excess energy in the head from studying? WTF

[mike 134]

hey guys,

 

I really hate to be posting so many times recently but this one is quick. So I've been having recent problems with apathy, but starting a week ago I also noticed increasing insomnia. And my body heat, muscle twitches, neck spasms, and foot vibrations have all been getting worse, especially at night. Usually when these things happen it's caused by stress on my back, like doing abdominal crunches, playing tennis, lifting using improper technique, etc. But the last week I have not done any of those activities, in fact, I've been mostly sitting on my ass, studying for an upcoming certification exam....trying to get my career back on track.

 

But then it occurred to me that maybe it is my very reading and studying that is causing this? I remember hearing somewhere that too much mental exertion brings energy/ chi/ prana/ whatever, into the head. And it might stay up there. I never had problems with this in the past (I used to pull "all-nighers" frequently), but now I have this damn kundalini thing to deal with, and it's changing my body. I'm now sensitive to stuff that I was not in the past. So what do you guys think? Is it possible to get "energy" stuck in the head from studying several hours a day? How do I deal with this situation, short of not studying = failing?

 

And no, I am not stressed out at all about the exam. in fact stress and anxiety levels are unusually low for me. Thanks.

[GrandmasterP]

Take a walk, anything physical to regularly break up study time.

It's easy to lapse into a routine of becoming chained to the desk or reading chair and staying put for hours.

We have a system at work that flags up every hour advising students locked into terminals to take a short break.

You'll notice a difference almost immediately.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

Try imagining taking off your head and resting it on your lap.

[Flolfolil]

walk on gravel barefoot. Best lowering i have ever experienced. Just don't let it affect your posture walking, keep walking as if you were on a comfortable surface

[GrandmasterP]

Ouch!

[Aetherous]

Yup, take breaks every 50 minutes and walk, stretch the legs, etc. It's true that excess studying can do this...but you also get used to it after some time.

 

I always say, stop worrying about your symptoms. Just think of them as temporary signs of purification, revealing that you're becoming healthier and more balanced. Worrying about them, trying to stop them from happening in extreme ways, these things will only make it worse and prevent you from returning to normal. Relax.

[mike 134]

I'm taking a 2 day break from studying to see what happens. I'm also doing walks like others suggested. It should work. But damn, I'm gonna have to resume my studies soon, I can't just study one day on, one day off.

 

You know what I've discovered so far? kundalini is all about "i can't"

 

I can't bend my back too much (or else I get insomnia, twitching, and vibrating).

I can't lift heavy loads (or else I get insomnia, twitching, and vibrating).

I can't exert myself mentally (or else I get insomnia, twitching, and vibrating).

I can't get too angry with ppl (or else I get insomnia, twitching, and vibrating).

I can't stay up late at night (or else I get insomnia, twitching, and vibrating).

 

It's like everything I do sends that energy crap up to my head I wonder if there is a way to totally block that stuff from going up there.

[Flolfolil]

your problems are why i quit kundalini practices and started doing chikung. i couldn't take the headiness

[mike 134]

hey Is MCO considered chi gong? I do this when laying in bed to help me sleep, but I do it one way only (from the top of the head down to the perineum, but never upward. And what I don't understand is why I have to keep doing this activity. I mean, if you send heat downward once, shouldn't that be enough? But I can always start from the top and keep sending more and more heat downward.

 

It looks like kundalini sends it right back up automatically, trying to subvert my efforts. damned evil thing.

[Aetherous]

hey Is MCO considered chi gong? I do this when laying in bed to help me sleep, but I do it one way only (from the top of the head down to the perineum, but never upward. And what I don't understand is why I have to keep doing this activity. I mean, if you send heat downward once, shouldn't that be enough? But I can always start from the top and keep sending more and more heat downward.

 

It looks like kundalini sends it right back up automatically, trying to subvert my efforts. damned evil thing.

 

So you realize that this strategy obviously doesn't work...

[Flolfolil]

i may be wrong, but after kundalini don't some schools say to bring the energy down to the heart? i have also heard bring it to LDT. i have never heard of bringing it to the perineum

[Aetherous]

I'm taking a 2 day break from studying to see what happens. I'm also doing walks like others suggested. It should work. But damn, I'm gonna have to resume my studies soon, I can't just study one day on, one day off.

 

You know what I've discovered so far? kundalini is all about "i can't"

 

I can't bend my back too much (or else I get insomnia, twitching, and vibrating).

I can't lift heavy loads (or else I get insomnia, twitching, and vibrating).

I can't exert myself mentally (or else I get insomnia, twitching, and vibrating).

I can't get too angry with ppl (or else I get insomnia, twitching, and vibrating).

I can't stay up late at night (or else I get insomnia, twitching, and vibrating).

 

It's like everything I do sends that energy crap up to my head I wonder if there is a way to totally block that stuff from going up there.

 

I don't want to keep offering advice, but... you don't need to quit studying that long. A break means go for a walk, go do something enjoyable, then come back and study...not take days off and blame "kundalini" for why you aren't doing well at your duties.

 

The only "can't" is in your head. You're not going to die if you study as much as you should. You're not going to die if you do a back bend or lift heavy loads. You can do anything. If you get less sleep, you can wake up on time and simply be a little tired. That will help you the next night.

 

Kundalini respects your space when you do what you need to do...I don't usually like anthropomorphizing it, but that's a truth I've found.

 

It's not good to blame. Twitching and vibrating are not the end of the world, and insomnia can be dealt with in ways that you can simply google.

[Sloppy Zhang]

Your goal shouldn't be "stop energy going to your head".

 

Your goal should be "let energy come back down once it's up there".

 

Circulation is key. Trying to prevent a rise (or prevent a descent) is going to lead to stagnation one way or the other.

 

I'd recommend B.K. Frantzis' "Opening the Energy of Your Body" like I do every time. Why? Because it works with the downward flow of energy, as well as works in dissolving tensions and blockages. Something not enough systems fully explore (maybe i shouldn't say that. most all systems pretty much imply it. it's like a reference in the beginning stages which people treat accordingly (like a footnote in their practice) before moving on to the "good stuff". But Frantzis outlines that downward flow should be about 70% of the practice compared to 30% working of the upward flow, at least until being able to get energy moving back down for health and energetic balance)

 

But since that's a thorough book, I'm going to give a tip he gives for people who sit a lot at a desk (usually on the computer).

 

1. You know why people say "tuck the chin in" when meditating? It has nothing to do with tucking in the chin. Rather, it has everything to do with freeing up the occiput, the space where the back of your head meets your neck. With most people it's clamped down pretty tight (imagine hunching forward to look at a computer, that angle between the base of your skull and neck). The idea behind tucking your chin is to encourage you to open that space up, because that is how blood, fluid, and energy, is going to move OUT of your head.

 

Which is what you want. Because energy going up to the head gets stuck otherwise. And boom. Problems.

 

2. Eye strain. We're a visual culture. Books. Computers. All the eyes. As such,our eyes get stressed, the optic nerve gets stressed, and so our brains start to stress, and so our bodies start to stress. Solution? Relax the eyes. Ideally, you'd want to relax and open the energy gates directly behind the eyes (where the optic nerve connects). But in a pinch, starting with the eyes will work.

 

That's going to clear up a lot of tension headaches and migraines which seem to appear "for no reason" after you haven't done anything except stare for hours at a computer or textbook (gee, no clues there as to the cause....)

 

 

All of this pulled pretty much right from "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body."

 

Wanna know why walking barefoot on gravel works? It gets you out of your head and into your body!!!

 

Want a more relaxing method to get out of your head and into your body? A method that isn't going to produce MORE stress to get rid of stress? "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body."

 

Seriously. Even if you're doing another system, chances are you blew over the foundational relaxation because "you're relaxed enough" and "can focus enough" and now it's time for MCO and chakra meditations and, oh noes, my kundalini awoke!

 

Yeah. "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body."

Edited January 8, 2013 by Sloppy Zhang

[mike 134]

hey sloppy,

 

thx for that detailed response. q for you: you said

The idea behind tucking your chin is to encourage you to open that space up, because that is how blood, fluid, and energy, is going to move OUT of your head.

 

I'm assuming you mean flexing the neck forward, like you're looking down. Now I am not an expert on spirituality (I'm not even a practitioner), but don't you guys believe that stuff flows down the front, and up the back? So if I tuck my chin against my neck/chest wouldn't this block off the front, so it stays up in the head without a place to drain?

[mike 134]

Yeah turtle that's a good perspective on things. I don't want this kundalini stuff to drag me down. I would ideally like to ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist. I actually slept better last night after 2 days of no work, and I walked on the treadmill to let stuff drain out. But this morning at 5 AM my damn neck spasms returned. That's the worst damn kundalini symptom. It always spasms hard just as I fall asleep, waking me right back up! So yeah I was tired as hell, trying to fall back asleep since it was still so early. But every time I just about drift off to sleep....SPASM!!! So i'm there laying in bed trying to force heat downwards but it doesn't work and I got up at 7 AM after laying there for 2 hours, agitated as hell.

Edited January 8, 2013 by mike 134

[Jetsun]

Bruce Frantzis says in one of his books that a simple way to bring energy down from the head from too much mind activity is just to rub your hands together and bring down your hands from the top of your head, over your face and neck to your body, so effectively smoothing the energy down or gently massaging it down.

Edited January 8, 2013 by Jetsun

[GreytoWhite]

I'm assuming you mean flexing the neck forward, like you're looking down. Now I am not an expert on spirituality (I'm not even a practitioner), but don't you guys believe that stuff flows down the front, and up the back? So if I tuck my chin against my neck/chest wouldn't this block off the front, so it stays up in the head without a place to drain?

 

Not quite. Tucking the chin is a bad description IMO. It's basically meaning to say not to jut your chin forward or upward. Rather you should float the head using the muscles that make up the 'V' of your suprasternal notch.

[mike 134]

Rather you should float the head using the muscles that make up the 'V' of your suprasternal notch.

 

u mean like when ur standing up straight and looking forward?

[Sloppy Zhang]

hey sloppy,

 

thx for that detailed response. q for you: you said

 

 

I'm assuming you mean flexing the neck forward, like you're looking down. Now I am not an expert on spirituality (I'm not even a practitioner), but don't you guys believe that stuff flows down the front, and up the back? So if I tuck my chin against my neck/chest wouldn't this block off the front, so it stays up in the head without a place to drain?

 

It's not an "either-or" situation. You're trying to CIRCULATE. Opening up the back of the neck doesn't mean closing down the front!

 

Frantzis doesn't make too big of a deal about the "direction" stuff flows in the beginning methods. Why? Because people tend to come at it with your perspective- "oh so things flow up the back, down the front" then you get threads like you see on TTB's titled "HELP, my energy is flowing up the front, am I broken?" and all manner of people are cross referencing dozens of disparate practices and cultures trying to figure out what channel they're accessing/feeling....

 

When the reality is that the body is not so simple. There are ups and downs and lefts and rights and ins and outs occurring at every point of the body simultaneously. Energy doesn't move in a straight line. It moves in spirals. Frantzis mentions that when Bagua or Tai Chi is used to embody the I Ching (as they do in their highest meditative forms) you are combining all elements at once.

 

So energy flows up the back... but energy also flows down the back. And down the front and up the front. And let's not forget left and right and forward and back and expanding and contracting. And spiraling, which is going to involve some side to side movement compared to the plane of direction that you're looking at and, whoa, things just got complicated.

 

That's why he doesn't mention it in the beginning. Because he would rather not give "half truths" because half truths tend to hurt people more. But if he told them the full truth they might miss the simple fact that in most peoples' posture the back of the neck is clamped down.

 

But since most people don't know what the occiput is, you just say "tuck your chin." It gets people to make the right movement. And as they start to get more familiar with their body, hey, it works.

 

Not quite. Tucking the chin is a bad description IMO. It's basically meaning to say not to jut your chin forward or upward. Rather you should float the head using the muscles that make up the 'V' of your suprasternal notch.

 

You're right it aint perfect. The problem is most people are starting off from such left field, their bodies are so out of whack, they're in such an extreme state of misalignment, that giving them a gentle description is only going to move them a little bit away from misalignment.

 

For many people, if they had the feeling of "tucking their chin," then really they might be closer to home base... why? Because the state of "normal" is going to feel really "extreme" for them because their old "normal" used to be extreme (in the wrong direction).

 

Unless you take the extreme of the opposite direction and start digging your chin into the top of your chest, and that's no good either!

 

 

So to clarify, you aren't really "tucking" your chin either, because that might imply that your chin just goes down (like you're looking down), or it goes back (goes back closer to your throat). Really it should do both. But it should also go "up" a little bit. It moves "up" because you're raising your head a bit. Ever hear people say "imagine like you're hanging from a string attached to your head?" You want to raise a little bit. Why? Because you're also trying to relieve the pressure that is clamping down on the back of the skull/top of the spine.

 

Now you see why Frantzis' books get kind of long (where he just goes on and on about the detail of a single position), because there is so much nuance to just a single position. Of course, a live in person teacher can correct you. But it's just so hard to find one of those these days that know all of these details.

 

 

Do what is easy first. Separate and combine. He mentions these all the time. You're probably not going to get all the movements right on your first try. Or first dozens of tries. Notice one alignment out of whack... fix it. Whoops, another alignment out of whack. Fix that. Uh oh. That first alignment went out of whack again! Fix that.... Separate each issue out, deal with it... then combine it. And viola. You've gotten one alignment! Time to do the others.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Sloppy Zhang

[mike 134]

ok dude you clarified the neck position for me, thanks for ur long and detailed post. Meh, too bad it's not so simple like you said about going up the back and down the front. Cause sometimes it does feel like things are going in the opposite direction. whatever, though, I don't really care as long as it doesn't go to my head.

 

lol my head feels kind of charged up just reading your post it's so detailed heh heh.

Edited January 10, 2013 by mike 134