This evening was interesting. I came across this video about shamanic breathing and I know this type of breathing is also used in Reichian therapy so I decided to give it a shot. I intended to do 30 minutes but it turned into an hour. I played this track as a rythmic guide and used the insight Timer app to give me a bell every 15 minutes so I could keep track of the time. The music track starts out with a fast rytm which slows down as the track progresses, I did not know this in advance. I was seated crosslegged in my meditation room. I started doing the fast and deep (abdominal) breathing , using about 75% of lung capacity and no pauses between breaths. Contracting the pelvic floor muscle at the out breath while I’m at it. So after about 10 minutes I started to feel a buzzy feeling in my body and those stingy itches came that make your muscles twitch. My left leg started jerking. My right eye started twitching. Breathing through the mouth and keeping a fast rytm with the breath means saliva will collect in the mouth. Tried to swallow this a couple of times but this interrupts the rythm so I decided to let it run down my chin.
I then decided to start doing the microcosmic orbit , so at the in breath energy goes through the spine from the Perineum to the Crown and at the out breath from the Crown back to the Perineum over the chest. This went okay. After some time the music was going slower and I decided to do the slow version of the Orbit , so move to the next energy center with every breath cycle. This was surprisingly lively, I could feel like a ball of warmth arriving in my abdomen and there was a real sense of presence of the energy on the other spots. Not really a hard physical sensation but subtle stuff that made it easy for me to believe the energy was there. I believe I will make this a daily practice and see what happens. It feels effective.
I was feeling really peaceful and at ease after this session.