[HN Gopher] Box Breathing Techniques and Benefits
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Box Breathing Techniques and Benefits
Author : liminal-dev
Score : 106 points
Date : 2022-11-13 19:19 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.verywellmind.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.verywellmind.com)
| matai_kolila wrote:
| A lot of this is complete hokum, and it's frustrating because the
| people who should know better end up being the most caught up in
| the pseudoscience...
|
| Edit (don't want to give folks a second comment do downvote into
| oblivion): I need y'all to understand, "Just try it." is _not_
| the counterargument you think it is. I 'd expect that from
| Scientologists and homeopathy advocates. I don't need to "just
| try" NSAIDs to believe they work, and plenty of people feel
| "good" after visiting a chiropractor despite that being much more
| obvious and clear hokum.
|
| And no, one or a dozen studies do not validate a damn thing on
| their own. There is not the level of consensus you think there is
| when it comes to any of this, the article even points this out at
| the top.
| SeanAnderson wrote:
| Clarify "a lot of this" ?
| dxuh wrote:
| Though I am skeptical myself, it's much different than other
| many other hokum/pseudoscience in that it is probably not very
| harmful and no one tries to sell you something.
|
| Quick google searches show that there are in fact studies that
| show that different breathing techniques do help with anxiety.
| The article itself links some.
| Tade0 wrote:
| Personally I found that box breathing helped with one reflexive
| reaction I always had in times of high stress, namely taking in
| a lot of air and holding it like that.
| NoahRoseWood wrote:
| moosedev wrote:
| Are you speaking from personal experience wherein you made a
| good-faith effort to try different breathing techniques and
| experienced no benefits? Or have you reviewed research showing
| an absence of benefits? Or are you reflexively dismissing the
| whole field?
|
| Or some combination of the above?
| suby wrote:
| I feel noticeably better, with measurably improved blood
| pressure after breathing exercises. Why do you say it's
| pseudoscience?
| Lio wrote:
| Now I'm not saying they are or aren't placebo. I don't know
| anything myself.
|
| Anecdotally at least though, breathing exercises feel good to
| do.
|
| I do know for a fact that I can lower my heart rate by altering
| by how I breathe. It's really easy to demonstrate that with a
| cheap heart rate monitor.
|
| I'd suggest giving that a try yourself. You might be surprised
| at how easy it is.
| fsloth wrote:
| Have you tried box breathing? It works really well for me. I
| have no idea though how such a simple technique could be proved
| to be placebo or not proved to be one.
| maxboone wrote:
| I don't think it's pseudoscience, it's difficult to do RCTs
| with this but breathing techniques are definitely reproducible
| and falsifiable.
|
| Furthermore, if it is, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. If
| it's pseudoscientific and not effective, it can still help
| through no/placebo.
|
| It's not like box breathing is going to damage you (or others)
| if it doesn't do anything (it doesn't do much for me).
| jmfldn wrote:
| It works. Try it.
| avgcorrection wrote:
| Science smience. You either try it and see if it works for you
| or you don't.
| majikandy wrote:
| Pseudoscience would be if breathing exercises didn't have a
| significant effect on cortisol levels. But some randomised
| trials have proven that they do. If you apply an additional
| reason over the top of the breathing like the utterance of
| certain words that make it work or not, I'd agree with you.
| From personal experience having attended meditation classes
| when stressed out, I have found "omm ar humm" very effective in
| reaching a relaxed lower stress state. I didn't know this was
| called box breathing to make the omm (in) arr (the pause held
| at the heart) and the humm (the outbreath) the same length. So
| that was a lesson for me. I have however experimented with
| different non religious words and found it effective in
| reaching that pleasant meditation very rapidly.
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| Box breathing has actually worked for me. It's a nice quick way
| to get a moment of calm in a busy day. Just a few minutes can
| make an immediate difference in mood.
|
| There's a zillion apps; I tried a lot of them and settled on
| Breathly. The UI is simple, it's open source, and it's free
| without bullshit. https://github.com/mmazzarolo/breathly-app
| mikae1 wrote:
| I have it installed, but I don't use as I've never seen the
| point of an app assisting by breathing. How do you feel it's
| helpful? Have you tried without it?
| mikae1 wrote:
| Here's[1] a Wim Hof breathing exercise with 56 million "views".
| I've been doing it for two years now. I watched the video once
| (the narration is painful) and I've been doing it without
| guidance since. I've had been doing box breathing, some pranayama
| and reichian breathwork before I started doing this one, but
| somehow the Wim Hof one completely took over. It's been very
| valuable to me.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ
| matsemann wrote:
| I really liked the period when I did freediving, and practiced to
| hold my breath. Doing "CO2-tables", almost like intervals except
| holding your breath. (And as in running, you don't run a marathon
| every workout, so didn't "push" it to the extreme these breathing
| sessions). A CO2-table for instance could have you hold your
| breath for 3 minutes, breathe normally for 90 seconds, then again
| hold for 3 minutes, then only 80 seconds break etc, decreasing
| the break each time.
|
| It's quite a sensation overcoming the "need" of breathing. To
| truly learn that the feeling of having to breathe is only because
| of CO2 buildup in your body, not because of lack of O2. Mind over
| body.
| thfuran wrote:
| CO2 is toxic at high concentrations though.
| harveywi wrote:
| >It's quite a sensation overcoming the "need" of breathing.
|
| Indeed there are many ways to experience it:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27159001
| pastrami_panda wrote:
| I'm happy to see these types of techniques hit the front page of
| HN.
|
| Breathing techniques changed my life.
|
| I remember convincing myself many years ago to take a leap of
| faith and to trust the process.
|
| I've practiced for over 10 years at this point, and I've been in
| dangerous or even life threatening situations where I've remained
| mindful of my breathing throughout the experience.
|
| It's an incredible feeling to be so deeply connected to yourself
| through breathing. It can become an extremely transformative
| experience.
|
| I've had a couple of experiences with samadhi by 'accident'
| throughout the years which is the most profound experiences I've
| had in my life.
|
| So what is the practice? Non-doing? Staying mindful? All I know
| is that words cannot really describe it, as soon as you're
| dealing with words and semantics you've strayed away from
| breathing again.
|
| The ego ties into it a lot, but you quickly start to sound like a
| broken record if succumb to that gospel.
|
| No one preaches that the sun is going to rise in the east
| tomorrow.
|
| It's the elusive obvious, it's the old fish swimming by and
| saying:
|
| "Morning boys how's the water?"
|
| The two young fish give each other a puzzled look and ask:
|
| "What the fuck is water?"
| WaxProlix wrote:
| Is there a specific technique that worked for you? I've done a
| bit of mindful meditation, which is breath-related, and tried
| box breathing, too. I have a specific breath pattern that I use
| when I want to fall asleep, as well, and it works wonders,
| though I'd be hard pressed to describe it at all.
|
| Box breathing specifically doesn't do much for me, though.
| spydum wrote:
| is this not a pavlonian response? i mean, its cool if it
| works, but makes me wonder if you are just training the
| behavior
| WaxProlix wrote:
| Totally possible, as it's part of a routine by now. Still,
| without it I notice a real difference in getting to sleep.
| rgrieselhuber wrote:
| I came across a rather unique essay a few months ago, and I
| checked out the author's podcast. He got me to look at box
| breathing and breathwork in general much more seriously. He
| makes the point that all of us have a trauma loop and it is
| reflected in how we breathe. By dealing with that trauma,
| whatever it may be, you can head off a lot of potentially long-
| term detrimental effects to your health because even if you
| ignore trauma that you've accumulated, your body is keeping the
| score.
| irrational wrote:
| What is a trauma loop?
| mikae1 wrote:
| _> I came across a rather unique essay a few months ago, and
| I checked out the author 's podcast._
|
| Link please.
| bitexploder wrote:
| I have gotten into Wim Hof and other breathing techniques.
| There is definitely something more to it than woo and
| sentiment. The way you can interact with and stimulate your
| nervous system through breathing remains unique to me in the
| scope of ways to interact with the body. I have also been into
| cold water immersion for many of the same reasons. Can dig up
| some posts I did on wim hof cheat sheet and cold water
| immersion on my blog (see profile). In fact, that is about all
| I wrote on my blog thus far, mostly as notes to myself and for
| close friends when they ask what I am up to in the health and
| fitness realm. CWI and Breathing are my future and I find huge
| benefits to it in my martial arts pursuits (brazilian jiu
| jitsu, staying calm, managing my energy in tough sparring
| matches, etc.).
|
| I find the breath work to be more useful than meditation. Now
| any time I find stress I immediately recognize my breath and
| start controlling it, almost sub-consciously. Driving, tough
| spots in matches, just getting deep into a problem and not
| getting it. The breath is always there. Okay, maybe it is a
| little woo, but the more focused breathing activities are not
| and actually trigger physiological response, and these
| reminders of the breath are reminders of those states.
| jb1991 wrote:
| Previous, related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13508038
|
| (127 comments)
| 1attice wrote:
| Despite the obvious difference in demographic, it's interesting
| seeing HN sort of synoptically align with the content reshared in
| my disability communities.
|
| Layoffs change cultures, don't they?
|
| I'm waiting for the first HN clothing swap :D
| orzig wrote:
| This isn't a great article, but for Box Breathing and many other
| zero-risk wellness activities: Just try it. There's huge
| variation between people, so obsessing over the impact on the
| average person will take more energy than getting concrete data
| on how well it works for you over the course of a week.
|
| FWIW it's been a small but positive addition to my stress
| reducing toolbag. Best of luck.
| cactusplant7374 wrote:
| Counting a few seconds seems within the realm of human
| abilities. It doesn't need an app.
| gricardo99 wrote:
| unfortunately doesn't say anything about breathing through your
| nose versus mouth. I think the technique is often described as
| inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth, but
| please correct me if i'm wrong
| fsloth wrote:
| I believe that is referring a different technique called
| resistance breathing, where the intent is to cause your
| diaphragm to do a bit of extra work.
|
| Boxed breathing is just about the rhythm and can be done
| through the nose.
|
| I've tried both (in resistance breathing you inhale, then
| exhale through pursed lips over a minute or so, repeat three
| times) - and they seem both to make me more relaxed and less
| anxious.
| liminal-dev wrote:
| You breathe with your nose. It's best not to let too much air
| in or out - in fact, try to inhale and exhale slightly gentler
| than you normally would.
| TacoSteemers wrote:
| I have a simple visualisation for box breathing:
|
| https://tacosteemers.com/files-static/breathing/box-breathin...
|
| One can tap/click the bottom of the screen to show a counter, the
| top to hide it again. It only uses CSS.
| leobg wrote:
| Good one. Actually quite helpful. I like the circle metaphor.
|
| I suggest you make the right "hold" text-align:right. Right
| now, on my phone, I can only see the first two letters.
| TacoSteemers wrote:
| Ah thanks, I see what you mean. By zooming out I do get the
| whole word in view on my phone.
|
| Glad to hear that it helps.
| happy2code wrote:
| Breathing exercises (Pranayama) is the best you can do for
| yourself. Short breathing or big sessions.
| majikandy wrote:
| I remember reading years ago that if you want to be chilled
| out, do Pranayama. So I tried. It was the first thing that
| helped me chill out my mind at a time of great difficulty. The
| one that worked the best for me is where you breathe in 3 times
| with a tiny hold between breaths and without breathing out in
| between. So each breath takes you a little deeper. I forget
| what it is called, but wow, life changing.
| zahma wrote:
| This is kind of fringe medicine podcast territory, but I learned
| a lot listening to these two discuss breathing and its
| physiological impacts. There's quite a big overlap here between
| stress and sport performance. Sometimes I try this when I go
| running and am always curious with the results.
|
| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/103-youre-probably-bre...
|
| Box breathing is also a strategy I think was developed and used
| by special forces to control stress in critical environments.
| That's not me, but it certainly has helped me regain composure
| when I feel my heart race or am distracted. Fascinating stuff.
| amriksohata wrote:
| Basically what the yogic texts say that Hindu sages wrote
| agumonkey wrote:
| Additional tricks:
|
| - yoga like poses where your lungs are almost flat with head
| slightly lower (akin to the covid pronating position). changes
| lungs internals and ease heart by not having to pump blood up
| high
|
| - upper body movements like rotating shoulders, which
| compress/depress lung cavity helping air exchange
| cr4zy wrote:
| The nice thing about box breathing is that, unlike pursed lips
| for example, you can do it without anyone noticing, by quietly
| breathing through your nose. So if you're in a stressful meeting,
| you can calm yourself without anyone noticing :)
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