41–50 of 93 posts
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Yea, but like, acid and mushrooms don't require any effort.
Their effects are not well controlled either.
Breathing 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 dioxi…
If you have poor posture and core support and a tight chest, I would say experiment with filling your lungs completely, and with engaging your abs very slightly on the _inhale_, to feel some of the sensations of full, supported breathing. Your core muscles create pressure that helps fully inflate your lungs.
Don’t listen to any admonishments about “breathing wrong” as your body will use them to create additional tension and restriction rather than relaxation and freedom.
Polar (heart hate monitors) did pioneering work with HRV in the late 90's and their heart rate monitors have have a mode that HRV to to determine best heart rate limits for each exercise period for almost two decades. Heart rate itself is a good indicator of stress. Aerobic training using HR limits helps to avoid overtraining (and undertraining). If you are stressed out in one day your HR is up and you exercise slowe…
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As someone who has been programming for 20 years, and experienced a lot of stress from it, it seems to be like I have been unwittingly practising 'anti yoga.' When I code difficult problems, my breathing becomes light and shallow and from the chest: almost the way you would breathe if nervously anticipating some outcome. The physical posture is more often than not slumped in a chair, and locked into a narrow range of…
Apart from practicing deep breathing periodically, you might want try getting a lacrosse ball and using it for deep point massage. I was able to release a lot of tension from my neck and shoulders with one. Also, a theraband was recommended to me by a physio so I could do flys to help pull my shoulders back into proper alignment. I'd recommend seeing a physio - one did me the world of good and was able to suggest exe…
For the lower back, I recommend a “foam roller” although it hurts at first, my god does it help.
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What kind of negative side-effects are you referring to? I've heard a fair number of people talk about high-level Yoga stuff being dangerous, but I've never really understood what they meant. Is it related to the suspension of breath, like risk of unconsciousness? Long term joint damage? (BTW, thanks for the book rec -- Kundalini Exposed looks pretty interesting).
Gopi Krishna is the canonical worst-case scenario of an unprepared Kundalini awakening, so check out his "Kundalini: Evolutionary Energy in Man". I've heard that if you're careful, you should have an easier ride. However some people can have spontaneous awakenings, sometimes following traumatic (near death) events. One guy suggested there was a link between the adrenals and kicking off this process. The endocrine sys…
I'm "into" mindfulness stuff as a mental exercise but now I'm feeling intrigued about experimenting with the breathing stuff (and generally the more physical aspects of Yoga) more. So thanks for the background and reading suggestions.
I'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.
Would that be a strong effect on an uncontrolled basis? (I.e., fast irregular shallow and/or interrupted breaths tending to reinforce anxiety etc.?)
Holotropic Breathwork was created by Dr. Stan Groff as an alternative to LSD Therapy after prohibition.
His thesis was that symptoms were just a half expressed cure. Meaning, if you have anxiety, the trick is to actually "make it bigger" - in this case using breath work, to release whatever trauma was at the core of it.
Holotropic Breathwork is usually "faster and deeper" breath.
After 20 minutes or so (combined with Rythmic music) you end up in a space very similar to classic psychedelics. However this space is much more controllable in that if it gets too intense you can always slow your breath down.
Much in the same way people find relief from PTSD, anxiety, depression, etc. with the classic psychedelics, they have similar results with Holotropic Breathwork.
Once these sessions are over, often whatever it was that was the issue is resolved for good or at least dramatically diminished.
I've found HB to be very useful in conjunction with more classic Psychedelic therapies.
Does that help? If not, please rephrase for me and I'll try to answer.
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One note: fresh and clean airflow is important, don't do this indoor with high co2 ppm (high co2 is basically poison)
Unless you're locked in an airtight space (or small closet, etc) high CO2 should not be a concern whatsoever. Any normal living space is going to be fine. Even a relatively "tight" super-efficient modern home changes air over several times per hour (and have fresh-air injectors on the heating/cooling systems to introduce fresh air and prevent staleness). Even there, a house full of people wall-to-wall could not signi…
The ultimate goal for utilizing the diaphragm is slow and steady breathing in a controlled manner. I see too many people taking in big gulps of air and exhaling out with no sign of control. Even when think they got it, it’s still too fast. You must keep the rib cage expanded on the exhale in order to expel the air. There is no pushing, just allowing the air to escape slowly.
This may vary from activity to activity, but there needs to be a reasonable amount of control during exhalation.