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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

#251

Post by koonsolo »

graeme wrote: post #121
dmje wrote: post #57

No one seems to have mentioned Wim Hoff here ( https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ ). He’s got some claims that verge on the suspicious but the actual method itself is worth doing purely if you’re an interested sort. Before, I can do about 40 seconds held on an out breath, after, about 2:40. That’s kinda interesting. I’d also recommend trying it if you’re a meditator. Do a WH session first, then sit. It’s really great for…

Are you referring to the hyperventilation technique? I ended up at one of his workshops randomly and tried that. It’s actually an old technique to increase the ability to hold the breath. The hyperventilation clears carbon dioxide from the system (hypocapnia). That’s what the buzz is. Never ever ever ever ever do this underwater or you have a serious risk of death: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freediving_blackout#Sh…

I remember this technique also releases some stress hormone. This could indeed solve some health symptoms (for example cortisone is used agains astma). But I'm not sure what the long term consequence is of always releasing this stress hormone into your system.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#252

Post by [deleted] »

acituan wrote: post #219
spaetzleesser wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[deleted]

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#253

Post by chordalkeyboard »

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…

“Differential effects of uninostril and alternate nostril pranayamas on cardiovascular parameters and reaction time“

by Ananda Bhavanani Bhavanani, Meena Ramanathan,1 R Balaji,2 and D Pushpa2

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4097918/

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#254

Post by thiagocsf »

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…

In Portuguese the root “pneu” by itself means “tire” (as in a car tire).

Fun stuff indeed!

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#255

Post by waihtis »

acituan wrote: post #248
waihtis wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breathing practice is the most simple thing in the world. Sit, breathe, relax - definitely doesnt need a license. Sounds like you’re confused of the purpose of it.

Just because it is simple in your experience doesn't mean that is universally true for everyone. Certainly not for anxiety disordered or PTSD suffering people for example. See my reply to comment below which cites studies when these sort of practices backfire in a non-trivial fashion. Like I said, it is either too trivial as sit, breathe and relax which won't do much good, or it is potent enough to do some good in wh…

I have multiple problems with this statement. First, the problems you are describing are external to breathing. If you suffer from PTSD and get an episode at the grocery store, do you want to regulate grocery store visits also?

Second, breathing has multi-thousand year old legacy spanning multiple cultures and eras touting it's benefits. Why would you obtain your perspective from a click-driven Vice article referring to a study of 73 people instead of the infinitely more robust source of truth?

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#256

Post by kseistrup »

isoprophlex wrote: post #227
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.

Not going to lie: "Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time" had me looking very confused! I even tried contorting my face to get one of my nostrils to close, haha

If you pay attention, one of the nostrils are likely to be more active (as measured in air flow) at a given time and the active nostril will switch side from time to time, perhaps something like every couple of hours.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#257

Post by sanmon3186 »

PhantomBKB wrote: post #183
spaetzleesser wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's not true that it won't harm you if not done properly. Please learn it from professionals or friends who are already well versed in the practice if you are new to it.

Absolutely. You do need professional who understands the benefits and potential side effects. If done wrongly, it can mess things up.

Anecdotal, but I tried anulum vilom ten years back as a remedy for general anxiety, went overboard with no proper guidance, and my BP shot up. It took me a while to understand that the key is to go slow and increase your practice slowly.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#258

Post by afterburner »

isbjorn16 wrote: post #73
ivank wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's weird how much we take for granted without ever expecting it to be different for others. I thought you guys were just screwing with me re: having an alternating congested nostril. Like, I only experience that during severe nasal congestion, and it seems mostly to stick with one side or the other depending on which side I'm laying on. It never even occurred to me that people would experience something like that _…

I still don't get it. Do these people not blow their nose?

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#259

Post by piokoch »

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 think the article lacks one more "standard" claim for this type of pseudo-science writings: slow breathing cures cancer.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#260

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]
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