Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

4-7-8 Breathing

breathbelly.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 126 posts

Re: 4-7-8 Breathing

#31

Post by codethief »

ulnarkressty wrote: post #21
kdamica wrote: post #15

There are lots of different ways to do this. The important thing for anyone wanting to get started is just to get started and not get hung up on which one you're doing. Box breathing, Wim Hof method, etc, are all great and any breathwork is better than none. For an intro to the topic, James Nestor's Breath is excellent.

Every time I try breathwork (be it box or x-y-z) I feel that the intervals are too long - by the time I finish breathing out my brain goes into panic mode and the next breath is not enough to compensate. I find them the exact opposite of relaxing.

Your urge to breathe comes from your brain's sensitivity to CO2, which can be trained. In fact, as is also discussed in the book the grandparent mentioned, high sensitivity to CO2 might cause everything from having short breath to full-blown panic attacks.

In other words: Lowering your CO2 sensitivity and learning to breathe slowly by doing breathwork is a skill worth acquiring. Your brain going into panic mode in a comparatively relaxed breathing mode could be an indication that your CO2 sensitivity is rather high.

Re: 4-7-8 Breathing

#32

Post by nmeofthestate »

ulnarkressty wrote: post #21
kdamica wrote: post #15

There are lots of different ways to do this. The important thing for anyone wanting to get started is just to get started and not get hung up on which one you're doing. Box breathing, Wim Hof method, etc, are all great and any breathwork is better than none. For an intro to the topic, James Nestor's Breath is excellent.

Every time I try breathwork (be it box or x-y-z) I feel that the intervals are too long - by the time I finish breathing out my brain goes into panic mode and the next breath is not enough to compensate. I find them the exact opposite of relaxing.

Yes I always end up yawning/having to breathe through the mouth occasionally when trying to do this kind of thing. Perhaps I just don't get enough air through the nose.

Re: 4-7-8 Breathing

#33

Post by amelius »

I see one problem in the UX. When breathing out you cannot see where the circle will stop so it is difficult to mentally plan this phase of the cycle.

Re: 4-7-8 Breathing

#34

Post by dmoy »

If you want breathing exercises that go way into the specialized deep end, you can always pick up the sport of 3p rifle. You'll get incidentally very good at calming via breath, because of the tight feedback loop of holes-must-go-closer-to-the-center

See e.g. Reinkenmeier describing breath work in

standing: https://youtu.be/dHsG3GU9_PY?si=qlaLrSfKLCeiCgl4

prone: https://youtu.be/5odRbYSbDIk?si=joBeFyyUrwBvQ7bk

Just general: https://youtu.be/JJ3zXuFsrfk?si=xdQ5NY0cHfK89CCg

The general points (deep from diaphragm, lean back, relax shoulders, etc) also carry over to other discipline like music (wind instruments at least).

Re: 4-7-8 Breathing

#35

Post by knodi123 »

cubefox wrote: post #27

This may be a stupid question, but why do we need to exercise breathing? We do it all the time anyway, shouldn't we be pretty good at it by now?

not stupid at all! the idea is that practicing conscious breathing techniques can have effects on your stress levels and cognition and such. it's not that you're learning how to breathe, but rather how to breathe for a desired effect.

Re: 4-7-8 Breathing

#36

Post by hankchinaski »

I feel the 4-7-8 is more natural than box breathing the length seems to align more with the natural breathing without constraining it to fixed length. I feel like exhaling takes usually longer than inhaling

Re: 4-7-8 Breathing

#37

Post by arendtio »

ulnarkressty wrote: post #21
kdamica wrote: post #15

There are lots of different ways to do this. The important thing for anyone wanting to get started is just to get started and not get hung up on which one you're doing. Box breathing, Wim Hof method, etc, are all great and any breathwork is better than none. For an intro to the topic, James Nestor's Breath is excellent.

Every time I try breathwork (be it box or x-y-z) I feel that the intervals are too long - by the time I finish breathing out my brain goes into panic mode and the next breath is not enough to compensate. I find them the exact opposite of relaxing.

You should probably start by calming down first, such as lying on your back. Breathe as slowly as you want to for 2 minutes, and then start counting to see how slow your breath is.

Re: 4-7-8 Breathing

#40

Post by jcul »

ulnarkressty wrote: post #21
kdamica wrote: post #15

There are lots of different ways to do this. The important thing for anyone wanting to get started is just to get started and not get hung up on which one you're doing. Box breathing, Wim Hof method, etc, are all great and any breathwork is better than none. For an intro to the topic, James Nestor's Breath is excellent.

Every time I try breathwork (be it box or x-y-z) I feel that the intervals are too long - by the time I finish breathing out my brain goes into panic mode and the next breath is not enough to compensate. I find them the exact opposite of relaxing.

Just shorten the intervals. It's not a big deal. When I did yoga training in the pramayama (breath work) they started with quite short intervals, and the retention without air in the lungs was skipped at first.

It's completely fine imo and I don't think there's a need to get hung up on details like hitting a prescribed 4-4-4-4. 3-3-0-3 would be ok too.

Post reply on HN