Breathing

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fost500

Ok, so I read somewhere that a good way to relax, was to beathe deeply and fast about 50-60 times, then after this your body goes into a state of relaxation. So last night i tried it!!
At around the 40 mark i started to feel tingling, like pins and needles on my face, chest, arms and hands. I thought that these may be vibrations, but i wasnt able to manipulate them up and down my body (as i have read you can), and then they faded a few minutes after i stopped the deep breathing.  I've not had vibes before, so i have no point of reference. ???
I was wondering if anyone knew what they were, or if theyve had a similar experience.
Thanks guys :)
Death is only tragic for those who get left behind

astralspinner

Actually, I suspect they were just a symptom of hyperventilation :)

Breathing slowly is a far better way of relaxing. But the best thing to do is not to control your breathing at all, just let your body breathe the way it wants to.

I've read about different breathing techniques to relax, they always seem to revolve around breathing deeply. When I meditate, I hardly seem to breathe at all. I certainly don't breathe deeply.

After all, it takes quite a bit of effort to breathe deeply. It's self-defeating to try and relax by doing something that involves making an effort. Try emptying your lungs completely and then letting your body decide how much air it wants to take in, and how fast.

Eol007

Hi Fost500,

I would support what Astralspinner has just said, and would NOT recommend that you continue this practice in any way shape or form.

Cheers,


Stephen

aleshah

...never tried to breath such fast, seems dangerous, to 'needle' yourself.

fost500

How can breathing be dangerous? Its what keeps us alive!!
Death is only tragic for those who get left behind

paker7

Hi fost500 :)

I believe youre talking about this pranayama technique.

QuoteAt around the 40 mark i started to feel tingling, like pins and needles on my face, chest, arms and hands.

You're on the right path - you just have to wait a couple minutes more and EXPECT that the proper vibrations WILL come.

edit: Another link for you to read.

Commoners believe - winners KNOW !

Eol007

Hi fost500,

Intermediate/Adavanced pranyama should not be practiced without supervision unless you are already an experienced practitioner.

Even one of my yoga teachers (and she is bloody good) took over a year to complete a supervised advanced pranayama course.

You would really find it beneficial to seek a responsible teacher. If you are in the UK I would recommend that you visit the British Wheel of Yoga site for lists properly trained and importantly insured teachers: -  http://www.bwy.org.uk/

This is not to say they are the only responsible organisation around, but they are a good safe start!

Also you may find someone at the UK's First Annual Yoga Show. It is ruining at Olympia this weekend see: http://www.theyogashow.co.uk/

Unless you are an experienced breath worker please in the mean time stick to breath work that has a more natural rhythm. Use slow diaphragmatic breath control if you wish (any more than 10 repetitions is unnecessary and OTT). Allow somewhere between 5-8 seconds for the inflow and the same again for the outflow of breath, any longer for general deep relaxation is unnecessary. Avoid breath retention i.e. as soon as you have completed the inflow start the out breath, and similarly for the point at which you complete the out breath etc. Until you have been taught to do it properly try not to play with advanced techniques please. Hyperventilation risk is obvious, but other risks include unbalancing your energetic system and potentially unhinging oneself psychologically. These are not dissimilar to some of the risks one might encounter with premature kundalini awakening.

The benefits of good properly supervised breath work include: an improved quality of heath, clarity of mind, balanced emotions and spiritual growth.      

Kind wishes,



Stephen

astralspinner

QuoteHow can breathing be dangerous? Its what keeps us alive!!

Well, it's like this:

The human body has several mechanisms for telling it how much it needs to breathe. Despite what people think, the amount of oxygen present in the blood is NOT the main stimulus. In fact, this is a signal so weak as to be undetectable to most people.

The main mechanism is in fact the buildup of Carbon Dioxide, the toxic end product of metabolism.

For this reason, if we breathe a gas supply with no Oxygen in it, we will never become short of breath, but will still pass out from anoxia. But if we breathe a gas supply with plenty of Oxygen but also a high level of Carbon Dioxide, we will become very short of breath very fast, even though we have all the Oxygen we need.

Hyperventilating gets no extra Oxygen into the body, but it DOES flush out the Carbon Dioxide. If you ever do a snorkel or freediving course, you will be instructed never to hyperventilate before diving, as people have been known to pass out from anoxia because there wasn't enough CO2 in their bodies to tell them they needed to surface and breathe.

That's the danger that lies in hyperventilating: It purges you of the main factor that tells your body it needs Oxygen.

Without this signal, tissues that are starved of Oxygen can't signal their need, because the CO2 levels never get high enough. Thus the bloodflow to those tissues does not increase, and the organ becomes starved of Oxygen without the body ever being aware of it.

Hence the "pins and needles" feeling - people normally get this when they sit on a leg or some such and physically obstruct the flow of blood to the limb.

In this case, however, the restriction was not physical: Your face, chest, and arms were starved of Oxygen because they were unable to signal your body that they needed more of it. The end result was the same: Pins and needles. But the cause was very different.

A simple experiment to prove how unhealthy this practice is: Have a friend stand behind you while you crouch and hyperventilate for five minutes. Then have them grip you under the arms and lift as you try to stand up as fast as possible.

You will immediately faint, as your Oxygen-starved body is unable to compensate for the increased demand standing up places on it. Try it if you don't believe me.

The sensations hyperventilating generates are not the vibrations, nor are they any other energy-raising phenomena. They're the sensations of your organs screaming at you that they're dying from lack of Oxygen.

Proper breathing excercises can have all kinds of beneficial effects. Hyperventilating is NOT such a method. Sitting with your eyes closed is not meditation. Pumping air in and out of your lungs is NOT pranyama.

Hyperventilation can kill. Don't do it. It's that simple.

Eol007

Quote from: astralspinner
QuoteHyperventilation can kill. Don't do it. It's that simple.

Well put!!!

Stephen

paker7

Wow slow down people !  :roll:

The hyperventilation is almost impossible when you're doing bhastrika.
(if you're doing it right):

"Sit on Padmasana. Keep the body, neck and head erect. Close the mouth. Next, inhale and exhale quickly ten times like the bellows of the blacksmith. Constantly dilate and contract. When you practise this Pranayama a hissing sound is produced. The practitioner should start with rapid expulsions of breath following one another in rapid succession. When the required number of expulsions, say ten for a round, is finished, the final expulsion is followed by a deepest possible inhalation. The breath is suspended as long as it could be done with comfort. Then deepest possible exhalation is done very slowly. The end of this deep exhalation completes one round of Bhastrika. Rest a while after one round is over by taking a few normal breaths. This will give you relief and make you fit for starting the second round. Do three rounds daily in the morning. You can do another three rounds in the evening also. Busy people who find it difficult to do three rounds of Bhastrika can do one round at least. This also will keep them quite fit."

And even if fost500 wants to do 40-60 breaths he still can't hurt himself - 40-60 rapid breaths = only about 20 to 30 seconds without oxygen (i'm sure almost all healthy men can hold their breath for much longer than that)

Commoners believe - winners KNOW !

astralspinner

Quotehyperventilation is almost impossible . . . if you're doing it right

That's the point, tho - it's a pretty big IF.

What fost described doing as an exercise is hyperventilation.

People can and have died as a result of hyperventilating. Hyperventialation is very bad for you. These are facts.

Proper breathing exercises are a very different matter, but an exercise that consists entirely of "breathe deeply and fast about 50-60 times" is not such an exercise when attempted by a beginner. It's hyperventilation. We advised fost500 to use a safer breathing regime, to which he wanted to know "How can breathing be dangerous?"

We then explained exactly how breathing can be dangerous, both physically and energetically. That's not to say that breathing excercises are necessarily bad for you, or even that the one he mentions is necessarily bad for you. But if a beginner sits down and tries the described method, he will almost certainly acheive little more than hyperventilating.

There are many other breathing regimes that are more suitable for use by beginners, and fost would almost certainly be better off using them.

Leo Volont

Oh Yeah!  That is Hyperventilation alright!

If you work with those patterns of breathing which make you feel tingly and light-headed and wobbly, it becomes easy to push past the point where you lose consciousness -- the next thing you remember is getting up off the floor.

One of the problems with such breathing, is that it helps airflow if one does it standing up.  so their is the serious danger of striking one's head on the way down, if one passes out, as one will do eventually when pushing such an envelope.

Anyone who has a morbid curiousity about Hyperventilating, it is really much easier then you might think -- stand up and assume the Tai Chi stance (knees bent slightly, shoulders bent, and back straight)  breath rapidly from the lower abdomen for just ten seconds or so, and then breath totally out -- empty your body of air.  Hold the air out for a few moments. You will sense your body begin to pull a vaccuum as it wants air.  Making sure you make no breath noise at all slowly fill up with air, but from the base of the Spine on up along the spine -- do not fill the abdomen with air, but bring the air up along the spine (it seems impossible, but you can breath that way).  When the Spine is full of air, then tense yourself -- flex your whole body like it is a fist you are flexing.  When you see sparkles before your eyes, you have around 5 seconds.  When you get wobbly, you have about 2 seconds.  Sit down immediately or you will fall down.

I know a SAFE breathing exercise.  In one of Vivekanandas famous treatises on Yoga he spoke of a breathing exercise where you place your hand up to your face, with the thumb over one nostril and the forefinger over the other.  Cover Left, breath out Right, breath in Right, cover right, breath out left, breath in Left, cover left... cont...  It evens out the Pranic Flows in the body and makes one feel euphoric without ever getting close to passing out -- the half at a time prevents any total effect from occuring.

fost500

Hey, thanks you guys.
I really appreciate your concern and Ill try starting with some oter breathing excercises.
Cheers
Death is only tragic for those who get left behind

Leo Volont

Quote from: fost500Hey, thanks you guys.
I really appreciate your concern and Ill try starting with some oter breathing excercises.
Cheers

I know a SAFE breathing exercise. In one of Vivekanandas famous treatises on Yoga he spoke of a breathing exercise where you place your hand up to your face, with the thumb over one nostril and the forefinger over the other. Cover Left, breath out Right, breath in Right, cover right, breath out left, breath in Left, cover left... cont... It evens out the Pranic Flows in the body and makes one feel euphoric without ever getting close to passing out -- the half at a time prevents any total effect from occuring.

aleshah

I've got a similar ENERGIZING rhytmically breathing exercise:

Just breath in trough nostrils and cont 7 times, hold on...count 7 times.
exhale trough small hole by mouth.Hold on for some seconds, if you feel it's right.
Try it some cycles.
If done this, you can add to each cycle 1 count  (7 + 1 times) .This will expand your lungh capacity.Stop, if you feel it is enough!!
Try it also in some cycles.
If done this you can additionaly focus on inhale,exhale and the silence in between.
This will expand your breathing awareness.

kiauma

I have a breathing method that I used strictly to AP that was very effective.

After doing the tighten/relax each part of your body relaxation exercise, be sure to lay in a comfortable position with the head a comfortable angle but tilted slightly to one side to help against having to swallow.

Inhale through the nostrils very slowly.  When you have practiced this for a while, you will barely be able to feel air moving through your nostrils when done the way I did it.  

There is no need to hold a count, in fact I find it distracting to try to keep a count, but would rather hold my attention lightly on keeping my eyes unfocused on a point a couple inches in front of my forehead, and keeping my breathing pattern regular.  In the back of your mind should be the determination for the OBE you have planned, but do not dwell on it consciously.

Keep your eyes unfocused and your mind clear.  Concentrate on the sensation of breathing.  I imagined myself falling down an endless shaft, which also helped to bring on the falling sensations.

When you exhale, try to open the back of the throat to exhale in a natural motion as quickly as possible.   Done the way I did it, it will give you a falling sensation.    You should be able to empty the lungs in a quick nearly instantaneous motion.

Inhale again when you feel the need.  This will depend on how slowly you can inhale.

The goal here is to disassociate the mind from the body, and this did help.  The danger of hyperventilation was avoided by breathing at a natural rate, but emptying the lungs quickly helped to greatly amplify the falling sensations as they arose with deep relaxation.
Non semper ea sunt quae videntur.