ok certainly this is a high quality source BUT breathwork should be done with supervision of a practitioner that has some sense. Like swimming (?) this ordinary activity can do great damage in relatively rare situations, or someone trying to do "extreme" practices without guardrails.
You can most definitely get into trouble with breathing exercises.
Just consider for a second what hyperventilating looks like, or hypo-ventilating. That is one of the things many pranayama and other breathing exercises do.
Restricting &/or increasing oxygen to the body/brain for extended periods of time… what could go wrong?
While we all practice breathing since birth I do believe that trying some advanced techniques could be dangerous. See https://zeta.blue/physiology for possible effects.
People have unique physiological, and mental limits. As a toy example we could imagine someone holding their breath until they pass out and fall.
>we could imagine someone holding their breath until they pass out and fall.
It is not easy to imagine this. Brain have protective mechanisms in place to prevent this. If someone is holding their breath for too long - they start experiencing an immense, primal fear which magnifies tenfold every second. It is close to impossible to consciously bear that fear and continue holding your breath – every other second requires years of practice. You will inhale, if you can. Your body simply wont let you fail or pass out.
1) I tried it, enjoyed it, thank you for building it.
2) I learned something new: I was aware of how making the exhale longer than the inhale promoted relaxation. Somehow I hadn't thought of inverting it for the opposite effect: more energy. Your app mentioned it and it was an "aha" moment for me. I tried it, and certainly feel something, but too early to say if it's a placebo effect or something real. Thank you for this new knowledge.
3) The pause portion. What does Richie Davidson (or other research say about it). What does it do, please? That is, what is the difference between not pausing at all between inhale and exhale, vs. pausing (i.e. box breathing)? Thanks in advance.
re: #3, I wish I had a clear answer for you. I believe the Navy Seals use box breathing (4 sec each for inhale, hold, exhale, hold) because it puts them in a calm, high-energy state. Those two descriptors may seem paradoxical, but it's a state I've manage to put myself in before, say, a sales call or public talk. You want high energy to raise the energy level of the audience, but you want calm to be making better decisions in a quickly changing situation.
That differs, I think, from a physiological sigh where you're just trying to relax, which the longer exhale vs inhale gets you.
James Nestor talks about the effects of breath holds in his book "Breath", and one thing he brings up is "carbon dioxide therapy"; ie exposing yourself to mildly elevated levels of carbon dioxide for brief periods was once thought to be beneficial, and he cites people claiming the research has not been disproven. One of the supposed benefits (I'm not a doctor!) is anxiety reduction, similar to how people might tell someone who is panicking to breath with a brown paper bag over their mouth.
