Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
psychologytoday.com
Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
1–10 of 93 posts
Re: Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
#2Does anybody here have experience with the VNS devices mentioned in the article?
Re: Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
#3As someone who has practiced yoga for 40 years and started qigong a few years ago, the advice in the article seems fairly obvious. Still, great to see the article in the front page of HN!
I had not thought of deep belly breathing helping calm and relax me during meetings - will try that.
Re: Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
#4could this work to calm breathing in freestyle swimming? I try using 'box' breathing exercises and they seem to work a little (in-count-4, hold-count-4, out-count-4, hold-count-4 cycle)
Re: Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
#5Yoga (proper yoga, not the gymnastics they do in most gyms) is all about stimulating the vagus nerve and several others. The "locks" (bandhas) and various breathing exercises (pranayama) all work on it in different ways and stimulate different parts of the nerve. If you really want to juice it up add in some breath retention.
Eventually you reach a sort of homeostatic state where your breath just naturally suspends, and that's when the doorway to the inner world opens.
There's more about the nerves in The Accidental Yogi's ebook (free online), and more about breath retention in Kundalini Exposed (on Kindle). The "Supreme Kriya Fire" technique in that book is the absolute real deal, but definitely not for beginners. Beginners may want to start with Yogani's free lessons at aypsite.org.
Remember - Kundalini is not a game. Work up slowly to avoid negative side effects.
Re: Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
#6A technique I used to learn to breathe with my diaphragm:
- stand tall like you're the batman (open up chest, don't slouch shoulders)
- place your hand on your belly, pinky on navel and thumb touching the tip of your sternum
- inhale from nose
- let jaw loose and make the deepest "oooohm" note you can produce, look at the hand on your belly getting closer to your spine as you exhale
- inhale and look at the hand on your belly rise
- repeat, always inhaling from your nose only, keep lips closed and jaw loose (no need to make any sound once you get it)
This technique immediately drops high stress bpm's from 120/140 to ~68.
Re: Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
#7could this work to calm breathing in freestyle swimming? I try using 'box' breathing exercises and they seem to work a little (in-count-4, hold-count-4, out-count-4, hold-count-4 cycle)
Not a direct answer, but I've found this helpful: http://www.swimsmooth.com/exhalation.html
Re: Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
#8I am a lifetime choral singer and during a recent medical exam I was asked to take a series of deep breaths. So I took my usual singer's diaphragmatic breath and was complemented on my "yoga breathing"!
Re: Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
#9Breathing through your diaphragm is desirable all the time and not only during a conscious exercise. Many years ago, I would breathe through my chest which made for shallow breathing. Look at how babies breathe; through their diaphragm/stomach.
It took several months to shift my breath to the diaphragm. The exercises certainly help with lengthening the inhale and exhale, maximizing both oxygen intake and carbon dioxide excretion.
Re: Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises and the Vagus Nerve (2017)
#10I'm curious if the converse is also useful.
In holotropic Breathwork breath is made faster and deeper in order to access and release old trauma (including PTSD).
I imagine this uses a mechanism of conciously activating fight or flight to confront whatever psychological material is available and recontextualize the self as safe.