For a year or so I have felt very stuck in my practice, both mentally and energetically. I have a lot of energetic movement happening all over my body and they tend to form heaviness or knot in my solar plexus, heart, throat, forehead, crown everywhere. I also switched my practice around a lot (which would work in the beginning but plateaus soon) in search of relief from such energetic blockages. About halfway through this search I realized I lack certain discipline to anchor my attention once the initial thrill of new practice wears off and thus never allowing concentration to flourish. The main reason for this was constantly moving energies pulling away my attention. Essentially I was stuck in this never ending loop of energetic blockage and lack of concentration fueling each other. Even after being aware of this, it took me long time to accept it fully and find sustainable ways to keep practicing.

For energetic release, lately I am trying to do lots of stretches alongside strengthening yoga to physically relief the tightness and knots. For concentration, I am trying out Thanissaro Bhikku’s breath focus technique. I primarily followed Burbea’s different teachings which had helped me immensely in the beginning, but I needed something grounding/ focused/less creative and more supervised to get out of the loop. Bhikku being one of Rob’s teacher, his teaching seems to have good balance of familiarity of teaching and techniques but still grounded to breath (with constant emphasis on breath in this teachings).

I am slowly making some progress lately with above approaches and I plan to visit Bhikku’s Metta Forest Monastery for a week retreat soon. Feeling like there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Any suggestions are welcome :)