| | I don't know about the "ego," but I do know that the sensations in the solar plexus will sometimes develop into a feeling of lack of breath. Like I am not taking in enough air, and absolutely must breathe. However, at the same time, it seems as if this urge to breathe is just a blockage in the area, as I am breathing just fine in normal amounts, and I'm not blacking out or show any other signs of lack of oxygen intake.
This has led me, in various periods in my practice (for a few hours in my first retreat, a few weeks in early 2010, a few weeks in late 2010, and now occasionally and seemingly at random), to try to relax this feeling of suffocation, to handle it like I would any other blockage.
What happens then is that the tension becomes stronger, and then stronger still, and then eventually (and not always, only after several sessions of doing this, and sometimes not then), there is some dissolution of some kind, and the way I breathe changes. I mean it changes from that moment onwards. I breathe more easily, more slowly, and use the belly more. I used to be a chest-breather, and now I am definitely a belly breather.
It always amazes me how this process is so obviously physiological (rather than just psychological). This is just one among several changes in bodily function. |