- The Neuroscience of Conscious Breathing by Dr. Martha Havenith in MIND Foundation talk (presentation begins at 10:55)
- Dr K’s Guide - Meditation
Different origins
North america:
- Throat chanting
- Night hunting
- Water hunting Seeing
- Aloha
South america:
- Acumulating energy
- Letting go of past exp
Europe: nothing
North Africa: Throat chanting
South africa: Breathing your ancestors
East:
- Throat chanting
- Qui Gong
- Tummo
- Vajrayana
- Pranayama
- Kundalini Yoga
- Zen
Australia: Circular breathing
Main types
Slow breath meditation
- Breath 4 sec in, 8 sec out (out slower), scan how you feel
Origin more than 7k years ago
Leads to effortless being, pure state
Heightened capacity for managing emotions, more positive, focus, awareness
Cycles: Mind wandering (default mode network) → Aware (Salience/Attention network) → Shift (cognitive control nework) → Focus (Attention network) → repeat
Neural activity, heart rate and breathing synchronized (turns out clapping or doing something else doesnt provide such strong shifts as breathing,but music has similar properties)
Long term increased activation and connection related to congnitive/emotional control and awareness. Reduced activity in amygdala (fear/anxiety center). Improved cortical thickness and better immune system, more stable heart rate and less cortisol
Wim Hof method
- 30-40 deep breaths through mouth (oxygen goes up, CO2 down, which leads to respiratory alkalosis aka pH of blood goes more alkaline)
- After last breath, hold as long as possible (oxygen down, CO2 down)
- Breath in once
- Hold breath 20-30 sec
- Repeat 3x
(Esp done in cold baths etc)
Half hour to hour
Leads to increased cortisol, activates symphathetic nervous system with cathecholamines
Improved immune, reduced inflamation, unprecedented control over autonomic nervous system, pushing boundaries of human fitness
Long term leads to more responsive cortical control, better awareness and judgement of bodys signals. Symphathetic nerve increase around lung muscles which preserves core body heat. Decreased symptoms of infections, lower temp and heart rate
Connective/Holotropic Breathwork / Rebirthing
- Long deep breath in via mouth
- Fast relaxed out via mouth
- No pauses aka circular breathing
(Continually increases oxygen and lowers CO2, blood continually goes toward more alkaline, which slows down blood flow to frontal cortex and releases endogenous DMT due to near-death signal of alkaline blood, which decreases frontal cortex activity, alteration of cycles/oscillations in brain)
Usually lying down
Idea is that circular breathing gets interrupted by trauma/stress which allows for embodied healing when restoring the circular breathing
Improved perception, resurfacing memories, emotional responses, openness/vulnerability
Long term processing trauma, decreased anxiety/ptsd, increase wellbeing, awareness, openness
Other notes
If you are breathing that fast (as Wim Hof method), then your body can become stressed and release cortisol.
The Vagus nerve is THE nerve for parasympathetic activity within the body. It’s the only one. It bypasses the spinal cord entirely and runs from the brain to all of your major organs. There might be some pseudoscience fads around the vagus nerve conversation, but the actual known science behind the vagus nerve is very solid. All of your “conscious” effort runs through the spinal cord, all of your subconscious processes are the vagus nerve. Parasympathetic nervous system is “rest and digest” where the sympathetic nervous system is “fight or flight”. We live on a balance between these nervous systems. Stress shifts the balance, and stress damages the body. It’s like the brain and nervous system agrees that it should ignore what the body needs and focus on the external needs. Meditation helps find balance and brings awareness back to what the body needs through reducing sympathetic signals and allowing the vagus nerve to communicate with the brain more easily. On big work days you might forget you’re hungry or need the toilet until you get home. Suddenly you feel crap. That’s the vagus nerve finally getting its messages heard and responded to. It’s better for those messages to be heard through the work day and not ignored
I teach this technique to folks with anxiety in therapy. We call it a parasympathetic breath. Simply exhale longer than inhale i.e. hypoventilation opposite of what people do during a panic attack
enefits = plenty
When you feel it = first session
What happens over time = it’s an intricate tool for self discovery and personal development.