While learning about sleep apnea, I heard about slow breath and Buteyko's approach to slow breathing. I read the book "The Healing Power of the Breath" by Brown and Gerbarg. I spent several days in different units of two different hospitals this summer and several times I was trying to calm myself. Much of the special breathing approach relates to slow breathing, as slow as 12 breaths a minute or slower. During my attempts to slow my heart beat or generally calm my body and mind, I concluded that focusing attention on my breath is very helpful as an attention anchor and a place to put my focus that is basically unrelated to issues in my life or emotional thoughts.
However, I did not experience much success at altering my basic breathing rate or heart rate with alterations in breathing approach during my few tries. Once, when attempting to do so while hooked to displays that made it clear to everyone in the room what my pulse rate, blood pressure and blood oxygen level were, I mentioned what I was attempting to the attending nurse and she said she didn't think breathing any differently would affect those body processes. During the just ten minutes or so of concentrated practice, she was right.
Placing attention on the breath is a very old practice and a good one. One of my favorite books relating to calmness training and mind control is "QR: The Quieting Reflex" by Charles Stroebel, MD. The book advocates using 6 second snippets at moments during the day when the possibility of doing so comes to mind. At a red traffic light, or maybe while waiting for a phone to be answered, one can use the moment to search for bodily tension, relax it and breathe slowly. Doing that assists in fully changing one's mood, too. I am confident that many such moments taken together have had a large part in improving my mental practices.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
