Comment by bschmidt1

Comment by bschmidt1 4 days ago

Breathing is something you can either do or not do, yet it's also something that happens automatically, such as during sleep or when you're not paying attention to it.

When done perfectly correctly, consciously breathing nets the same benefits to the body as unconscious or automatic breathing. You don't really have to spend any mental energy on it to get the oxygen you need (your body will even yawn for you if it needs more).

I think there is a way to find the ease and harmony in most things, or, the "automatic modes". You can design your life in such a way that you're essentially doing nothing, but to others you appear to be involved in everything.

I can only imagine what it would be like to stop paddling and see that I am still in motion, to be able to exhale and do nothing.

Nevermark 4 days ago

I have had a similar insight.

People often wonder what advice they would give their younger self. This would be it for me.

It something seems too difficult, it is likely because you are still struggling with a pre-requisite. Go back to working on the previous foundation until your mastery is complete.

This is true for work, mental & fitness progress.

I.e. if you find losing weight hard, you probably need to improve your diet (not to lose weight, but to find healthy food you enjoy enough to become a self-reinforcing habit).

Don’t try to improve your diet in order to lose weight. That is trying to solve two big things, on two different levels, at once.

This may take a while, but eventually you can find your way to an exceptionally healthy diet you like too much to require any discipline to stay on.

That is a health foundation of lasting value. And with that foundatiin, when you try to lose weight again, it is much easier.

Likewise, if you find it is hard to improve your diet, even in increments, perhaps you are fatigued? You may need to improve your sleep routine until you are habitually not tired.

For some of us, that might take a lot of work. But focusing on it, instead of downstream efforts will pay off.

Etc.

Foundations should be iterated on until they are self-perpetuatingly solid. Then the next thing will be much easier.

Math and physics are mental versions.

The result for any path: Go slow (iterate & explore to complete fluency & habit) to go fast (compounding instead of linear gains in understanding & progress).

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necovek 4 days ago

> ...exceptionally healthy diet you like too much to require any discipline to stay on.
There's no such thing. Eating only 50 avocados a day (so called "superfood") won't get you healthy or make you lose weight.
Too much of anything is not healthy.
A "healthy diet" is matched up with your body, short- and long-term needs, activities, mental state, etc.
I do agree with the suggested approach for achieving anything significant, just nitpicking on some of the language in your dieting example.

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- Nevermark 4 days ago
  
  > Too much of anything is not healthy.
  You have lost me. I said a healthy diet you love.
  So critiquing me as suggesting anything that is not a healthy diet seems odd.
  A healthy diet can be created many ways, all involve a lot of variety.
  But it can be convenient too. If you find the right mix (for your own tastes) of “superfoods” as a foundation. I.e. hummus, mixed greens, mixed berries, a mix of nuts, a mix of seeds, sardines, salmon & tuna (but not too much), eggs, etc.
  If your fridge, pantry, and eating habits cover all your basic nutrition multiple ways by default, then adding a variety of other healthy foods can be done very spontaneously without any need for planning.
  I know, it took me a few years, and a lot of iteration, but it would be hard to beat my diet.
  Even my snacks are up there, like edamame, chocolate in moderation, fresh veggies, high protein low sugar ice cream, etc.
  Achieving healthy autopilot is the point.
  
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  necovek 4 days ago
  
  In formal theory, it would be called a proof by contradiction when extended to an extreme.
  Even with the "right mix", if you eat 5x the amount your lifestyle and body and mind need, you ain't ever going to lose weight or get to a healthy state. Obese people are (usually) obese because they eat too much, not just because of the type of food they eat. Heck, today both keto and vegan are considered "healthy" and they are on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to diet choices.
  I am basically arguing that, to an extent, it's more important how much you eat, vs what you eat. Again, this is all comparative (eg. eating McDonalds burgers for the rest of your life is "healthy" compared to not eating anything at all, but that's a useless distinction).
  Plenty of people in the past have eaten "unhealthy" (white bread, fried meat and vegetables) yet didn't have an obesity or health problem, because they countered that with a balanced activity (physical work) and mental load (shared responsibilities).
  So my point is that you should reach that "autopilot" on the amount of the food you get, and then you can be pretty liberal in how you achieve it (obviously, don't have chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner). I do agree getting to the autopilot is where you should put your effort to.
  
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pjerem 4 days ago

> When done perfectly correctly, consciously breathing nets the same benefits to the body as unconscious or automatic breathing. You don't really have to spend any mental energy on it to get the oxygen you need (your body will even yawn for you if it needs more).

I was taught that this is not entirely true : your automatic breathing is influenced by your morphology, your posture, your current levels of energy, and your current emotions. And it sounds like the feedback loop can go reverse : intentionally breathing have an impact on your posture, your level of energy and your emotion.

I have no source to support my claims so don’t take my words as any truth, that’s just a belief multiple people shared to me including my doctor.

But I do feel like intentional breathing have a direct impact on my levels of anxiety. Not magic, but useful.

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seadan83 3 days ago

Re: yawning

I listened to a "Science Vs" podcast on it (or perhaps it was "unexplainable"), yawning is not yo increase oxygen levels. Study participants sat in an oxygen enriched room and also a depleted room without a change in yawn rates.

What did affect yawn rates was brain temperature. Yawning lowers brain temperature. Importantly, when ambient temperature is higher than body temperature, yawn rate dramatically goes down.

These resource [1] [2] goes into some of the details if you want to skip listening to the podcast

[1] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/scienc...

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24721675/

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card_zero 4 days ago

Experimentally, increasing oxygen doesn't reduce how often people yawn.

We still don't know why people (or various mammals) yawn.

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koziserek 4 days ago

your body doesn't regulate its functions based on diminishing o2 levels, but raising co2 levels

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- card_zero 4 days ago
  
  That was tested too, according to the Wikipedia page about yawns. Still no.
  
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