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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

#211

Post by mkbkn »

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…

Google "Swar Vigyan". Instead of looking for "studies", try these things on yourself for 30 days or so and journal what you experience.

Or try this -

Take breath with right nostril only - you'll feel warm or more energetic. Later take breath with left nostril only - you'll feel cold or more relaxed.

You can gamify this system when you certain type of tasks.

Or ask any old-school Yoga/Meditation teacher, preferably someone with roots in India.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#212

Post by voidhorse »

cwkoss wrote: post #154
voidhorse wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If anyone else was confused (I was and had to google), the practice of alternate nostril breathing entails physically obstructing alternating nostrils with a finger as you take breaths.

There’s an advanced variant in which you don’t use the fingers and attempt to manipulate the breath using the lungs only—its called anulom vilom

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#213

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

jerf wrote: post #82
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That first one feels very chicken and egg - if you're anxious your sympathetic nervous system is going without the breathing. Can breath be used to relax you? Absolutely, but that's as much about focusing the brain on the breathing instead of the anxious thoughts as anything else.

It's a reasonably well established principle of psychology (real science, not pop-sci) that a surprising amount of what you perceive to be your emotional state is mediated through your body. That is, you experience a stressor, so the "low level" portions of your brain activate bodily reactions to that stress, and what your high-level brain perceives as stress is actually the bodily reaction rather than the original s…

I had sleep paralysis as a child once in a while (which isn't uncommon), but as an adult I only get it after a period where when I've consumed cannabis with some regularity, then stopped.

It may or may not apply to you, but my friends that have sleep paralysis say this anecdote holds true for them as well.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#214

Post by ekianjo »

fsloth wrote: post #208
ekianjo wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As long as it does something beneficial You can't easily measure if something is beneficial. Which is precisely why a bunch of plants that people were taking before for different ailments were found to have absolutely no medical value when tried through a scientific method. And in the age of social media, individual confirmation bias and a megaphone is the best way to promote non-science to hordes of people.

Placebo can provide actual benefit to an individual. Easing suffering, thus reducing stress levels, which in turn help body to function better. But you are quite right, individuals with strong confirmation bias and a large social media following are harmfull. Still, that does not mean individuals should not perform harmless experiments. Individuals should experiment. But they should not claim their findings as univer…

> Placebo can provide actual benefit to an individual.

It depends what you refer to when you talk about a placebo. What people call the "placebo effect" is in practice "regression to the mean" in most cases, which is the fact that you would get better over time even if you did absolutely nothing. You will notice that placebo 'effect' works best in contexts where the illness has a psychological component (mental illnesses and the like), but absolutely fail to show any effect at all in other contexts like viral infections.

> Individuals should experiment. But they should not claim their findings as universal truths.

I agree, but how can you prevent people from claiming that something worked for them if they are absolutely convinced of it. It's an unsolvable problem.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#215

Post by viburnum »

yboris wrote: post #130

Does anyone else find this style of writing absolutely aggravating? The first paragraph has absolutely 0 value to me as a reader. It's almost like the goal of the writer is to take up as much of your time as possible.

Haha, I posted this here and I agree, it the author to get to the point.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#216

Post by ycombinete »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #38
abendy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people with anxieties or other fear-based conditions typically will breathe way too much. So what happens when you breathe that much is you're constantly putting yourself into a state of stress. So you're stimulating that sympathetic side of the nervous system https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/27/8629631... > you can over breathe when people at a gym or when people are jogging you see them really go…

That first one feels very chicken and egg - if you're anxious your sympathetic nervous system is going without the breathing. Can breath be used to relax you? Absolutely, but that's as much about focusing the brain on the breathing instead of the anxious thoughts as anything else.

I went snorkelling for the first time, in Mauritius. Flat water, no fear to speak of. But I was breathing incorrectly through the snorkel. Which one does the first time they snorkel. Overly deep, heavy breaths. Suddenly my heart was racing, and I went into a panic. It felt like I couldn’t breath at all. I started hyperventilating, breathed in some water, and started to get tetany which of course made everything worse.

This was all brought on by my breathing wrong. Not out of stress. Simply because the snorkel messed with my normal rhythm, and caused accidental hyperventilation.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#217

Post by [deleted] »

tines wrote: post #148
eblanshey wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. The purpose of science is to discover the truth, not make the truth. You don't science to confirm everything before you try it. With things like breathing where you know it's not going to cause harm, just try it for yourself.

The problem is that you're biased - confirmation bias, expectation bias, selection bias, optimism bias, observer expectancy effect, the list goes on - and you end up learning all things except the truth.

[deleted]

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#218

Post by yladiz »

deeblering4 wrote: post #193
cwkoss wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone else was confused (I was and had to google), the practice of alternate nostril breathing entails physically obstructing alternating nostrils with a finger as you take breaths.

At first, but once you reach nostril nirvana you unlock the ability to breathe with your third nostril

Can I consider my mouth my third nostril and reach nostril nirvana already?

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#219

Post by acituan »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #133
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…

With a lot of these things I would highly recommend to just try it. If it works for you, good. If not, don't do it. It doesn't cost anything and you won't harm yourself. I started yoga before it became mainstream and with a lot of the practices I tried them for myself. For example I noticed that some pranayama practices work for me and others don't. Back then pretty much every "serious" scientist or doctor would have…

> With a lot of these things I would highly recommend to just try it. If it works for you, good. If not, don't do it. It doesn't cost anything and you won't harm yourself.

I strongly disagree with this line of thinking. If something is potent enough to deliver benefit, it can also be potent enough to deliver harm. You can't have it both ways.

Turns out breathing is rather psychoactive, and without proper educational context one can indeed induce or activate latent issues, anxiety or otherwise.

Just like with McMindfulness, I wish some of this kind of instruction required licensing.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#220

Post by Integrity »

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…

I've dropped my blood pressure significantly in minutes with diaphragm breathing. Measured it. - Also, if you face the palms of your hands up, it mysteriously opens the lungs and allows for deeper more relaxed breathing.

As to your comments about the author's claims, I too am weary about a few.

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