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One hour of slow breathing changed my life

theguardian.com

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Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#111

Post by crystaln »

wenc wrote: post #13

I was skeptical about breathing exercises but turns out focusing on something as trivial as breathing can and does help in relaxation and anxiety relief. (not a substitute for medication/therapy of course) This is easy for anyone to test empirically -- just YouTube "relaxation exercises". I happen to like this one from the University Health Network in Toronto, which helps me fall asleep (I've never gotten to the end…

This is a form of meditation, not so much a breathing exercise. The efficacy of meditation has been established for thousands of years.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#112

Post by crazynick4 »

impendia wrote: post #32

I started reading his book Breath , and he made the starting claim that, in essence, you could choose to be either energetic or restful by picking one nostril to breathe out of for awhile. (Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time, and the body goes back and forth, but "it's a balance that can also be gamed"). I found this claim a bit... suspicious, and Googled, and didn't find much scientific evidence for th…

Here are a couple studies I just googled

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3681046/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728953/

As far as personal experience, I find breathing exercises should be slow and deep, generally with breath retention that is extended over time, as opposed to just deep breathing in and out at a 'regular' speed. Traditional yoga usually emphasizes this (as opposed to the new-age westernized yoga). I think many people who find no results just breathe deep but dont slow it down. You should feel like your breath has been 'stretched' by the time you're done. Id also find a good teacher if you're serious because you can definitely overdo it/do it wrong.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#113

Post by chefandy »

martindbp wrote: post #4

> We’ve become conditioned to breathe too much, just as we’ve been conditioned to eat too much. How is one conditioned to breathe too much? We eat too much because there is so much available to us and it's engineered (by trial and error) to be as delicious as possible. That has not been done to air.

> We eat too much because there is so much available to us and it's engineered (by trial and error) to be as delicious as possible.

People's reasons for consuming more calories than they expend are orders of magnitude more complex than that.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#114

Post by rcthompson »

crazygringo wrote: post #52
dcuthbertson wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time I don't understand how anyone can make that statement with a straight face. Unless one nostril is blocked, we use both simultaneously. There's no balance to be gamed.

That's not actually true. If you research it, you'll find that most people's nostrils alternately dilate and contract (the tissues reduce/swell). Most of us breathe primarily through only one nostril at a time, and it switches approximately every half hour. This is entirely unconscious and we're generally not aware of it. There is a little bit of airflow in the constricted nostril, but nowhere near comparable to the…

I guess this explains why every time I have a cold, my nostrils alternate being blocked and unblocked.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#115

Post by graeme »

ivank wrote: post #49
dcuthbertson wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time I don't understand how anyone can make that statement with a straight face. Unless one nostril is blocked, we use both simultaneously. There's no balance to be gamed.

70-80% of adults have a alternating congested nostril https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_cycle https://www.rhinologyonline.org/Rhinology_online_issues/2018...

Congested doesn’t mean fully blocked right?

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#116

Post by llbeansandrice »

crazynick4 wrote: post #112
impendia wrote: post #32

I started reading his book Breath , and he made the starting claim that, in essence, you could choose to be either energetic or restful by picking one nostril to breathe out of for awhile. (Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time, and the body goes back and forth, but "it's a balance that can also be gamed"). I found this claim a bit... suspicious, and Googled, and didn't find much scientific evidence for th…

Here are a couple studies I just googled https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3681046/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728953/ As far as personal experience, I find breathing exercises should be slow and deep, generally with breath retention that is extended over time, as opposed to just deep breathing in and out at a 'regular' speed. Traditional yoga usually emphasizes this (as opposed to the n…

This helps validate me. I swear every yoga class I've been to I'm breathing at like 3/4 speed of everyone else in the class and so the flow moves too fast for me.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#117

Post by Ensorceled »

dcuthbertson wrote: post #46
impendia wrote: post #32

I started reading his book Breath , and he made the starting claim that, in essence, you could choose to be either energetic or restful by picking one nostril to breathe out of for awhile. (Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time, and the body goes back and forth, but "it's a balance that can also be gamed"). I found this claim a bit... suspicious, and Googled, and didn't find much scientific evidence for th…

> Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time I don't understand how anyone can make that statement with a straight face. Unless one nostril is blocked, we use both simultaneously. There's no balance to be gamed.

Because it's true? Did you bother to pay attention to your own breathing for a breath or two before posting this?

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#118

Post by technothrasher »

whoisjuan wrote: post #43
impendia wrote: post #32

I started reading his book Breath , and he made the starting claim that, in essence, you could choose to be either energetic or restful by picking one nostril to breathe out of for awhile. (Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time, and the body goes back and forth, but "it's a balance that can also be gamed"). I found this claim a bit... suspicious, and Googled, and didn't find much scientific evidence for th…

> In essence, you could choose to be either energetic or restful by picking one nostril to breathe out of for awhile. Why not just try it? This is such a simple and safe experiment. You can do it and generate your own conclusions.

"Just try it" is interesting and can be fun. But it is a messy path to truth, because we humans are inherently terrible data collection machines. Likely the OP recognizes this and was looking for more objective data.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#119

Post by sajforbes »

tzot wrote: post #104

> Hindus considered breath and spirit the same thing It's funny, because I just realised that πνεύμα(pneuma)/spirit in Greek has the same root as πνεύμων(pneumon)/lung: the verb πνέω(pnéo), which means I breathe. This is not Mr Portokalos talking from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, people: πνέω is traced to the older Indo-European stem pnew- , and the whole point of my comment is that there is a lot of heritage in languag…

The English words "respire" and "spirit" have the same root, too.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#120

Post by voidhorse »

impendia wrote: post #32

I started reading his book Breath , and he made the starting claim that, in essence, you could choose to be either energetic or restful by picking one nostril to breathe out of for awhile. (Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time, and the body goes back and forth, but "it's a balance that can also be gamed"). I found this claim a bit... suspicious, and Googled, and didn't find much scientific evidence for th…

There’s an entire practice around this stemming from yogic philosophy called nadi shoodana—alternate nostril breathing—the theory essentially says doing this can regulate different male and female energies in the body, which are both responsible for different things, including energy levels (hyper vs relaxed).

I can’t personally attest to any of the deeper claims of the theory, but I have used the alternate nostril breathing as part of meditation practice and I can say that focusing on the breath in this way at the very least helps one enter a meditative state, like many other pranayama techniques.

I’ve never dug into the science attempting to prove the proclaimed effects since experientially it helps me enter meditation, which is what I value it for—I’m not so sure its a good use of time trying to validate the overarching theoretical claims of ancient sources—the practices can still be highly beneficial even if the claims aren’t correct, and I think the main benefit of controlled breathing practices relate to meditation. (that said the body is an interconnected system so its totally plausible that regulating the breath, thus the heartbeat, thus the flow of blood throughout the system could have system wide effects).

If nothing else, hopefully these terms help you in your research.

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