145 pointsby croes8 hours ago12 comments
  • Sam6late3 hours ago
    Slow breathing is also recommended for novices before public speaking, as it helps speakers overcome irrational physiological fear of facing people, the risk-taking shift is useful as it helps you speak more confidently, not more cautiously. Slow breathing can calm nerves quickly; bottom-up regulation: body tells brain “you’re safe”.
  • cryzinger5 hours ago
    Parasympathetic nervous activation increased risk-taking behavior? That's interesting/unexpected (at least to me). Also, this part caught my eye:

    > The selective impact of prolonged exhalation breathing on reward responsiveness has important implications for clinical contexts, such as anxiety, panic disorder, and depression, given their distinct autonomic signatures and maladaptive reward processing. By enhancing cardiac parasympathetic modulation through prolonged exhalation techniques, individuals may restore reward processing, a valuable pathway for emotional recalibration. Prolonged exhalation harbors the potential for a low-cost, low-risk, easily applicable intervention to be incorporated into therapy or rehabilitation programs, especially to support pharmacological treatments.

    • thisoneisreal4 hours ago
      I agree it's counterintuitive, but it makes sense when I think about how, for example, it's the least neurotic people who do high-risk activities like base jumping or mountain climbing. Fear drives you away from threatening things, lack of fear allows you to move toward them more comfortably.
      • cryzinger2 hours ago
        Ah, that does make a lot of sense!
        • isomorphic2 hours ago
          "Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear." (George Addair)
    • culopatin2 hours ago
      Makes sense to me. The only way I can dip in a snow melt lake is if I slow down my breathing, slow my thinking and dip.
    • gcanyon5 hours ago
      Yeah, I was expecting some sort of "slow breathing produces calmness/more considered behavior" conclusion. But, the exact opposite? Everyone knows what party monsters those zen meditators are? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
      • runlaszlorun4 hours ago
        Zen party monster... Reporting for duty!
  • chopete36 hours ago
    "When you feel so mad that you want to roar, take a breath and count to four." - Daniel Tiger's mom
    • gorgoiler2 hours ago
      My favourite of these is.

      “If you feel jealous, talk about it, then we’ll figure something out”

      In which one of the children wants the other one’s cool toy so the parent’s response is to encourage them to ask for it to be shared. Except they aren’t siblings and it’s the mom from the other family teaching their own jealous kid to go ask.

      How about this?: Back off cat family, you fair weather commies — that’s Daniel’s bubble wand, not yours. At least share some of your own crap before asking for someone else’s:

      ”If you feel jealous: shut the fuck up, you can’t just have someone else’s stuff nor should you feel entitled to guilt them into sharing it just because you asked nicely.”

      Slightly tongue-in-cheek. Slightly.

  • galaxyLogican hour ago
    But fear is often good. Breathing slow to counter your fear should only be done when you know it is an irrational fear.
  • ansk6 hours ago
    I've found breathing exercises to be effective for the duration of the exercise, but I'm more interested in the possibility of training myself to adjust my respiration patterns over sustained durations. Would it be beneficial -- or even possible at all -- to adjust my body's default/subconscious breathing patterns to match those mentioned in the article?

    Tangentially related, are there any wearable devices that allow for high resolution respiration monitoring? I'm imagining some measurement of lung expansion over time (probably at least 10 Hz) so that I can quantify the deepness/shallowness of my breaths as well as the phase of inhalation/exhalation cycles.

    • RossBencina5 hours ago
      I have read that skilled mindfulness practitioners maintain constant awareness of their breathing pattern throughout all other waking activities. Something to aspire to perhaps.
      • rpozarickij2 minutes ago
        There's also a level above that, where you're aware of what is aware. I find this mental state to be even more calming/grounding than being aware of breathing but I'm not always able to shift myself into it. Being aware of breathing feels much easier/natural to me whenever I'm able to remind myself of it.

        Additionally, there's a practice called "walking meditation" [0] that can also be useful to practice this area of skills.

        [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_meditation

      • jzig2 hours ago
        Indeed, a lot of aspiration there.
      • NopIdoN4 hours ago
        Sounds like hell.

        Remember to blink!

        • N_Lens2 minutes ago
          It usually becomes very pleasant, euphoric, and self sustaining, if done correctly.
        • zo74 hours ago
          Awareness of breathing does not mean controlling your breathing, it just means noticing the sensations associated with it. Breathing can be incredibly pleasant!
    • zo74 hours ago
      It's possible to train your breathing patterns, look up Buteyko breathing.
    • Nevermark5 hours ago
      > Would it be beneficial -- or even possible at all -- to adjust my body's default/subconscious breathing patterns to match those mentioned in the article?

      Common physical reflexes, autonomous responses, and subconscious regulation, are there as aids to us. The fact that they are not universally beneficial is one of the purposes of having higher level control. Not to universally suppress responses, but to notice and cope when they misfire.

      It would be interesting to have a map of breathing patterns across a wide variety of situations, to identify the range of situations where prolonged exhalation is adaptive.

      My guess, based on the common reflexes of mouth clamping and breath holding before great physical exertion, is that prolonged exhalation is part of an adaptive psychological orchestrator for when we prepare to take on something difficult, risky (but necessary), or that needs a fast strong response.

      Our fast acting emotions, and slower acting moods, are similar guides. Patterns of stimulus and response from our baseline physiology and psychological, that we absorb into our higher level operation, as generalized guides for analogous responses to contexts at higher abstraction levels.

      With minor maladaptive responses inevitable, if we don't pay attention. And severe maladaptive responses often ingrained as overcompensation for situational or developmental traumas.

      • MajorTakeaway4 hours ago
        The craziest thing I noticed about a breathing pattern and risk taking was when a murderer was in an interrogation room with a police officer when after they couldn't find his gun; he had stowed it on his ankle. The suspect took a deep inhale after reaching for his gun while the officer was focused on the computer screen in front of him, exhaled and swiftly aimed at the officers temple and fired. Then he broke out of custody and was caught shortly after.
  • uberex2 hours ago
    Also try to make decisions ahead of time too. E.g. figure out what your opinion is before the meeting. Think like a pilot, don't let the plane do something you hadn't anticipated 5 minutes before (or in case of life 5 days 5 weeks 5 months or sometimes 5 years!)

    Cant do this for everything but examples are supermarket lists, home viewing (know your price, questions, decision criteria)

  • storus4 hours ago
    Weren't 90s of deep breathing supposed to remove all cortisol in the blood? This seems like an opposite result. Also a single prolonged breath was supposed to reset autonomic nervous system. Which research should I trust now?
    • adrian_b6 minutes ago
      The title is inaccurate. The results are not about any kind of deep breathing or slow breathing.

      The results are specifically about a breathing that is slower due to prolonged exhalation.

      This kind of breathing is one of the many kinds of breathing traditionally practiced in yoga and also in many Asian martial arts, each kind for different purposes.

  • thesmtsolver2an hour ago
    Something that yoga has propounded for centuries, been mocked and now science confirms it and the ignores the history and cultural practice.
  • jaypatelani3 hours ago
    So doing this Sudarshan Kriya helps ? Or we should avoid it ?

    https://www.aolresearch.org/published-research

  • 0ckpuppet3 hours ago
    like inhaling a cigarette and slowly exhaling smoke.
  • k__o4 hours ago
    i developed a health issue that has affected my breathing over the past few years and i am cognitively and emotionally destroyed, it has made me realize that breathing is really important
  • iknownthing2 hours ago
    I've never found it to make a difference