Help and advice humbly requested

[Stevie]

Hey guys,

I was just wondering if anyone on this board has experienced Tinnitus and has it had an effect on their spiritual practice, energy work etc?

I have had a ringing in my ears for almost two weeks now which i find distracting and sometimes distressing. I have heard tones before, occasionally. Sometimes the same ringing noise and and other times more pleasant subtle ones in meditation and while doing a yoga technique (closing ears and listening for sounds - yoni mudra i think) but this time the noise has not stopped.

I have been to my doctor who checked my ears for infection and also my blood pressure, both of which are fine.

It seems a little coincidental to me that this started very shortly after i had made a commitment to do energy work every day, MAP and meditation. I was up to day 7 on the MAP training and was enjoying my practice. Ironically i had also just read the Power of Now which had inspired me to deliberately take notice of the silence between sounds, my thought, to focus on the present moment and be the silent watcher. Now silence has gone! Maybe it is a coincidence, maybe it isnt. Does everything happen for a reason?

At the moment this has scared me off practice and has caused some deep seated anxiety and unpleasant emotional feelings to surface. Before i was the kind of person that liked to do NEW and meditation in a silent enviroment.

Is it ok to meditate and perform energy work with music in the background or should i just attempt to accomodate the noise and rise above it?

I almost feel like something is trying to stop me developing or maybe this is a test of my committment. I would love to make progress with NEW and OBE but at the moment i am having a hard time getting used to the noise and feel it could inhibit my ability to relax and i have not been able to sleep properly recently which isnt helping me de-stress!

Can this kind of thing be overcome through energy work, self healing and affirmations?

Any advice at all would be a great aid to me :)

p.s not sure if this is in the right section, sorry if i have put it in the wrong one.

[Alienor]

About 15 years ago a loud noise close to one of my ears did result in a tinnitus. It can be annoying at times, but mostly one does get used to it. It does not interfere with spiritual practice.
It did seem to get better since I started to do healing and energy work, but maybe I just got even more used to it :wink: So far I did not yet try to heal the tinnitus away - but I believe it would be possible.

It is ok to listen to some music for meditation and energy work - after all there is a lot of mediation music available. Some people like to listen to white noise to cover the tinnitus. I used to listen to music a lot, but now I am fine also without any such background sounds.

As you had only for 2 weeks that tinnitus, it might just go away again.

[Stevie]

Thank you for your reply, Alienor :)

At the moment this is proving a challenge for me but it's good to know it should not interfere with my practice, as long as i do not let it.

Would accepting the nosie and getting used to it for the time being undermine any future self healing attempts? At the moment i am struggling to control negative emotions this is causing.

Thank you again

[Alienor]

I believe you can always start the healing process later even when you already are used to the Tinnitus. Maybe you can learn something by looking at the negative emotions caused by your current situation! I see pains and such irritations as a sign, that one is supposed to take notice, or learn something.

The biggest "risk" I see in regards to future healing attempts when one does get used to a irritation like the Tinnitus is, that one will not attempt anymore the healing, as one got used to the condition. Healing does require listening to ones body. :wink:

[eyeoneblack]

I've had tinnitus since I can remember. It's always there if I stop and listen, and sometimes so loud it's hard to ignore - I've compared it to a thousand tiny cicadas raging on a hot summer day.

But I have never considered it a problem but rather an asset. I focus on that high frequency when I meditate and it keeps me centered - like focusing on a candle flame or the reflective surface of a bowl of water. I would worry if it ever went away. :)

Richard

[ButterflyWoman]

I was just wondering if anyone on this board has experienced Tinnitus and has it had an effect on their spiritual practice, energy work etc?
I've had tinnitus since always. It gets worse sometimes, due to Meniere's Disease, or if I've been exposed to particularly loud noise (generally I try to avoid loud environments and excess sodium, to keep those things in check). I'm not bothered by it, especially. It can be annoying in everyday situations, as I sometimes can't hear what people are saying (say, in a food court).

As for energy work, the tinnitus has never had an effect one way or the other. Same with meditation. I sometimes actually listen to the ringing as a means of focus, in fact. Mostly, I just ignore it.


Now silence has gone!
Honestly, I haven't heard true silence ever in my life, that I can recall. It hasn't affected me in any significant way. I understand that it can be annoying, but until and unless it goes away, you're going to have to come to terms with it.


At the moment this has scared me off practice and has caused some deep seated anxiety and unpleasant emotional feelings to surface. Before i was the kind of person that liked to do NEW and meditation in a silent enviroment.
Interesting. Deep seated anxiety and unpleasant emotions are surfacing and now you don't want to continue with the practice that caused this to happen, and you have a "reason" to avoid it. See what I see?


Is it ok to meditate and perform energy work with music in the background
Yes, of course.


should i just attempt to accomodate the noise and rise above it?
Yes, of course.


I almost feel like something is trying to stop me developing
If anything is, it's some part of yourself that misguidedly believes that avoiding the anxiety and other yucky feelings that are starting to show up as you do the work are things best avoided and left alone.

[Jackofhearts]

I've heard it said that when a certain deep state of mediation is reached, the sound of a ringing bell can be heard.

If you are just experiencing ringing in the ears, this is something different. The mind is normally able to filter out the ringing in the ears during normal daily activities, but when you relax and meditate, the silence makes the ringing very noticable.

I don't reccomend listening to music while you meditate, because instead of allowing yourself to access and tune into your deeper aspects, you'll just be feeding the music into a deeper part of your mind. Meditation should be done with focus and silence (or a mantra) for best result.

I'd say consider it something to be overcome. When you meditate be aware of the sound ringing in your ears, and then let it go, as you would let go of a balloon. The ringing will still be present, but you should be able to move past it. The body is also present during meditation but it is quickly forgotten when you reach a deep enough state.

The same will be true of your ringing.

Good luck!

[ButterflyWoman]

I don't reccomend listening to music while you meditate, because instead of allowing yourself to access and tune into your deeper aspects, you'll just be feeding the music into a deeper part of your mind. Meditation should be done with focus and silence (or a mantra) for best result.
I've meditated with music for years. I also meditate without it. I meditate in the car (not while driving, obviously), sitting at a bus stop, in a public restroom, on a hospital gurney prior to being taken in to surgery, you name it.

I'm one of those who believes that if you condition yourself to only meditate under ideal conditions, you'll only be ABLE to meditate under ideal conditions.

That said, I definitely don't think it's the best idea to meditate with music that has lyrics, because that can get kinda weird, depending on what the lyrics are. But the world is full of excellent music which is lyric-free and which makes an appropriate backdrop for meditation, in my experience.

[Stevie]

Sincere thanks to everyone who has replied here, i greatly appreciate the advice and am very thankful for the support. You have given my some food for thought.

I really don't understand why this has had such an impact on me!

I did a wee bit of meditation last night, without any backgroud music, and was able to concentrate on my breathing and just let the noise be.

Sleep is my main problem, i can learn to live with the noise but i seem to be stuck in the same pattern of taking ages to drop off and then I always wake around 3am at which point it's hard to go back to sleep as the tinnitus always seems much lounder.

I go through the deep relaxation excercises and do a little energy work and my body does start to feel heavy but my mind doesnt want to let go.

Does anyone have some tips for getting off to sleep?

Many thanks

[Jackofhearts]

I used to have trouble getting to sleep, and I attributed it to having too much on my mind.

But really, the problem was stimulants like coffee and soda, coupled with not enough exercise.

My reccomendation is to not drink any caffeine a few hours before bed, and also do a quick jog or some jumping jacks, push ups, or something like that an hour before bed.
If you tire out your body you should sleep like a baby, as well as help keep yourself in shape.

[ButterflyWoman]

I did a wee bit of meditation last night, without any backgroud music, and was able to concentrate on my breathing and just let the noise be.
Good. And that's a good discipline to have, too. Allowing things to just be as they are. ;)


Sleep is my main problem
I used to have frequent bouts of insomnia, actually.


my mind doesnt want to let go.
This is where discipline comes in. You very gently tell your mind to settle down, that everything you need/want to think about will still be there later, while simultaneously directing your thoughts to the relaxation routine. When I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep, I use the old trick of systematic relaxation, starting with the toes, moving to the feet, up to the ankles, etc. and I visualise the bones and tendons and see them bathed in soothing, relaxing energy (or something along those lines; it's hard to describe in words). When my mind drifts into other stuff (the chattery, keep you awake stuff), I just very gently pull it back as soon as I realise it.

This is a form of meditation, too, and it's just a matter of developing the mental discipline to get your mind to shut up when it should shut up. (Once you have a quiet mind, by the way, it's amazing bliss. I was so shocked the day I realised it was quiet inside my mind! How amazing!)