The block issue can continue if it wants to! But (to use the hideously misused vedanta question), who's blocked?

quote:Today I experienced an opening after the throat dilation. It was like a warm lovey feeling that lasted for a whilw, and the head pressure dissipated. This for me is promising as I now have a better understanding and know this is something that can be worked with.

Great! But don't overdo it!! It's very powerful. Deceptively so, like lots of tiny yoga moves. Openings feel great, but you've already learned why discipline and restraint and ease are critical. Too much of a good thing, etc....

Hi Jim. your last post to me was very insightful and left me with a lot to think about (or not think about as the case may be)..

Around a week ago I experienced a substantial opening in the throat, whereas before I had quite intense head and face pressure, it is now very minimal.
It was pretty unexpected and sudden, I didn't anticipate an opening and think it may have been a little too sudden. A reoccurring thought about a specific anxiety/trauma of the past entered my mind, this had been bothering me for quite some time.. As this thought entered my mind an emotion was triggered, but I didn't identify with the feeling and get lost within it, i created an inner space between it and a acceptance, as if to say ' I do not wish to change how this feels and accept it regardless'. What proceeded felt like a loosening of a coil in my throat, or a crumbling which ran down in to my abdomen.. whereas before I had felt an almost constant lump in my throat, is now much clearer. I had a mild sore throat the following few days and felt a bit groggy.
I now have a mild pain in my tail bone and am aware that the energy has ramped up a little to fill the space, so I'm going to focus much more on grounding for the next few months until I'm feeling a little less raw. Tomorrow I have an appointment with a Chinese herbalist, but when they give me the herbs I will Hang on to them until I am feeling more grounded then I'll give them a try.

The time when I find the energetic symptoms  most apparent is when I'm trying to get to sleep, it really ramps up, possibly due to my attention, when I have my eyes closed trying to sleep it is difficult to ignore. I'm torn between giving up on getting my mind off of it and just letting whatever happens take it's course, and hoping it is a positive thing, or continue to try and get my mind of it, by constantly thinking of other things and wriggling  around in bed until I fall asleep (which takes some time). How did you deal with it when you were trying to get to sleep? Or did it not effect your sleep as much?

Since I stopped my daily 20 minute meditation on the in and out flow of breath 6 months ago(due to the head pressure), I've lost a lot of the awareness and non reactiveness I once  had before the symptoms arose, which is frustrating because I find it more difficult to deal with some of the daily challenges.. I'm thinking of continuing meditation once I feel more at ease with the symptoms, but am unsure of the type of meditation that might be suitable, and if meditation at all is recommend after not doing it for such a long time?

I want to again assure you that the information in this post has been of great help! It's aided me through some difficult experiences, and progress has definitely been made with throat dilating, walking and the other general overload tips you provide in the post

[Jim and His Karma]

quote:it may have been a little too sudden

You need to get past the notion that there's an optimal way for everything to happen. You are the space in which everything plays out. You are not the guy doing the yoga, the guy repeating terribly spiritual and mature affirmations, or the guy with blocks and physical symptoms.


 

quote:As this thought entered my mind an emotion was triggered, but I didn't identify with the feeling and get lost within it, i created an inner space between it and a acceptance, as if to say ' I do not wish to change how this feels and accept it regardless'.

That's an improvement, sorta, I guess, but it's just a more layered means of trying to assert control. The guy making these sorts of policy statements and trying to control these situations - even control his own transcendence via yoga -  is that same guy who does shmucky things and is ungrateful who we spoke about before.

It's subterfuge to command a lack of control (and, yes, I do realize I'm the one suggesting precisely that, but, hey, such is the paradox of discussing any of this stuff). The move is to stop maneuvering and start letting. I wrote this once:

 

quote:Our ego is like a toddler steering his toy steering wheel with great attention in the passenger seat as daddy drives. We feel disoriented, angry, and disappointed that the car keeps turning when we don't, and that our turns often have no effect. It's a nauseating disconnection. But there are enough random coincidences (I steer my toy wheel and the car really does go that way) to keep us hooked to the delusion for our entire bloody lives.

Let go of the chintzy little plastic toy steering wheel, already!

Back to your posting...

 

quote:What proceeded felt like a loosening of a coil in my throat, or a crumbling which ran down in to my abdomen.. whereas before I had felt an almost constant lump in my throat, is now much clearer.  

Great, but as I read that, my next thought is you'd get a helluva healing crisis after such an opening.

 

quote:I had a mild sore throat the following few days and felt a bit groggy.

And, yup, there you go. Get used to it. Cleaning is dirty work. This dispels yet another myth, that this is all about personifying purity and snowy whiteness. If you ever somehow managed to transcend the dirt, nothing would remain but emptiness, with no one left to feel all pure and snowy (because everything you think of as "you" is that very same dirt - I.e. that which causes the sensation of separateness). If you start feeling pure and snowy, that's just dirt self-deluding. It means things got stuck again.

[I'm using "dirt" as a metaphor, of course. Really, it's more akin to contraction, or clenching. But while I don't claim to understand the physical processes, the observation that "cleaning is dirty work" and that you, yourself (at least the separate individual with an unfolding life story with which you identify) are that self-same dirt, holds up.]

Meanwhile, get used to this lurching cycle of openings and grogginess. And don't try to manage them. Your controls are limited and simple: self-pacing your practices, and engaging with the world (aka "grounding").

 

quote:Tomorrow I have an appointment with a Chinese herbalist, but when they give me the herbs I will Hang on to them until I am feeling more grounded then I'll give them a try.

I'm confused. You're going to an herbalist to help your grounding problem, but you're going to wait to take them until the problem gets better?

[tunakelid]

@ Jim and His Karma,
I'd really like to know if you ever identified the trad. chinese med. herbs that you took to improve your front channel/grounding. For me it's annoying you never said because I have no TCM herbalists nearby and to even reliably test ungrounded I'd have to re-start meditating and endure terrible ongoing pains for days or weeks in preparation. Due to the pains, I stopped meditating when kundalini erupted many years ago and have made small progress since. I desperately want to meditate and do AYP methods, but the pains always come back quickly and continue day/night. (Worst of all intense energy bouncing around and burning up my jaw and mouth, moving teeth and burning gums, etc.) So I'd really appreciate these details if you know them or know who does. Thanks.

[Jim and His Karma]

I understand your frustration, but it's personal to the individual, and determined by traditional pulse diagnosis. It's just not a "one size fits all" thing (in fact, one size doesn't even fit one; my herb blend is adjusted monthly according to my pulse signs). I'd strongly advise you not to self-prescribe, or to resort to herbal suggestions in books, internet, etc. And Chinese is the way...for a yogi I'm pretty surprisingly against Ayurvedic herbs (I've had bad experiences...I believe Yogani has as well). OTOH, Ayurvedic diet guidelines are terrific (have you tried to reduce pitta that way?).

I offer loads and loads of suggestions in this thread (particularly the first posting). Herbs are only one. Have you tried the others?

[tunakelid]

Oh well, I guess I'll have to find my way to a TCM herbalist anyway. As for your other suggestions, I'm very excited about Chi Nei Tsang as I have at least 2 practitioners not far away. For years I've done daily long outdoor walks and pitta reducing, but I can't figure the front throat dilation yet. All I notice is that the muscles there and in my lower jaw start quivering and spasming, which is weird! But as with meditation, my head keeps starting to roll back and my mouth wants to open, which means crown opening, my flow going wild and kriya puppetry. So the more physical treatments may be my only options.