Let breathing find its own rhythm, with no counting and no holds

Once you have stopped and steadied, stop managing the breath: no counts, no targets, no holding, just gentle breathing that you are not controlling.

Warum es wirkt

Breathing more than the body is using lowers carbon dioxide, as the reviews above describe. Trying to fix that by controlling the breath, with counts, timings or deliberate holds, adds effort and attention to the breath itself. Albert and Craig’s experiments show that loss of consciousness after hyperventilation and breath-holding is possible, so holds are the part to drop. Peper and MacHose compared a 70% exhalation condition with slow diaphragmatic breathing in 35 volunteers, and report that the 70% exhalation significantly raised rated anxiety while a return to slow diaphragmatic breathing significantly lowered it. That study shows that breathing-pattern changes can move rated anxiety; it does not test unforced breathing. The case for unforced breathing here rests on the physiology above and is this page’s reasoning, not a finding of that study.

So gehst du vor

1. Stop counting, stop any holds, and sit or lie down with your feet on the floor before you change anything else.
2. Let each in-breath and out-breath happen at whatever pace it wants. Do not set a target, a count or a length.
3. If the breath is slow, let it be slow. If it is shallow, let it be shallow. Do not make it deeper or longer on purpose.
4. Put your attention on your feet and the floor, and let the breath happen beneath that attention without looking at it or steering it.
5. If you feel pulled back into controlling the breath, stop again and return to the first step.

Evidenz

Peper and MacHose (1993) compared a 70% exhalation condition with slow diaphragmatic breathing in 35 trained volunteers: the 70% exhalation significantly increased rated anxiety, and a return to slow diaphragmatic breathing significantly reduced it. Meuret and Ritz (2010) and Albert and Craig (1961) are cited above for the carbon dioxide and breath-holding findings. (observational)

Peper and MacHose did not test unforced breathing; their volunteers rated anxiety during the procedure, and the study does not describe people who had been frightened by a breathing exercise. No trial has tested unforced breathing after breathwork-related dizziness or panic. “Unforced” is this page’s reading, based on the physiology above.

Quellen

• Peper, E., & MacHose, M. (1993). Symptom prescription: Inducing anxiety by 70% exhalation. Biofeedback and Self-Regulation, 18(3), 133–139.
• Meuret, A. E., & Ritz, T. (2010). Hyperventilation in panic disorder and asthma: Empirical evidence and clinical strategies. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 78(1), 68–79.
• Albert, B., & Craig, J. R. (1961). Causes of loss of consciousness during underwater swimming. Journal of Applied Physiology, 16(4), 583–586.

Häufiger Fehler

Counting and timing every breath to “reset” it, or slowing down and deepening on purpose to fight the feeling. Effort on the breath is what these steps are trying to remove.