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Comment by hartator | Hacker News Reader

That's awesome. Is there a way to custom speed or it's actually what you should aim at? It feels super slow for me.

That's actually how it should be. I think you should aim for 4 to 5 breaths per minute, I don't remember the exact number.

The technique is described by Kelly McGonigal in "The Willpower Instict" as being the only scientifically proven "quick hack" to make your brain relax and focus.

Interesting. I'll give a try now!

Yes! I hardcoded the app to make 4 seconds breathing in, 4 seconds holding your breath, 4 seconds breathing out and 4 seconds holding your breath again.

Perhaps instead of allowing full control you could have different modes? I like using the 4-7-8 Method[1] but there are lots of different breath exercises.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-C_VNM1Vd0

I am quite new to breathing exercises but I also like the 4-7-8 exercise a lot! I was thinking about implementing the most known exercises and then have the option to create your own exercises. A lot of people have been pointing out that the app was way too slow and that it was difficult for them to keep up... I think that maybe if they can increase progressively the duration with custom exercises they can adapt better (it's just a theory)

According to the book “the healing power of breath” , the rhythm depends also somewhat on body size. So that is a variable to take into account. They use this coherence clock : https://coherence.com/coherence_clock.html

Yes. This feels quite slow for me too. The option to customize the speed would great!

That is the next thing I am going to implement! There are several breathing exercises but normally (breathing in, breathing out...) the duration of each part is 4+ seconds.

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