The Fatigue Response
© 2004
>> Since I have started practicing Bardon's exercises I feel more tired during the day than before. Has anybody had the same experience? Do you know any "energizing" exercises that could help me cope with the fatigue? <<
At the beginning, fatigue is usually due to either a physical or an emotional cause. The most common physical cause (related to beginning the IIH exercises) is lack of sleep! ;-) Instead of shuffling our life around and omitting something less important, many folks will take time away from their sleep time. For example, getting up an hour earlier than before but not going to bed an hour earlier to compensate. A proper amount of sleep is important in the physical body's regulation of energy.
If that's not the cause, then the most likely culprit is emotional blockage of some sort. Tiredness is primarily an emotional state. For example, you can feel tired but then something exciting happens and you're suddenly energized. And conversely, you can feel full of energy and then something depressing happens and you're suddenly exhausted.
Most emotional blockages and feelings of tiredness arise (in relation to beginning IIH) because of the Soul Mirror and character transformation work of Steps One through Three. As I wrote in my "Commentary Upon IIH: Step One", during the period of constructing your Soul Mirror lists, you should take very good care of yourself, physically and emotionally. Introspection of this sort and of this depth is bound to stir up all sorts of stuff, much of which you won't even be aware of at first.
One "trick" to avoiding this emotional fatigue is to apply the "thought control" exercise technique of *detachment* and *observation*, instead of involvement in each of the items you uncover through introspection. Introspection is very much akin to that first mental exercise of Step One in which you are merely "taking stock" of what *is*. You're simultaneously detaching yourself from what you are observing. In other words, you're not interacting *with* what you're observing. When you apply this to introspection, you'll find it much less emotionally disruptive and therefore, much less physically tiring. It also makes it easier to penetrate much deeper into your psyche and "sweep out the dark corners" as Bardon put it. :)
As far as "energizing exercises" goes, I want to caution you that if you do as has been suggested and start the Step Three exercise of pore breathing the Vital Energy, be very careful. Please note Bardon's *exact* instructions. Namely, that you must *exhale the exact amount you inhaled*. You do *not* want to hold on to the Vital Energy. All you would want to do is fill your body with it and then release it back to the universe. During the brief time it fills your body, your body will draw from it whatever it needs. In other words, there's no need to keep it in your body for extended amounts of time. In fact, this can be harmful.
In general, I advise against jumping ahead to the Step Three energizing exercise and suggest instead that you focus upon the *cause*. If you rely upon energizing yourself too much, you develop a habit of avoiding *causes*. Eventually, that catches up with you and it's rarely a pleasant experience. :)
You might also want to consider devoting your work with the magic of Air, Water and Food to this issue. For example, you could inhale the ideation that your body's energy will be consistent throughout the day and available when you need it.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
06 March 2004