I've never been more conscious of my breath while computing than when I was playing Subnautica[0], which proffers a (notoriously tense) game loop significantly involving running out of air and coming up for breath. Additionally, I would take swigs of water when my character was getting thirsty. A surprisingly embodied video game.
What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
21–30 of 137 posts
Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
So learn it. It is one of life’s greatest secrets. What the original commenter said is correct, meditation helps you see how thoughts arise in the moment , and with practice you can get to a point where there is very little noise and instead you have a broader view of ideas and your life in general. It is also calming, for your entire system. Learning to monitor and control your breathing consciously is a serious men…
Part of me is resisting because people like you push others to do it. I’m somewhat allergic to that kind of evangelism. Imagine I told you to go to the gym 3x a week or wake up daily at 4:30am. How would you react? It’s a shame since I might even enjoy mediating. Maybe I try it one day.
Under no circumstances should you try meditation! DO NO DO IT! That's an order.
Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
#23Does anyone track their stress levels whilst programming?
Anecdotally and non-scientifically I’ve noticed that my health (stress related illness) has vastly reduced since moving from being a staff engineer to engineering management.
It’s not that I’m less stressed but the stress is a different pattern.
Whilst programming I noticed that my day was a series of spikes of frustration and stress and then a severe drop off once I solved a problem.
Essentially a dopamine - serotonin feedback loop all day every day.
My stress now is generally a more flat and smooth line.
I often thought it would have been interesting to actually track it using a medical device but was unsure if anything like that even exists.
Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
So learn it. It is one of life’s greatest secrets. What the original commenter said is correct, meditation helps you see how thoughts arise in the moment , and with practice you can get to a point where there is very little noise and instead you have a broader view of ideas and your life in general. It is also calming, for your entire system. Learning to monitor and control your breathing consciously is a serious men…
Part of me is resisting because people like you push others to do it. I’m somewhat allergic to that kind of evangelism. Imagine I told you to go to the gym 3x a week or wake up daily at 4:30am. How would you react? It’s a shame since I might even enjoy mediating. Maybe I try it one day.
> somewhat allergic to that kind of evangelism
Meditation, or some sort of reflection, may reveal to you that wrapped up in "allergic to evangelism" is an illusion that you received the intended message in the intended way. Or rather, that your reaction isn't necessarily in line with the reality of the intent of what was said. And that your reactions may be limiting you in your growth. You may even figure out ways to gamify your own improvement.
That said, realization is the easy part!! lol, who am I to talk, let alone preach
Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
#25Does anyone track their stress levels whilst programming? Anecdotally and non-scientifically I’ve noticed that my health (stress related illness) has vastly reduced since moving from being a staff engineer to engineering management. It’s not that I’m less stressed but the stress is a different pattern. Whilst programming I noticed that my day was a series of spikes of frustration and stress and then a severe drop off…
Interesting. Anecdotally agree.
I’ve been trying to improve my mindset when coding. I find myself worrying about solving the problem correctly, and I’m trying to change that so my focus is more on slow, correct practice. Easier said than done, but the idea is that it will be less stressful and reduce the frustration peaks you mentioned
Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
#26Does anyone track their stress levels whilst programming? Anecdotally and non-scientifically I’ve noticed that my health (stress related illness) has vastly reduced since moving from being a staff engineer to engineering management. It’s not that I’m less stressed but the stress is a different pattern. Whilst programming I noticed that my day was a series of spikes of frustration and stress and then a severe drop off…
I had the opposite experience. Frustrations whilst coding could be severe but were mostly things within my control. Sure, we had major failures and outages which spiked stress, but these were rare and we learned and grew from them.
As a manager, I was constantly dealing with things way outside my control with much more severe consequences: other people's emotions, people quitting, budget cuts, layoffs, political posturing. At one point I was told to layoff an entire team of very talented, very productive Ukrainian engineers because Russia had decided to invade their country and my company didn't want to deal with the _possibility_ that they'd become unproductive.
I know it's entirely dependent on the type of work and the organization, but from a stress-reduction standpoint I'll take staff engineer over people manager every time.
Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
#27One of the things you quickly discover when you start meditating is how deeply your breath is connected to your mind and body. You can literally detect a thought forming before it does simply by sensing subtle changes in your breathing. You'll also notice how the most trivial thoughts also have a physical manifestation in your body, e.g., mild tension in your eyelids, or a tingling in your abdomen, etc.
It definitely helped me fix my road rage. E.g. getting cut off in traffic would usually cause me to inhale and brace my core, it's not hard to get angry from there, but by recognizing it as primarily a physical reaction, I was able to short circuit the secondary emotional reaction.
Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
#28Also don’t forget to blink while you are at it.
Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
So learn it. It is one of life’s greatest secrets. What the original commenter said is correct, meditation helps you see how thoughts arise in the moment , and with practice you can get to a point where there is very little noise and instead you have a broader view of ideas and your life in general. It is also calming, for your entire system. Learning to monitor and control your breathing consciously is a serious men…
Part of me is resisting because people like you push others to do it. I’m somewhat allergic to that kind of evangelism. Imagine I told you to go to the gym 3x a week or wake up daily at 4:30am. How would you react? It’s a shame since I might even enjoy mediating. Maybe I try it one day.
I feel like you need to sign up to pretend it has meaning kind of like religion. "Have an open mind baxtr". My best friend has been going to Yoga and then Meditating for 9 years and the bile, misery and garbage that comes out him like a waterfall after a few ales is incredible.
Re: What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
#30I used to have a really big problem with holding my breath when I played League of Legends. I'd routinely get dizzy after long teamfights and I was completely unable to communicate with my teammates over voice chat during fights/skirmishes because I couldn't make myself expel air (which is worse may depend on your point of view).
In the anime Demon Slayer, breath control (and specifically breathing while moving) is the primary method of performing spectacular feats in battle which is cool