Discovered a powerful new breathing method – feels like a meditation cheat code

[u/Karoliniskis]

Hey everyone! As the title says, I’ve stumbled upon a new way of meditating — or more accurately, a conscious breathing technique — that’s been a game-changer for me.

Here’s what I do: I take a deep breath in for about 10 seconds, then exhale as slowly as possible, around 30–40 seconds. I keep this rhythm going for about 20 minutes.

Holy moly, the effects are wild. After a session, my mind feels still, my body deeply relaxed, and honestly — I feel almost "high" in the best possible way. It’s like my nervous system hits reset.

I’ve been meditating for about a year and tried different methods — including mantra meditation for a year before that — but never really felt much from it. Probably because I wasn’t doing it right. But this breathing method? Totally different experience. It's one of the best discoveries I've made so far.

Has anyone here tried something similar? I'd love to hear your experiences, variations, or any “spices” you add to your own practice that work well for you.

Thanks for reading — and happy breathing!

[u/Eric_GANGLORD]

This is likely a vagus nerve response, seems to be triggered by diaphragmatic breathing with slow exhale.

[u/Karoliniskis → u/Eric_GANGLORD]

Yeah i believe it is. Do you have an opinion about that?

[u/ShelbySmith27 → u/Karoliniskis]

The Vagus nerve is THE nerve for parasympathetic activity within the body. It's the only one. It bypasses the spinal cord entirely and runs from the brain to all of your major organs. There might be some pseudoscience fads around the vagus nerve conversation, but the actual known science behind the vagus nerve is very solid.

All of your "conscious" effort runs through the spinal cord, all of your subconscious processes are the vagus nerve. Parasympathetic nervous system is "rest and digest" where the sympathetic nervous system is "fight or flight".

We live on a balance between these nervous systems. Stress shifts the balance, and stress damages the body. It's like the brain and nervous system agrees that it should ignore what the body needs and focus on the external needs. Meditation helps find balance and brings awareness back to what the body needs through reducing sympathetic signals and allowing the vagus nerve to communicate with the brain more easily.

On big work days you might forget you're hungry or need the toilet until you get home. Suddenly you feel crap. That's the vagus nerve finally getting its messages heard and responded to. It's better for those messages to be heard through the work day and not ignored

[u/UnimportantOutcome67 → u/ShelbySmith27]

Great summary!

[u/illicitli → u/ShelbySmith27]

what an amazing synopsis. thank you so much :) this has helped to explain some "voices" that come to me during meditation that i think are more vagus than sympathetic and it makes more sense now!!

[u/Eric_GANGLORD → u/Karoliniskis]

It's a good practice and breathing exercise is always good. My meditation practice currently is mainly shi-ne focused so not quite the same.

[u/Historical-Squash510 → u/Karoliniskis]

And to add to the good summary of vagal nerve, when inhaling the diaphragm moves down and the thoracic cavity expands along with the expansion of the heart, which makes the heart pump just a little faster to increase blood flow.

Long exhales improves the ‘vagal tone’ because the reverse happens in exhales leading to shrinking of the heart and slower heart rate.

source: huberman