[alsaffar]

Hi! I use this technique and others for calming down and it really does help. I feel like I faced your issue and solved it with diaphragmatic breathing. That solved it for me with regards to deep breaths through the nose. As for not enough air to exhale, it might be solved with diaphragmatic breathing, since you’re getting more air in, but it might be worth it to soften your exhale, as if you’re blowing a candle but way softer.

[spapas82]

Hello thank you for replying! Can you explain what's "diaphragmatic breathing"? I cannot take deep breaths through the nose, is this possible somehow? I am 40 yo and I can't remember ever being able to do it :|

[alsaffar]

No problem!

The diaphragm is the muscle that sits between your abdomen (belly button and surrounding area), and chest. Diaphragmatic breathing is when you breath with your abdomen, and not your chest; so you get horizontally bigger when you breath instead of vertically taller. Its how infants, toddlers and younger kids breath before the habits of sitting down shifts us to shallow breathing.

So, diaphragmatic breathing can be achieved by putting one hand on your chest and another on your belly and then breath so that only your stomach moves back and forth instead of your chest. Another advice I’ve been helped by is to not necessarily have the deepest breathe, just take your time with each inhale and exhale.

Once you try diaphragmatic breathing, try using a metronome and follow the 4/7/8 count a few times. And practice makes perfect!

[jfengel]

I still don't really get it. All breathing is caused by the contraction of the diaphragm, with some help from the intercostals.

There seems to be something going on with the shoulders: "chest breathing" raises them, but I don't know why, or what effect that has.

In the end, why does it matter? The goal is to get oxygen to the alveoli, and that happens either way. Most people are walking around with fully O2-saturated blood. If anything, the book "Breath" suggests that's the problem: we're all breathing too deeply, and we should be learning to tolerate lower O2 sat and higher carbonic acid levels.

I mentioned the theory to a pulmonary doctor, who hadn't read the book but clearly thought it was bullshit, at least from my thirdhand description.

I try the 4-7-8 thing on occasion, and don't notice anything much beyond the basic calming of focusing on the breath. I feel like there are gaps in my knowledge here, and there may be something to it but it doesn't make physiological sense to me (and the "mystic" interpretations of it are entirely unedifying).

[spapas82]

Thank you for explaining! I'll try it!