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I’m curious, how many of our community members have tried BOX BREATHING? Raise your hands LOL
Can you tell us a bit about your experience?
I love box breathing. Here’s a little something I wrote a while ago:
Sama Vritti: Box breathing
Employ this calming practice when the line is taking too long at the market or when your colleagues do that thing they always do that gets you riled up. Observe what happens to your mind and body and enjoy the balance it brings. FYI: this is such a game changing technique that it has been adopted by Navy Seals. Highly skilled, trained soldiers use box breathing before entering high pressure situations.
It is SO simple, especially with the dots on your Moment:
- Take a natural 4-second inhale.
- Hold your breath for 4 seconds.
- Exhale for 4 seconds.
- Wait for 4 seconds before taking the next inhale.
- Continue for as long as you need.
It’s soo good.
@aleksander I think I can confidently say that BOX BREATHING has saved my sanity so many times
I do love box-breathing.
I also practice one-minute-breath which consists of -
- Breathe-in for twenty seconds.
- Suspend the breath for twenty seconds (suspend, not ‘hold’).
- Breathe-out for twenty seconds.
That’s impressive!
You highlight the difference between holding and suspending breath – could you elaborate? My favorite expression is ‘retaining’ btw
I’ve not thought about ‘retaining’, I wonder where that might fit-in with suspending and holding, I will think about it. I see ‘holding’ as when you breathe-in and you close the throat off to stop any further air being taken in or escaping. Whereas ‘suspending’ I see as consciously using the diaphragm muscles to literally remain perfectly in place, once you have fully breathed-in, so as to sort of ‘meditate’ on no air coming in or going out. It’s more difficult. And when I say ‘breathing’ I mean 'long-deep-breathing, from the lower belly, into the stomach, into the chest and then finally into the shoulders, lifting them to fully expand ourselves (how we should breathe anyway).
In my experience breath work is useful to reduce anxiety, relieve physical stress, create a sense of empowerment and reduce fear.
In extreme circumstances even a held or suspended breath of one second is useful, then working towards holding for longer intervals.
More recently I’ve worked with explosive out breath after holding the breath, and letting go of any unwanted emotional or energetic gunk. It feels really nice at times! Pushing the air out using the diaphragm at the same time as making a breath sound like ‘wheh’.
Have anyone else on this forum worked with explosive out breaths?
Yes, through pranayama but not on a regular basis. I also do ‘Breath of Fire’ where you pump the navel to expel breath. If you can imagine that an insect flies up your nose and you quickly snort it out, that’s the general basis, you just continually do this for 3 minutes. Very effective.
Ahhhh, yes, breath of fire - I met BOF during a Yoga class some years ago. I found it takes stillness of body, patience and a huge amount of concentration NOT to hyperventillate! Do you have any tips for not hyperventillating with this style of breathwork?
So long as you’re pumping the navel in order to expel air through the nose then you shouldn’t hyperventilate.