[mistrial9]

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.

[ethersteeds]

Your position is that breathing practice is too dangerous to attempt unsupervised due to risks equivalent to drowning while swimming?

While I don't doubt there's a way to breathe so wrong that it has negative effects, I'm sceptical.

But I wouldn't think twice about swimming alone, so maybe I live on the edge.

[ejoso]

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?

[cykros]

Aleister Crowley somewhat famously gave himself asthma doing some fairly extreme pranayama, which led to him using heroin medicinally which led to him using heroin somewhat less medicinally for the duration of his life.

Yes, the guy was known for going big on most things he did. But it is worth throwing in the asterisk.

[TrainedMonkey]

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.

[gloosx]

>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.

[vonnik]

I made a simple app inspired by Richie Davidson’s research that teaches people how to change their state with breath.

https://breathing-trainer.replit.app/

[profsummergig]

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.

[vonnik]

Thanks for the kind words.

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.

https://www.amazon.com/Breath-New-Science-Lost-Art/dp/073521...

[msephton]

This is cool. Please add a little bit of code that allows me to save and run it as a web app from my iPhone home screen. Thanks!

[vonnik]

Will try do build this for you!

[xcrunner529]

Very cool! Can I ask if you’re using a UI framework or did you just use tailwind and build the buttons yourself? I like the look.

[vonnik]

Thanks! Just tailwind!

[out-of-ideas]

i feel the growing circle could use a fixed area of where it will grow too [and shrink from]

edit; but otherwise, seems simple and great design!

[vonnik]

Thanks, will work on this.