What's your breath

[Yazata]

Or: watch your breath. This could go in meditation but is also like a question / healthy thing maybe.
Whenever I see (or hear) instructions like “breathe in for 4 counts, hold it for 4 counts, breathe out 2 counts, a duke and 3 earls” etc I always just skip that. I know that my breathing has always been slow but the other day when I saw a meditation tutorial I took a stopwatch and timed 6 normal breaths: 1 minute 19 seconds.
According to the internet that's three times slower than the average adult.
Reading a bit more, clicking along, I came on the Wikipedia of

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There are apparantly 3 or 4 books written about it, but (as far as I understand it from the Wikipage) the core idea is that (in that philosophy) there are 4 types of breathing:

In + out through the nose: Stability
In through nose and out through mouth: Fluidity
In through mouth and out through nose: Power
In + out through mouth: Clarity

These 4 obviously are Earth, Water, Fire, Air.
Seems like something that could be a nice (gimmick or) addition to the type of ritual you are doing, or the different parts of a ritual.
But:
How many breaths do you take per minute? And do you consider yourself to be generally calm or agitated, anxious or unbothered, limp or fit?​

 

[Robert Ramsay]

I've only recently started reading about breathwork, and the most interesting thing I read so far was that if you slow your exhale, it tells your body that you are not in danger and can relax. So for example, breath in for 4 and out for 6.

 

[borbponderer]

I practiced some yoga breathwork when I was younger. It fixed the issue I had where one nostril or the other was was always blocked.. These days I seem to be hyper aware of what my heart is doing. Salt intake and fluid intake have a massive effect.

I'm high strung and anxious by nature, but I've also gotten very good at calming myself.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Oh and the other thing: "You'll know you're getting relaxed because you'll probably start farting"

 

[Yazata]

What's that disgusting smell? O, Robert is doing his breathing exercises.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

What's that disgusting smell? O, Robert is doing his breathing exercises.

To quote Monty Python: "I fart in your general direction!"

These days I seem to be hyper aware of what my heart is doing. Salt intake and fluid intake have a massive effect.

This. I mostly have a low(er) salt diet, so when I have (for example) fish and chips, the extra salt puts a very noticable hit on my blood pressure. And yes, extended and deliberate slow breathing definitely helps with this. Like @Yazata , I'm not sure whether the more highly specified instructions make much difference.

 

[borbponderer]

This. I mostly have a low(er) salt diet, so when I have (for example) fish and chips, the extra salt puts a very noticable hit on my blood pressure. And yes, extended and deliberate slow breathing definitely helps with this. Like @Yazata , I'm not sure whether the more highly specified instructions make much difference.

If I have too much salt I find taking in extra fluids helps a lot.

I did some reading around brine, brine tables, isotonic, rehydration solution, saline, brine percentages etc. For medical uses, fermentation but even electrolysis, batteries and the like, and just for a better understanding of seawater. It's pretty interesting. Electrolytes are so fundamental to your body's electrical system.

There is a breathing technique they teach in the military. Box breathing I think it's called. Sounds very similar.

The yoga techniques I practiced also included "locks", basically where you tighten the muscles in you pervic floor, but also lock the breath into your torso by pushing your chin down against your collar bone. I forget the name. And of course standard stuff like training yourself to breath into your belly first, not your chest.