Breath pacer recommendations?

[Sahaj Nath]

I'm interested in working with my breath more, and wondering if anybody has any breath pacer recommendations, either stand alone devices or an app. Already have a Resperate but find it cumbersome to use. Is there something out there with sound cues (so that I don't need to be looking at a screen) and very customizable in terms of breaths per minute?

 

Thanks, Liminal

 

don't know if you ever found anything, but i just uploaded 2 tracks with you in mind.

 

3 breaths per minute:

http://youtu.be/oNtH3D5oVWA

 

2 breaths per minute:

http://youtu.be/HvcLZO6cKqU

 

 

somebody on here made the audio tracks many years ago. i think it was mantis or sunya/mikaelz. don't quite remember. if i can find the thread, i'll post it. but these should work. 4 breaths is just too fast. even 3 is a bit fast for me.

 

 

EDIT:

 

it was mwight who made them. found the thread, but the links to the tracks are no longer viable.

 

http://thetaobums.com/topic/6125-a-free-gift-to-aid-you-all-in-your-qigongneigong-training/

Edited January 25, 2015 by Hundun

[liminal_luke]

Thanks Hundun! Have been using a metronome on the web, but these look good. Will try them out.

 

Liminal

[Spotless]

Joeblast,

 

I'm a little confused. Do you think there's value in training to slow down the breath rate? At the moment my goals are more to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system and just generally ratchet myself down a bit (blood pressure, heart rate, anxiety). I set the metronome so I'm breathing at 5 bpm, which is pretty easy for me right now but also feels therapeutic in terms of calming down. Figured I would work at gradually slowing down from there.

 

I'd like to see if I can get down to a breath a minute or so. Do you think this is a worthwhile goal, or am I going off on a tangent?

 

Thanks for any thoughts you'd like to share.

 

Liminal

 

I think perhaps you are going off on a tangent - from my experience naturally arriving to breath rates that are lowered or very rarified are arrived at in the context of the processes taking place within practice. The assessing and counting constrictions of ones breath while working in practice is teetering on analytics and gym exercises for weight training - this will bring results but far less than if one is well set in the basic pattern desired and the breathing naturally settles to the practice.

However - if this specific practice is founded in a well proven tradition that I am not aware of forgive me. It just appears to be contrary to my experience in breath in practice.

I have at times pushed breathing somewhat but this was always superseded by results from non-effort and simple breathing alignment with the practice that happens with as much intensity but naturally.

[liminal_luke]

Hi Spotless,

 

Thanks for weighing in. Certainly you may be right. I remember Michael Winn saying something about how the Po (lung spirits) ultimately rebel against such exercises. And I do have a tendency towards overly controlled, overly mechanized approaches. So there´s that.

 

The idea for me comes in part from my former use of Resperate, a device used to gradually slow down the respiration rate in order to lower blood pressure. I found the Resperate machine cumbersome and frustrating but nevertheless like what happens to me when I´ve been practicing slower breathing for a time. I find that in my everyday life (when I´m not specifically practicing) I don´t so much breathe slower, as breathe differently--I think my diaphragm relaxes. Anyway, it feels good. Whether or not it leads towards awakening or deeper spiritual progress I really can´t say.

 

Liminal

[thelerner]

As I recall using a large straw can be act like a kind of Resperate, ie used to train the breath. Even the thicker ones can be challenging. I haven't done it in while, but I remember straw breathing practice reminded me of 'Buddy breathing' in scuba diving; where you had 2 people sharing one regulator (breather).

Edited January 26, 2015 by thelerner

[joeblast]

there are two keys

 

 

timing of the structures (make the most potent energetic section of each component happen simultaneously)

 

 

and

 

 

 

stop using the air passageways to facilitate the movement of air.

 

 

 

 

 

thats all one really needs to focus on, it is simple. just learn to pull the air properly with the diaphragm and shut off the signal of the olfactory nerve (which requires settling of the heartmind but really does one necessarily need to pay attention to that, no, but if it helps, then yes.)

[Sahaj Nath]

The assessing and counting constrictions of ones breath while working in practice is teetering on analytics and gym exercises for weight training - this will bring results but far less than if one is well set in the basic pattern desired and the breathing naturally settles to the practice. However - if this specific practice is founded in a well proven tradition that I am not aware of forgive me. It just appears to be contrary to my experience in breath in practice. I have at times pushed breathing somewhat but this was always superseded by results from non-effort and simple breathing alignment with the practice that happens with as much intensity but naturally.

 

well, gym-style breath training is not antithetical to the natural settling of the breath that occurs in practice. in fact, i would say that directly training the breath facilitates the gains that occur when no effort is being applied.

 

as far as a well-proven tradition that incorporates such a practice, i know that various shaolin schools train in this way. i thought tortoise breathing originated in the taoist schools, but it might be a shaolin practice as well. but to my knowledge it's a very common practice. chunyi lin teaches about the importance of slowing the breath rate. Master Si Tu Jie (Wei Tuo qigong, from shaolin) emphasizes the practice of slowing the breath, as well as Master Wan Su-Jian of Bagua Xun Dao Gong. and it's exceedingly common in various yogic traditions.

 

my normal, everyday rate is about 4 breaths a minute. as soon as i give it even a little bit of attention and deepen my breaths, it slows to 2-3 breaths per minute. when i apply real focus and intention, i can breathe 1-2 breaths per minute, without any strain or distress.

 

the slow respiration facilitates full-body breathing and full-body awareness. i think it also makes it easier to slip into really deep meditative states where breathing ceases altogether. i was just having a discussion with Tibetan_Ice about how one of the things i enjoy about sitting with Mark Griffin that i've never experienced with another teacher is how i can fall into some deep states where the breath ceases altogether. my whole body fades into what feels like a mild breeze, and then eventually even that fades away and i lose all sense of time or "i". again, no strain, no distress.

 

perhaps there are people who are experiencing this without training the breath, but i think the breath training really helps to open that door.

 

lots of other side benefits, too. like the fact that i never get sick no matter how much illness surrounds me. this has been true even before i began learning qigong or yoga, just resulting from breathing exercises i had learned from a book as a youngster.

 

there's a lot of good to be found in breath work. might be worth another look.