If you would like to join my mailing list and receive updates with links to newly published content, let me know by emailing me at contact@sundaynewsletter.com 

Update on Breathwork

A few months ago, I wrote a little bit about Stan Grof and the holotropic breathwork technique that he developed in this post. Since then, I had the opportunity to participate in a breathwork session; It was nothing short of mind blowing. The combination of breathing and music put me into a radically altered state of consciousness. I cried a bunch (Something I, unfortunately, often struggle to do) experienced numerous physical sensations, and threw up (Throwing up is a common occurrence in these types of ceremonies, and is viewed as a type of release in this context). Although I felt a little strange for around a week afterward, I’ve more than fully recovered. In fact, I feel as though my average state of mind has increased noticeably since the session.

If any of you are interested in doing breathwork and would like to know more about it, I’d recommend contacting this organization: Breathwork Northwest

Notes:

• Breathwork Northwest offers both private and group sessions. Private sessions cost $315 and group sessions cost $180 (Depending on how early you purchase your place). In my opinion, it was worth every penny. (They’re not paying me to say all this)
• If you end up doing breathwork, please let me know. I’d love to compare experiences.

Additional update on breathwork (Written on September 5th, 2019)

The breathwork session described above took place on July 7th (Around two months prior to this writing). Immediately afterward, something pretty incredible happened. I didn’t to celebrate or discuss it until a few months had passed, in case the change was temporary, but I now think the time has come.

First, some background.

In the summer of 2017, my knee began to hurt. Specifically, it began to hurt after I ran or played soccer. As time went on, I began to feel the pain when walking down stairs, regardless of whether or not I had run. Eventually, I even started to feel it when walking. I decided to quit soccer. This helped to some extent, but the pain was still there. I quit running. The pain was still there. Although it was by no means crippling, it was a constant thorn in my side. I went to physical therapy for three months. It had no significant effect. I then had an MRI scan on my knee. The scan showed no abnormalities.

Months passed. I went to another physical therapist, who seemed to make some progress.  They did work my inner thigh, an area that was apparently very tense. The symptoms went away for the most part in the days following this form of therapy, but always returned. Clearly, the root cause of the issue was still unaddressed. At this point, I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I was never going to be able to run again, at least not without having to deal with a decent amount of pain in the following days. I stopped going to therapy, as it was expensive and didn’t seem to be getting me anywhere. Half a year passed. Then summer came around and I did breathwork. In the session, I sweated profusely, vomited, and experienced a strange sensation in my inner thigh.

I didn’t do much rapid movement following breathwork, as my feet had recently been severely burned and even walking at a slow pace was painful. After around two weeks, I was back to walking pain free. I then decided to go for a short run, expecting the knee pain to return immediately afterward. But it didn’t. And it hasn’t since.

It seems as though hyperventilating for three hours while listening to evocative music cured me of a condition upon which months of physical therapy failed to have any significant effect. How did this happen? No idea.

The universe works in mysterious ways.

Cool TED Talk on the future of food / meat production

Although I’m yet convinced that fake meat is any healthier than real meat, I do think that plant based meats and artificially cultured meat could do a lot to help fight environmental degradation and antibiotic resistance that are currently being fueled by the conventional meat industry. The talk below goes into more detail on this topic.

Key point: Despite the rise in vegetarianism and veganism in some countries, global per capita meat production is as high as it has been in recorded history.

Quotes 

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

– Herbert Simon

“We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.”

– E.O Wilson

Photo of the Week (Shot in Scotland)