The Presence Process Questions - Has Anyone Here Done It?

It was my hope that everyone would want to move over to the new thread and share their experiences and questions there. I figured since this thread slowed down, this would be a good time.

 

Hi Brian,

Although I haven't read TPP...I'm now curious. I like what you said in this post describing the emotions. I've been doing my own breathing/breathwork...just taking fuller breaths and extending the belly. I don't agree with the many breathing techniques that have you pause anywhere on the in or out breath..to me, that sends the wrong message to the brain...because we hold our breath in fear...In the book, "Issues in Your Tissues" the author states - "We learned to stuff down uncomfortable feelings in our bodies and hold them there with minimal breathing".
So... while doing these deeper breaths, emotions arise...and I also experience a "tearless" crying/sobbing. I just allow it...It could start as anger and end in sadness/sobbing..I just stay with and say " I'm with you my dear"...it dissipates...then I'm ready for the next. There always seems to be traces of emotion in my breathing...subtle but with awareness, they arise. Thanks for your confirming description cuz I sometimes wonder...is this what a suppressed emotion looks/feels like....or is it just me? So thx.

 

Jaxson,

That's interesting that you have emotions coming up with your breathing. If you set your intention for that, it'll happen, so I guess that's what's bringing them up. Cool.

It sounds like you're getting little bits of the emotions to surface if there are no tears. I've cried tons in the past couple of years in been doing TPP. Crying is the beginning of integration of emotions, because we're finally feeling and accepting the grief we've been afraid to feel all our life. There's always a fear of feeling our uncomfortable emotions first and foremost (fear, anger, and grief). Once we know how to deal with them, that fear gets processed and we can start feeling them rather than repressing them. I imagine if you do TPP, it'll break any remaining fear you have inside to feeling your uncomfortable emotions, and you'll start having stronger emotions surfacing and full-on tears. Tears are pretty important. I once heard it said that one does not heal till the last tear falls.

As for the pausing between breaths, I like TPP's breathing which has no pauses. However, I also do a special kind of Kriya yoga meditation that has pauses between the 20 deep breaths you take. At each pause, you're supposed to feel inside of you, feel how your stomach feels, your chest, etc. Never has that causes fear in the body. In fact, it's used to relax your body and mind. Either way, I like the TPP breathing better.

What can get a person into a fear-like state is rapid shall low breathing. This has a good use, too. If a person wants to trigger fear that they need to process, they can use that technique to trigger it sometimes. So the intention you have when breathing is important and often determines how useful that breathing technique will be.

Feel free to join the conversation in the TPP thread if you like, especially if you decide to do TPP. It's always interesting and helpful to hear other's experiences with it.