6 ms·

Box breathing techniques and benefits

182 points by liminal-dev 4y ago

1attice 4y ago
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
happy2code 4y ago
Breathing exercises (Pranayama) is the best you can do for yourself. Short breathing or big sessions.
- majikandy 4y ago
  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.
agumonkey 4y ago
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
matsemann 4y ago
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 4y ago
  CO2 is toxic at high concentrations though.
  - akvadrako 4y ago
    It's something to be careful of, but doing it for a short time is probably fine. When sitting around, people exhale 4-5% CO₂. That's 40000 - 50000 ppm. But the Navy has done studies at that level and found it doesn't have a noticeable effect¹. > Thus, CO₂ at 40,000 ppm for 2 weeks did not affect performance on multiple tests of cognitive function in physically fit young airmen, a population probably not unlike submariners. [1]: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/11170/chapter/5#54 https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/11170/chapter/5#54
- harveywi 4y ago
  >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 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27159001
pastrami_panda 4y ago
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?"
- bitexploder 4y ago
  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.
gricardo99 4y ago
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
- liminal-dev 4y ago
  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.
- fsloth 4y ago
  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.
cr4zy 4y ago
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 :)
matai_kolila 4y ago
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.
- fsloth 4y ago
  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.
- SeanAnderson 4y ago
  Clarify "a lot of this" ?
- moosedev 4y ago
  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 4y ago
  I feel noticeably better, with measurably improved blood pressure after breathing exercises. Why do you say it's pseudoscience?
- jmfldn 4y ago
  It works. Try it.
- Tade0 4y ago
  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.
TacoSteemers 4y ago
I have a simple visualisation for box breathing: https://tacosteemers.com/files-static/breathing/box-breathing.html 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 4y ago
  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 4y ago
    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.
- jimmydddd 4y ago
  Ha. This is simultaneously lame and super great! Thanks.
- Ebree 4y ago
  Could you do this with circle or sinusoid, but maybe adding a line or top & bottom point, for regular breathing? I'm also planning to combine 40Hz bineural beats, pink noise and using drum beats per minute to keep breathing pattern without visuals. Hmm Maybe adding more beats but of different volume or with irregular interval would produce a mental circle following path between top and bottom, breath in / breath out. I was experimenting with small breaths sequences, like hardcoding counting without need for counting consciously but disrupting smooth breathing makes it unnatural & ineffective.
zahma 4y ago
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-breathing-wrong-with-brian-mackenzie/id1461771083?i=1000518762708 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.
NelsonMinar 4y ago
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 https://github.com/mmazzarolo/breathly-app
- mikae1 4y ago
  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?
  - NelsonMinar 4y ago
    I find it helpful to have an automated timer rather than trying to count myself.
mikae1 4y ago
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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ
orzig 4y ago
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 4y ago
  Counting a few seconds seems within the realm of human abilities. It doesn’t need an app.
- ars 4y ago
  I just tried it and my heart started beating faster, and I felt very stressed. It was not a pleasant sensation, and I quickly stopped and went back to regular breathing.
  - Ebree 4y ago
    Because a natural thing is to breath regularly in and out in the same pace stabilising pulse variability, not forcing 4 arbitrary phases disrupting natural cycle. I think that for a deeper syncing even better is to try to follow these intuitive tops and bottoms - it's like prolonging breath and filling a specific sensation. But it's more for relaxation as breath becomes slower & longer then nearly using only stomach/diaphragm.
jb1991 4y ago
Previous, related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13508038 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13508038 (127 comments)
amriksohata 4y ago
Basically what the yogic texts say that Hindu sages wrote
manimino 4y ago
If you have anxiety, and use caffeine regularly, step 1 should be to eliminate caffeine. Caffeine withdrawal symptoms (headaches, insomnia) typically last about 10 days, but the improvements on stress and anxiety start by day 3 or so. They will be dramatic. I find it surprising that this solution is rarely discussed. Caffeine is much more potent than many people realize.
- rwl4 4y ago
  I stopped caffeine for a few months a couple times in the past. I came to the conclusion that I am not my best self when I don't have caffeine. Every single thing I would do that required attention was harder, even intently listening to an audio book while taking a walk. I'm honestly not convinced that taking powerful prescribed stimulants has an advantage over simply enjoying a cup of coffee and/or tea. The way I think of my caffeine addiction is that I take a daily loan out against my evening energy and focus in exchange for the additional focus during the day.
  - jimmux 4y ago
    This is a common story for people with ADHD. If caffeine can be treated as a medication and you are mindful of timing and doses, I don't see why it shouldn't be an option.
    - sph 4y ago
      Caffeine is not very much dopaminergic. What made my ADHD terribly worse was quitting nicotine.
  - jimmydddd 4y ago
    I had a similar experience. I 100% gave up all caffeine for an entire calendar year. I resumed drinking coffee on January 1st of the next year, felt super great and focused, and haven't stopped again except for an occasional weekend off as a reset.
- unrealp 4y ago
  this. one of the best things i ever did was quitting caffeine. the benefits started after about 3 months. better sleep, being energetic throughout the day, more focus.
latchkey 4y ago
Sivananda Yoga practices something called Kapalabhati & Anuloma Viloma Pranayama breathing. It is fantastic. There are a bunch of YT videos on it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiwEkHb6gSM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiwEkHb6gSM Beyond that, their style of yoga is very traditional and quite approachable by us nerds... they have 12 basic poses and just repeat those with variations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f09l0hdK19Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f09l0hdK19Q
xboxnolifes 4y ago
Didn't know this had such a name. I was basically taught basically this doing sports as a kid. Nobody called it by name, but it's basically what we were taught to do when you are out of breath. Not specifically a 4 count, but a breath, pause, release, pause, repeat.
FigurativeVoid 4y ago
Oak is an excellent app that has good UI, and the breathing exercises are free. There are some guided meditation add-ons, but they aren’t advertised.
bbarn 4y ago
Disappointed to see Wim Hof method not mentioned in "Other techniques". You don't have to buy into the whole breathing as a lifestyle thing, but if you've ever jumped into frigid water, the simple act of breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth in a controlled way can stop your body from shivering possibly long enough to save your life.
temeritatis 4y ago
Check out Ujjayi or "oceans breath" if you're interested in breathwork. The latter name refers to the sound that happens as you breathe in and out in this way. All you need to do is to constrict the back of your throat as you exhale, which makes the exhale longer in a very organic and natural fashion. Because of the slower exhalation it is said to stimulate the vagus nerve in a very positive manner. More people need to learn about the link between a healthy body (and mind) and the vagus nerve IMHO.
rednerrus 4y ago
This is a great book if you're into breathing and sports: https://www.amazon.com/Body-Mind-Sport-Lifelong-Personal/dp/0517594552 https://www.amazon.com/Body-Mind-Sport-Lifelong-Personal/dp/.... He covered a lot of this back in 1994.
zuzuleinen 4y ago
On my first try of box-breathing, after roughly 7 minutes of doing the practice I burst into a tearful laughter and couldn't stop. It was an amazing feeling, now I would call it lung-orgasm, but after 1-2 minutes I kinda got scared about it and managed to stop in the end. I tried to reproduce it after, but it never happened again. Maybe it requires some built-up tension and that day I managed to release it.
- zuzuleinen 4y ago
  Highly recommend the Brealthy[0] app if anyone wants to start getting into breathwork. It also has a mode where you can customize your timings [0] https://breathly.app/ https://breathly.app/
- md5wasp 4y ago
  Sounds similar to a 'jhana' state in Buddhist meditation. My understanding is that there are layers/steps of meditation practice and the higher level ones may allow such states; people can sometimes find themselves temporarilly jumping up a few layers and getting such experiences. After some articles recently about this on AstralCodexTen I'm reading 'The Mind Illuminated" to try and decide for myself if such "unfalsifiable internal states" exist.
bitterblotter 4y ago
I made my own version of a box breathing visualizer with some pretty CSS and no js. It is also "Save to home screen friendly". https://lassebomh.github.io/box-breathing/ https://lassebomh.github.io/box-breathing/
- cheesetoastie 4y ago
  Wonderful
- fransje26 4y ago
  Simple, yet incredibly useful. Thank you.
  - bitterblotter 4y ago
    You're welcome! I want to add an asterisk to the no-js statement. I added a service worker so it should also work offline if you have added it to your homescreen. Link to the source code: https://github.com/lassebomh/box-breathing https://github.com/lassebomh/box-breathing

182 points by liminal-dev 4y ago

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

happy2code 4y ago

Breathing exercises (Pranayama) is the best you can do for yourself. Short breathing or big sessions.

majikandy 4y ago
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.

agumonkey 4y ago

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

matsemann 4y ago

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 4y ago
CO2 is toxic at high concentrations though.
- akvadrako 4y ago
  It's something to be careful of, but doing it for a short time is probably fine. When sitting around, people exhale 4-5% CO₂. That's 40000 - 50000 ppm. But the Navy has done studies at that level and found it doesn't have a noticeable effect¹. > Thus, CO₂ at 40,000 ppm for 2 weeks did not affect performance on multiple tests of cognitive function in physically fit young airmen, a population probably not unlike submariners. [1]: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/11170/chapter/5#54 https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/11170/chapter/5#54
harveywi 4y ago
>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 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27159001

pastrami_panda 4y ago

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?"

bitexploder 4y ago
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.

gricardo99 4y ago

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

liminal-dev 4y ago
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.
fsloth 4y ago
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.

cr4zy 4y ago

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 :)

matai_kolila 4y ago

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.

fsloth 4y ago
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.
SeanAnderson 4y ago
Clarify "a lot of this" ?
moosedev 4y ago
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 4y ago
I feel noticeably better, with measurably improved blood pressure after breathing exercises. Why do you say it's pseudoscience?
jmfldn 4y ago
It works. Try it.
Tade0 4y ago
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.

TacoSteemers 4y ago

I have a simple visualisation for box breathing: https://tacosteemers.com/files-static/breathing/box-breathing.html 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 4y ago
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 4y ago
  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.
jimmydddd 4y ago
Ha. This is simultaneously lame and super great! Thanks.
Ebree 4y ago
Could you do this with circle or sinusoid, but maybe adding a line or top & bottom point, for regular breathing? I'm also planning to combine 40Hz bineural beats, pink noise and using drum beats per minute to keep breathing pattern without visuals. Hmm Maybe adding more beats but of different volume or with irregular interval would produce a mental circle following path between top and bottom, breath in / breath out. I was experimenting with small breaths sequences, like hardcoding counting without need for counting consciously but disrupting smooth breathing makes it unnatural & ineffective.

zahma 4y ago

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-breathing-wrong-with-brian-mackenzie/id1461771083?i=1000518762708 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.

NelsonMinar 4y ago

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 https://github.com/mmazzarolo/breathly-app

mikae1 4y ago
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?
- NelsonMinar 4y ago
  I find it helpful to have an automated timer rather than trying to count myself.

mikae1 4y ago

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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ

orzig 4y ago

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 4y ago
Counting a few seconds seems within the realm of human abilities. It doesn’t need an app.
ars 4y ago
I just tried it and my heart started beating faster, and I felt very stressed. It was not a pleasant sensation, and I quickly stopped and went back to regular breathing.
- Ebree 4y ago
  Because a natural thing is to breath regularly in and out in the same pace stabilising pulse variability, not forcing 4 arbitrary phases disrupting natural cycle. I think that for a deeper syncing even better is to try to follow these intuitive tops and bottoms - it's like prolonging breath and filling a specific sensation. But it's more for relaxation as breath becomes slower & longer then nearly using only stomach/diaphragm.

jb1991 4y ago

Previous, related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13508038 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13508038 (127 comments)

amriksohata 4y ago

Basically what the yogic texts say that Hindu sages wrote

manimino 4y ago

If you have anxiety, and use caffeine regularly, step 1 should be to eliminate caffeine. Caffeine withdrawal symptoms (headaches, insomnia) typically last about 10 days, but the improvements on stress and anxiety start by day 3 or so. They will be dramatic. I find it surprising that this solution is rarely discussed. Caffeine is much more potent than many people realize.

rwl4 4y ago
I stopped caffeine for a few months a couple times in the past. I came to the conclusion that I am not my best self when I don't have caffeine. Every single thing I would do that required attention was harder, even intently listening to an audio book while taking a walk. I'm honestly not convinced that taking powerful prescribed stimulants has an advantage over simply enjoying a cup of coffee and/or tea. The way I think of my caffeine addiction is that I take a daily loan out against my evening energy and focus in exchange for the additional focus during the day.
- jimmux 4y ago
  This is a common story for people with ADHD. If caffeine can be treated as a medication and you are mindful of timing and doses, I don't see why it shouldn't be an option.
  - sph 4y ago
    Caffeine is not very much dopaminergic. What made my ADHD terribly worse was quitting nicotine.
- jimmydddd 4y ago
  I had a similar experience. I 100% gave up all caffeine for an entire calendar year. I resumed drinking coffee on January 1st of the next year, felt super great and focused, and haven't stopped again except for an occasional weekend off as a reset.
unrealp 4y ago
this. one of the best things i ever did was quitting caffeine. the benefits started after about 3 months. better sleep, being energetic throughout the day, more focus.

latchkey 4y ago

Sivananda Yoga practices something called Kapalabhati & Anuloma Viloma Pranayama breathing. It is fantastic. There are a bunch of YT videos on it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiwEkHb6gSM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiwEkHb6gSM Beyond that, their style of yoga is very traditional and quite approachable by us nerds... they have 12 basic poses and just repeat those with variations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f09l0hdK19Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f09l0hdK19Q

xboxnolifes 4y ago

Didn't know this had such a name. I was basically taught basically this doing sports as a kid. Nobody called it by name, but it's basically what we were taught to do when you are out of breath. Not specifically a 4 count, but a breath, pause, release, pause, repeat.

FigurativeVoid 4y ago

Oak is an excellent app that has good UI, and the breathing exercises are free. There are some guided meditation add-ons, but they aren’t advertised.

bbarn 4y ago

Disappointed to see Wim Hof method not mentioned in "Other techniques". You don't have to buy into the whole breathing as a lifestyle thing, but if you've ever jumped into frigid water, the simple act of breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth in a controlled way can stop your body from shivering possibly long enough to save your life.

temeritatis 4y ago

Check out Ujjayi or "oceans breath" if you're interested in breathwork. The latter name refers to the sound that happens as you breathe in and out in this way. All you need to do is to constrict the back of your throat as you exhale, which makes the exhale longer in a very organic and natural fashion. Because of the slower exhalation it is said to stimulate the vagus nerve in a very positive manner. More people need to learn about the link between a healthy body (and mind) and the vagus nerve IMHO.

rednerrus 4y ago

This is a great book if you're into breathing and sports: https://www.amazon.com/Body-Mind-Sport-Lifelong-Personal/dp/0517594552 https://www.amazon.com/Body-Mind-Sport-Lifelong-Personal/dp/.... He covered a lot of this back in 1994.

zuzuleinen 4y ago

On my first try of box-breathing, after roughly 7 minutes of doing the practice I burst into a tearful laughter and couldn't stop. It was an amazing feeling, now I would call it lung-orgasm, but after 1-2 minutes I kinda got scared about it and managed to stop in the end. I tried to reproduce it after, but it never happened again. Maybe it requires some built-up tension and that day I managed to release it.

zuzuleinen 4y ago
Highly recommend the Brealthy[0] app if anyone wants to start getting into breathwork. It also has a mode where you can customize your timings [0] https://breathly.app/ https://breathly.app/
md5wasp 4y ago
Sounds similar to a 'jhana' state in Buddhist meditation. My understanding is that there are layers/steps of meditation practice and the higher level ones may allow such states; people can sometimes find themselves temporarilly jumping up a few layers and getting such experiences. After some articles recently about this on AstralCodexTen I'm reading 'The Mind Illuminated" to try and decide for myself if such "unfalsifiable internal states" exist.

bitterblotter 4y ago

I made my own version of a box breathing visualizer with some pretty CSS and no js. It is also "Save to home screen friendly". https://lassebomh.github.io/box-breathing/ https://lassebomh.github.io/box-breathing/

cheesetoastie 4y ago
Wonderful
fransje26 4y ago
Simple, yet incredibly useful. Thank you.
- bitterblotter 4y ago
  You're welcome! I want to add an asterisk to the no-js statement. I added a service worker so it should also work offline if you have added it to your homescreen. Link to the source code: https://github.com/lassebomh/box-breathing https://github.com/lassebomh/box-breathing