How to deal with body discomforts relating to breathing and posture?

jack, modified 6 Years ago at 9/18/17 12:37 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 9/18/17 12:37 AM

How to deal with body discomforts relating to breathing and posture?

Posts: 12 Join Date: 10/17/14 Recent Posts
Due to my allergies and some nasal issues, breathing is uncomfortable for me. I have tried many things to alleviate that issue, including neti pot and even surgery, to no avail.

Additionally, my posture is poor due to hunching for many hours in front of a computer screen for many years. I'm not able to maintain a straight back and open chest without a lot of strained effort.

Those two things make meditation very unpleasant for me. I experience a lot of unpleasant physical feelings when sitting and focusing on my breath, since I do not like being aware of 1) my posture and 2) my breath, I find them uncomfortable and would rather escape from that awareness.

I understand the point of meditation is to accept the discomfort. To just let them be. But I can't do it. It's like asking someone to put their hands into a bin of sharp needles, and to just accept the pain. 

I would love to experience the benefits of a deep daily meditation practice. Please, how do I get past stage 0?
Yilun Ong, modified 6 Years ago at 9/18/17 1:00 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 9/18/17 1:00 AM

RE: How to deal with body discomforts relating to breathing and posture?

Posts: 623 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
jack:

I would love to experience the benefits of a deep daily meditation practice. Please, how do I get past stage 0?

Use some creativity to disallow yourself from falling asleep in any comfortable position (as comfortable as lying in bed).

There is no need to use breath as an object. There are 40 meditation subjects taught by the Buddha and another trillion possible objects you can use. The object is merely a subject used to help you enter into a state of concentration and stillness of mind. You can try kasinas (stick a coloured circle on the ceiling) or sounds (or even the lack thereof) as objects.

Enjoy! emoticon
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Nicky, modified 6 Years ago at 9/18/17 6:08 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 9/18/17 6:08 AM

RE: How to deal with body discomforts relating to breathing and posture?

Posts: 484 Join Date: 8/2/14 Recent Posts
jack:

Additionally, my posture is poor due to hunching for many hours in front of a computer screen for many years. I'm not able to maintain a straight back and open chest without a lot of strained effort.


You must sit with a straight comfortable relaxed back. If you can't sit straight cross-legged then sit with another posture. 

rex w, modified 6 Years ago at 10/20/17 3:14 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/20/17 3:14 PM

RE: How to deal with body discomforts relating to breathing and posture?

Posts: 4 Join Date: 1/3/11 Recent Posts
My teacher (a dsicple of the late Swami Veda) taught me that Hatha Yoga was developed to solve the problem of what to do with the body during meditation. Perhaps a smple set of asanas will help with the posture and physical discomfort. 

As for the breathing, when I have seasonal allergies, I have found a neti pot useful.

Good Fortune,
Rex
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Aregente Noir, modified 6 Years ago at 10/23/17 2:49 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/23/17 2:48 PM

RE: How to deal with body discomforts relating to breathing and posture?

Posts: 4 Join Date: 10/10/13 Recent Posts
Here is a hand-out from Shinzen Young with some info about posture: 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57b316579de4bb75ceb674cc/t/57bce011b8a79b49057e1dd2/1471995930200/AboutPosture.pdf

He includes info about laying down while meditating.
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cian, modified 6 Years ago at 10/24/17 4:05 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/24/17 4:05 PM

RE: How to deal with body discomforts relating to breathing and posture?

Posts: 62 Join Date: 5/22/15 Recent Posts
I've had similar issues. 
Chiropractors say that tension around upper back / neck vertebrae restricts nerves to the sinuses so not only do you get back pain from your poor posture but sinus issues too.  In my experience this theory totally checks out. 

The main relief I've gotten is from yoga asana and the right kind of massage. When I started doing yoga I was amazed that it cleared up most of my allergy and sinus stuff. 
I highly recommend reading The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies.  Good chance you could clear the bulk of the pain in a couple of weeks with that one. With some yoga too my guess is you'll feel all brand new and ready to sit. 

Until you get the book and/or find a good yoga teacher who understands how to balance a body, the maybe most important point is:

If you're hunched forward, it's often the back muscles that hurt. So it feels reeeally good to stretch and massage your back. But in so doing you're missing the silent source of the tension; the muscles in the front pulling the shoulders forwards and hunching the back. So, I'd guess you need to focus mainly on front body massage (if you've got sinus issues i bet your scalene muscles are a horrorshow emoticon  ) and yogic backbends (which stretch the front body and strengthen the back). General stretching out of the spine like sun salutations will also be good as a starting point. 

Good luck.
I'd love to hear how it goes.

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