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Related tangent: over 7 years ago, in recovery from emergency medical treatment, I started "sitting zazen" (doing Sato Buddhist Zen -based seated meditation) fo

Related tangent: over 7 years ago, in recovery from emergency medical treatment, I started "sitting zazen" (doing Sato Buddhist Zen -based seated meditation) for 10 minutes every morning. It's been transformational. It's so simple. And so powerful. Being able to connect with your breath, return to the present moment, and quiet your possibly-noisy mind... it's practically a superpower. I'm a much, much happier and better person for it. Highest possible recommendation to find a breath-related habit that works for you.

volkk 6y ago
related to your related tangent: my great grandfather was obsessed with something called the "Buteyko method" for breathing. He was able to control and basically heal his asthma with it. My grandma (his daughter) now does it for herself and seemingly has great results for mental/physical health. I used to do it as a child but I fell off of it and now I've been thinking of going back as a meditative method.
- therockspush 6y ago
  I tried this a while back. Most of the content was paywalled but one video I found summed it up pretty well. Most people are essentially constantly hyperventilating and our body is acting accordingly. Being able to control the "pause" was a crucial part of it, and the little bit of info I gleamed from it was helpful for me. https://buteykoclinic.com/breathing-exercises/ https://buteykoclinic.com/breathing-exercises/
  - volkk 6y ago
    > Most people are essentially constantly hyperventilating and our body is acting accordingly. it's very interesting, because i always find that i'm instead almost always holding my breath for some reason. not sure if that has anything to do with doing these exercises or not, but im always taking deep breaths randomly because i dont realize that im sort of out of air
    - hnick 6y ago
      I can relate to that. I always hold my breath going up stairs in particular, and it's probably why I get dizzy doing squats (any kind of compression makes me just hold my breath).
  - jodrellblank 6y ago
    Well, reading that and testing how long I can breathe out and hold it is how I noticed iOS stopwatch can be swiped left/right and has a cool analogue stopwatch display. > "Having a control pause of less than 25 seconds is poor and 25 seconds to 35 seconds means there is room for improvement. The goal is to reach a comfortable breath hold time of 40 seconds. The average control pause of students attending our clinics is around 15 seconds." 5 seconds feels like a long time, 15 seconds is as far as I could go first couple of tries, 20-25 seconds my upper body/throat gets twitchy trying to reopen, then I pushed it to 30 seconds a couple of times, and just now 40 seconds. I'm suspicious that something I can go from "poor" and "average" to the goal(?) in about 10 tries can be so serious - unless you're supposed to be able to do that between every breath?
- UncleOxidant 6y ago
  I found this on Buteyko: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKaUEVnducI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKaUEVnducI Interesting, he seems to be saying that we shouldn't take deep breaths instead slow and shallow. So kind of the opposite of many other techniques mentioned here.
  - padpnut 6y ago
    The Buteyko Method is based on the idea that over breathing or hyperventilating is bad for you. Contrary to popular belief expelling too much carbon dioxide is actually not good for you due to the Bhor Effect, which basically says that oxygen cant be released from haemoglobin to cells in our body without enough carbon dioxide. By slowing your breath you increase the amount of carbon dioxide in your body , which then allows better oxygenation of your cells due to the Bhor Effect.
- Mirioron 6y ago
  I have severe doubts about something like this being able to heal asthma. It very likely helps against asthma attacks and when it's triggered, but asthma in general is an allergic reaction. Slow breathing can help control it by limiting the irritation in the upper airways so that they don't constrict as quickly, but I don't see how it would get rid of it entirely.
throw1234651234 6y ago
I meditate ten minutes a day. It does absolutely nothing for me.
- SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
  Could I ask why you continue to do it?
  - throw1234651234 6y ago
    "research says / better safe than sorry" - kind of like running, not eating sugar, doing n-back training, etc
    - SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
      But if you're just doing it to do it, especially with something like meditation, does it actually have value? No sugar certainly, but meditation is really just there for the emotional effects.
    - rconti 6y ago
      huh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-back https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-back
      - throw1234651234 6y ago
        It's a method for working memory training, which is linked to IQ.
    - yowlingcat 6y ago
      Doing things just because research says you should do it, or because you're better safe than sorry, is simply punting the decision and the cognitive understanding to an authority. You shouldn't be surprised when none of these things "work" -- do you even understand why they should?
      - 6y ago
jeffbee 6y ago
Any possibility that you're just 7 years older?
- lifeisstillgood 6y ago
  Interesting medical advice - for a longer life, simply get older ;-)
  - aesh2Xa1 6y ago
    That's quite a cheeky aphorism. I love it. I think that OP meant to ask "is it possible your perception has changed with age/experience, rather than with your methods?"
    - lifeisstillgood 6y ago
      Yes :-) But as I get older I notice there is very little difference between doing something for years and converging my perception to believe what i have been doing was worthwhile. So i should choose carefully. I have also noticed that whatever defaults i left childhood with are ridiculously hard to change.
  - polynomial 6y ago
    In this respect, it turns out that birthdays are extremely healthy— those who have the most of them tend to live the longest.
  - whiddershins 6y ago
    It is true though, that the longer you live, the longer your life expectancy.
    - K0SM0S 6y ago
      Indeed and yet, paradoxically, living longer is quite literally what's killing you¹... 1: Cells have two ultimate fates: they either fail to resist cancer or, if they succeed, eventually die of doing it, sort of wear-and-tear, i.e. "ageing" as we call it. Lookup telomeres and cancer. Therein lies the recent hype/hope of increasing human life expectancy by a lot, perhaps orders of magnitude.
swayvil 6y ago
Ditto. meditation. It's a superpower. That is my experience.
lostmsu 6y ago
I had an (admittedly small) emergency treatment about 2 years ago. Stopped to just relax maybe 10 times over the whole time span (apart from trying to fall asleep). Oh, and I also don't do running or any other sort of exercise regularly. Felt awesome most of the time, and still do. Especially after eating ice cream.
virtualwhys 6y ago
/s/Sato/Soto

volkk 6y ago

related to your related tangent: my great grandfather was obsessed with something called the "Buteyko method" for breathing. He was able to control and basically heal his asthma with it. My grandma (his daughter) now does it for herself and seemingly has great results for mental/physical health. I used to do it as a child but I fell off of it and now I've been thinking of going back as a meditative method.

therockspush 6y ago
I tried this a while back. Most of the content was paywalled but one video I found summed it up pretty well. Most people are essentially constantly hyperventilating and our body is acting accordingly. Being able to control the "pause" was a crucial part of it, and the little bit of info I gleamed from it was helpful for me. https://buteykoclinic.com/breathing-exercises/ https://buteykoclinic.com/breathing-exercises/
- volkk 6y ago
  > Most people are essentially constantly hyperventilating and our body is acting accordingly. it's very interesting, because i always find that i'm instead almost always holding my breath for some reason. not sure if that has anything to do with doing these exercises or not, but im always taking deep breaths randomly because i dont realize that im sort of out of air
  - hnick 6y ago
    I can relate to that. I always hold my breath going up stairs in particular, and it's probably why I get dizzy doing squats (any kind of compression makes me just hold my breath).
- jodrellblank 6y ago
  Well, reading that and testing how long I can breathe out and hold it is how I noticed iOS stopwatch can be swiped left/right and has a cool analogue stopwatch display. > "Having a control pause of less than 25 seconds is poor and 25 seconds to 35 seconds means there is room for improvement. The goal is to reach a comfortable breath hold time of 40 seconds. The average control pause of students attending our clinics is around 15 seconds." 5 seconds feels like a long time, 15 seconds is as far as I could go first couple of tries, 20-25 seconds my upper body/throat gets twitchy trying to reopen, then I pushed it to 30 seconds a couple of times, and just now 40 seconds. I'm suspicious that something I can go from "poor" and "average" to the goal(?) in about 10 tries can be so serious - unless you're supposed to be able to do that between every breath?
UncleOxidant 6y ago
I found this on Buteyko: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKaUEVnducI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKaUEVnducI Interesting, he seems to be saying that we shouldn't take deep breaths instead slow and shallow. So kind of the opposite of many other techniques mentioned here.
- padpnut 6y ago
  The Buteyko Method is based on the idea that over breathing or hyperventilating is bad for you. Contrary to popular belief expelling too much carbon dioxide is actually not good for you due to the Bhor Effect, which basically says that oxygen cant be released from haemoglobin to cells in our body without enough carbon dioxide. By slowing your breath you increase the amount of carbon dioxide in your body , which then allows better oxygenation of your cells due to the Bhor Effect.
Mirioron 6y ago
I have severe doubts about something like this being able to heal asthma. It very likely helps against asthma attacks and when it's triggered, but asthma in general is an allergic reaction. Slow breathing can help control it by limiting the irritation in the upper airways so that they don't constrict as quickly, but I don't see how it would get rid of it entirely.

throw1234651234 6y ago

I meditate ten minutes a day. It does absolutely nothing for me.

SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
Could I ask why you continue to do it?
- throw1234651234 6y ago
  "research says / better safe than sorry" - kind of like running, not eating sugar, doing n-back training, etc
  - SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
    But if you're just doing it to do it, especially with something like meditation, does it actually have value? No sugar certainly, but meditation is really just there for the emotional effects.
  - rconti 6y ago
    huh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-back https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-back
    - throw1234651234 6y ago
      It's a method for working memory training, which is linked to IQ.
  - yowlingcat 6y ago
    Doing things just because research says you should do it, or because you're better safe than sorry, is simply punting the decision and the cognitive understanding to an authority. You shouldn't be surprised when none of these things "work" -- do you even understand why they should?
    - 6y ago

jeffbee 6y ago

Any possibility that you're just 7 years older?

lifeisstillgood 6y ago
Interesting medical advice - for a longer life, simply get older ;-)
- aesh2Xa1 6y ago
  That's quite a cheeky aphorism. I love it. I think that OP meant to ask "is it possible your perception has changed with age/experience, rather than with your methods?"
  - lifeisstillgood 6y ago
    Yes :-) But as I get older I notice there is very little difference between doing something for years and converging my perception to believe what i have been doing was worthwhile. So i should choose carefully. I have also noticed that whatever defaults i left childhood with are ridiculously hard to change.
- polynomial 6y ago
  In this respect, it turns out that birthdays are extremely healthy— those who have the most of them tend to live the longest.
- whiddershins 6y ago
  It is true though, that the longer you live, the longer your life expectancy.
  - K0SM0S 6y ago
    Indeed and yet, paradoxically, living longer is quite literally what's killing you¹... 1: Cells have two ultimate fates: they either fail to resist cancer or, if they succeed, eventually die of doing it, sort of wear-and-tear, i.e. "ageing" as we call it. Lookup telomeres and cancer. Therein lies the recent hype/hope of increasing human life expectancy by a lot, perhaps orders of magnitude.

swayvil 6y ago

Ditto. meditation. It's a superpower. That is my experience.

lostmsu 6y ago

I had an (admittedly small) emergency treatment about 2 years ago. Stopped to just relax maybe 10 times over the whole time span (apart from trying to fall asleep). Oh, and I also don't do running or any other sort of exercise regularly. Felt awesome most of the time, and still do. Especially after eating ice cream.

virtualwhys 6y ago

/s/Sato/Soto