This video sample starts seconds before the last minute countdown which tells me 5 minutes have past. Diaphragm is tense, soon turning into a first spasm. Notice the hard contraction at about 5’25”, which is 40” sooner than normal.
There’s a psychophysiological cause to this.
There’s a psychophysiological cause to this.
https://twitter.com/erwanlecorre/status/1324098296130908161
Normally in a typical practice session I immediately experience a “vagal high” as the breathhold start, then a “vagal dream” (all related to the cardiac vagal tone or CVT), delving into profound self-induced relaxation for minutes.
This time it did not happen. But why?
This time it did not happen. But why?
It was my 1st time filming my breathhold and it understandably made me overly self-conscious. I looked at my heart rate before starting and it was high in the 80’s range, abnormally high as it normally would be in the low 50’s.
An extra 30/second is a huge difference in metabolism and O2 consumption. What caused it? Adrenaline (epinephrine) the fight or flight hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, keeping you mentally on high alert and physically ready.
What else secretes epinephrine? The medulla oblongata, the part of the brainstem that’s highly involved in regulating respiration and the heart. While its busy secreting epinephrine it can’t be busy quieting down your respiratory ans heart rate at the same time.
And now you understand the difference between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system and the power of psychophysiology, i.e how your conscious or unconscious mental state alters your physiological levels.
Instead of intentionally self-regulate my autonomic system as I would normally do, I let a superficial self-conscious concern bother me (I am human too haha), altering my mental state, changing my brain waves, triggering my SNS and conflicting my PNS. Got it? Costly in oxygen...
Your mental state has tremendous implications to your mental state (brainwaves), nervous state, hormonal regulation, cardiovascular regulation etc...But more importantly your mental state is what YOU make it.
Physiology and psychology are the two sides of the same coin which is you, a living biological technology.
They’re equally powerful, therefore they equally matter.
They’re equally powerful, therefore they equally matter.
Whereas your physiology impacts your psyche, learning how your psychology can alter your physiology is where the gold is.
All ancient traditions have been teaching this for ages.
All ancient traditions have been teaching this for ages.
If you want to come and train this with me in Yelapa early 2021, let me know 😉.
That’s 5’25” of my breathhold, 32” mark in the video.
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