This post is intended to share my experience of sensitivity in case it could be helpful for someone else. After years of frustration by being caught in between bhakti and not being able to progress I found a solution thats been working well for me for the last half year.
The AYP approach of pacing down until things get comfortable left me frustrated, as there seemed to be no amount of stimulation that did not at least evoke mild symptoms of irritability in me. I always felt like the energies were literally clogging my energetic channels, which made me uptight and emotionally irritable.
I was drawn to the heavy impact that the sitting practices of AYP had on my energetic system. But it literally was a painful way for me to go. There was a time, when I could do as much as 2 repetitions of the mantra in a sitting. Over a year or so I got to 20 minutes a day, but eventually I got into overload again and had to quit several times to recover and start over again.
On the other hand I have always been drawn to the heavy breathing and vigorous movements that you can find in kundalini yoga. Even before knowing AYP I practiced kundalini yoga for about 5 years and I had not been in a troublesome situation like after starting AYP and mantra meditation. So in the recovery times of AYP, I still got relief through heavy yogic practices.
Over the years I discovered that a certain way of preparating my energetic channels by kundalini yoga prior to AYP techniques made it easier for me to handle the involved energies. It felt as if I could temporarily open up my nervous system so that it was better suited for the energies involved.
This is followed by exactly 3 Spinal breathing inhalations and 20 minutes of Mantra meditation. I do this once per day.
This routine I can hold up long term and at the same time I am emotionally at ease while there is a strong upward flow of prana. I can feel that this is only possible through the preparatory practice.
At the same time I feel that I can stimulate more energies than before and I can handle occasional energy excesses better and these settle down faster.
If you find at any stage that you need to self-pace down to just two repetitions of the mantra in one sitting, then it would be best to switch temporarily to a different meditation technique. Switching to the breath is the standard recommendation in AYP, or, if you have abiding inner silence present in the mind, you could switch to the Passive Awareness Techinique. These techniques are more gentle and will stimulate the subtle nervous system less.
Honestly, if there is any preparatory practice that helps with overload symptoms, I’d love to hear it
But I don’t think that adding more pranayama, like the breath of fire in the video, does help with overload. I know from experience that that stuff is quite intense, more so than spinal breathing.
I’m also kind of curious what Kundalini yoga’s narrative and approach about excessive energy symptoms is. Is the idea really to reduce them by adding additional pranayama practices? It seems like this could really backfire.
Thanks to your golden advice I did that back then for almost half a year. I just didn’t mention that here.
@ Adrian
I know that this might sound contradictory to the AYP approach and I was thinking about sharing this approach for more than a year now. The way I see it is this: Overload symptoms can be caused by too much prana flowing in the subtle nervous system. It would then make no sense to add more stimulative practices as a coping mechanism. So the AYP approach ist then to pace down.
But I think there can be another cause for overload symptoms, which is blockage(s) in the subtle nervous system. Even small amount of prana can then lead to cumulative stress responses, just because conductivity is blocked. In this case it could make sense, that moving prana rapidly and forcefully can provide a short term conductivity by literally blowing prana through these blockages. I think that these vigorous practices are designed to do just that, because I can feel it that way and I feel relief by doing them.
If I am right about that, then it maybe is just not part of AYP’s general advice, because it is not easy to be distinctive about the cause of overload symptoms. It surely could go the wrong way. And I would have gone happily without these experiments if I didn’t have realised a necessity to do so. But apparenty it works in my case for about 6 months now, which ist the most stable situation I have been in since discovering AYP.
What you are suggesting does not go against the principles of managing energetic overload in AYP. If you read Lesson 69, Yogani is giving advice to someone who is experiencing a continuous burning sensation at the ajna chakra and at the base of the spine. The advice he gives is to begin by adding Spinal Breathing Pranayama. Then he goes on to say that if things do not improve, keep the Spinal Breathing the same and reduce meditation time.
First off, if you have not already, it is suggested you begin a light session of spinal breathing before meditation, only five or ten minutes. See if that brings some balance. See if you can find a platform of practice with only pranayama and meditation that is smooth. Don’t do any mulabandha or sambhavi yet. Make sure you take plenty of rest coming out of meditation. It is suggested you suspend the other things you are doing for the time being, as they may be exacerbating the kundalini energies. If you are heavy into bhakti, having intense spiritual emotions, you should consider tempering that also. That means lightening up a bit for the sake of building a stable, effective spiritual practice. Bhakti is great until we hit a wall. Then it can become problematic. It can surely test us.
After all that, if you don’t notice an inner balancing, consider backing off on your meditation time a bit for a while, keeping the spinal breathing at the same level, unless the spinal breathing adds instability. It shouldn’t, but anything is possible. See if you can find a routine with just pranayama and meditation where you come out into your daily activity feeling smooth, with less intensity in the symptoms you described. From that stable platform, you can begin to add things on, step by step. [Yogani]
So, some pranayama before meditation can be beneficial for some people who are experiencing energetic overload.
However, this does not work for everyone. For some people, adding pranayama could make the situation worse.
Thank you for sharing this story! I’m generally interested in better understanding self-pacing (that is what are the causes and effects of different practice components on uncomfortable symptoms and their alleviation).
Your hypothesis is that moving prana rapidly and forcefully is what’s doing the trick. Have you ever tried doing Spinal Bastrika before your AYP practices (SBP and DM)?
It might have a similar effect as the kundalini yoga practice you do.
Do you do any tracing of the spinal nerve during those kudalini yoga practices (in the video there are 4 different practices)?
I’m not suggesting you change anything in your practice. I’m really just asking for my own understanding.
I’m pretty new to this group and the ayp approach myself! I’m having a terrible time trying to do nothing myself. I myself had broken open a layer of the Vishnu Granthi last week and now I found myself even more energetic overload. I’m in a different place I’ve ever been in my life. Self pacing to zero is not something I’m used to. When the energy is making me so uncomfortable I usually do some sort of practice whether eft tapping, maybe a set of the bija mantra, breath work, looking at my a photo of me or my family when I was younger to trigger a crying response to make me release so that I can feel better. I also came from kundalini yoga and those movements felt good to me. Now any movement creates friction. Been mostly in bed for a weeks now wondering how long this stage will last. Just been trying to walk on my walking pad but that also usually then pushes me to lay down. You aren’t alone! Sigh!
I do not have experience with spinal bhastrika as outlined in AYP and I am quite tentative to do so because AYP practices are quite powerful.
I do not intentionally trace the spinal nerve outside of AYP spinal breathing, again just because I don’t want to overstimulate things. Nevertheless my attention sometimes naturally wanders up and down the spinal nerve during these practices without my intentionally doing so.
Hello Blove,
Yes, Kundalini can be quite an angry mate and its natural to look for relief. Your case sounds like having extreme difficulties, so according to AYP maybe you should stop any spiritual practice and see if things settle down on their own. I did that several times. This includes grounding exercises like living your life actively. So lying down could make things worse if overload is the source of your problems.
If symptoms don’t fade away in days then maybe there is a kundalini awakening going on. There are experienced practitioners here, that can help you, when you describe your symptoms further. In this case AYP suggests to balance this energy out through spinal breathing and mantra meditation.
If you can find relief by kundalini yoga practices as I did, the feel free to share this experience. I would be interested very much.
