Hi folks,

Does anyone know of high quality resources for clearing blockages related to breathing? I have started implementing some exercises from Jack Willis’ book on Reichian therapy and from Damo Mitchell’s books. The exercises are aimed at stretching the diaphragm and intercostal muscles. Damo’s work looks legit, I feel like he is a Daoist version of Daniel Ingram

Since the first day I started meditating, I have noticed tensions in the diaphragm and intercostal area, surely a manifestation of childhood traumas trapped in the body. The exercises I am experimenting with are clearly targeting those tensions. Are you aware of any other pragmatically oriented practice systems dedicated to this topic?

Will Johnson breathing through the whole body 

Also, try taking the fingertips and gently massaging under the ribcage for clearing diaphragm tension. (avoid the sternum)

​​​​​​​That technique came to me through a few people but ultimately came from the above author. 

I've recently been working through very similar issues: extreme rigidity in my sacrum, as well as lower belly and jaw, representing childhood emotional baggage. I'm not sure about external resources in particular -- though I agree with your assessment of Damo Mitchell and his work -- but I can share a few things about my experience.

I've had a therapist who has a meditative/mindfulness approach to therapy, and I've been meditating for several years, and I've been practicing taiji for several years as well. So that's kind of a trifecta of exploration from the phenomenological, psycho-emotional, and physical angles. I've come to believe that there is no fundamental difference between the emotional roots of this tension, and my attentional attitude towards the tension, and the physical tension itself. Each step of progress in releasing tension has been made starting from one angle or the other, but it has always involved a combination of everything at once.

You seem interested in a physical entry-point into addressing this. My experience with tension was that I started off trying to "fight" it, through stretching and massage balls and whatnot, and that gave some results, but wasn't the most effective approach. What worked best was to start just the way you're starting: noticing the tension, and being aware of it. Then being aware of the entire body as a field of relaxation, in which this tension had a place. The same way that meditation can constitute a field of awareness into which thoughts and emotions arise, the body should be a field of relaxation which contains tension, and provides context to it. Don't react against the tension, don't fight it, just allow it to be there. Investigate the edges of it, the sensations that make it up. Make room for it, encompass it, watch what it does, and at the same time keep the door open for any hints of fear or grief arising. Tension is ultimately self-protective, and watching it will often lead you to that fear.

I had many breakthroughs that started with talking to a therapist, and that led directly to a release of physical tension, but I believe doing it this way is also entirely sufficient. It's very analogous to the regular meditative practice of allowing things to surface into awareness, and observing without reacting. It can be hard to surrender, of course, when the tension represents nothing more than an unwillingness to surrender.

Failing that, my other advice is to take a massive dose of MDMA. Depending on where you live, it might even be legal before too long!

 Hey,

I've also found Damo Mitchell's videos very helpful, especially the ones on sinking chi, and chi stagnation.

I've also found physically releasing emotions very helpful, based on what John Bradshaw taught.

And I've noticed that a lot of tension actually is in the throat, neck and shoulders and upper back, and it affects the diaphragm as if the tension is rooted in the diaphragm, and it becomes very important to check the throat and shoulder and release them.
 

Hi
What is -
1) Clearing
2) blockages
3) Related to breathing vs other felt senses

4) Explain noticing. Is it so noticable that you can not do anything else during meditation?
5) Explain tensions. Physical tensions? mental impressions of tension?
6) Surely? How sure are you? why are you sure? who told you this?
7) Childhood trauma? why is that? how do you know that?
8) Trapped in the body? again....why trapped?

I too have had sensations that then I projected my own bullshit upon. I even thought that I had to first fix my 'stuff' before I could progress.
I found out that it was only partly true.
Whatever you believe, that is your stuff to overcome, although maybe its not really a problem...
Good Luck,
~D

Thank you for great answers everyone. Regarding DW's comments, it reminded me of Burbea's notes on purifications, and maybe it would be good to post them here for anyone reading, beacause they are very insightful (not denying all the content-based psychological perspectives, but offering an alternative angle):
​​​​​​​

Good stuff! Yeah there can be a fine line between respecting old wounds that need to heal and over-indulging in our sense of woundedness. Where to draw the line isn't always clear, so it's good to embrace that there might be uncertainty and to make sure that "trying to fix things" is balanced at times by exploring "leaving things alone"  -- both options can be effective and it's hard to know ahead of time what will work. 

I'm sure it's entirely possible to get fixated, lost, or "stuck" in the idea of having "emotional stuff" that needs to be dealt with, but what I was describing above is, to me, entirely consistent with what Burbea is talking about with "nothing at all from the past is anything in itself, because it needs fabricating in the present to make it any thing in particular". That's exactly what I mean! There are emotional self-defensive stances -- and their corresponding physical manifestations -- that once upon a time might have served a purpose, but now are nothing but habit. The "work" here is the same work as in the rest of meditation: realize you're doing it, and allow yourself to stop. That's all I was trying to describe above.

The process of "realizing you're doing it" can start with the body, or it can start with the emotions themselves, I think you end up with the same result, either way. While I've certainly had incredibly powerful re-experiences of childhood emotions, there's rarely been anything more to "do" with them. I think the re-experiencing is inevitable. The process has been entirely linear for me: realize what I'm doing, stop doing it, experience massive gut-wrenching relief, go on to the next thing.

The point I was actually trying to make is that, in my experience, an "active" approach to working out persistent tension (massage, stretching) has never been as effective as a more "passive" observational approach. It's the same as everything else: watch, get curious, don't react, dive in, dive deep.

I've dealt with a great amount of physical discomfort with breathing over my time meditating. I am diagnosed with a form of asthma, and I have a barely functioning nose (septum issues that I will hopefully soon have fixed!). Breath based meditation has often been uncomfortable or even painful, and it's felt like a "big deal" for a lot of my path. I'm not sure if anything I say will help but I have a few thoughts:

Starting off with a non-breath based meditation has often helped me when settling down for meditation. Oftentimes, if I notice a great deal of tension in those areas, things like metta or even a kasina meditation helps me calm down enough before I swap to a subtler and gentler form of the breath with stronger concentration being established. I find that if I begin on the breath with the pain and tension that I often associate with it makes these issues seem crushing. It becomes a much larger issue than it actually might be otherwise, and I have had many sits just focusing on the pain, which can be very important practice in it's own right, as Dreamwalker stated. Finding exactly where the tension is and why it's such a problem for you is important. Note the feelings associated with it. 

As for my second point, and the one I think is actually more important in some ways, is that some of these tensions might be physical. You know what did the greatest deal for me to help with these issues? It wasn't meditation. Difficulty breathing can be caused in a lot of ways such as asthma, your physical fitness, and your posture all playing a huge roll. Weightlifting has helped me tremendously, as have mobility drills to assist with my incredibly tight back section and anterior pelvic tilt from sitting too much (something that many of us in the western world do). I'm a pretty young guy and didn't realize I had these issues because I am in good shape. Relieving things that were physically incorrect with me has helped a lot, although in a weird way it took meditation to realize how much discomfort my body was actually in.

As for meditation advice, Dreamwalker's advice is really solid, as is the always wise Shargrol's, and I'm just some dude on the internet that has dealt with respiratory issues and meditates.