Hi all,
I've noticed there is limited material on AYP resulting in depression on the forums.
So I've been practising AYP with ample resting time, twice daily, since August last year. Mainly just a few asanas to get my blood flowing, DM and SBP for the prescribed periods.
Sometime last year, I think around December time, AYP stopped being joyful and ecstasy-inducing for me. In fact, it began leaving me feeling very cold and a bit bleak and depressed.
I've tried various types of self-pacing. I cut down to once daily meditation. I reduced the time of DM and the time of SBP (which make up the core of my routine). Sometimes I would just do 30 seconds of SBP and 5 minutes of DM.
REST: FYI, I'm definitely not cutting short on the rest. This morning, I awoke at 5.30am, performed just a few stretches and asanas, meditated/SBP for total 20 minutes and then rested until about 7.30am, for over an hour.
Frankly, all people's various kundalini overload symptoms, with strange heat arising etc seem exciting when compared with just feeling kinda depressed! ;-)
So around the time this first began in December I came across this book "Kundalini Postures and Poetry" by Yogi Bhajan (authored by one of his disciples). I felt drawn to it, and would occasionally replace my AYP routine with:
-Breath of fire pranayama (intense rapid breathing in and out of the abdomen)
-10 minute asana routine with lots of stretching of spine
-Breath watching meditation for 10-20 minutes
This will result in a whole body pleasure and a lot of joyous energy in the body for several hours after practise.
This seems preferable to doing a routine which makes me feel depressed, however, I don't want to be messing around with lots of different types of routines. I recognise that sticking with a set of practises and being consistent with them has value.
One thing that occurred to me to mention is that usually I can only breathe through one nostril, for some reason the air flow is always more constricted in one nostril than the other. Thought it worth a mention in case it's possible that it affects my pranayama.
I'm aware that depression is a possible overload symptom, but the self pacing doesn't seem to have helped much.
Keen to hear - any advice? Thx