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On Breath and Meditation
Or....of blindness and death.
Date: 11/25/2011 10:33:51 AM ( 13 y ) ... viewed 2608 times It was about a decade ago that I started meditating.
I remember lying down on the bed and doing.... slow.... aware.... in.... and.... out.... breathing.... exercises.
Every cell in my body started screaming!
Talk about pain!
Guess what?
Your body does appreciate that you "STOP" and listen to it once in a while.
I never had that pain again, but WOW! It was incredible.
I've tried various breathing, walking etc exercises over time.
I'm not a regular meditate-or by any means, you don't need to be, but it's best if you are.
It does exercise the brain in a completely different way that has multiple benefits.
A number of years back I was flipping the channel and came upon a new show that "tortured" it's contestants.
The goal was for the person to perform a mental exercise while loud sounds, flames and other "scary" things came close to cause mental distraction.
You "won" if you were able to finish the mental exercise.
Normally, I would have kept on flipping.....
The contestant said he taught yoga and meditation and was here for his students.
I stopped the flipping.
I'm thinking, he doesn't have a clue and will of course fail...which, he did.
He was very apologetic and showed concern as to what his students would think of his failure.
As I said, clueless. So what do I mean?
He was unaware that the brain doesn't learn that way.
You don't get to meditate in serine surroundings with the expectation of having it carry over when things become frantic.
This came home to me years ago reading "At Hell's Gate" by a Vietnam veteran with PTS who became a Soto Zen monk and Zen teacher.
Doing all of the most intense meditations had little effect on his PTS.
Simply put, the two had different formats within the brain.
From my learning's he would have been better off doing EFT.
From what I can tell, the real trigger that imprints PTS is stopping breathing while in a very stressful situation.
This is actually common during extremely stressful events.
It causes your heart rate to fly above 190, if it's not already there from the fear.
Stopping the breathing allows the body and mind to take a "snapshot" which will later be triggered by nuances within the "snapshot".
This can include body position, muscle tension, sound, smell, anything the body sensed within the "snapshot" may trigger the emotional content.
Mental mindsets similar to the "snapshot" will also be a trigger.
Consciously learning to breathe during extreme events is the BEST thing you can get from meditation.
Aside from "de-stress" meditations, you should do what I call working meditations.
These should be visual at first, seeing yourself at a family gathering (which usually provokes you in some way) maintaining a slow steady breath.
When you go into the working part, your consciousness will grow so the time between you "losing" your breath (due to Mom or Dad pulling their crap perhaps) and reestablishing your breath will shrink to almost nothing.
Over time, this makes you aware of how people play mind games all the time (not consciously) as they attempt to force their internalized reality onto you and everyone else.
So....I'm reading about another breathing exercise years back, I wait till my morning commute.
I'm on the road for a bit, then I give myself a set time to perform it, 20 minutes.
Why? Because the brain will allow you greater flexibility if you don't leave things "open ended".
It will try a number of different approaches "shortcuts" to give you what it thinks you want.
The brain is lazy and forms abbreviated gestalts to prevent long term thinking. Having set times can help prevent this.
I breathe in for 10 seconds, hold for 5, breathe out 10 with an extended "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" sound.
Simple enough when driving?
I'm in the Toll Road, there are two lanes, 2 cars are a short distance in front of me.
I see the lead car veer away from the center divider lane into the second lane.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
In the darkness of early morning, there is barely the outline of a stalled car against the median.
Partially sitting in the fast lane.
The second car, a little behind the first follows suite at the unconscious level.
Becoming conscious, the driver overcompensates and pulls the wheel.
The car heads toward the cement median.
Again the driver overcompensates taking the car across the two lanes, now straddling the second Toll lane and the fast lane of regular traffic.
Plastic safety tubes that divide toll from regular traffic are flying my way, hitting my small econo truck.
I maintain my distance behind them, neither of whom have slowed that much.
I see traffic behind me slowing as they become aware.
She returns to the second toll lane.
I speed up and pass both.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
A short while later, my 20 minutes ends.
Just when you thought.....
So my chiropractor tells me about a breath exercise that helps the back.
You inflate the lungs, hold and crouch forward, causing expansion of rib cage and extension of spine, slowly release the breath.
So the wife and I are out and about driving on a beautiful day.
I'm behind the wheel in the fast lane, doing the exercise several times.
I take in a large breath, crouch towards the wheel.
The freeway curves, I see the cement median next to me curving, I hold the wheel to maintain the curve.
I decide to mix things up and do a quick release.
The median, car, the beautiful day and wife turn into a slow moving gray as I go blind.
3 seconds can be a very long time......
I maintain the hold of the wheel, I do not slow.
My vision clears.
I realize I had caused a sudden drop in blood pressure.
Not quite coming close to passing out.
Really stupid in hindsight.
Why no, I do not tell the wife!
And you people thought meditation and breathing was for sissies!
Ha! Depends on how you do it!
To Your Great Health,
Your Humble Servant,
Gracefully Savage
PS Do try this a home, but think twice about heavy machinery, now that's funny!
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