“Under normal circumstances, these conditions are considered damaging and would require medical care. (//) But something else happens when we practice these techniques willingly, when we consciously push our bodies into these states for a few minutes, or hours, a day. In some cases, they can radically transform lives.”
– James Nestor, Breath
If more stressful breathing techniques, like breath holds and fast breathing, occur spontaneously, they have some pretty terrible effects.
But if they’re done consciously, “they can radically transform lives.”
A question we might contemplate: How much of this is the power of the breath, and how much is the power of intention?