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One hour of slow breathing changed my life

theguardian.com

321–330 of 332 posts

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You said that tradition doesn't stand scrutiny over time. It wouldn't be a huge leap to suggest you subscribe to the thought that science is the only way to approach any type of validation. I don't agree with that statement, I think there are cases where the lab doesn't translate into real world and suggesting that scientific experiments are always the best representation of the real world is just naive, I-M-H-O. Erg…

> You said that tradition doesn't stand scrutiny over time No, that is not what I said. I said knowledge transmission through tradition is lossy and as such it is not systematic, it doesn't carry context and it doesn't cover the fine print. In that, the content of a memetic proposition that made it to our day might as well have truth value, but it doesn't mean it is readily applicable by anyone who reads about it on…

> Please refrain from inflammatory language

I thought you might be just here for baiting purposes, but this definitely confirms it

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#322
post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner has some sinus congestion issues and we’ e been trying to find a remedy since forever. We want to try this thing but want to make sure we’re trying it correctly. Have you encountered a more thorough explanation of this technique, preferably in a video?

Somethink like this except that it is done with the tongue and a finger: https://invisiverse.wonderhowto.com/how-to/clear-your-stuffy... I need to clarify that i did not have a sinus infection though, i had a persisting rhinitis for which doctors could not provide anything else but prescribe over the nose drops or flonaise

Thanks for the tip, we’ll try it out. Yeah no doctor managed to find the cause of the inflammation yet, even after years of tests. Every doctor is like “yeah you should be fine” its kind of infuriating.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#323
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article mentions the first class the author took taught them Sudarshan Kriya, which is a particular kriya that the Art of Living Foundation teaches. From what I understand a large part of the kriya involves bhastrika pranayama, which is pretty much what the beginning Wim Hof method is, except he adds a kumbhaka (breath retention/hold) at the end of the 30 breath cycle. I appreciate what Wim Hof is doing, but a lo…

What I find nice about his technique, is that it is much simpler than yoga and pranayama. He does not, for example, emphasise inhaling or holding or exceeding for a particular count of seconds. I find that it is easier to perform the Wim Hof technique because of this. The breathing technique which is closest to Wim How is that of Tummo. You can find videos of this on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUQ-SV092…

I’ve never tried Wim Hof’s techniques — I’d like to — but I have practiced bhastrika a good amount and do nadi shodhana every morning before meditation. Does his technique really resemble tummo? I’ve tried to find a tummo teacher (haven’t found one), but I’ve read “The Bliss of Inner Fire” and from what I understand a fundamental part of it involves mula and uddiyana bandhas being engaged in conjunction with the “vase” breath. Does Wim teach these things? I’ve seen photos of him practicing and he’s definitely doing uddiyana bandha, but I’d be surprised if he teaches that, it requires deep transverse abdominis activation to do. I only started getting that awareness in that layer of muscle after a couple years of yoga practice.

If he’s not teaching the bandhas then the technique really is just bhastrika with retentions. It’s a totally great practice, but I’d say it’s just the beginning step in the path of pranayama practice.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#324
Anyone interested in the topic should learn about the Buteyko technique and the work of Konstantin Buteyko. He was a Russian scientist who studied the negative effects of chronic hyperventillation, the positive effects of healthy breathing, and developed a technique to restore healthy breathing.

For example, he developed a way to measure the health of someone's respiration through a simple test called the "control pause." To measure your control pause, bring your attention to your breath and without changing your breath, stop breathing at the end of your next natural exhalation. Start a timer, and see how long it takes before your body generates any minor uncomfortable signal in an urge to breathe (an urge to swallow, any kind of muscle contraction, anything subtle expressing a demand to breathe). As soon as you reach such a signal, stop the timer. People who breath healthily (according to Buteyko's research) have at least 40 seconds on the timer. (This is NOT a breath holding test, and if your regular respiration gets faster or deeper after you complete it, you did it wrong.) Most people certainly are not even close to 40 sec. And that, according to Buteyko, is because most people severely overbreathe. The consequence of this dysfunction, of being in a constant state of chronic hyperventillation, is that the blood vessels contract, and surprisingly, less oxygen is transferred to the cells because CO2 is a necessary catalyst for the transfer of oxygen to the cells, and hyperventillation drains the blood of CO2. Healthy breathing, according to Buteyko, is minute and nearly visually imperceptible.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#325

Anyone interested in the topic should learn about the Buteyko technique and the work of Konstantin Buteyko. He was a Russian scientist who studied the negative effects of chronic hyperventillation, the positive effects of healthy breathing, and developed a technique to restore healthy breathing. For example, he developed a way to measure the health of someone's respiration through a simple test called the "control pa…

Are there any scientific foundations underlying his techniques?

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You said that tradition doesn't stand scrutiny over time No, that is not what I said. I said knowledge transmission through tradition is lossy and as such it is not systematic, it doesn't carry context and it doesn't cover the fine print. In that, the content of a memetic proposition that made it to our day might as well have truth value, but it doesn't mean it is readily applicable by anyone who reads about it on…

> Please refrain from inflammatory language I thought you might be just here for baiting purposes, but this definitely confirms it

Please familiarize yourself with hackernews guidelines https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#327
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

Let me actually encourage you try this. Imagine you have a third nostril placed between the 2 real (forming a line or a triangle - whatever you like better), visualize and "sensualize" (do your best imagining it in details and feeling it) breathing through 3 nostrils. As a result this may trigger a nasal congestion relief. Try this the next time you catch a cold.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#328
post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have more info on this? I’ve suffered from GERD for a long time now and have found ways to mitigate the effects but this seems like an interesting potential treatment.

I can’t find the video I followed originally but what I do is pretty simple. I lie on the floor with one hand on my chest and one hand on my belly (just below the sternum). Then I breathe paying attention that only the lower hand moves, ie that I’m using my diaphragm. I put the weights (small metal plates) under the lower hand to add resistance. I recall seeing some papers explaining the mechanism being related to ho…

Thank you, super helpful. Definitely going to give this a shot.

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have more info on this? I’ve suffered from GERD for a long time now and have found ways to mitigate the effects but this seems like an interesting potential treatment.

Not the same thing, but I believe the parent commenter because I’ve seen multiple studies done where it was found that breathing exercises seemed to help with reflux: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3807765/

Nice, I'll give this a read. Thanks

Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life

#330
I don't know if any of you would be interested in this but after reading a lot of articles like this I programmed a simple app to help you breath while you work on the computer (distraction free). If you wanna check it out: https://github.com/filipeisho/breathe Any feedback is highly appreciated!
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