I wanted to ask people out there if they have regularly practiced yoga and meditation and stopped because they were overwhelmed by strange feelings. I have trouble putting the experiences into words, but I have a feeling some of you know what I mean when I say that I was beginning to feel too vulnerable and I stopped for a bit. I don't know if I was becoming more open than I was psychologically prepared for or what.

I was practicing meditation for over 10 years and yoga on a regular basis, but then stopped, due to unexpected strangeness. I was feeling like I was travelling way too far out into the cosmos. I think practicing these things opens us up to our intuition and the result can be a bit much.

I am considering returning to a regular practice because I am longing for the sacred in my life and have never felt such beauty (er, and horror) until I did have a regular practice. Nonetheless, I am hesitant. I felt like such an alien when I was diving into the practice. Words of advice or encouragement would be helpful because I did authentically benefit from my practice in many ways. Was my "ungroundedness" a phase in the practice, a process that I'd work past, or am I doing something incorrectly?

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Find your place and you've misplaced it.

Hi anna - cool stuff. No advice here, but encouragement in the new territories. ambo

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Ambo Suno

theory2.txt   (a thought from the SBaGen program docs)

23-Apr-99

Here's a thought.  The high-frequency brain waves are associated with
sharpness, clarity, focus, the here-and-now.  The lower-frequency
brain waves are associated with more diffuse states, such as dreaming
(off in another world, or a world of your making), ESP (sensing things
outside the body), intuition (receiving promptings from the universe
as a whole), and so on.

Do you see what I'm suggesting - high-frequency == sharp focus,
low-frequency == diffuse focus.  Isn't this in quantum mechanics too ?
High-frequency waves are very small and high-energy (X-rays, for
example are like particles), whereas low-frequency waves are much
bigger and less defined (like radio waves, which are huge).

What I'm suggesting is that the body is acting like a solid well-
defined particle at high frequencies, and is getting a lot more into
big quantum effects and wave-like behaviour at low frequencies.  And
it's in the quantum effects that the gap into the magic of the
universe lies - the way to escape the Newtonian dull-and-boring
predictable world of the old physics.

At low frequencies, you are a lot less well defined ("Who am I, where
am I ?" has less meaning), and more diffuse (and able to sense things
outside of the body).  Maybe at very low frequencies you are also
diffuse enough to fill (and feel) a much bigger space, aware of what
is going on there.

Maybe with low-frequency and higher-frequency combined, you can sense
a large space, and at the same time define it and analyse it.  You can
be both well-defined and in-your-body, and diffuse and everywhere-
at-once together.  Why not ? 

This would also mean that at very low frequencies, you would become
*huge*.  Probably if you didn't really have the energy to fill this
space, you wouldn't feel much at all.  This idea may also explain why
I'm feeling a lot of energy coming back after listening to delta/theta
frequencies for a while - if I've been *huge* for a while, absorbing
energy from my surroundings in this state, and now I'm person-sized
again, with all that energy inside such a small space, I'm bound to
feel more energised than before.

Perhaps that's why I'm moving so quick all of a sudden !

--
 Jim Peters 

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x23.zaadz.com

This is very interesting. I'm going to test this theory out. Hmm. This is a fun idea to play with. Thanks!

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Find your place and you've misplaced it.

Hi Anna

Maybe you have experienced the siddhis ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhi

I have been practicing yoga and med for some 7 years, and I can relate to what you are saying, from my own experience these states come and go, but there is sometimes a feeling of being 'ungrounded' an experience where we are almost out of our bodies, which can feel quite scary ...

and then there are the ahhh ! joyous states of being which unfortunately come & go ; not that I grasp for them or anything like that !!

if you want to send me a PM to share your experiences please do ...

best wishes
Alan

Anna: 

I've been practicing yoga and meditation for  ten or so years, and I've had some  weird  feelings, too.

Can you describe some of what  you've been feeling more fully? I think working deeply on muscle  tissue and the breath can start to bring up shadow material sometimes. A great book that talks about this is Dynamic Yoga, by Godfrey Devereux. A quote from the book:

"If you go deeply enough into the physical patterns of the body, you will  uncover underlying emotional blocks. In doing  so you will disturb them: dislodge them from their nests.  You then have the opportunity to resolve and release them: by turning the light of  your stable, open, full direct awareness upon them...

Devereaux goes on to describe other feelings that can occur after practice:

"...be aware that imbalanced practice can create its own unnecessary disturbances. This can  be the result of forcing your muscles...pushing yourself...insensitvity, greed, fear or pride...the most common feeling this creates is anger..impatience..intolerance..."

Both of the above states have happened to me. Sometimes also I've experienced weird feelings in meditation that I think simply  occured because  my  body was out of alignmentt and was unconsciously  tense.

If you describe what you are doing and what you are feeling more fully, that might give a clue as to what  might be happening. Or  you might try consulting with a teacher experienced in yoga and meditatiton that you trust.

Best wishes,

Bill

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Anna,

Here's some advice I've been hearing lately for similar "strange" experiences: They come and go in our awareness. What is it that does not? Just be, no matter what arises, no matter how far you are into this bizarre universe, there is the simplicity of just being. That's enough.

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"Let me show you the path on which there is no coming and no going." - Ikkyu, Zen Koan

Thank you for your beautiful words. I think I have to read this over a few times so I can saturate myself in it, because I tend to forget the most valuable aspects of living sometimes....like being. I've been falling spiritually asleep this past year because I've been spending my time and energy working at living. What irony, I could've simply decided to stop and just be without all of that struggle. Yah, I know, I have poor memory for the important stuff here.

What is it that does not arise? I like that. I want to fall asleep resting in those sentiments.

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Find your place and you've misplaced it.

My 2 cents- maybe try a meditation practice with open eyes so it's more in touch with relative world. Or you can try perhaps Qigong, in a group, in a setting like a park if you can find- this often feels very safe and grounded- with people, outside in nature, easygoing...

:)