I think many of you have already noticed that if you breathe in the morning, the pause is longer than when you practice in the evening. At least, that is what my experience shows. I don't always manage to breathe in the morning, although I strictly make sure that my stomach is empty during the practice. (Breathing on Ekadashi is especially convenient—there's nothing to keep track of then) Nevertheless, if I can't breathe during the day, I breathe in the evening—I think that, as with any practice, regularity is important here. Better this way, with lower results, than not at all
3 cycles
20 breaths through the mouth
pause: 1 min. 36 sec.
I decided to experiment.
For now, my immersion/relaxation is not as deep
as when I inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth.
My throat feels cool.
I decided to experiment too
4 cycles of 37 breaths (through the nose). Pause: 2 min. 21 sec.
I'm not ready to risk breathing through my mouth yet. But I'm interested in "playing around" with the number of breaths and cycles and how this affects the pause
So far, I see that once the number of breaths is above 30, it doesn't affect the pause much. But the number of cycles does! Still, one needs to be more careful with this. After the 4th cycle, already after the pause, my ears started ringing—a sound somewhat like the rustling of rain. It wasn't frightening or painful, just unfamiliar, and I was curious about what it was. It didn't sound like the noise of blood when your pulse beats in your ears (for example, after intense physical training or running). The sound disappeared about 5 seconds after it appeared, my breathing quickly returned to normal, and I didn't notice any effects on my body. But I concluded that if I increase the number of cycles, I should do so gradually, spending a long time at the third, then the fourth, and so on, so that the body has time to adapt to the respiratory load.
I also noticed that when the number of breaths in a cycle exceeded 27, my body began to cool down significantly during the practice (my hands and feet became cold, and cold goosebump-like sensations ran all over my body). But after the practice, I lie down for another 12–15 minutes, my breathing returns to normal, and my body quickly warms back up to its usual temperature. Has anyone else experienced this effect?
I inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth, as the Teacher instructed. I tried doing it lying down, but the result was worse. I do the breathing exercise sitting up. If I do it as soon as I wake up, before I have had anything to drink, the result is better than yesterday’s. But if I skip one day, the result drops again. Could this be happening only to me? As for cooling of the extremities, I haven’t noticed anything like that.
Thank you for sharing your experience Since I started practicing, I have missed one day over the course of 22 days, and then, some time later, another day. But this did not affect my pause at all. However, I suppose it might have an effect if you miss more than one day.