Exercise #1: Double Breathing (with palms touching)
May you benefit greatly from these videos, practice tips, inspirations, and resources.
Practice Tip
A double exhalation is through both the mouth and the nose, not only through the mouth. Compare the two approaches and feel the difference. When you double exhale through mouth and nose, you are not trying to blow air out through the nose; simply leave it open rather than closing it off. Most of the air will exit through the mouth, but because you are keeping the nose open, you will enjoy a greater feeling of openness in the head, both during and after the double exhalation.
For exercises that don’t call for double breathing, simply keep the breath flowing naturally.
Energization Drama in the Himalayas
My husband Randi and I were on a trek in Nepal in 1984, on the Annapurna Trail. One day we were at about 10,000 feet elevation, heading toward a pass that was at about 18,000 feet. We needed to go more slowly than the rest of the group, because we had difficulty with the high altitude and the very high winds. So we fell behind our group.
At about 3:00 in the afternoon, a particularly strong gust of wind blew me right off the trail and over a ledge. Fortunately, it was not a long fall, but it broke my ankle quite badly. Randi climbed down to me and covered me with both of our down sleeping bags and a down jacket. Then left me there and took what he hoped would be a shortcut down into the nearest valley, where he thought he had seen a village earlier–and where he was hoping he could find help.
I was left alone all night. At one point I had an out-of-body experience, and I was given a choice of living or dying. I chose to live, and when I came back into my body, I felt certain that the best way to stay alive was to feel Master's (Paramhansa Yogananda's) presence with me, and to do the Energization Exercises over and over, as best I could. So I did this for many hours.
It was well below freezing, and the wind was howling very loudly. My food and water, which were inside my sleeping bag with me, froze solid.
At one point, I managed to cover the sleeping bags and down jacket with many rocks to give my body more protection. I made it through the night, and at dawn, I was conscious and not in shock when Randi returned with some porters. One of the porters strapped me to his back and carried me back to the tiny village that Randi had found.
From there I was taken by pony to a larger village where there was a doctor. He was amazed that I had neither frostbite nor any signs of hypothermia. Except for my broken ankle, I was in reasonably good shape. I was and still am convinced that it was because of Master's blessings combined with the Energization Exercises.
From the second village, I was flown out on the next "mail plane" to Kathmandu, where I had surgery and stayed for several weeks in a hospital. Eventually I returned to America and recovered fully.
—Sunya Dickson
Resources
Energization Excercises DVD
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