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Comment by bayindirh | Hacker News Reader

> Many people give up on learning to meditation because they cannot clear their mind for X minutes straight. Their mind runs away, and they must bring it back to focus. They see this as failure.

This is what we say to our students. It'll run away. Just bring it back. It's OK.

The tool is great, BTW. Congrats. My only small gripe is the pulsation is too fast (for me). My relaxed breathe is 5 seconds inhale, 5 seconds exhale.

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> pulsation is too fast (for me)

Was it my imagination or did the rate change? It seemed to slow down a bit at the end.

If it doesn't, that might be a good feature; a progressive slowdown and perhaps a config to change overall rate.

Yes, the rate slows down, but I start with 5/5 directly. I think it's a result of meditating for a long time.

Are we supposed to syncing breathing with the pulsing? Or are we just assuming that based on similar apps for breathing?

I think the pulsation is there to help regulate the breathing. Many people take fast and shallow breaths, esp. when they are stressed out.

Because evening out the speed and taking deeper breaths help calming down with a couple of mechanisms.

It seems to me it starts off a bit too fast. But I like the rate at which it slows.

After reading James Nestor's Breath, I went through the Oxygen Advantage certification for fun. Lots of studies that show that the 4/6 or 5/5 cadence (ten second round trip, leading to six breaths a minute) strongly improves heart rate variability and engages the parasympathetic nervous system.

OP had a cool idea -- wish it hit the 5/5 cadence.

updated with slower time to match animation with optimal inhale.exhale time

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