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Reading some blog spam and learning about 'Box Breathing' really helped me. Apparently it's used by Navy Seals, but it really helps me get to sleep if I can't.
by dugditches 6y ago
Reading some blog spam and learning about 'Box Breathing' really helped me. Apparently it's used by Navy Seals, but it really helps me get to sleep if I can't. Or in stressful or sudden situations, it really helps clear your head.
Just a simple breathe in, hold, exhale, hold. Taking 4 slow seconds for each step.
I was very, very skeptic of breathing techniques and meditation. However after learning this technique things kind of 'clicked' and meditation started to make sense, and see why it's thrown around so much.
- softwaredoug 6y agoThere’s a similar yoga technique called 4-7-8 breathing. Breath in for 4, hold for 7, exhale for 8
- ekabod 6y ago4-7-8 is better than 4-4-4-4 to help fall in sleep to my experience.
- hanoz 6y agoScalene triangle breathing?
- vram22 6y agoThere's a video about it by a doctor (who is into these kinds of things, apart from his regular work) somewhere on YouTube. Saw it some time ago. Edit: found it: Watch "How To Perform the 4-7-8 Breathing Exercise | Andrew Weil, M.D." on YouTube https://youtu.be/YRPh_GaiL8s https://youtu.be/YRPh_GaiL8s
- Biganon 6y agoIf that helped him solve Fermat's last conjecture, it can probably help me relax
- rashkov 6y agoI really like this technique. Sometimes it gives me a pleasant head rush which instantly relaxes my entire body. It helps me to fall asleep or to relax in every day life. There's a nice dynamic with this technique where you end up using more of the oxygen in your breath, since you inhale for less time (4 seconds) than you hold & exhale (7+8 seconds). With box breathing, on the other hand, I find it really unpleasant to hold the empty lung position, and also four seconds feels like it's really not enough to use my full breath.
- rramadass 6y agoThe "standard" count in Classical Pranayama is usually 1:4:2 i.e. breathe in for x secs, hold for 4x secs and exhale for 2x secs.
- jcul 6y agoIn my training it was usually the exhale that was lengthened. Though my training was more physical yoga focused (Asana) so perhaps classical / more advanced / different purpose pranayama is different. Usually it was 1:1:2 inhale, hold, exhale.
- rramadass 6y agoOne of the things which bothers me is that, with the explosion of interest in all aspects of Yoga, there has been a concomitant dilution/muddying of its original teachings by Self-styled, New-Age, Half-baked gurus and plain old Charlatans. They simply lack the knowledge, which is unforgivable when you realize that the original sources are just a "google search" away. For people interested in the Original sources, i highly recommend starting with; Roots of Yoga by James Mallinson and Mark Singleton to know the primary sources and then actually reading them.
- xattt 6y agoI wonder how close this is to the breathing in the app on the Apple Watch.
- mr-ron 6y agoI learned and started using this from the game Wolfenstein, New Order. And I use it all the time for falling asleep. Works amazing!
- necrotic_comp 6y agoI was taught this in my grappling sports as a child! We did it for 10 seconds each step, and it's just enough that it slows everything down and helps you fall asleep.
- beaconstudios 6y agoslow breathing is one of the things that helps with breath-focused meditation, but there are other techniques with varying intentions and benefits. Broadly speaking, mindfulness-type meditation can make you aware of thoughts or emotions that you weren't previously aware of that could be affecting you. Has something ever bothered you, and you didn't realise how much until later on when you got irrationally annoyed at something else and thought "wait a minute, this shouldn't bother me this much"? Mindfulness practices can make you more aware of that emotion sooner so you're not carrying it with you all day. There's nothing inherently odd about it. There are also other forms of meditation that are intended to increase your sense of love and gratitude (metta), to come to grips with your own mortality (maranassati), and surely other psychological exercises I'm not aware of.
- abeppu 6y agoBut often mindfulness of breath instruction will suggest not trying to force your breath to be fast or slow, but to be attentive and aware of the character of the breath.
- beaconstudios 6y agotrue, but in deep meditation breath tends to slow down quite dramatically. It's not a case of "hold for 4", more just a natural rhythmic slowdown.
- n1000 6y agohttps://quietkit.com/box-breathing/ https://quietkit.com/box-breathing/ Edit: Learned it here on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13508038 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13508038
- runjake 6y agoI don't know why box breathing always gets credited as a Navy SEAL invention. This is a centuries-old technique and the SEALs got this from yoga/pranayama.
- alexmorenodev 6y agoIs it? I always read about it as "used" by Navy SEAL, not "created" by them.
- irjustin 6y agoIt's like the moon walk[0]. Michael Jackson made it popular but it had been around well before hand. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalk_(dance) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonwalk_(dance)
- ssully 6y agoIt sounds a lot cooler for some people to say they use a technique that Navy SEALs use instead of calling it a yoga technique.
- rv-de 6y agotechnically, in pranayama you never hold your breath after exhaling. also a 16 second cycle is quite fast for a pranayama technique.
- bonestamp2 6y agoFor those who are curious, it's called "Box Breathing" because, if it's helpful for you, you can picture a box and then trace the edges of the box in your mind as you're counting for each of the 4 steps (inhale, hold, exhale, hold). That visual can help take your mind off whatever is making you do this in the first place.
- TedDoesntTalk 6y agoThanks for sharing that since I did not know the reason for the name. But a box is a cube. Since there are four steps, shouldn’t it be called square breathing?
- Crespyl 6y ago"Box" is used often enough in natural english to refer to a square, particularly in the context of diagrams. "Draw a box around it", etc.
- wlesieutre 6y ago<input type="checkbox">
- loco5niner 6y ago> But a box is a cube only for some definitions of box
- pelario 6y agoA 3d box is a cube, a 2d box is a square.
- pawelmi 6y agoDoes tesseract count as box too? ;)
- segfaultbuserr 6y ago
- mseidl 6y agoI learned/practiced this in my martial arts. I guess I'm the same level as a navy seal.
- ghostpepper 6y agoI am curious about the Navy SEAL connection because I was recently told by a scuba instructor never to do box breathing. Holding your breath while ascending from depth can cause over inflation of the lungs. Regular deep, slow diaphragmatic breathing is what they recommend.
- the_other 6y agoSEALs are mammals too; even they spend _some_ time on land. And, said in a less snarky way: I can see why a diving instructor would say "don't hold your breath" when you're under water. Navy SEALs likely dive a lot, but they also do training and actions above the water. And they likely spend a lot of time in stressful situations (certainly more than me). I can imagine they might box breath _on land_ to help manage the stress.
- Fezzik 6y agoMy understanding is that (in theory) box breathing is used to calm and focus the practitioner - it’s not something you do while exerting yourself at all. If you tried box breathing while running (or diving), for example, you would quickly need to stop running or pass out.
- me_me_me 6y agothat when you ascend. In the emergency ascending you are suppose to constantly exhale all the way to the surface. otherwise your lungs might tear. When doing next dive take a balloon with you and fill it with your air at the depth. Then go up. Otherwise when at same depth you don't have to worry too much about it. Disclaimer i am not an actual certified diving instructor.
- Aromasin 6y agoI do a lot of cave and wreck diving, where box breathing is reguarly touted as a fantastic way to calm yourself if you get into a stressful situation. You do it while at rest if you find yourself disorientated. Never hold your breate while ascending =/= Never hold your breathe underwater.
- ta1234567890 6y ago
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- hi41 6y agoHow fo you keep track of 4 seconds? Do you constantly count until 4 in your mind?
- pedalpete 6y agoWe each have our own specific breath-rate, box breathing, 4-7-8 or other styles of conscious breathing attempt to slow down your breath-rate and calm your autonomic nervous system, and for many people calms them enough to fall asleep. I have a very low breath-rate and find box breathing far too quick, and even 4-7-8 often feels fast. We're building a sleep headband and one component is monitoring your breath-rate and learning what your breath-rate is as you fall asleep. Once we know what your optimal breath-rate for sleep is, we can then play sounds which you consciously follow with your breath, and this will guide you to sleep. It's almost like a personalized breath timing exercise. Breath is only one of the ways we are working to improve sleep. If this is interesting to you, find out more at https://soundmind.co https://soundmind.co and sign-up for the waitlist.
- AtlasBarfed 6y agoI prefer the 3-5-7 technique.