sheng zhen

I have also experimented a lot with the stresseraser, and used it for many years in my clinical practice. I believe it is useful to achieve a strong prasympatheticus (high HRV) before one can prolong the breathing to more than 6 breaths /min. Otherwise it will be too challenging to keep the breathing frequency more than a few minutes without sighing and tensing. Those who already have a high HRV will get nice curves on the screen no matter how slow breathing. And it is interesting to see those who train a long outbreath, like brass instrument players, they get perfect curves even if they are super stressed

I saw Bruce Frantzis say Turtle Breathing is one breath every 4-8 minutes This study show that normally meditators breathe 16 /min, and while doing concentration meditation they breath 13/min. Mindfulness meditation gives the slowest breathing frequency; 10 /min. (this is average) I remember looking at peoples breathing frequency during a silent retreat and I noticed even people in seemingly deep meditation breathed up to 20/min...

Thats cool. Always good to be skeptical of pompous claims But like they say: "The first step toward knowledge is unlearning what you thought you knew." I have done my very best to unlearn things I thought I knew about the physiology of breathing. I have a discussion on the different theories on the reasons for DOMS here: http://recoverybreathing.com/about-doms/ Regarding blood circulation, it should increase to sufficient enough level so you feel increased warmth within the first few minutes.

From the research I have see it is a 1:1 breath at 6 breaths a minute that gives best results on HRV. http://www.autonomicneuroscience.com/article/S1566-0702(01)00267-3/abstract Im sorry this is just the abstract. Inside the article they write: "Fig. 2. Heart rate variability is maximal when respiration slows down in the low-frequency range, and particularly at 0.1 Hz (equivalent to 6 breaths/min)."

The 1:1:2 ratio gives the CO2 effects (ex. warmth) quicker than 1:2:1. The first urge to breath in is mostly the CO2 tolerance. It is easier to hold the breath after the inhale because it takes longer for the CO2 to build up. And yes, a comfortable pause should be underlined Basicly, if its comfortable you can do a 30 second pause. The more the better. IF its comfortable.

The reason for DOMS discussed in the website. You probably have not read through it yet. Moderate hypercapnia leads to increased blood circulation. And if that alone is not enough to understand its potential in recovery and regeneration, it also act as an antioxidant, removes lactate, decrease inflammation. In addition relaxed breathing increases melatonin and decreases pain. If your knowledge includes these aspects, does it still not sound plausible? Anyways, DOMS is easy and fun to experiment with. Just give it a try

Here is the scientific rationale for why the superslow turtle breathing has regenerative effects. Forget oxygen. Its all about the carbon dioxide. www.recoverybreathing.com

...and the phonton intesity is affected by stellar phenomenas like full moon or solar eclipses. It happens only in carbonated water. Add iron and the effect increases. This is from another very interesting article: http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles_2011/Fall-2011/Carbonate_Solutions.pdf When we breath slower our CO2 increases and our water is more carbonated Or we can eat baking soda.

When I do my breathing meditation I keep a long pause at the outbreath before breathing in again. In this pause the CO2 increases a lot, and as long I keep the pause within my bodys limits for tensing up (tension is counteractive) I get increased bloodflow and heat and energy and bliss sensations all over. I dont do it for "energy" though, but the sensations are similar and I think a lot of what we experience as energy in meditations and qigong is really just increased bloodflow from increased CO2. It has NOTHING to do with oxygen, because the oxygenlevel in the blood and at the mitchondiral level stays the same all through the meditation. Only if we hold the breath for more than 50 seconds the oxygen starts to decrease. Here are some of the studies that I have enjoyed the most during my research into the role of CO2: http://www.biomed.cas.cz/physiolres/pdf/51/51_335.pdf http://emj.bmj.com/content/28/4/269.long http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3340129/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3073030/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2890048/ http://jp.physoc.org/content/571/2/415.full http://www.pnas.org/content/104/suppl.1/8655.full An this very important one: http://www.univ-rouen.fr/servlet/com.univ.utils.LectureFichierJoint?CODE=1307716204012&LANGUE=0 I am leaving now too. Im only here occationally to follow the John Chang drama that keeps going on here, like Days of our Lives. But this topic has taken up a lot of my time this year so I had break my wow of silence and post Enjoy!

Its been right under our nose since the 1800s, but because of our misguided love for oxygen we have overlooked all the amazing functions CO2 has in our physiology. I have come to think of CO2 as the great life-giving protector, and O2 as the destroyer. "Over the oxygen supply of the body carbon dioxide spreads its protective wings." - Friedrich Miescher, 1885 Breathe less, live longer. All taoists know this. With clearing up the O2/CO2 misunderstanding we can also know why it really is true from a western scientific point of view. Good luck!

Here is one very interesting research article that confirmes a lot: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2887152/

Ive been looking into this recently and have realized that the breathing function is not about O2, but CO2. If you breathe fast or slow, deep or shallow, the oxygen saturation is still 96-98%. But CO2 fluctuates a lot. Also, take into consideration the oxygen cascade - only minimal amouts of the avilable oxygen is actually used by the mitochondria. Given that CO2 is a vasodilator (increase bloodflow) we can understand how inceased CO2 levels (by slow breathing) create sensations like warm flowing energy (chi?) through the body and limbs. There is a lot more to CO2 that gives a whole new perspective on our breathing function.

My first and last post. Its goodbye from me. I have found what I was looking for. Never thought I would be a dramaqueen and write a goodbye-post, but it seems my love for taobums has grown so much I need a confirmation like this to break free.

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I practice because I love it.